“Another Year Finds Me in Texas” Lecture with Author Vicki Tongate Will Discuss the Life of Women During the Civil War

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WACO, Texas (April 25, 2016) – “Another Year Finds Me in Texas: The Civil War Diary of Lucy Pier Stevens” is one of few women’s diaries from the Civil War era. The book’s author, Vicki Tongate, will visit Baylor University to expound on Lucy’s story at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, in Bennett Auditorium.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be sharing Lucy’s story,” Tongate said. “Much has been written about life in Texas during the Civil War. However, most of it is from the perspective of those who lived here before, during and after the conflict. The Lucy Pier Stevens diary is distinctly different because Lucy was a northern young woman originally here for an extended visit and was stranded here by the war.”
Lucy Pier Stevens was a 21-year-old woman from Ohio visiting her family near Bellville, Texas, on Christmas Day in 1859. On April 4, 1861, an outbreak of the Civil War made returning home impossible. She was stranded in enemy territory for the duration of the war, wrestling with how to reconcile her northern upbringing with all the southern sentiments surrounding her.
“Lucy, along with two other family members, kept diaries, and they are part of the Texas Collection at Baylor. I’ll be sharing from all three diaries, not just the story of one young woman, but of a family, intricately bound together and transcending differences during the most divisive time in our nation,” Tongate said.
“Professor Tongate worked nearly 17 years on the research for her book, spending numerous hours with the transcribed Piers Diaries in the Texas Collection,” said John Wilson, associate dean for special libraries and director of the Texas Collection. “Her lecture will provide a glimpse into the lives of two cousins, one from the North and the other from the South. These first-hand accounts of 19th-century Texas women from the Civil War period are exceedingly rare.”
The lecture is free and open to the public. Bennett Auditorium is located in Draper Academic Building at 1420 S. Seventh St.
For more information, contact Carl Flynn.
by Bethany Harper, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805
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