Among the wealthy merchants of Baltimore when Civil War
began was Alpheus Alfred Hyatt (1794-1865) who lived in the mansion above named
Wansbeck with wife Harriet Randolph King Hyatt (1814-1901). They had three
children but only 15-year-old Ida was living at home. Son Alpheus II was enrolled at Harvard and Harriet's stepdaughter was married.
The large house was not empty; eleven residents counting
Irish-born servants were listed in the 1860 census. Anne Breman, born in
Ireland, was a live-in seamstress.
It appears these Hyatts were not slaveholders, yet Harriett
and her son were considered Union rebels in the "Secesh" family. Alpheus II’s biography notes
he and mother Harriett were not in accordance with the rest of the Hyatts when
he acted upon his conviction that he should join the Union, “although he should
thus estrange himself from those who were nearest and dearest to him, for his
relatives in Maryland sympathized with the South…It was not until thirty years
after that his relatives became reconciled to their Union veteran.”
Alpheus joined the 47th Massachusetts Volunteers where he
mustered out at war’s end as a captain and resumed his studies, becoming a
well-respected paleontologist at Harvard.
Frank Leslies's Illustrated Newspaper, May 14, 1864
Baltimore’s Union fundraising fair was held for weeks in April and May, 1864. Organizers were Union-sympathizing society women such as Fanny Turnbull, Elizabeth Kell Bradford and Annie M. Gilman Bowen. Harriet among them had charge of several artistic departments such as the Tableaux Vivants ---costumed theatrical scenes in which the actors assumed a static pose.
Tableaux Vivant depicting the doomed Mary Queen of Scots
and her ladies
Robert W. Schoeberlein, Baltimore City Archivist, tells us: "Despite the apparent solidarity of the state’s loyal population, the Maryland Fair could only be termed a modest financial success when compared with similar 1864 events. The final tally exceeded just over $83,000. In contrast, both the New York and Philadelphia fairs each cleared over $1,000,000.....While competition for donations from other cities most likely affected Maryland’s net amount, both economic realities and the state’s political division did factor largely."
Perhaps Alpheus Senior was the family member with Confederate loyalties. He died a few weeks before the war was over in New York and was buried in Washington City. Was he estranged from his wife and son? And if a Confederate sympathizer why was he in New York?
A biography of her famous son notes mother Harriet was “a woman of strong and decided character and an amateur artist of considerable ability, some of her copies of old masters and tapestries being noteworthy.” Her granddaughters inherited that artistic talent. Both Harriet Randolph Hyatt Mayor (1868-1960) and Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973) were professional artists with Anna a prominent sculptor of monumental pieces in the 20th century.
The Block
Read More:
Schoeberlein, Robert W. "A Fair to Remember: Maryland Women in Aid of the Union. Maryland Historical Magazine 1995.
civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2020/01/baltimore-marylands-sanitary-fair-union.html
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/147518940/harriet_randolph-hyatt
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