"Alias Paine"

[Linda Anderson]

(01-27-2013 08:00 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Fanny Seward's diary is on line at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=638

Linda Anderson of this symposium informed me about this and is very knowledgeable about the Seward family.

Thank you, Gene.

The only in-depth biography of Fanny is a dissertation written by Patricia Carley Johnson: Sensitivity and Civil War: The Selected Diaries and Papers, 1858-1866, of Frances Adeline (Fanny) Seward. The first chapter is called "The Setting: Fanny Seward and Her Times." The rest of the dissertation contains excerpts from her diary and other writings. Unfortunately, the dissertation has not been published and is available at only a few libraries around the country.

http://www.worldcat.org/title/sensitivit...ef_results

Johnson also wrote an article called "'I Could Not be Well or Happy at Home. . .When Called to the Councils of My Country': Politics and the Seward Family" which is available here:

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=1018

Another article on Fanny is "Growing up with Books; Fanny Seward's book collecting, reading and writing in mid-nineteenth-century New York State," by Deirdre C. Stam. Libraries & Culture 41.2 (2006).

Fanny Seward was a "shy, gentle, affectionate young woman" whose life centered around her family. Her mother, who suffered from ill health, stayed in the family home in Auburn, NY while her father lived in Washington. Fanny spent time with both her parents. Seward bought an insurance policy when Fanny was born so that she would never have to marry if she chose not to. Her diary expresses her desire to live a productive life as a single woman and she thought of Dorothea Dix and Charlotte Cushman as role models.

The events of April 14 traumatized Fanny. She had suffered from "weak lungs" throughout her life and after Powell's attack and her mother's subsequent death nine weeks later, Fanny became ill, suffering from "fevers, chills, headaches, and severe, recurring chest pains." Her thoughts turned to God and she was baptized in the Episcopal church.

What amazes me is that I have seen nothing in her diary to indicate she harbored hatred or bitterness towards Powell. In the back of her last diary of 1866, she wrote a list of "Things to be desired," including "A soul, trustful, faithful and humble," and "A spirit, patient, preserving and hopeful."