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<\/a>“Married.” Worcester Daily Spy, 15 December 1860. Source: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress<\/a>.Click to view larger image.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n Fenton Harper was born in Virginia sometime in the early 1820s. Although his parents\u2019 status is not clear, the 1850 US Census lists Fenton as a free inhabitant of the state. Frances Ellen Watkins married Fenton Harper on November 22, 1860 in Hamilton County, Ohio.[1] Because Frances’s existing letters do not document how she met Fenton, we may surmise that they met as she lectured and attended meetings throughout Ohio in 1860. Fenton was widowed twice before his marriage to Frances Harper. Four months before Frances and Fenton wed, he lost his second wife of three years, Elizabeth Smith, the daughter of free Black farmers.[2] Elizabeth Smith and Fenton Harper had two children, Ellen (b. 1859) and Elizabeth (b.1860); complications from the birth of the latter was perhaps the cause of\u00a0 Smith’s death.<\/p>\n Fenton\u2019s son, Cassius M. Harper (b. 1852), was born out of his first marriage. County records show that in November 1850, Fenton Harper married Eliza Ann Manzillar, also the daughter of free Black farmers in Mahoning County.[4] The 1850 Census, recorded in July, places Fenton in Virginia, so he must have moved to Ohio sometime in late summer or fall of 1850 and settled down after he married Eliza Ann. Cassius was born in Mahoning County, indicating that Fenton lived in his wife\u2019s hometown before moving westward. While we have yet to find a record of her death, one can assume that Eliza Ann died some time before Fenton remarried (to Elizabeth Smith) in 1857. Elizabeth Smith also died untimely. The death of his second wife must have been a heartbreaking blow to Fenton. Life as a small farmer and three children would have been exceedingly difficult for Fenton.<\/p>\n Marriage, for many people in the nineteenth century, was as much about necessity as it was about love. While there is no historical record indicating that Fenton only married Harper out of necessity, their union likely offered a reprieve from the hardships he had experienced. When Frances married Fenton, she became a stepmother to two infant girls\u2014Ellen, aged one, and Elizabeth, barely a year old\u2014and eight-year-old Cassius. Perhaps, Frances, who herself had lost her own mother at a young age, felt a deep empathy to her stepchildren. In spite of the major change in her life and status, her new role as wife and stepmother \u201conly limited but did not curtail her public activities,\u201d as she continued to travel and lecture.[5]\u00a0 Fenton must have welcomed Frances\u2019s income from lecturing, as it enabled them to purchase a farm. In 1862, Frances gave birth to her only child, Mary.<\/p>\n When Fenton died in 1864, the probate court assessed that Fenton\u2019s estate and belongings\u2014farm animals, tools, barrels, and so forth\u2014were worth 350 dollars, and they were sold at a public auction.[6] Frances and the children were allowed to keep their clothes, beddings, some furniture, and cooking and dining utensils. The court also let Frances have the family bible and their books, which she must have insisted upon keeping. The appraisers allotted cash allowance for each child, leaving Frances with only 223 dollars\u2014100 dollars for Mary, the youngest, and less than 50 dollars for the rest of the children. However, as Harper recalled, she and her children were left with barely anything:<\/p>\n My husband had died suddenly, leaving me a widow, with four children, one my own, and the others stepchildren. I tried to keep my children together. But my husband died in debt; and before he had been in his grave three months, the administrator had swept the very milk-crocks and wash tubs from my hands. I was a farmer\u2019s wife and made butter for the Columbus market; but what could I do, when they had swept all away? They left me one thing-and that was a looking glass! Had I died instead of my husband, how different would have been the result! By this time he would have had another wife, it is likely; and no administrator would have gone into his house, broken up his home, and sold his bed, and taken away his means of support.[7]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n As Harper noted, she was left impoverished and could not keep her family together. She sent Ellen and Elizabeth to live with their maternal grandparents, Zephaniah and Farlene Smith, in the farm in Jackson Township, Pike County, where their late mother grew up.[8] The 1870 US Census does not show Cassius as part of the Smith household; perhaps, he lived with his mother\u2019s family, the Manzillars in Mahoning County. It is also unclear whether or not she kept in touch with her stepchildren. As a farmer, Fenton married free Black women from farming families, but Frances was born and raised in a city. Her work demanded a rigorous schedule, and she knew that it would be untenable to raise four children on her own. When she left Fenton\u2019s children to their respective late mothers\u2019 families, Harper likely thought that it would be better for them to be raised by their well-established relatives.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”References and Credits” _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [1] The 1850 US Census listed Fenton Harper as a laborer in Loudoun County, Virginia, and Virginia as his place of birth. His son Cassius Harper\u2019s entry in Minnesota\u2019s 1905 state census also indicates that Fenton Harper was born in Virginia. \u201cFenton Harper.\u201d <\/span>1850 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com. <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/www.ancestry.com\/discoveryui-content\/view\/15243064:8054<\/span><\/a>; and \u201cCassius Harper.\u201d <\/span>Minnesota State Population Census Schedules, 1865-1905, <\/span><\/i>Minnesota Historical Society, <\/span>Ancestry.com, <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/www.ancestry.com\/discoveryui-content\/view\/353358:1058?tid=&pid=&queryId=0ba0162370b25f14a33e4c549ce04ddc&_phsrc=shJ387&_phstart=successSource<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n [2] \u201cElisabeth Smith.\u201d <\/span>1850 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>https:\/\/www.ancestry.com\/discoveryui-content\/view\/14391607:8054<\/span><\/a>. Elizabeth Smith and Fenton Harper were married on October 21, 1857. \u201cElizabeth A. Smith.\u201d <\/span>Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993, Ancestry.com, <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/www.ancestry.com\/discoveryui-content\/view\/900452431:61378<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n [3] Given that Elizabeth was born in 1860, it is likely that Elizabeth Smith Harper died in childbirth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [4] \u201cFenton Harper.\u201d <\/span>Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993, Ancestry.com, <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/www.ancestry.com\/discoveryui-content\/view\/2648303:61378?tid=&pid=&queryId=9e19a92e1dd1db448e6ad1be4145c74e&_phsrc=shJ396&_phstart=successSource<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n [5] Smith, Frances Foster. <\/span>A Brighter Coming Day: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader. <\/span><\/i>New York: Feminist Press, p. 18.<\/span><\/p>\n [6] \u201cFenton M. Harper.\u201d <\/span>Ohio, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998, Ancestry.com<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>https:\/\/www.ancestry.com\/discoveryui-content\/view\/8881698:8801?tid=&pid=&queryId=a846a9e19c110fd370e116561f92b3ba&_phsrc=shJ381&_phstart=successSource<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
REFERENCES<\/h3>\n