THE METHODIST MAGAZINE, AND Quarterly Review. VOL. XIII, No. 2. APRIL, 1831. NEW SERIES-VOL. II, No. 2. Communicated by the Rev. Thomas S. Hinde, of Ohio. RECOLLECTIONS OF MRS. MARY TODD HINDE, CONSORT OF THE LATE DR. THOMAS HINDE, Who departed this life in Newport, Campbell County, Ky., Dec. 8, 1830, in the 84th year of her age. HAVING heretofore given a short sketch of the Christian experience of these two extraordinary veterans of the cross, in 'Short Sketches of revivals of religion among the Methodists in the western country,' published in the late monthly Methodist Magazine; and also some brief Recollections of Dr. Hinde separately, published in the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review for April 1830, I have thought it would be acceptable, through the same medium, to give the few remaining recollections of his consort also, on a similar plan. I confess though a son, and the youngest of their offspring now living, that I find my mind in a great conflict on the present occasion. There is a hard struggle between a sense of duty and inclination; for I am unworthy of such parents. But a sense of duty has preponderated; and under a deep feeling of filial affection, I now, with a trembling hand, again undertake the task. Mrs. Mary T. Hinde was born in King and Queen county, Va., about the year 1747. (I have not now the family records before me.) Her father, Benjamin Hubbard, was an English merchant, who married Mary Todd, of Virginia, of an ancient family of that 'ancient dominion.' Mrs. Hinde was their third daughter, there being one younger, Martha, (now Mrs. Harrison,) who is the only survivor of the family, and whose name I may have occasion again to mention. From the extraordinary recollection and memory of Mrs. Hinde, were it admissible on the present occasion, I could draw some striking traits of the character of the people of her day, collected by her in part from tradition, and combined with her own recollection, embracing together a period of more than one century. But on an occasion like the present I deem it inexpedient to say much in this way; and it is probable that a minute sketch of character VOL. II.-April 1831. 11 in that region, in that day, will be for ever lost to us, however interesting it might be to the present generation. This should admonish us pioneers of this great western dominion, of our duty on this score. When our forefathers, as pilgrims or adventurers, first found their way to Virginia, being the first Europeans that migrated to this continent, they indeed presented a spectacle to the civilized world well worthy their very serious consideration. The first adventurers were generally destitute of families, and our sires, alone, in their solitary cabins, were cheered only by the songsters of the forests by day, but at night must have felt all the gloomy bodings of Selkirk on his desolate island, amidst the croakings of the frogs, the hooting of the owls, or the screams and howlings of the wolves and panthers. Nor did they begin to be relieved from their gloom and loneliness, until the vessels began to convey from England their Eves, as the partners of their toil, of their sorrows, and their joys. I have often thought of the situation of my forefathers in the maternal line, and imagined to myself a man in years taking his station among the adventurers of that day. To see him in his sooty cabin, all topsy turvy; providing his own meals, being his own cook, and also his own washer;-his own master, and his own servant; landlord and tenant. To see him in the field or forest all 'alone;'-under the simplest laws, making his own provisions for subsistence, and treasuring that precious commodity, tobacco, the very number of stems in a hill, and leaves on a stalk, being all prescribed by law; yet with a cheering ray of joy, and then a smile, when the hope arose of descrying a topsail from 'home,'--from England !* To him preparing his tobacco, as the article of trade which is to secure him all his domestic comforts;--his cabin is both his warehouse and his barn. In one corner there are deposited his fruits and his grain; in the other his rolls of tobacco! But what is man without society, or female associations? Society, friendship, and love, How soon would I taste you again! 'Hope deferred,' it is said maketh the heart sick;'-but my ancestry in the maternal line triumphed at last. And when the hardy adventurer could descry a distant sail, perhaps while sitting solitary before his cabin door, with what emotions of joy he would grasp his treasure, load his canoe, and paddle away to reach the vessel, where his precious commodity (tobacco) is exchanged for the necessaries of life. The reception of a female help meet' for 6 * From home,'-from England! a provincialism yet used by the lower Virginians who have survived the revolutions of the age! Such and such a one has gone 'home to England.' I never hear the expression without finding my mind flying back to the age of pilgrimage! him, too, made the cabin to wear a smiling aspect, the birds to sing still more melodiously, and all toil, all labour, to move onward as if all nature rejoiced. Such scenes were once ;-but they are past and gone.-Commerce, with slavery, introduced wealth;—and, with wealth, all the fashionable follies of the age. In this second grade of society, between what the present race would now call barbarism and refinement, there was much to admire, and much to condemn. But there is only one rule by which we can test these matters:it is to know the degree of light and knowledge such people (in such a state of society) may have possessed. We (the present generation) have a higher responsibility than they had. A plain English education was the best legacy which in that day could be bestowed. The rich, it is true, then entailed their great. landed estates on their first born sons; and soon there were the nobles, the peasantry, and the poor. It was from the yeomanry of the country our revolutionary heroes and heroines sprang. These gave birth to a race in their day of 'men of mighty bone and bold emprise.' The revolutionary race was an extraordinary race of human beings. Mrs. Hinde was educated in the circumstances of the times;--and possessing a strong mind, made greater attainments than generally then fell to the lot of her sex. At the age of sixty and seventy, but few females wielded a pen with more energy. As to religion, she was rigidly brought up in the Episcopal Church, then styled the 'Church of England.' Among the outward accomplishments of the day, that of dancing stood preeminent; and a dancingmaster maintained a high standing with that generation. Mrs. Hinde, possessing a lively and sprightly turn of mind, was fond of sport and diversion, and, among the females, was also the heroine of the floor. It was during this period that the labour of the husbandman began to find its ample reward. Orchards grew up ;-fields yielded plentifully;-the fruits of the season were abundant;-the land was as yet in its strength, and the soil unimpoverished. The old men revelled on the abundance of their harvests,--met at the festive board, told their stories, and smoked their pipes. The youth were blithe and gay; and their priests partook of all their festivities and their follies, from the ball room to the card table! It was 'like people like priests;' 'eat, drink, and be merry! What an age! and in this age God raised up a Davies, and here and there what in that day was called an evangelical minister of the Episcopal Church, who preached the Gospel of Christ. A Jarrett and a M'Roberts are yet held in precious remembrance by here and there a traveller now bowing and bending toward Zion! The Baptists rose, among whom some ripe clusters occasionally were visible; and not long since I saw a Pilgrim of that order, in his 84th year, (Rev. Mr. Bennet,) the first who experienced and preached a living |