The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-08-29
"UNCLE TOMS CABIN"

recently in Chicago recalls the assc
citation of two Southern families, th
Tichenors and the Overakers, wit
the writing of Harriet Beecher Stowe
famous book, "Uncle Toms Cabin.
Mrs. Law, whose maiden rame wa
Georgia Overaker, was the last of tn
original Overaker family at Natchez
Miss, who came North during slavery
time and settled in Cincinnati. Sh,
is survived by her husband, John H
Law, of Chicago, and six children
Mrs. Laura Law Meek, Charles Greer
Law and Miss Lucy A. Law, of Chi.
cago; Mrs. Charles w. Bell, of Gin.
cinnati Mrs. AS Taylor, of Cleve.
land, and Mrs. John Hadcock, of New
York, and niece, Mrs. c. c. Hearn,
OF Fort Totten, N. Y, the only other
family family i7eatiHe With Mrs. stoves BOOK Is
shown in the following article pub
lished by LiHbincOtPs some time ago
and headed, "How Uncle Tom S
Cabin came to be written -
eff there is anything in foreordina-
ton, Harriet Beecher Stowe was pre-
destined to write Uncle Toms Cabin.
She did not intend to doit. She said
that for many years of her life she
avoided all reading upon or allusion
to the subject of slavery. But in Gin
cinnati it was thrust upon her at every
turn.
can incident which increased her
interest in the problem of freedom
was the coming to Walnut Hills of a
family from the far South, who for
conscience sake had separated them
selves from the associations of their
lifetime and sought a home in the
then unbroken forests on the banks of
the Ohio. Here the Tichenors and
Overakers, a family of aristocratic
English descent, made for themselves
a home in the Southern style, the first
of those really ducal estates of the
Ohio and the crests of Cincinnati S
hills.
"This family brought with them a
retinue of house servants in order to
set them free. They were scattered
among the various families of this
lovely vicinage, some being employed
at one time or another in Prof. Stoves S
family, and some in that of his next
also a professor in the SEM
mary. One of these neighbors has
said that she has seen Mrs. Stowe sit
whole afternoons watching the chill
dren of the two families and the young
blacks at play.
''It was then and there that Mrs.
Stowe saw Topsy and took her conf
cal likeness in unfading colors. Top
sy was stray bit of ebony humanity
that in some unrecorded way came to
be one of the, picaninnies perched on
the porticoes of the Overaker mansion
quarters, ran 1errands or played with
the dogs on the Tichenor plantation
at Natchez.
"She was such a little imp of dark
ness that that limb was past saving,
and so she was left among the field
hands, who were to work out their
freedom there on the plantation at
Natchez. But the case of the aban-
doned waif appealed to the sympathy
of Mrs. Stoves neighbor, and the
elfsh Topsy was brought North and
placed in the family of the young pro-
fessor to be trained for service.
cit must be confessed that the effort
to develop her into reasonable being
was not shining success. Joan-for
that was her real name-drifted into
the abandoned stratum of Cincinnati
life and was seen no more by her for
mer friends till the day of Mrs. Itch
enor's funeral.
"Black Sam, also, he of the 'o'bob-
servation' faculty, was at service in
the same family, but he will be best
remembered by the act of putting the
beechnut under Haley's saddle when
they were about to start after Eliza.
Others of the small fry named were
of the same group.
cit was at Walnut Hills also that
Mrs. Stowe knew the original of I'm
Gle Pete in bred, or Nina Gordon,
as it was afterwards called. He was
then an old man, known as 'Colored
Williams, and he certainly was OF as
'rockfast' and deepset black dye as
mortal flesh could take. Like that
faithful old soul who took care of the
Peyton children and always spoke ol
himself and them as we Peyton folks,
so this devoted retainer of the pro
fessors' families for odd jobs always
spoke of himself and them as we
seminary folks Peace to his gray
ashes He died a few years ago al
Walnut Hills, aged, it was said, III
years.
"In 1850 DIR. Stowe had accepted
a professorship at Bowdoin and wa:
living in Brunswick when the fuglt1yt
slave law OF that year was passed
This was the final fire which set thu
colors of Mrs. Stoves resolution t
write something which should holt
up slavery to the world as a dramati'
reality She chose the form OF |
story, knowing we'll that
Where Truth is closet words shall fall;
oFnh h06fQ0 in a tale
Shall enter in at open door.
"Not for fame's sake did she write
but that she might execute the com
mission which the Divine Guide, b
the nature of her genius and cultnr
and by the circumstances OF her life
had laid upon her. The intense al
sorption of her theme held her ava
from every other interest, for circun
stances were never less favorable
the execution of great work.
"She was then in the midst of heav
domestic cares, with young intanl
and with party of pupils in her fan
ily to whom she was imparting lessor
daily with her own children, but th
story was so much more intense a T,
atty to her than any other earthl