No. 49

The Elders in 1848 & Nero Grant

Dear Stewart,

Charles told me that his earliest and most faint memory was when all his siblings were coming down the stairs to supper at the same time, nearly falling on top of one another, entangling. This happened when it wasn't even Christmas.

How he struggled to find a seat and struggled to reach for the rolls, which of course was not allowed before grace, which came after inspection of their hand washing, not just clean hand showing, but actually washing, which commenced after their black servant Ella set out the basins and pitchers – they had three.

On this day, before grace was said, they learned their father, as sheriff of Steuben County, New York, would be executing that negro Grant. And they had to be prepared for the neighborhood talk and stares. They had to learn how to say a prayer for the man to be executed, and each child was asked to say their own prayer for his soul and to remember him throughout the day, to pray without ceasing, privately.

Your uncle Charles told me that Val was to go along, and Henry. Of course, his sisters wouldn't dare talk of it or think about going, for they were still at that time not even allowed to read certain sections of the newspapers. Because of his age, only four, Charles was only slightly aware of the anxiety, the knotted feelings, the stuttering during grace, and an urgency for the males to march out without emotion.

Charles said he remembered that he wanted not to be with the women at all. He wanted to be with his father and this was denied.

But Charles escaped their quasi, feminine hold during the commotion of the grand movement of the chairs for the exit. Charles knew how to use their skirts and indecisive fluttering as they talked and gossiped, and somehow he got over to the jail without notice.

There he watched his father command Grant to rise, standing as he was already in his coffin. But right then a man stepped into his line of sight and Charles could not witness anything more and he must have returned home.

That night it was Val who described the end scene for Grant to Charles. It had to be done just so, and a deal was made so to preserve this, that there would be no nightmares: Val instructed Charles not to be horrified. They shook hands over it. Next, Val explained how their father’s hand quivered as he cut the cord with that knife, but that was the highest drama of the event because Grant accepted the cap over his face, then the noose, and let it all happen without movement.

Charles didn’t go bed straight away that night of the hanging. He stopped by his sisters' room, which was unusually quiet. As they were with tying off their lace work, Charles asked his many questions, mostly about words. From his sisters he learned the words "quivering," and "solemn," but also the tying and untying of knots, and in that room, he fell asleep in the arms of his oldest sister, Cornelia, who placed him in her bed with him.

—Miss Minnie

2025 Copyright Christine Friesel