Mary’s own letters home appear to have reassured her family that beneath George’s extrovert cheerfulness there was a tender concern for her welfare. As she lay “hopelessly sea-sick” in their cabin during the trip south, he opened and read the poem Mrs. Baker had given them to read midway on their journey—“The Mother’s Injunction” by Lydia Sigourney—and Mary saw “the tears wet on his cheek” as he read the sentimental yet apposite lines.141
The stay in Charleston cannot have been more than a month at most. It has usually been assumed that Glover had a house and servants waiting for his bride, but this is questionable.142 From the beginning her family spoke of her as bound for Wilmington, to which the young couple returned very quickly, and from there they expected to go to Haiti, where George had business. They may very well have stopped at a hotel or in temporary lodgings for the short stay in Charleston.
If this be so, it is unlikely that Glover had any house slaves at the time, although, being a young man of some means and ambition, he may well have had a body servant for himself and a personal maid for his wife.143 He may have had the intention of building a house for himself when the Haiti business had been brought to a financially successful conclusion or of taking over a fine house on Hasell Street which he partly owned and was probably renting to a tenant at the time.144
However this may be, almost nothing is known today of the weeks at Charleston. Here was a vivid scene, crowded for Mary with new sights and impressions, and all that is known of her response is the fact that her health was still not good.145 It might almost be doubted that ● ● ●
141 Mrs. Glover described the scene later in a note made in her scrapbook opposite a clipping of the Sigourney poem. [Mary Baker Glover, scrapbook, n.d., SB001, p. 2, MBEL.]
142 Mrs. Eddy stated that for some years after her marriage to Glover she carried around the blueprints of their house in Charleston, but this could have referred to blueprints of a house that he planned to build for her there. [Mary Baker Eddy to Archibald McLellan, 3 November 1903, L03069, MBEL.]
143 He might also have had slaves whom he used in his construction work. However, the size of his payroll in 1841 suggests that at that time, at least, he was having to hire other men’s slaves for this work.
144 Elizabeth Earl Jones, “The Glover real estate in Charleston, 1838–1844,” c. 1945, Reminiscence, pp. 8– 9, MBEL. This information comes from the indefatigable researches of Elizabeth Earl Jones into every detail of Mrs. Glover’s life in the South.
145 Mark Baker/Abigail Ambrose Baker/Martha Baker Pilsbury to Mary Baker Glover, 6 February 1844, 1919.001.0027, LMC.