Wednesday, April 05, 2006
My great-grandfather's alleged subtext
Idly Googling my ancestors this evening, I stumbled across an excerpt from an article by one Kathryn B. McKee in the September 22, 2002 issue of The Southern Literary Journal. The introduction of the paper describes a talk that my great-grandfather gave in 1892, to "the Virginia Literary Society of the State Female Normal School of Farmville, Virginia":
In 1892, professor and literary critic John Bell Henneman addressed the Virginia Literary Society of the State Female Normal School of Farmville, Virginia. Henneman would go on to some academic prominence, helping to edit in the early years of the twentieth-century, for example, the multivolume series, The South in the Building of the Nation (1909-1913) and overseeing for a time the publication of the Sewanee Review. But in 1892 he was a professor at neighboring Hampden-Sydney College, who took for his lecture's title "The Nineteenth Century Woman in Literature." His subject matter was a natural choice given his audience, he explains, and given the fact that women are actually at the root of many of history's turning points: man's loss of innocence in the Garden of Eden, the outbreak of the Greek and Trojan War, the dissolution of Antony's empire. Now, in this "period of the emancipation of women", Henneman professes, women are still busy, "engaged in coquetting with, and in wooing, and in many instances in successfully capturing every employment, every occupation, every field of literature, art, and even science". Though Henneman's chivalric flourishes throughout his speech surely suggest a man who wanted to woo his own audience, the subtext of his early remarks seems clear: woman could be dangerous, her ambitions were many, and subterfuge was her surest ally.
I'm sorely tempted to crack wise about this last bit of family wisdom not having been passed down, but I cannot imagine the percentage in that. I will confine myself, therefore, to less controversial annotation.
My great-grandfather was born during the Civil War, the son of John Adam Henneman of Spartanburg, South Carolina (formerly of Kronach, Bavaria), and Louisa Rate of Norfolk. John Adam and his new wife settled in Spartanburg in the late 1850s. They opened a jewelry store, and John Adam dutifully fought for the Confederacy, became a pillar of the community after the war, and was eventually elected mayor of Spartanburg only to be assassinated in 1891, the year before John Bell spoke in Farmville.
John Bell grew up in Spartanburg, and graduated from the University of Virginia at age 19 or 20. From there he travelled to Berlin, where he earned a Ph.D. in German and English literature in about three years. He returned to the United States, and began an astonishingly productive academic career that was cut short when he died of colon cancer in 1908. In addition to the works mentioned in the excerpt above, Professor Henneman wrote numerous articles and annotated a vast, multivolume collection of Shakespeare's plays. He corresponded with the leading academics of his day -- correspondance being a big thing before telephones, air travel and email -- and in addition to Hampden-Sydney he taught at the University of the South in Sewanee, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, the University of Chicago and Harvard.
At the time he gave his talk in Farmville, though, he was only about thirty years old. His marriage, children and professional accomplishments were still in front of him. I have no idea whether he had met and was courting my future great-grandmother, but if he had not yet it is easy to imagine that he was, indeed, trying to woo his audience. I regret to say that there are not that many hot prospects in Farmville, Virginia even today. In 1892, it is a safe bet that my bachelor great-grandfather would have been one of Farmville's fine catches, at least to the ladies of the Virginia Literary Society of the State Female Normal School.
6 Comments:
By 
Final Historian, at
Thu Apr 06, 03:31:00 PM:
"woman could be dangerous, her ambitions were many, and subterfuge was her surest ally"
Truer words have ne'er been spoken.
By Cassandra, at
Fri Apr 07, 07:03:00 AM:
...woman could be dangerous, her ambitions were many, and subterfuge was her surest ally...
Feh... your great-grandfather was a most perceptive man, but this is mostly a rear-guard action.
I spent 20 years chasing two little tornadoes, and now most of my weekends fending off one very determined United States Marine :) Women need every ounce of mother wit, cunning, and subterfuge, not to mention industry, just to keep up with the Oink Cadre.
To the barricades!
By TigerHawk, at
Fri Apr 07, 07:24:00 AM:
And, to be clear, that passage was my great-grandfather's alleged subtext. For all we know, the author was projecting!
By Cassandra, at
Fri Apr 07, 10:12:00 AM:
Feh. And double feh, is all I have to say to you, sir.
By 
, at
Tue Apr 18, 02:25:00 PM:
My dear (2nd) cousin: I had an all too brief but highly enjoyable overnight with your brother and his delightful family last weekend when circumstance brought me to their part of Virginia. As I am curator of our Great Aunt Margie's vast archive and our family being what it is, our conversation dwelled long on family history - documented and otherwise- including the Confederate brigadier from New Jersey as well as the fellow we have to thank for Gibbons vs. Ogden, the first major Supreme Court defense of the interstate commerce clause. I understand you have expressed an interest in drawing the tribe together for occasions other than funerals and I would throw my heartfelt support behind such an initiative. There was strong supporting sentiment for such gatherings after Dayton's memorial service last fall.
Best wishes,
Cousin Tim
By Brad Steinecke, at
Sat Apr 04, 11:10:00 PM:
Interesting post!
I work as an historian in Spartanburg and I'd be interested in corresponding with you about your ancestor, John A. Henneman. Stories about Mayor Henneman are a mainstay of the downtown walking tours I conduct monthly and I'd appreciate any insight you have on him! You might also be interested in seeing this 1861 letter, which was recently donated to the public library: http://www.infodepot.org/zDigColl/Henneman.asp
There are also a few artifacts connected with Mayor Henneman at the local history museum.
Best,
Brad Steinecke
bsteinecke@spartanburghistory.org
