Mary Dodson Wade - Henrietta King: La Patrona

Henrietta Morse Chamberlain, born July 21, 1832 in Boonville, Missouri, was the daughter of Reverend Hiram and Maria Morse Chamberlain. Her mother died before she was three years old, and Chamberlains second wife, Sarah Wardlaw, had died childless. His third wife, Anna Adelia Griswold, would give him eight children. They had buried three infants before they reached Texas.

Hiram Chamberlain had a profound influence on Henriettas life. The ideals and principles he instilled in her were the basis of Henriettas lifelong code of conduct. Chamberlain, a native of Vermont, graduated from Princeton Seminary and was an ordained Presbyterian minister. He had a special zeal to preach the gospel to the poor and ignorant of his own land. The family moved many times as he served various churches in Missouri and Tennessee.

When Henrietta was fourteen, he sent her away to school at the Holly Springs Female Institute in northern Mississippi. The headmaster of the Presbyterian school was fellow seminarian James Weatherby. The school promised to provide a thorough and complete education, aiming at development of intellectual powers, formation of the deportment of the most correct walks of society, cultivation of right motives Christian Morals shall be the prominent feature of instruction.

Henrietta and some ninety classmates studied grammar, arithmetic, history, and foreign languages. Music lessons and art instruction were also available. Henrietta wrote poetry and painted flowers on white velvet.

During the two years Henrietta was there, her father wrote frequently. His long letters were dictated by the purest affection, and the most unfeigned anxiety for your welfare, and improvement, your happiness and usefulness in the world. Besides family happenings, the letters touched on a wide range of subjects from womens rights to temperance, theology, even personal habits. Sit up straight, he admonished, and dont allow yourself to sit in a stooping posture. That will make you round shouldered and ruin you. He encouraged her to read the Bible every day. The very best knowledge in the world is that which is derived from the Bible.

Henrietta dearly loved her little half-brothers Hiram Jr. and Bland. At school she was very homesick to see them. She sent Hiram Jr. a little book. Her father reported that his son pretended to read it, and was much pleased that you sent it to him. He professes to understand what you say about him, and becomes very animated. At the same time, he cautioned her to get over being homesick. That will never doIt will injure your health, and your mind.You must determine to get above it.We were not made to be perfectly happy here. We must wait till we get to heaven for that. Her stepmother, with a little more sympathy, enclosed an expensive handkerchief as a present.

Henrietta profited from her fathers advice. By the time she arrived in Brownsville she was a calm, efficient, educated young woman of great dignity. The rough language of the riverboat captain shocked her, but she put the whole incident out of her mind.