Henry continued to travel between Jamestown and England and wrote of his adventures among the Indians in his manuscript A Relation of Virginia, one of the earliest accounts of Indian culture and lifestyle written at the time of the events, published in 1872. He provided his own motivation for seeking a new life in the New World in that manuscript: “Being in displeasure of my friends, and desirous to see other countries.” With time, relations with the Indians soured further, and they wanted the English to leave their lands; the Jamestown massacre ensued in 1622. Henry survived the massacre, but on March 23, 1623, he met his fate when Anacostan Indians attacked his expedition party on the Potomac River. Henry was only twenty-seven when killed, and he left behind his wife, two brothers and one son, Clement. Soon the spelling of the family name changed, becoming Spilman.
And so came Byrd (“Birdie”) Spilman Dewey’s first ancestor to America. Birdie’s deep ties to America’s founding are ones that very few Americans can claim. In addition to the connections to Pocahontas and John Smith, she was William Brewster’s descendant, a signer of the Mayflower Compact and a passenger aboard that ship; she was also related to William Penn, Pennsylvania pioneer, and John Edmund Pendleton, who authored the Continental Congress resolution that allowed Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence. But her closest famous family line came through her mother’s family, the Taylors of Virginia and Kentucky.
Kentucky’s green hills drew many settlers to the new frontier; among them were two Virginia brothers, Richard and Hancock Taylor. The Taylor brothers spent years surveying the area and found the new lands very inviting. During the 1774 expedition, local Indians killed Hancock Taylor, thus becoming the first European American to die in Kentucky. His brother, Richard, acquired eight thousand acres of land in the Kentucky territory, and he built his home, Springfield, on a four-hundred-acre estate in what became Louisville, Kentucky. The home is known today as the Zachary Taylor House.
Richard Taylor became a Revolutionary War colonel and had many sons. Among them was another Hancock Taylor, named for his lost brother, and another son whose name is quite familiar to American history students: Zachary Taylor. Born in 1784, Zachary grew up on the Springfield estate in Louisville. Zachary had a long and distinguished military career, including campaigns in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Black Hawk War and the Second Seminole War in Florida. In 1848, Zachary Taylor became the twelfth president of the United States, with Millard Fillmore as his vice president. Hancock Taylor, Zachary’s brother, married Annah Hornsby Lewis in Kentucky, and together they had ten children, including Eliza Sarah Taylor, Birdie’s mother. Thus, Birdie was President Zachary Taylor’s grandniece. Birdie knew this fact, and it always appeared in her Who’s Who biography.
ZACHARY TAYLOR FOR PRESIDENT. Julia Byrd Spilman Dewey’s maternal great-uncle, Zachary Taylor, known as “Old Rough and Ready” during his campaign for president. Taylor served as the twelfth president of the United States. Courtesy Library of Congress.
As the successive Spilman generations spread across America, Jonathan Edwards Spilman, Birdie’s father, was born on April 15, 1812, in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. His parents were Benjamin Franklin Spilman and Nancy Jane Rice, and together they had thirteen children—five sons and eight daughters. Nancy served as tutor for Jonathan, according to Spilman biographer Malcolm Melville: “She was a woman of exceptionally strong character and was descended from an ardent Presbyterian family prolific in ministers.” The Spilman family moved to Carmi, Illinois, when Jonathan was a child.
Much is known about the Spilman family during this era because of Judge Earl R. Hoover’s 1968 article, published in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. Hoover, a Cleveland, Ohio historian, discovered the Spilman family story during his research on Jonathan’s life and career. Hoover noted that as a youth, Jonathan struggled with his choice of vocation, as his brothers were either ministers or physicians. Jonathan studied with his mother until he was seventeen and continued his schooling with his brother, Reverend Thomas A. Spilman, at Illinois College, intending to enter the ministry. Edward Beecher, brother of famed author Harriet Beecher Stowe, served as the fledging college’s first president. In 1835, Jonathan was one of the first two Illinois College graduates, a fact that is still acknowledged on the Illinois College website. The other graduate, Richard Yates, became the Illinois Civil War governor and a United States senator.
“FLOW GENTLY, SWEET AFTON” SHEET MUSIC. Jonathan Edwards Spilman composed the music to “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton” while a student at Transylvania College in Kentucky. In 1838, the tune, set to the famous Robert Burns poem, was published in Pennsylvania. The popular melody is often sung to the lyrics for “Away in the Manger.” Courtesy Library of Congress.
Instead of entering divinity school, Richard and Jonathan continued their studies at Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky, to read law and become attorneys. Here Jonathan found his way to immortality and composed one of the most beloved melodies in American music, namely “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton,” a tune set to the famous Robert Burns poem. Judge Hoover puts it this way: “Under the spell of immortal poetry, from some unknown somewhere, there came to Jonathan Spilman the strains of an immortal melody—strains that neither he nor anyone had ever heard—strains that fit into the company and do honor to the lines of a Robert Burns poem. And Jonathan Spilman, student of law who had tabled a call to the ministry, jotted them down there that day under a black locust, Transylvania campus tree.”
Jonathan played the tune for friends, who suggested publication. In 1838, “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton” was published in Philadelphia, and the song became a standard in nineteenth-century American songbooks. The tune is often sung to the lyrics for “Away in a Manger.” The beloved song was immortalized in not one but two historical markers for Jonathan, in Kentucky and Illinois.
“FLOW GENTLY, SWEET AFTON” HISTORICAL MARKER. A historic state marker in Illinois pays homage to Jonathan Edwards Spilman. Another historic marker in Greenville, Kentucky, also immortalizes him. Courtesy J. Stephen Conn.
Jonathan ran a successful law practice in Nicholasville, Kentucky, from 1838 to 1849 and married Mary Menefree in 1840. This union brought Jonathan the first of many heartbreaking events. Mary died after giving birth to an infant daughter, just three years after their marriage. The infant died nine months later.
In 1845, Jonathan’s heart once again found its love, this time with Eliza Sarah Taylor, Hancock Taylor’s daughter. Jonathan was thirty-three at the time, and Eliza was twenty-three. They lived in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and ten children blessed the marriage. But this happiness was short-lived, as tragedy awaited the family.
“One Awful Night in My Tenth Year”
It seemed that everything in Jonathan’s life was coming together—a successful law career; a new marriage into one of America’s premier families, the Taylors; and the blessings of many children. How exciting it must have been for the Spilman family as Zachary Taylor was elected president in 1848. Taylor’s tenure as president was short-lived, though, as he succumbed to illness on July 9, 1850, a few days after watching the Washington Monument groundbreaking on the Fourth of July. He served less than two years as president.
Six of the ten children born to Jonathan and Eliza survived to adulthood. Their first child, Charles Edwards, was born in 1847 at Nicholasville, followed by Anna Louise, Mildred Wilson, Richard Henry, Eliza Allen, William Magill, Julia Bird (Birdie), Clara Lee, Frances Rice and Lewis Hopkins. Birdie was called “Snow-Bird” by her brothers and sisters. Birdie wrote in a 1930 letter to Rosamond Gilder, daughter of poet Richard Watson Gilder: “I was ‘Snow-bird’ till my fifteenth year, when my elder brothers and cousins changed it to ‘Lady-Bird,’ and I never felt really ‘grown-up’ till I married.” She was in the middle of these many children and wrote to Gilder: “You were very young, and very much younger than your years, because of being ‘the baby.’ I know how that is, for I was ‘one of the children’ in o
ur family, being the seventh child in a family of ten children.”
CHILDREN OF JONATHAN EDWARDS SPILMAN AND ELIZA TAYLOR SPILMAN
The Spilman family remained in Nicholasville, Kentucky, until 1849 and then moved on to Covington, Kentucky, where they lived until 1856. Jonathan’s law firm had three attorneys: Jonathan; Samuel M. Moore, who went on to become a judge in Chicago; and John W. Menzies, who went on to a career in politics in the United States House of Representatives, representing Kentucky in 1860. His law partner’s political aspirations meant that the bulk of the work fell on Jonathan. It became too much for him, and he gave up his law practice in 1856, nearing a mental breakdown.
At the age of forty-six, Jonathan did something rare for the time. He changed careers and followed his original calling, namely to be a Presbyterian minister. He began a home study program with the West Lexington Presbytery and received his license to preach in April 1858, along with his doctorate in divinity from Central University. The Presbytery of Ebenezer ordained Jonathan in June 1859, and his first pastorate was in the Second Presbyterian Church in Covington, Kentucky. His second pastorate took the family to Nicholasville, Kentucky, where he was instrumental in founding the Presbyterian church in that city.
SPILMAN FAMILY. Jonathan E. Spilman and Eliza S. Taylor had ten children, six of whom survived to adulthood. Birdie is pictured on the left side of the image below her mother. The other children in this undated image are (left to right) Charles Edwards, Anna Louise, Clara Lee and William Magill. Courtesy Janis Lydic Hebert.
The Civil War years were difficult, especially living in Kentucky, which drifted between Union and Confederate forces. From Harper’s Weekly, September 27, 1862: “Covington today presented an almost dilapidated appearance; but few of the inhabitants were visible, stores all closed, and the streets were occupied entirely by troops moving or vehicles attached to the army. The buildings looked as if erected in year One, and in my judgment, the country would suffer but little loss were Covington wiped out.”
In 1864, the family moved to Maysville, Kentucky, where Jonathan became pastor at the First Presbyterian Church, founded in 1817. Maysville is a picturesque town perched above the Ohio River and was an important river port for many years, with tobacco and hemp exports. A tragedy played out here that forever changed the Spilman family.
On a warm summer evening in August 1866, the Spilman family was busy preparing a special party for mother Eliza, who was leaving at dusk to visit son Charles, nineteen, downriver in Cincinnati, Ohio. The brand-new, beautiful modern steamer Bostona No. 3 awaited its passengers at the wharf. The Bostona No. 3 mail packet plied the Ohio River between Maysville and Cincinnati, some sixty-three miles downstream. Eliza’s party was held at the manse, and the family accompanied her down to the wharf, rushing home so they could stand outside the home and wave their handkerchiefs as the steamer passed directly by the manse perched above the river. Judge Hoover wrote, “As the majestic Bostona No. 3 approached the Spilman home, the family saw Eliza at the ship’s rail and she saw them. From ship to shore and from shore to ship, happy handkerchiefs shouted ‘goodbye,’ but now something injected itself that wasn’t planned. As they waved, suddenly the family became aware of a danger of which Eliza was not aware.”
As darkness descended, the steamer left its moorings at about half past eight o’clock in the evening. A passenger on board the Bostona No. 3, L.D. Carter, wrote his chilling account about what happened that night for the Gallipolis Journal:
In two minutes after the alarm was given, the fire was sweeping through the cabin. It caught fire from the lamp of the watchman, who had gone back to secure the tying of some cattle that had been taken aboard at Maysville, broke the bottom out of the lamp, causing the oil to spill on some dry lumber, which caught on fire in an instant. The fire appeared to rage most terrific in the stern of the boat, the wind being in our favor while the boat was under headway; but so soon as the boat struck the sand bar, the fire came like a torrent up the bow, cutting everything before it. The whole affair was a horrible scene, unparalleled by anything I ever saw, the dying groans of the soldier on the battle ground not excepted.
In her attempt to escape, Eliza ran down the ship’s deck. Just then, a steam pipe burst, spraying her with scalding water. She fell there, severely burned. Passengers placed Eliza in a rowboat, and they took her home across the river. She somehow managed to climb up the hill to the manse. The New York Times reported on August 12, 1866, “Among those who were scalded and otherwise injured was Mrs. Spilman, the estimable wife of Reverend J.E. Spilman, of Maysville. Her injuries are serious, she being scalded in the face and hands.”
Among the many passengers and crew aboard the Bostona No. 3 that fateful night, there was but one fatality: Eliza. She died at home on August 10, 1866, leaving behind her husband and six children. Such a horrific event must have left the children and Jonathan permanently changed; Jonathan was left with his five young children. Birdie mentions the incident one time in her writings, in her book Bruno, when describing her feelings on seeing a neighbor’s house on fire: “A fire fills me with horror, especially if it breaks out in the night: it always reminds me of the burning of a big steamer that happened one awful night in my tenth year.”
The 1870 census still had the family living in Maysville, with twenty-two-year-old Mary McCue living in the household, no doubt helping with the children and keeping house for the reverend. Jonathan never remarried. Birdie wrote of her father’s preaching in Maysville, in the 1909 Maysville Public Ledger: “The old Church opposite the January home is so little changed that it is difficult to realize the thirty-three years of absence; and one sees, with the spiritual eyes, that silver-haired Clergyman who stood up in its pulpit that many years ago, to preach the farewell sermon to the beloved flock he had so faithfully led for thirteen changeful years.” Jonathan was much loved by his congregations, and his sermons were memorable. He delivered a eulogy for a prominent Maysville resident, Mrs. Sarah Huston January, and it was reprinted by popular demand.
As the children were growing up without their mother, Jonathan knew that his daughters needed guidance and attention that he perhaps could not provide. He certainly knew the value of a good education, not only for his sons, but for his daughters as well. In the 1870 census, his son Charles, the oldest, was listed as “bookkeeper” and living at home. The rest of the children were in school at various points in their education. Kentucky’s excellent schools allowed Jonathan to choose good educational institutions for his children. Birdie described her schooling in a 1909 essay that appeared in the Maysville Public Ledger: “The little old schoolhouse in the back room of the Third Street Methodist Church, where Mrs. Pears used to hold restless little girls and boys at their books for five mornings and afternoons a week, from September to June of every year, is still here.” Birdie attended Maysville Academy, Maysville College, the Maysville Institute and the Sayre Institute in Lexington, Kentucky.
David Sayre, a wealthy silversmith from New Jersey, founded the Sayre Institute in 1854. At that time in Kentucky, colleges did not accept women, but Sayre felt that women needed access to higher education. The Sayre Institute was a boarding and day school that offered young women a complete curriculum. From the Kentucky Statesmen: “The object of the institution is to afford to young ladies a liberal and finished education in all those branches of useful and elegant learning which contribute to the accomplishment of the female sex.” Major Henry B. McClellan served as headmaster, cousin to Civil War general George B. McClellan.
The charge for twenty weeks of instruction, including room and board, was $100, a considerable sum at the time. From A Centennial History of Sayre School by J. Winston Coleman: “Board, with room furnished in a superior manner for four occupants, fuel, gas-light, washing, pens, pencils, copy-books or exercise books, and tuition in the regular higher course, including Ancient Languages and Sacred Music.” The curriculum included courses in algebra, astronomy, chemistry, mental and moral philosophy,
history, geometry, rhetoric, trigonometry, moral science, English literature, Latin, geology and the study of a classic religious text, Butler’s Analogy, and Kame’s Elements of Criticism, a two-volume classical work on the “science of criticism.” Extra studies were offered in instrumental and vocal studies, drawing, painting, French and experimental chemistry. Based on newspaper accounts and letters, Birdie was quite proficient at the piano, having one in almost every residence in which the Deweys lived, and her French was advanced enough that she could translate for other writers. She also was a talented painter, a skill that served her later in Florida. As far as mathematical ability, she stated, “I have ever belonged to that grand army of women who have to count on their fingers to make change.”
From this educational background, Birdie discovered literature and music, the two greatest loves of her scholarly life. In her writings and letters, she draws quotes and analogies from all the great writers. According to Thomas A. Grunwald, Sayre’s director of alumni affairs, school records do not show that Birdie graduated from the Sayre Institute. It could be that a family move did not allow her to graduate. Nonetheless, this rigorous education blessed her with the love of literature and writing that was to guide her all her life. The family move to Illinois would bring her a man and a dog that proved to be very special, as well as act as the springboard toward the beginning of the Florida adventure.
Westward to the Land of Lincoln
In 1876, the Spilman family left Kentucky and headed west to Jonathan’s next pastorate in Salem, Illinois, a small town in Marion County. William Jennings Bryan, the famous orator who was the Democratic nominee for president on three occasions, was born in Salem in 1860. A devout Presbyterian, he no doubt attended many services preached by Reverend Spilman. Birdie was now twenty years old and had moved with the family to Salem, although no information was found as to what the type of work she may have done. She probably cared for younger siblings, did household chores and attended services in her father’s church. In all likelihood, it is where she met a man who was her life’s love, Fred S. Dewey.
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