Miss Mary Margaret: Book II

by Mary Frances Hodges

Overview

HISTORICAL ROMANCE

Mary Margaret Harwell never dreamed she would move to Little Rock, Arkansas, just as she never dreamed she would marry a Yankee. As her radically Republican husband, Thomas, enters the politics of reconstructing Arkansas after the Civil War, Maggie soon discovers that although the war is over, the bitterness of the loss has not diminished.

As Tom and Maggie settle into their new life in Arkansas, she busies herself painting artwork for their cottage, reuniting with her father, and becoming acquainted with the residents of Little Rock—or at least the ones who do not shun her because she is married to a northerner. But racial tensions escalate to new heights, and Maggie becomes the victim of a terrifying assault that leaves two men dead and shakes her to her core. As their journey eventually leads them from Arkansas to the nation’s capital, Maggie is faced with an agonizing decision when President Grant appoints her husband as governor of the Idaho Territory.

In this continuing historical saga based on a true story, a politician’s wife faces one challenge after the other in a world still reeling after the Civil War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491714072
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/13/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	214 KB

Read an Excerpt

Miss Mary Margaret Book II

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By Mary Frances Hodges

iUniverse LLC

Copyright © 2013 Mary Frances Hodges
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4917-1406-5

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CHAPTER 1

We Move to Little Rock

I never dreamed I would move to Little Rock, Arkansas, just as I never dreamed I'd marry a Yankee. How quickly time passes, and you don't realize it. Every day is assumed to be just another day in an unending line. We never stop to realize how unique those days were until we look back, and wish we could recapture them. I followed my husband, Thomas Harwell, to Little Rock as he entered the politics of reconstructing Arkansas, which was devastated by the Civil War.

The last time I came to Little Rock, I was with my parents, neither of whom I have seen in several years. Neither my parents nor the town accepted my marriage to Thomas. Being a Union officer was more than they could tolerate initially, yet I loved Thomas. I have loved him each of the forty years, since we eloped to Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, during the last year of the war.

The boat trip down the Arkansas River was fascinating. I didn't want to sit in the ladies' parlor, so Tom and I stood on the deck so I could see the scenery. We were having an unusually warm spell for early December, so my fur lined cape with a hood kept me more than warm on deck. Tom had been down, and up, the river several times during the war, but this was only my second trip down the river. There was a poker game going on the boat, but Tom stayed with me. It was rare that Tom passed up a Poker game. He said it was to keep me from falling overboard. I hoped he just wanted to be with me; we were still very much in love.

We floated past thickly wooded areas, where sunlight could barely creep though the dense overlay of foliage; past the lush delta-looking land of McClean's bottoms; the small villages hugging the river bank for fear they might lose their sense of being. If the river should change its course, it would cut them off from the world, and the world's goods. That would lead to the villages' demise.

Sometimes we could see the men working near the river banks, struggling to build the railroad tracks that will not only cut the travel time up and down the river valley but also cause the end of steam boats plying the river.

People pass through our lives similarly, the way the landscape comes into view, as we float down the river and then glides away. So do our friends and acquaintances, who are with us for a little while, and then life experiences change, and the people in our lives change, and float away so to speak.

Time is just like the river. They both flow over rocky patches where one is not sure there is enough support to continue; plus, there are unseen dangers, represented by the snags partly sticking above the water. Then there are times of tranquility, but the flow never stops. Time gives us an ever changing view of human events. The variety of events impacts all of us individually, and, as a nation, which my husband fought so hard to save. I didn't realize that when we married, but now I realize how important it was to save the United States as a country.

It was easy to see when we were approaching Little Rock, as our beautiful capitol building came into view. Its white walls were gleaming in the sunlight, even though the view was of the back of the building. Our Capitol is beautiful on all sides.

When the boat docked at the Little Rock wharf, I was excited about the future and all the new experiences that were in store for both me and my husband. At that time I had, thankfully, no idea of the many moves across this entire country that lay ahead of us.

We checked into the Metropolitan Hotel, the most prominent hotel in town. Many of the Republican delegates to the Constitutional Convention were staying there. It was the unofficial Republican Party Headquarters. I met General Powell Clayton, who had also married a girl from Arkansas; John Sarber from Johnson County, who had only been a private, but had been the standing orderly for Colonel Cloud in the Second Kansas. John had become a lawyer, Thomas told me. John Garver, whose aunt and uncle lived next door to my parents' house in Van Buren, was there. I met Thomas, for the first time, at a tea at the Garver's home.

The day Arkansas voted to leave the United States, I was in Little Rock with my parents. Papa was a delegate to the Secession Convention from Crawford County, Arkansas. All the delegates, except one, voted to leave the Union. The mood at dinner was jubilant that night. No Yankee could beat us!

The mood at dinner, the first night Thomas and I had were at the hotel in Little Rock, was enthusiastic, and optimistic, just as it had been four years earlier, but for a different reason. The delegates were hopeful that their work to write a new state constitution would create one that would be accepted by the U.S. Congress. Then Arkansas could rejoin the United States. It was obvious by the dinner conversation that not everyone held the same viewpoint on many issues. It should be an exciting convention!

Since the end of the war, Arkansas had been drifting in chaotic limbo. Some people refused to believe that the Confederacy was not victorious, and failed to see why things couldn't just go back to the way they were before. It ended up that the state was placed into a military district governed by Major E. O. D. Ord, whose office was in Holly Springs, Mississippi. But that had finally been resolved and elections were called for.

It was difficult to hold elections in Arkansas at that time, because in order to vote both the former Confederate soldiers and the former Union soldiers had to sign a loyalty oath that they would be true to the U. S. Government. Many of the ex-Confederates refused to sign, and the Confederate officers weren't allowed to vote, period. So it was hard to find enough qualified men to hold an election in some counties. Some counties didn't vote at all on whether or not to have the convention.

After dinner there were always brandy and cigars for the gentlemen, and the ladies would go into the parlor for demitasse coffee. Afterwards, Thomas and I would retire to our suite of rooms where he would give me, what he called, "a real good night kiss." He then would redress and return downstairs to play poker for several hours. He said it was that type of good night kiss that caused him to be so lucky at the Poker table. I was glad to accommodate him, but Tom already had the reputation as an expert poker player. Little did I realize then, that at some time in the future, Tom's poker winnings would be our only source of real income.

One Sunday, several weeks later, it was warmer than usual for that time of year, and Tom suggested we go for a walk. There hadn't been rain for several days and the walkways were dry. There were small patches of snow remaining, and I was so surprised that there were crocus in bloom sticking their heads up through the snow. Little Rock's being so much farther south than Van Buren, made Spring show early signs. When we reached the corner, we turned right and walked about half a block. We stopped before a cottage, and Tom asked me how I liked it. I thought it was charming.

"I bought it for you."

"You bought it?"

"Yes, I thought you would like it, but if you don't, I can sell it to someone else."

"Never, I love it! Look, there are rose vines growing all over the front fence, and vines growing up the trellises that frame the front porch!" Although they wouldn't be in bloom for several months, I looked forward to having roses just like at my parents' house.

"I have the key, would you like to go inside."

"Oh, Tom, yes. I can hardly wait. I can't believe you bought this for us!"

"Actually I bought it to please you."

"You most certainly pleased me!"

We went inside. It had a large front room, a smallish but adequate dining room, and two bedrooms. There was a small dressing room off one of the bed rooms. I was walking through the house so happy; I couldn't believe we were going to live here.

"Surely you didn't think we'd live at the hotel forever."

"Where ever we lived would be fine as long as you were there."

I hugged Tom and kissed him until I was out of breath.

Since it was the Sabbath, I wouldn't let Tom play poker that night, but I entertained him in his other favorite way. I was the one who felt lucky that night.

The next morning Tom handed me six, one hundred dollar bills, and told me he wanted me to fill the house with whatever furniture I liked. I just stared at the money.

"Sweetheart, if that isn't enough I can give you more."

"That's not the problem. I've never bought anything before."

"What do you mean?"

"I've never had to buy anything. Everything was provided for me."

It had never dawned on Tom that Mrs. Hughes, our housekeeper, had always done the grocery shopping, and before we left Van Buren, Tom surprised me by bringing home a whole variety of the latest fashion in dresses, which he had purchased on a trip to St. Louis. Every dress he brought me was also in the most fashionable colors. So many delightful colors to choose from! I didn't mind giving up the hooped shirts, but learning how to accommodate the bustle, when sitting, took some time for me to be comfortable with it.

There were dresses in mauve, lavender, magenta and a bright purple that my mother would never have approved of. All of the dresses came with decorative snoods. It was a whole new world of fashion. The only problem with the evening dresses was that they all had small trains, which presented a problem if Tom did not watch where he was stepping. Tom said he always wanted his wife to wear the latest fashion. He said I was too beautiful to wear anything drab. Many people commented on my beauty which really embarrassed me outwardly, but inside I was quite pleased. I didn't know how I was going to be accepted by the people in Little Rock, especially since I was a southern girl who had married a northern soldier.

"Maggie, go down the street to John Derry's furniture store and pick out whatever you want. John was a major with the 3rd Wisconsin, and a good man. I will stop by the store on my way to the Capitol, and tell him to expect you. If you spend more than that, I'll pay him the rest tonight."

"Wisconsin is a long way away. How did he get so far from home?"

"Same way I did" Tom said.

"Oh" I exclaimed "That was a dumb question."

"Major Derry fought in Arkansas, in fact, he lead an expedition to Fort Smith and crossed the river at Van Buren. He left twelve horses for us to shoe before his troops could head back to Little Rock. He liked Arkansas, just like so many of our soldiers did. It's warmer here, too. Wisconsin is really cold in the winter. John was so in awe of the abundance of foliage down here. He once said that he was sure that if he stood in the middle of a road very long, a vine would grow up his leg."

Tom thought Kansas was flat and ugly. He lived there before the war and had been active in politics there, as well.

I was excited, but felt intimidated about not understanding the value of money. John Derry had lovely furniture which he said belonged to a number of families who had abandoned their homes and just left the furniture behind. He tried to find relatives of the people so he could pay them for the furniture, but no one would tell him where the families went. He assumed the people were afraid harm would come to them, after the war, since they had been loyal to the Confederacy. Some apparently didn't want anyone to know where they had gone. He thought the people probably had gone to Texas or California.

I bought a settee and several occasional chairs with red velvet fabric framed by cherry wood, two small tables, and several table lamps, an ornate mirror, and lovely room rug with a pattern of large red and white roses against a sky blue back ground. I found a dining table with chairs that would seat six. I would have liked a larger table, but our dining room wouldn't accommodate it. There would barely be room for the side board. I also got a very large walnut armoire with cedar lining for the bedroom.

I fell in love with a beautiful antique bed. Mr. Derry said that a Mr. Horace Abercrombie bought it as a wedding present for his bride. The bed had been shipped up river from New Orleans to his plantation. His plantation was so large he even had a landing on the Mississippi River. Mr. Abercrombie was really too old to fight when the war broke out, but he insisted on joining the Confederacy. He fought in the Battle of Mark's Mills, and Mrs. Abercrombie, when she learned of his death, promptly died of a heart attack. They had only one daughter left by then. Their other six daughters died of illness, and a son was killed at the Battle of Jenkins Ferry.

Since the Abercrombie's no longer had slaves, and there were no able bodied men around to cut wood for them, the women had to use some of the furniture for fire wood in the winter. After her parents' deaths, their daughter sold all of the furniture that hadn't been burned. This bed was one of the few pieces that survived. Right after the war, the daughter moved in with an aunt in Little Rock. Mr. Derry bought the bed from the daughter, who told him the story of how they were ruined by the war. There was no matching dressing table, to go with the bed, but I found one in cherry to match the bed, and it went with it perfectly.

The bed was so beautiful; I would have given $600.00 for it alone. It was a combination of cherry and mahogany with a half tester. The underside of the tester was tufted beige velvet. I don't know if Thomas had to pay Mr. Derry any more money for my purchases or not. I didn't ask, and he never said. He did ask if I got everything I wanted. I thought my cup was running over, and then he said,

"How about some pictures, Maggie? Did you not see any you liked?"

I was so excited with all my purchases I had not even thought about pictures. I brought two pictures I had painted to Little Rock. Tom thought I was a really talented painter and suggested I just paint some pictures for the house.

I was pleased he was proud enough of my paintings that he wanted his friends to see them. The very next day I found a hardware store that sold paints and brushes, canvas and an easel. They weren't new but would be all right for the time being. The store did have a new piece of canvas I could use to cover a half-finished painting. I announced to Tom I was going to paint his portrait. He agreed, but said he wouldn't have time to sit still for very long periods at a time, until they got the new constitution matter settled. Then Tom said he could lie on the bed naked and I could paint his portrait while he slept. I told him that if I was going to paint a naked man it would have to be a younger one. Tom turned me over his lap and gave me a couple of love spanks.

The next day, Mr. Derry had two hired men deliver the furniture to the house and Mrs. Hughes helped me with where to place things.

Tom had surprised me by buying a hand-made Bensberg piano which was delivered the other furniture. I cried when I saw it. I had always heard how wonderful they were, but I had never seen or heard one before because they were made in Camden, Arkansas which was so far south in Arkansas there was no easy way to get one of them, in one piece, as far north as Van Buren.

I so loved to play the piano that had been a wedding present to my mother and was often asked to play for my parents' guests. They were always quite complimentary of my playing.

* * *

Mrs. Hughes came with us to Little Rock. Tom said it was self-preservation. I wasn't offended. Tom had joked, that I needed written directions to boil water, which was close to the truth. I was delighted she was here. Mrs. Hughes pointed out to me that we needed a mattress and new bed linens. I was embarrassed to learn that mattresses didn't automatically come as part of the bed. I had brought some linens from home, but she said a bed that lovely deserved new bed linens. Tom had realized I probably wouldn't think to buy linens, so he had given Mrs. Hughes some money to take me shopping.

Mrs. Hughes had been our housekeeper, and my salvation, in Van Buren. I had never learned any of the domestic arts. Aunt Marie and Uncle Henry, our slaves, did everything, but my mother took them with her when she fled to Washington, Arkansas. Plus, well-bred southern girls were not supposed to bother themselves with such things as cooking and cleaning.

Our cottage had a stable outback with two rooms over it. Mrs. Hughes, whose husband died at the Battle of Prairie Grove, stayed there. It already had some furniture in it. I supposed it was where the house slaves, of the previous owners, had stayed. Mrs. Hughes was pleased with the arrangement. Thomas paid her enough that she no longer had to entertain young gentlemen at night like she did in Van Buren, or so I thought.

That first night in the new bed was as exciting as the first night we came together as man and wife. It was our very own bed, in our very own house. Tom was obviously very excited too, and physically manifested it. I couldn't have been happier. After three years of marriage, our passion for each other was just as great.

Our house was only about a block away from Christ Episcopal Church. Since Tom left early to go to work, I would go to Morning Prayer practically every day. It was good to hear and say the familiar prayers. I had missed them so much. Reading from the Prayer Book everyday had helped keep me connected while in Van Buren.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Miss Mary Margaret Book II by Mary Frances Hodges. Copyright © 2013 Mary Frances Hodges. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Chapter 1 We Move to Little Rock, 1,
Chapter 2 A Familiar Voice, 11,
Chapter 3 My Father Meets Thomas, 17,
Chapter 4 New Found Friends, 21,
Chapter 5 We Lost The War But We Are Not Defeated, 35,
Chapter 6 Our Move to Washington City, 47,
Chapter 7 Washington to Idaho, 49,
Chapter 8 Fallen Woman, 55,
Chapter 9 Return from Idaho, 61,
Chapter 10 Race For The US Senate, 67,
Chapter 11 Beautiful Colorado, 71,