His sisters were again widely scattered from their father’s house. During the summer Sarah was staying with uncle Asa Cummings, and, being attacked by a severe cough, Mary came there to wait upon her, and also to attend school. Their brother Isaac constantly visited them, and supplied them with books and comforts. He also freely aided Oliver with funds. He was at North Yarmouth fitting for college, and helping himself by teaching school.
With all these calls upon him, Mr. Stevens was obliged to ask his father to repay—
“as much, not exceeding one hundred dollars, as you can conveniently raise. My expenses in the way of traveling have been very heavy this year. Three journeys to Bangor already, and two more in contemplation, besides quite a number between Portland and Portsmouth. With this I send you the ‘National Anti-Slavery Standard,’ the organ of the American Anti-Slavery Society. I have just commenced taking the paper. I like its spirit and views much.”
In this letter he speaks of spending four days in Portland, and finding Sarah improved and Mary well; gives a long account of the condition and medical treatment of the former, and suggests means for her recovery and plans for Mary’s education. These sisters were very dear to him, and he was very solicitous for their welfare. But Sarah rapidly grew worse with quick consumption, and died February 8, 1844, only twenty-two years old. After her death, Mary returned home.
One day at Portsmouth, as Mr. Stevens was at work in his office and his young wife was at the window, her attention was attracted by a unique vehicle coming down the street, followed by a tail of small boys in high glee. This was a rude sleigh fashioned out of poles, and drawn by a rough-looking nag, whose coat was innocent of currycomb and brush. Seated on a box in the bottom of the sleigh, and driving the horse with entire unconcern at the attention he was attracting, was a large, tall man, with light hair and fair, florid complexion, clad in homespun garb, the very type of an independent backwoods farmer. Stopping at the door, he inquired for Leftenant Stevens, who ran down, and was surprised and pleased to find in the rustic caller one of his mother’s brothers, John Cummings, from Albany, on his way to Andover. How uncle John received a warm welcome, how he was brought in and given a hearty supper, while his team was sent around to the nearest stable, and how he was loaded with viands and supplies enough to last the remainder of his journey when he resumed it, may be imagined. Such an opportunity to dispense hospitality to one of his relatives was a source of unalloyed pleasure to the young officer.
The laying out and starting the fort at Bucksport engrossed most of his attention in the spring of 1844. The care of important works at three different places necessitated incessant traveling, besides which he had to visit Boston periodically to obtain and bring down the public funds required. With all these duties and cares he was more than fully occupied, and was obliged to lay aside, for the present at least, his projected law studies. He also sent abroad and purchased a number of French works on fortifications and military history. He became deeply interested in the forts under his charge, and was indefatigable in urging upon the Engineer Bureau in Washington improvements and measures which his active mind was quick to observe. Indeed, in his zeal he overworked himself, and was prostrated with severe sickness in consequence. “You work too hard,” writes his sister Mary; “you will not live five years unless you take business easier.” During the summer he was able to give Oliver employment on Fort Preble, and writes his father that “Oliver has acquitted himself with credit; had to manage a gang of twenty-five men.”
Mrs. Stevens spent part of the summer at her mother’s house in Newport, where, on June 27, their second child was born, a daughter, named Julia Virginia. Early in August Mr. Stevens went to Newport to escort his little family to Bucksport. They spent several days in Andover, accompanied by Mrs. Stevens’s sister Nancy, where they met Elizabeth and her husband, just arrived from Tennessee on a visit. Mary was at home, and there was a pleasant family reunion. After this agreeable little visit they went to Boston and took the steamboat for Bucksport, Miss Nancy Hazard returning to Newport.
In the fall Elizabeth and Mr. Campbell returned to Tennessee, after a round of visits to her relatives in Massachusetts and Maine. Mary accompanied them.
Arriving at Bucksport the last of August, they found quarters at an old-fashioned country tavern, the only hotel in the place, where they had comfortable though rustic accommodations. The principal people, with the cordial hospitality characteristic of Maine, welcomed them to the town.
At first many, like the old farmer, were disposed to sneer at the young stripling, but the energetic, thorough-going, and effective way in which he organized and drove on the works, his decided, self-reliant character, sound, sensible conversation, and simple, direct manners, soon won their approval and admiration, and he became a great favorite, and much respected and looked up to as well as liked. After a short sojourn at the tavern, he leased a large, roomy house of Judge Pond, half of which he set apart as an office, and made his residence in the other half. Kidder Randolph, a cousin of Mrs. Stevens, was employed as chief clerk, and with his wife, née Isabella Updike, came on from Newport. He also employed in the office Mr. Isaac Osgood, a fellow-townsman from Andover, and on the works, as assistant, Mr. Abiel W. Tinkham.