delightful to see the children assembled at table together, with clothes
neatly put on, hands and faces clean, hair properly arranged, the table
itself laid as if company was expected. The board at the hospitable Hall
was, however, rarely spread without being enlivened by the presence of
guests. John Howe Peyton's public position no less than his social
tastes made it a necessity as well as a pleasure for him to see a great
deal of company. He entertained the Federal and State judiciary and
their respective bars during term time; the Federal, State and County
officials; Congressional, Senatorial and Legislative representatives of
both parties; the Rectors, Visitors and Professors of our great seats of
learning; the Bishops and Clergy; such officers of the Army and Navy as
were from time to time in the county, and of the Militia; and all
strangers. The Hall was thus the resort of eminent persons, male and
female, and it may be truly asserted that all received there lessons in
accomplishments. The wisest and most gifted men found beneath that
refined roof something beyond woman's prerogative, the power to call
forth, as with a fairy's wand, all that is most intellectual in their
masculine natures; they found assistance and advice, as well as
interest and sympathy. Eloquence, politics, philosophy were alternately
discussed; and when these proved too severe, the lighter arts of
conversation were successfully tried, varying to the humor of the
moment.
She was, in a word, the light and ornament of her home, presiding over
it with dignity and grace, looking after her children and providing for
the wants of a large dependent population of negroes; and yet finding
time to seek out and relieve the necessitous in the community.
Though at this time many of Mrs. Peyton's good qualities were not
sufficiently obvious to the writer, such as her practical household
virtues, because he was still too young to understand how much good
management and general good sense is required to conduct domestic
affairs properly; and fancied she took upon herself too much the duties
of a housekeeper, he has had sufficient experience in after life to set
the right value upon them, and to do her full and ample justice.
In those days it was his great delight to see her in company, displaying
her wit and knowledge. She acquitted herself so well, never asking a
silly question, or giving a foolish answer and sustained her part by her
general abilities and knowledge so admirably in intellectual
conversation, and inspired such respectful attention from clever men
that he keenly appreciated her accomplishments and was as proud of her
talents and address, as he has since been of her character, which
comprehending fully in maturer years he recognizes as a combination of
all that is noble and excellent.
With this insight into her character and domestic life it is easy to
understand that she was universally respected and drew all, more
especially her children, to her by the cords of love,--that perfect
confidence existed between her and them. They felt they could trust her
with the full faith of innocent childhood, and never did she turn them
away by coldness, sending back the warm current of their love chilled to
its source: never did she check the outpourings of their confidence by
severity; never did they turn from her grieved and disappointed by want
of sympathy.
To the writer she was peculiarly affectionate, kind and considerate. She
never wearied of imparting good advice to him making opportunities to
expatiate on certain virtues and vices. She particularly dwelt upon the
necessity of industry, if a young man wished to secure anything good,
valuable, or worth having in this world. The substance of her teachings
was that the world and all things around us, remind us of the necessity
of labor, for though the earth, by the blessing of the Almighty,
produces food sufficient for man and the various animals that inhabit
it; yet, without labor, it would become a wilderness, covered with
briars and thorns. But besides food and clothing our nature required
that we should provide shelter against the inclemency of the weather;
these are continual calls upon us for self-exertion which contributed as
much to our happiness as to health. Moderate labor promoted the free
circulation of the blood, and carried off disorders, which indolence
would occasion; the laboring man eats his bread with an appetite to
which the idle and the voluptuous are strangers; his sleep is sweet, and
his rest undisturbed. As for industry it was rewarded in many ways: "The
hand of the diligent maketh rich. He that gathereth in summer is wise,
but he that sleepeth in harvest causeth shame."--Prov., ch. x, v. 4. "He
that would thrive, should rise by five;" and as Poor Richard observes,
"Himself hold the plough or drive."
"The difference between rising at five or seven in the course of 40
years, supposing a man to go to bed at the same time he otherwise would,
amounts to 29,000 hours, or three years, 121 days and 16 hours, which
will afford 8 hours a day for exactly ten years; so that it is the same as
if ten years were added to our lives, in which we command 8 hours a day
for our improvement in useful things."
But besides lengthening, industry sweetens life; the habitation of the
industrious man is comfortable and clean, and his careful wife is truly
his counterpart, always usefully employed. Difficulties in this life,
however, must be expected--they should not depress or discourage
us,--they were necessary to quicken us to exertion and disappeared
before a determined resolution to accomplish our object. Even in
Paradise man was not allowed to be idle: "The Lord God put him into the
Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."--Gen., ch. ii, v. 15. And
ever since the fall, as part of the curse entailed by sin and mortality,
its consequence, the sentence of God has come forth--"In the sweat of
thy face shalt thou eat bread."--Gen., ch. iii, v. 19. The very angels
of Heaven were ministering Spirits who performed the Divine will
cheerfully, actively, and diligently. A man's affairs run fast to ruin
who allows his powers to lapse into indolence and sloth, and thus
according to the wise man: "He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack
hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich;" and "seest thou a man
diligent in business; he shall stand before Kings; he shall not stand
before mean men."
This was the general direction of her thoughts when in graver moments
she sought to prepare her children for the career of life. Having
represented the means and the value of success in worldly matters lest
the imagination might be unduly excited, she would suddenly remind them
that there was a purer, brighter, nobler world than this; a world where
there is no ignorance to darken, no error to mislead, no infirmities to
lament, no enemies to assail, no cares to harass, no sickness to endure,
no changes to experience, but where all will be perfect bliss, unclouded
light, unspotted purity, immortal tranquility and joy.
It is easy to understand that their childhood was happy, and that all
their recollections of it are associated with their mother, who in her
capacity as wife and mistress of the family was responsible, by reason
of their father's repeated absences, for the general arrangement and
combination of the different elements of social and domestic comfort.
She was arbiter in all their trivial disputes, the soother of all
jarring and discord, the explainer of all misunderstandings, and in
short the main-spring of the machinery by which social and domestic
happiness was constantly supplied both in her household and within the
circle she adorned.
In the wider sphere, beyond the family circle, she was known by acts of
benevolence, rather than as one endeavoring to conform to the world. She
did not strive at the same time to be a follower of the fashions and
maxims of the world and a friend to Him who has declared "The friendship
of the world is enmity with God: Whosoever therefore will be a friend to
the world is the enemy of God."
Her piety was sincere and unostentatious. Her religion was that of love
and good works. Her daily life was her most beautiful teaching and all
her children, more particularly the elder ones, carry into their lives
the influence of the time spent in daily intercourse with her.
Yet she did not neglect the cultivation of social happiness--only she
knew where to draw the line between light and darkness--how to enter
into and enjoy the blandishments of society without lapsing into
worldliness of spirit. In conversation she was ready, animated and
interesting, and impressed all with her superiority.
After her marriage Anne Peyton devoted every hour she could appropriate
from other engagements, for several years, to a regular course of
reading, and to the end of her life gave much time to books. She was
familiar with the classic authors of the Grecian and Roman worlds, and
the choicest belonging to our English and American literature. From them
she quoted freely both in conversation and letters. She was particularly
fond, among the poets, of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope,
Cowper, Gray, Burns, Wordsworth, Byron, and of those pleasing essayists,
Addison, Goldsmith, Dr. Johnson and Washington Irving. Under the advice
of her husband she read the histories of Robertson, Hume, Gibbon,
Prescott and Bancroft, and the novels of Defoe, Richardson, Fielding,
Scott, Cooper and Irving.
In public affairs she was well informed and took a lively interest. A
supporter of the Old Whig party, few men, not in public life, were more
thoroughly acquainted than herself with political affairs. Conservative
in her feelings, she strongly disapproved the ultra democratic opinions
of "Old Hickory" and his successor in the Presidency, Martin Van Buren.
Periodical election for offices; the ostracism of political opponents;
the extension of suffrage to non-property holders; the recurrent
election at short intervals of Judges by popular vote, she considered
one and all fatal innovations on our ancient laws. It was her belief
that such measures would lead to degeneracy in our Statesmen, drive from
public life the better class of citizens, and let in demagogues, and
with them introduce speculation, public plunder, and general corruption
and incompetency. And the recent (1874-75) disclosures at Washington of
bribery in connection with the War-office under General Belknap, one of
the principal Secretary's of State, the trial of General Babcock, the
President's private Secretary, for complicity in the Whiskey frauds, the
credit mobilier combinations, or "rings," and other instances of
official rottenness and corruption go a long way to establish her far
seeing sagacity. A true lover of her country, she exercised her power as
a Christian mother to inspire in the hearts of her children a profound
and thrilling sense of patriotism.
In every respect a remarkable and attractive character, her history may
be safely studied as a model and example. There is not a house in
Virginia where the story of her domestic virtues, were it properly told,
would not be welcomed, and in which it would not do good. Had she not
been encumbered with the cares of a large establishment and the rearing
of a numerous progeny, to both of which she devoted herself with
thorough self-abnegation, she would doubtless have turned her attention
to the pursuit of literature and might have rivalled the fame of Hannah
More, Maria Edgeworth, Caroline Burney, Frederica Bremer, Mrs. Stowe, or
any of the distinguished female writers of America, past and present.
A true type she was of the mothers of our Colonial and Revolutionary
era, the mothers of those great and good men, bred amidst the trials of
the border, who founded our Government upon the principles of liberty,
equality and fraternity.
This is the picture, roughly sketched, of the character of that
excellent woman attempted to be brought out by brief forcible touches
from personal impression of her leading features, rather than by
carefully weighed and balanced summaries. She was "one of many," a model
of the mothers of Virginia from whom have sprung that long list of
illustrious sons from Washington and Lewis to Lee and Jackson, men who
have shed imperishable glory upon their race and country, and won for
Virginia the proud title of being the "Mother of Statesmen as well as of
States."
In April 1847 a great sorrow fell upon that happy home of Montgomery
Hall, by the death of the great and good head of it.
Shortly after this event her health failed and she died surrounded by
her children, July, 1850. An event of which the writer has never lost
the impression, and in connection with which more than once have Gray's
words recurred to memory, when, near the close of his life the poet, in
writing to a friend says:--"I had written to inform you that I had
discovered a thing very little known, which is, that in one's whole life
one can never have more than a single mother. You may think this obvious
and what you call a trite observation. You are a green gosling! I was at
the same age very near as wise as you; I never discovered this with full
evidence--I mean till it was too late. It is thirteen years ago and
seems but as yesterday; and every day I live it sinks deeper into my
heart."
So it is in the author's case, he never knew the extent of his
misfortune until it was irreparable. And now when looking back upon her
life, after a quarter of a century, it is with a sorrow chastened, and
brought into subjection, but not obliterated by time! Taking a
retrospect of her life the writer can think of nothing with which her
friends could reproach her, unless it be a disregard of her own health
and comfort.
So unselfish was she that it pleased her most to bestow upon others the
best of every thing she could obtain. If her charities and sphere of
usefulness were limited it was no fault of hers--within her sphere she
did her duty and her whole duty. All her actions sprang directly and
solely from a sense of duty and was sustained by a healthy delight in
its performance. Her life was a sincerely happy one. She was happy in
her marriage and in her children, in her literary and domestic pursuits.
She busied herself in philanthropic and educational reforms, and was one
of the warmest advocates of the foundation of the Virginia Female
Institute in Staunton, one of the most flourishing colleges in the Southern
States for the education of women. To this fund John Howe Peyton
liberally subscribed, and he was President of the first Board of
Trustees.
Although of an impulsive nature, her religious feelings, like her
social, were deep and permanent. Socially she was genial and
companionable and a favorite with both old and young. With the young she
was ever ready to talk and encourage them in their plans and studies,
and she always had sympathy, advice and counsel for old and young when
in trouble.
Her temperament was naturally somewhat quick. She was conscious of this
infirmity and happily overcame it. Not giving herself credit, however,
for the patience she had acquired, she has often with a womanly tear in
her eye, regretted to the author that she was so easily excited and in
the excitement so precipitate. She begged her children to be on their
guard against such an enemy to our peace, quoting, "he that is slow to
anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he
that taketh a city."
In our intercourse with society, she urged that it was our duty to curb
any tendency to hastiness of temper, for as a gentleman cannot take an
affront, she said, he should be very cautious how he gives one; we
should persevere in all that is right, and allow no weak desire of
pleasing to tempt us from the paths of virtue. In this way she proved
herself the sincerest of friends and the wisest of counsellors, and
prepared her sons for "The court, the camp, the field, the grove."
Such in general terms was this model matron, this "mother in Israel" who
deserves more than this brief notice, especially from her children whom
she loved so well. This simple outline of her character and career, it
is hoped, may not be considered unworthy of perusal. Gentle,
affectionate and lenient, she was beloved by all who knew her. Happy in
herself, she diffused happiness not only through the immediate circle
which she, like a star illumined, but warming with a brilliance as
effective as beautiful, all within her range.
Her understanding was good as her heart, and few human beings ever lived
blest with a more cheerful disposition, a more generous spirit or a
tenderer soul.
TO THE MEMORY OF
MRS. ANNE MONTGOMERY PEYTON.
OF "MONTGOMERY HALL," AUGUSTA COUNTY, VA.
True daughter of Virginia's soil,
Scion of a noble race,
Thy virtues, tho' by bards unsung,
Hold in fond heart's a place,
Which time with its dark sullen tide
Can ne'er dim or efface.
Reared in a "sweet sequestered vale,"
Where flowers the fairest grew,
And blossoms on their native hills,
In beauty's varying hue;
Mere crystal streams down Mountain's side
Bright sprays of silver threw.
And thou, so like those blushing flowers,
Whose buds the Sun's soft ray
Had kissed, until new beauties burst
With every dawning day,
And thy young heart free as those streams
Whose waters idly play.
Endowed with learning's richest gift,
A bright peculiar star,
Thou mov'dst in social widening range,
With not a shade to mar
Or dim the lustre soft and bright
That blazed and shone afar.
The mystic spell of nature's charms
Thy being closely bound,
And in each changing, passing scene,
Thou some new pleasure found,
And youthful hopes, and youthful dreams,
By fortune's smile was crowned.
And when removed to other spheres,
The love that warmed thy breast
Shed 'round its rays with power that soothed
Sad, aching hearts to rest,
For of all gifts to fellow-man
Sweet sympathy's the best.
Then children gamboled 'round thy knee,
In childhood's glad delight,
Thy watching eye marked well the road
Which led them to the right;
The straight and narrow way which leads
Up to the heavenly height.
True daughter of Virginia's soil,
Mother of an honored race,
Thy memory in thy children's hearts,
Still holds its loyal place,
And years in their mad sweep and rush,
Will ne'er dim or efface.
Wren's "_Echoes from the heart_," p. 214.
APPENDICES.
A.
THE DESCENDANTS OF JOHN H. AND ANN M. PEYTON.
1. Susan Madison Peyton, born 1822, m. Col. John B. Baldwin, no issue.
2. John Lewis Peyton, born 1824, m. Henrietta E. C., daughter of Col.
John C. Washington, of North Carolina, and niece of Gov. Wm. A.
Graham, Hon. James H. Bryan, etc., and have issue, one son, _Lawrence
Washington Howe Peyton_, born 1872, a distinguished graduate
V. M. I., having taken the 2d Jackson-Hope medal and the degree of
C. E. In 1894-'95, Capt. Lawrence W. H. Peyton, after a law course
at the University of Virginia, is Assistant Professor of Mathematics
in the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington.
3. Anne Montgomery Peyton died unmarried.
4. Mary Preston, m. R. A. Gray and has issue: 1. Robert; 2. Susan
Peyton, m. to Rockingham Paul, brother of Hon. John Paul, United
States District Judge for Western Virginia, and have one son, John
Gray Paul; 3. Isabella, m. Dr. Salmon Welsh, of Annapolis, Md., one
daughter; 4. Howe Peyton Gray, m. Bessie Massie and has issue, two
children: 1. Sally Waterman; 2. a son; 5. Preston L. Gray, who m.
Mary S. Bingham, of North Carolina, and has issue, one daughter. Mrs.
Gray and all of her children, except Mrs. Welch, are residents of
Bristol, Tenn.
5. Lucy Garnet Peyton, m. Judge John N. Hendren, of Augusta, and they
had a large family, but only one living; 1. Anne Peyton, m. Wm.
Patrick, of Staunton, and at her death left an only daughter, Anne
Hendren Patrick; 2. Samuel R. Hendren, a distinguished graduate of
Washington and Lee University, and in 1894-'95 a student of Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore.
6. Margaret Lynn Peyton, m. George M. Cochran, of Staunton, and they
have living issue: 1. Susan Baldwin; 2. Anne Peyton; 3. John; 4.
Margaret Lynn; 5. Peyton Cochran.
7. Elizabeth Trent Peyton, m. Hon. Wm. B. Telfair, of Ohio, and at her
death left three children: 1. Wm. B. Telfair, Jr. Susan Peyton
Telfair m. James Dougherty, and they have two sons.
8. Yelverton Howe Peyton, who died unmarried in Texas.
9. Virginia Frances, who m. Col. Joseph F. Kent, of Wythe, and have
issue: 1. Joseph F.; 2. Susan Peyton; 3. Mary Preston.
10. Cornelia Bernard, m.: 1. Dr. Thos. Brown, and they had issue: J. B.
Brown and Peyton Brown. After Dr. B.'s death, she married Wm. H.
Greene, and they have issue, two sons, Peyton W. and Newport Barnett.
B.
MRS. SUSAN M. BALDWIN.
Susan, the eldest daughter of this marriage is so remarkable for the
vigor of her intellect, her literary tastes and acquirements, for her
unselfish generosity of heart, her noble charities and lovely Christian
character, that we insert with much pleasure from the Spectator of
1891, the following tribute.
A VENERABLE AND RESPECTED LADY.
Mr. Wm. P. Johnson, now (1891) in the his 58th year, recently read to
the Superintendent, teachers and scholars of the Staunton Baptist
church, an interesting account of his connection with Staunton Sunday
Schools. In his narrative he says, "I can remember the old school-room
in the basement of the old (Episcopal) church, which stood where the new
(present) church stands, and the first teacher who taught me, I will
give the name of, and it will be the only teacher whose name I shall
mention. It was then Miss Susan M. Peyton, who was after several years
teaching, married and became the beloved wife of one of Augusta's most
brilliant and gifted lawyers, the Hon. John B. Baldwin. I shall never,
no never forget the kind Christian teachings of that grand and noble
Christian lady. It was in this school, through her teachings, that I
first learned of that dear Saviour, who came into the world to suffer
and die that I might live:"
The publication of the above affords us the pleasing opportunity to say
that Mrs. John B. Baldwin still survives in our midst near seventy years
of age, but so impaired in health by a severe illness some years since,
that she rarely leaves her house, and then only in a carriage. She is an
object of universal love and respect: all venerate her for her piety,
accomplishments and charities. None know her but to "love her, nor name
her but to praise." A woman of gifted intellect, under the eye of her
good amiable mother, she enjoyed every advantage which precept and
example could afford, and no daughter was ever more sensible of the
obligations which she owed to maternal care.
To a liberal and munificent spirit she joins charity, philanthropy and
beneficence and an uncommon share of dignity and firmness of spirit, for
while she converses with the lowly, even with her servants as her humble
friends, no one knows better how, in the highest society, to support
their due consequence and state. She is a great reader and full of
general information and can discourse on easy and equal terms alike with
scholars, statesmen or divines. Few indeed excel her in wit and
judgment. At Montgomery Hall, the charming home of her eminent father,
Hon. John H. Peyton, she met nearly all of the distinguished men and
women of Virginia, of his day, and has since mingled much in the society
of Richmond, Washington and New York, making the acquaintance of the
Websters, Clays, Fillmores, Tylers, Tuckers, Randolphs, Lees, Davises,
and in fact all the leading public men of the country before and after
1861. Such were her personal charms and the vivacity of her conversation
and manners that she was the life and ornament of every circle graced by
her presence. The late Judge H. St. George Tucker, father of Hon. J.
Randolph Tucker, who was, like Blackstone, a poet as well as a jurist,
wrote some beautiful lines addressed to her on her entrance into
Richmond Society in 1839, which we hope some of these days to give in
our columns.--_Staunton Spectator, March 11th, 1891._
C
CONTENTS OF A PIGEON HOLE.
We cannot resist the temptation of preserving here the contents of a
pigeon hole in our desk.
A LIST OF PEYTONS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY.
1. Peyton, Dade, cornet 4th Continental Dragoons, 1779. lieutenant June 2,
1779, served to 1783.