Valley Girl Views: "The Poetress Of The Confederacy" was born in Milton Pa

The Woman known as the Poetress of the Confederacy, the sister in law of Stonewall Jackson, was born in Milton Pa.

"It is a matter of just pride that the most brilliant and beloved poetress of yesteryear was none other than a Pennsylvania girl, Margaret Junkin Preston, who through her writing both in prose and poetry, attained nation- wide distinction and won for her the title "Poetress-Laureate of the South". Frederick Godcharles, writing about Milton native, and sister in law of Stonewall Jackson, Margaret Junkin Preston.

There's a story you hear from time to time around here, about Stonewall Jackson heading to our area because he had a sister in law from here.

And it's true. The sister in law part at least.

Margaret Junkin Preston, the daughter of George Junkin, was born in Milton PA in 1820. Her father was a minister and college president. After graduating theological seminary in New York City, and being licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Monogohela in 1816, he was called to be in charge of the United Congregations of Milton & McEwensville PA. He remained in Milton for 11 years, and is found on the census records there in 1830.

Around 1830/1831, the family moved to Germantown, and they moved every few years, living in Ohio, Easton, & Lexington.

In August of 1853, Margaret's younger sister Eleanor married Major Thomas J. Jackson, a graduate of west point, and then a professor at the Virginia Military Institute. Eleanor died in childbirth a year after her marriage, but the man who came to be known as "Stonewall Jackson" continued to live in the Junkin household for several more years.

This however, was not in Milton Pa. The Junkins did not live in Milton after 1830.

So did Stonewall Jackson know of the fertile farmland surrounding the Milton area from the Junkin family? Perhaps they spoke of their time there, and the lands there - but it was not the area where Margaret lived during the war.

The Junkin family was divided in their loyalties during the civil war. Dr. Junkin was a pronounced abolishonist, strongly opposed to secession.
When Frederick Godcharles wrote of the Junkin family for newspapers in 1924, he recounted the story of Dr Junkin and Margaret's trip back to Pennsylvania when the war began.

"The story told of this trip, which was made overland, is that when the Mason and Dixon line was reached, the team pulling the heavy load of household effect and the one attached to the carriage in which the Doctor and his daughter were riding were halted. The goods were unloaded, the horses, harnesses, wagon, carriage and themselves all carefully washed, then again loaded and driven over the boundary line into Pennsylvania. As the doctor afterwards related that no Southern soil should be brought into Pennsylvania, he wanted to leave it all where it belonged."

Margaret's brother William fought for the Confederacy, and her brother John served as a Surgeon for the Northern army.

"The death of Stonewall Jackson and of her stepson, her husband's dangerous military service, and the invasion of her home by Union troops all solidified for Preston the high personal cost of war and compounded her belief in the Confederate cause as just. Her most notable piece from this period is a long narrative poem, Beechenbrook: A Rhyme of the War, published in 1865." https://www.sc.edu/uscpress/books/2007/3704.html

Margaret had written much over the years, but after the war she she spent some time compiling and arranging her compositions into books for publication.

In 1865 Beechenbrook, a book of poems voicing the sorrow and patriotism of the southern people, was published. Old Songs and New was published in 1870. Later works included Colonial Battles and Sonnets, Chimes For the Church Children, & Aunt Dorothy, among others. She also contributed regularly to Century Magazine.

The Miltonian

November 24 1921

On November 24 1921, the Milton newspaper the Miltonian ran a long article on the "Poet Laureate Of The South" saying "through her writings, both in prose and poetry, attained national distinction in the world of belled letters, winning for her the title of Poetess-Laureate Of The South."

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