4th October
I received this morning from Charlotte the painful account of Papa’s death, he suffered at last very much, and passed away on the morning of the 30th September 1863, between 5, & 6 in the morning, he was very much swollen had parozisms of difficulty of breathing which were terrible, had been twelve weeks in bed, had bed sores on his back & when the difficult breathing came on had to be held up in bed but through all that his faith never wavered, & he has gone to that rest & that joy he so longed for, he must have been 78 years of age: Charlotte throughout this painful illness has attended him, & comforted him, by her presence & care.—Lewis was fortunately there, ordered to take charge of some hospitals & was with Papa when he died.—
I shall miss him as long as I live for he loved me, and was always kind. – The prayer book I now use was a present from him, being a large one so that I need not use spectacles. His life was one of many changes. Belonging to one of the old families in New York he married early, my Mother of Hugenot descent. He was devoted to her, they had $40 thousand to begin with, and he went in debt for a Planting interest, was not very successful, became involved & passed nearly all his life an embarassed man with a large family. (4 years before the war he was more easy, & after the sale of part of the Northern property divided 30 thousand to each of his children) After 16 years my Mother was taken from him by a violent death, being crushed to death, the house falling in the storm on Sulivans Island, of 1822. After my Grandfathers death, he managed the property of his Mother, & gave great dissatisfaction to his brothers & sisters.
Some years before his Mothers death they induced her to take the charge from him, he married Miss Lowndes, 7 years after my Mothers death, who died leaving 2 children, 1 son, & 1 daughter, the son alone survives, on whom all her property settled.
The death of this lady was a great grief to him, she was very pious, and sensible. He had become very much interested in Religion just after my Mothers death, and through all the varied scenes of his long life his faith sustained him, & comforted him.—If the Country had not been torn apart by this revolution he would have left a very handsome property to his children, at least one hundred & fifty thousand dollars apiece: but his negroes, 2 hundred of them, have left him, & the Plantations are ruined: but in these times no one thinks of the losses, the war fills all the mind.—
Since we have been going to the Court House to Church there have been 3 Baptisms. The first was Miss Tompson, an adult, & there was on the table a huge Crockery petcher & Basin, with a towel thrown over it altogether a curious inelegant appearance, then Mrs Irwin’s baby a nice healthy babe, for her there was a very small crockery bowl & Pitcher, & then Mrs Drayton Ford’s baby a large French china bowl, gilt edged, and a fine damask napkin. Mrs Ford, Miss Lucas, Mr Ford, and the maid with the screeching baby standing in front, very elegant, in they own conceat.— Henrietta Gedding’s babe was also christened, for her, a beautiful large silver bowl.—