Parthenia G. McJunkin (abt. 1832 - 1876)

Born about 1 Jan 1832 in Union District, South Carolina

Ancestors

Wife of George W. Bowen — married 10 Dec 1850 in Gadsden County, Florida

Descendants

Died 25 Aug 1876 at about age 44 in Gadsden County, Florida

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Biography

Parthenia McJunkin was born into the world of a well respected, but minor, planter family. She grew up in an environment where she was educated, cultured, and being primed for a future life as a lady of the manor.

Her father had moved the family away from their home in South Carolina shortly after the Territory of Florida had been ceded by Spain in 1821. It was sparsely populated and wild, but attracted many planters because of the lure of new land. Profits and fortunes were being made by risk takers and speculators. Parthenia is noted as having been born in South Carolina, and it is possible the mother had removed there for the childbirth to be among extended family. It was hard for planter's wives to leave the comfort of their home for the new plantations on the southern frontier. It was very common for them to stay behind or else split their time depending on the seasons. ^[1]

Parthenia lived the social life expected of a southern belle. She made extended visits to relatives in South Carolina, and probably made the rounds of Charleston, Savannah and Augusta.

She may have known George Bowen from an early age. The social circle in Gadsden County, Florida being very small; but at least she met him by the time she was seventeen.

He was an ambitious fellow, hoping to get his own plantation at some point. His father died by 1845 and may have left the family dispossessed in Clarke County, Georgia. One of George's grandfather's served in the Georgia state legislature.

George worked managed the Armistead plantation as an overseer. Parthenia was smitten with him, even though he was twenty years older. They were married on December 10, 1850. ^[2]

They set about creating their family, and two children in quick succession. Parthenia's happiness and contentment with her life and station was not to last. Some tragic event unfolded in November, 1853 abruptly ending George's life.

There was a story within the family of an ax attack with a slave as the culprit. No evidence of such an attack has been uncovered, but there was one account of a similar event that occurred in South Carolina within the McJunkin family.. Union County.^[3]

Jemima McJunkin seeks compensation for a male slave who was convicted and executed for murdering her husband. The murder occurred 1 June 1815 and left her with five small children and in great distress. Since the state did not permit any compensation to owners for slaves executed for murder, McJunkin hoped that it would consider her circumstances and provide her with some assistance. The slave, named Dick and appraised at five hundred dollars, had been owned by her husband.^[4]

George was struck down at the age of 41, and the loss devastated Parthenia. If they had been living in a house on the Armistead plantation, she was forced to move. George was living there when they were married so it is possible. She and the children wound up back at her parent's home. Here she was a widow at 21 with an infant and toddler. They became her focus, and she filled her days with child rearing.^[5]

During the years between George's death and the beginning of the war, Parthenia lived her life as best she could. Perhaps the manner of George's death caused some local notoriety, though there is no evidence of this. More likely her grief dominated her emotions, regardless of the cause, Parthenia must have simply dismissed any would be suitors. Many in her position would have sought another marriage. It was quite common for a widow to marry again very soon after a husband's death. If Parthenia looked, she did not find a suitable candidate. A few years later and the events of the civil war took precedent over everything else.

Parthenia experienced the hardships of southern civilian life during the Civil War. She watched her brothers go off to enlist. She saw the world around her begin to die. The local economy immediately took a hit with the blockade, and then the hyperinflation of the currency. By the end the economy had collapsed. Her world was in complete upheaval and none escaped the effects.

The way of life she had been brought up in was gone. In her mind nothing was as it was supposed to be. So many of the boys she had grown up with were gone. The whole generation destroyed by conflict.

This is best illustrated by the memoirs of Frances Butler Leigh, who came south immediately after the war to live. Her attendance at church in Savannah the week she arrived in 1866 was described:

I consoled myself by going off to church to hear Bishop Elliot, who preached one of the most beautiful sermons I ever heard, on the Resurrection, the one thought that can bring hope and comfort to these poor heart-broken people. There was hardly anyone at church out of deep mourning, and it was piteous to see so many mere girls' faces, shaded by deep crape veils and widows' caps. I can hardly give a true idea of how crushed and sad the people are. You hear no bitterness towards the North; they are too sad to be bitter; their grief is overwhelming. Nothing can make any difference to them now; the women live in the past, and the men only in the daily present, trying, in a listless sort of way, to repair their ruined fortunes.^[6]

The post war era of Reconstruction seemed little better. Another decade passes and Parthenia remained alone. One can only hope this was her choice, and not a tragic consequence of the times. ^[7] Like so many of her generation, her life was cut short. Whether from a period of extended ill health or a swift and sudden illness, at the age of 44 she passed away. She was buried at the Old Philadelphia Presbyterian church, where she had been a lifetime member.

Sources

1. ↑ United States Census, 1830," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHPX-TKB : accessed 10 June 2016), A Mcjunkins, Quincy, Gadsden, Florida, United States; citing 144, NARA microfilm publication M19, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 15; FHL microfilm 6,711.
2. ↑ Florida Marriages, 1830-1993", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:23HD-8VK : accessed 10 June 2016), George W Bowen and Parthenia G McJunkin, 1850.
3. ↑ Personal collection family papers and photographs
4. ↑ Reel 9 South Carolina 133 http://cisupa.proquest.com/ksc_assets/catalog/1543.pdf
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6CS-X6T : accessed 10 June 2016), Parthena Bowen in entry for Aquilla Mc Junkin, 1860
6. ↑ [https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/leigh/leigh.html TEN YEARS ON A GEORGIA PLANTATION SINCE THE WAR] by Frances Butler Leigh, London 1883
7. ↑ United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNZD-4GZ : accessed 10 June 2016), Porthenia Bowin in household of Aqudia Jenkings, Florida, United States; citing p. 4, family 33, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 545,628.