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| 1857 Travels of Dr. John H. CallenderThe
1857 Expense Book & Travel Notes of Dr. John H. Callender of Nashville, Tennessee
1857
Editor's Note:
It appears that Dr. John H. Callender escorted two young ladies on his
journey – a Miss Gordon whose destination was It should also be noted that this journey was taken on the heels of a collapse in the financial markets that later became known as the "Panic of 1857." The panic, which began in August, had by October already caused several financial institutions to close, thousands of workers to lose employment, and prices to soar. Only those who were financially secure could have undertaken a journey such as was taken by Dr. Callender. The prices are reflected in his expense record which follows. It is likely that Kate Newell's traveling expenses from Nashville to Boston, by way of St. Louis, Chicago, and New York, were anticipated to cost $50, but actually totaled $83.15 -- a 65% increase.
Total Expense Book during a journey commencing October 22nd 1857 from Nashville Saturday Oct 24 Wrote to my wife & sent Cornelia’s ring in box by mail to Hiram J.
Jones [4] Dr. Callender visited Medical
College
[5] with Dr. Zandel [6] & converted
43 students Paid Galt House Bill
16.50 Went to New Albany
[Indiana] in a bus and then took the New Albany
& Salem R.R. [7] which goes out to Mitchell [IN] 60
miles where it is met by the Ohio
& Mississippi R.R. [8] from Cincinnati
to St. Louis
Pd. Breakfast
1.50 Arrived at Planter’s House [9] about 1 o’clock P.M., Not so well kept as the Galt House of
Louisville. Pd. Hack here
5.00 Visited Pd. for Supper
1.50 Left Supper on Road
2.50 Hack here to see [Niagara] falls
2.00 Left Niagara at 4 ¼ for Albany. While in Niagara
Village, saw the falls by moonlight, seeing a beautiful exhibition of a lunar rainbow [22].
And today visited the falls from Went to the Presbyterian Church at 10 ½ & heard a good & proper
sermon. Supper at Rochester
[N.Y.] 1.50 Arrived at N. York
on Monday [Nov.] 2nd at 1 o’clock P.M. & stopped at St. Nicholas Hotel [23] Bot. Cloth for Della [24]
30.00 Left New York 8 ½ o’clock A.M. on N. York & Boston Express on 7th
Nov. Saturday & arrived in Boston
5 ½ P.M. Stopped at Raven House Dr. Geo. Stevens Jones [25] From Nashville
November 2nd 1857: Standing on Goat Island just below the American falls, our Hack driver pointed out the place to which the “Maid of the Mist”
ascended and remarked that he would not advise person to ascend to that point on
her – that if they knew what she was made of, they would not do so. One of our
party asked, “What is it made of?” He very dryly answered, “She is Maid of
the Mist.” I walked off a little & laughed. [26]
Frederick
May [27], 397 C. North [West],
Washington
Mrs. Mildred Bilt [Belt?] [28] Samuel D. Gross [29], Corner 11th & Walnut [Philadelphia] Barnum’s Hotel, Baltimore Philip T. Ervin, 49 Prune H 333 So. 6th [35] Stage to R.R.
$10.50 Bill at Planter’s House
5.00 Take 2 o’clock train from New York to Boston. Get to New Haven at sundown & next evening to
Boston. Paid for Kate’s bills
83.15 Mrs. W. H. Calhoun [37],
The property owned by the Tennessee Asylum for the Insane was described in
1880 in the following description in the “History of Davidson County,
Tennessee.” "The State Legislature provided for the hospital in legislation
passed February 5, 1848. Tennessee Asylum for the Insane is in the east part of
the district [Civil District 5] on Murfreesboro Pike. Its grounds, nearly
a mile square are finely located, and their appearance adds much to the
district. The Asylum is located on 480 acres and has a valuation of
$400,000. The hospital has 24 octagonal towers topped with battlements on
the corners and wings of the building. It stands 405 feet long, east to west and 210 wide, north to south.
The building is four stories high and is 85 feet high at the top of the main
tower. It has 265 rooms and accommodates 250 patients. It is
ventilated by a fan 17 feet in diameter. It is driven by a steam engine
and de-livers 70,000 cubic feet of air per minute throughout the entire
building. Grounds surrounding the hospital are among the most beautiful in the
South. Lakes, fountains and splendid gravel roads and walks, lovely lawns,
inviting arbors and a fine collection of the rarest exotic and domestic flowers
and shrubbery, orchards and vineyards are found there.” During the Civil War, Dr. John H. Callender served the Confederacy as a surgeon with the 11th Tennessee Infantry. He is mentioned on page 270 of the Register of the Adjutant General of the Confederacy. Likewise, he is mentioned on page 17 of the Proceedings of the Medical Board of the Provisional Army of Tennessee. The 11th Regiment participated in the campaigns from Murfreesboro to Atlanta, suffering severe losses at Stone's River and at Chickamauga. The 11th Regiment eventually combined with the 29th. [2]
The original Galt House was established in 1834 on the northeast corner
of Second and Main Streets and was [3]
For a history of Cave
Hill
Cemetery, see: http://www.cavehillcemetery.com/earlyhistory.html [4]
Hiram
J. Jones, was the 24-year old brother in law of Dr. Callender. Hiram’s
occupation was given as a “clerk” in the 1860 [5]
“The Louisville Medical Institute (LMI), chartered in 1833, opened in 1837,
and the Louisville Collegiate Institute (LCI) was chartered the same year. In
1840 LCI was renamed [6]
Dr. Zandel [7]
“In the 1840s, with limited methods of shipping and receiving goods,
the Salem
business community decided a railroad might be the answer to their problems. [8]
“The Ohio
and Mississippi Railroad was opened from Illinoistown to Vincennes
in 1855 and to Cincinnati
in 1857. This important line was of vital interest to St. Louis, which contributed more than $1,500,000 in financial backing. Prominent
citizens in Belleville, Illinois, had also been enthusiastic backers of both the
Ohio
and [9]
The Planter’s House opened in St. Louis
as the city’s most exclusive hotel in 1841. It was considered the
finest hotel in the West at the time. A year later British novelist
Charles Dickens stayed there when he visited St. Louis
and gave it rave reviews. [10]
“One of the most famous cemeteries in St. Louis
is Bellefontaine
Cemetery. In 1849 there were four cemeteries on Jefferson Avenue
that were in the way of the growing city of St. Louis. A committee was formed and one hundred thirty-eight acres of land was bought
north of city that included the Hempstead Farm and the LaBeaume Farm. At first,
they called this land the Rural
Cemetery. Later, the name was changed to Bellefontaine
Cemetery
because it was on the road to Fort
Bellefontaine. The committee was planning to move the graves in the four original cemeteries
to Bellefontaine when an outbreak of cholera hit St. Louis. Almost sixty people died every day, and many of them had to buried at
Bellefontaine even before the planning was completed. Following the outbreak,
many famous leaders of St. Louis
were relocated there. In constructing the cemetery, many trees were kept and
the roads were made to wind around the gardens, lakes, and trees. The monumental
architecture is world famous. As you read the names on the grave stones, you
recognize the names of streets, schools, and towns that were named after these
people who lived in St. Louis
before us; people who were giants in their day.”
Source:
http://library.thinkquest.org/5977/history.htm [11]
“A cultural factor in the growth of [12]
“There were two pioneering medical colleges in St. Louis
founded in the 1840’s: [13]
Washington University was co-founded as a nonsectarian, private
institution in 1853 by the Unitarian minister William Greenleaf Eliot, grandfather of the
Nobel
Prize laureate poet T. S. Eliot, and by St. Louis leader Wayman
Crow. It desegregated its undergraduate divisions in May of 1952.The
university's original name at the time of foundation was "Eliot
Seminary." The name was a tribute to St.
Louis minister/teacher William Greenleaf Eliot. Eliot, however,
was not in favor of the name, and in 1854, the Board of Trustees recommended changing the name to
"Washington Institute in [14]
Dr. Charles Alexander Pope (1818-1870) was the Dean of St. Louis Medical
College from 1855-1864. “Like the best educated doctors of the day, Dr. Pope
studied medicine in Europe. In 1854, he became the youngest president of the American Medical Association.
Pope was known for his urbane gentility. Colleagues remembered him as a
‘brilliant surgeon and a beautiful operator.’”
The St. Louis
Medical
College
building stood at the corner of 7th and Clark Avenue
in St. Louis. It was built in 1849 with the financial assistance of Pope’s father-in-law,
the real estate magnate John O’Fallon. Source: http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/wusm-hist/roots/
Dr. Charles
A. Pope (1818-1870) & the St. Louis Medical College [15]
Dr. Abram Litton (1814-1901) was a 42-year old chemist living in St. Louis
when visited by Dr. Callender. He was born in [16]
Mr. Blackwood was probably Robert Blackwood, a 29-year old bookkeeper
from Scotland
who had a 5-year old son born in [17]
“The earliest ancestor to the Alton Railroad is the Alton and Sangamon
Railroad, chartered February
27, 1847 in Illinois
to connect the Mississippi River town of Alton
to the state capital at Springfield in Sangamon County. The line was finished in 1852, and extended to Bloomington in 1854 and Joliet
in 1855,
from which it could run to Chicago on the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad.
Before 1855
the name was changed to the Chicago and Mississippi Railroad. The Joliet and
Chicago Railroad was chartered February
15, 1855 and opened in 1856, continuing north and
northeast from [18]
“During the mid-nineteenth century, the building, destruction, and rebuilding of Chicago
hotels continued, fueled by fire and burgeoning development. The Tremont House,
Briggs House, Palmer House, Sherman House, Adams House, Matteson House,
Massasoit House, and Metropolitan House were among the pre-1871 hotels that
served the city in luxurious style. These five-, six-, and seven-story block
masonry buildings offered amenities such as steam heat, gas
lighting, elevators, French chefs, and elegant surroundings. The Tremont House
in particular, rebuilt for the third time in 1850, retained its position for
many years as the city's leading hotel. Both Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham
Lincoln spoke from its balcony to crowd-filled streets below, and, in 1860, the
hotel served as the headquarters for the Illinois Republican
Party as it campaigned for Lincoln's presidential nomination. All of these hotels burned in the fire
of 1871.” Source: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/603.html [19] “The suspension bridge was a double-decker designed by John A. Roebling with rail on top, opened to trains on March 18, 1855. On the United States side it connected to the New York Central Railroad's Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad and the New York and Erie Rail Road's Canandaigua and Niagara Falls Railroad. The Great Western Railway ran west from the Canada approach. The railroads feeding into it had three different gauges - 4 ft 8½ in standard gauge (1435 mm) on the New York Central, 5 ft 6 in (1676 mm) on the Great Western, and 6 ft 0 in (1829 mm) on the Erie - and the bridge allowed for all three.” Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Falls_Suspension_Bridge
[20] Niagara
House [21]
Indian artifacts [22]
Over one hundred years ago, Niagara Falls
was also one of the best locations in the world to view lunar rainbows - a
rainbow created by the light of the moon shining on the mist created by the
Falls. When lunar rainbows were last reported in the mid eighteen sixties, the
phenomenon was described as pale in comparison to the solar bow, consisting of
three ghostly arches. It was a great tourist attraction and was best seen
when the moon was full and high and the sky clear enough to allow the moonlight
to form a bow in the mist of Niagara. One of the best locations to view this phenomenon was
Luna
Island
(apparently so named because of the lunar rainbow) on the American side of the
river. Luna
A few references to early lunar bows are noteworthy. The Niagara Gazette,
in describing the tightrope walk of Signor Farini, wrote “it was worthy of
note that during the trip over and back a beautiful Lunar Bow hung over him, its
end reaching the water, some fifty feet each side of his cable. He may claim it
was as a bow of promise - as a happy augury of success?” Another article written in the Niagara Gazette, July 16, 1856, said “the
Maid of the Mist will make trips in the evening when the weather is suitable,
for the purpose of taking those who wish to view the Lunar Bow.” It is unlikely to see lunar rainbows today, for a few different reasons.
Since 1925, the Falls have been illuminated each night. Since the
1950s, less water has been going over the Falls as during the night much of [23] The
St. Nicholas Hotel was a three-building hotel on Broadway in New York City. [24] Della
was Dr. John H. Callender’s wife. [25] George
Stevens Jones was a 40 year-old physician living on Cambridge Street
in Boston, Massachusetts. He was born 16 July 1817 in Cambridge, Massachusetts; his wife, Caroline, was a 37 year-old native of Maine. In 1860, they had a son and two daughters living in the household with them.
Dr. Jones was still living in 1880. [26] The
“Maid of the Mist” first began operation in 1846, carrying passengers to the
base of the falls. [27] Dr.
John Frederick May, “the son of a physician, was born in Washington
“Dr. May’s brilliant reputation attracted most of the surgical work in
the D.C. area. In the United States, he was the first to do a successful amputation at the hip joint. In the
Washington
Aside from his skill as a surgeon, Dr. May had other claims to fame. When
President Abraham Lincoln was shot in 1865, Dr. May was called to Lincoln’s bedside along with other prominent physicians to examine the wound. After
Dr, May probed the entrance wound, he agreed with the other physicians that
nothing could be done to save Lincoln’s life. May actually knew Lincoln, having petitioned the President for his Uncle’s release from a
Maryland
prison when the Congressman (Henry May) was charged with “holding criminal
correspondence and communication with the Rebels.” Ironically, Dr. May also knew the actor John Wilkes Booth, having
surgically removed a large tumor from Booth’s neck in 1863. After Booth’s
death, Dr. May was called from his residence at 312 C Street NW (same general
location as his 1857 address) to the Naval Yard to examine the body for purposes
of making a positive identification. It is believed that Dr. May’s interest also extended to the field of
insanity and that he may have become involved in providing testimony in court
cases in which the defense pleaded not guilty of murder by reason of Paroxysmal
insanity. Source: The Journal of Community Health, “Dr. John Frederick May and the
Identification of John Wilkes Booth’s body.” By Allen D. Spiegel [28] Mrs.
Mildred C. Bilt [Belt?] was the 68 year-old mother of Dr. H. S. Bilt [Belt?], a
30 year-old physician residing in Chestnut Grove, Pittsylvania County, Virginia. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
