Fanny & Joshua: The Enigmatic Lives of Frances Caroline Adams and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

9. "As Tho' in a Bad Dream"

CHAPTER 9 "As Tho' in a Bad Dream" A fter two years of marriage, a time that held much happiness, yet was not without sorrow, and sad loss, Lawrence and Fanny had settled into their roles of husband and wife, father and mother. Life was far different than either of them had imagined in early days, when they had dreamed of two little rooms, hours of conversation, reading to one another by their fireside, and days and nights of romance. And what of Fanny's music and painting? Though his children were one of the great delights of his life, Lawrence seemed rather baffled, though proud, of Fanny's necessary and willing transformation from artist and musician to homemaker and mother. Now committed to a career and family life in Brunswick, Fanny and Lawrence were successfully meeting the challenges of new responsibilities. But unforeseen trials awaited them. The resumption of classes at Bowdoin brought Fanny, Lawrence and Daisy back to Brunswick in mid-January 1858 after a month's respite with the Brewer Chamberlains. It was a bleak homecoming for the family, for Fanny returned with a worrisome cold and Daisy was feverish as they came back to Lincoln Street. Perhaps those chambers evoked sad memories of a lost son for the family, for despite the fact that they had just moved into these rooms in late fall, by early spring, Fanny and Lawrence endured another of the domestic uprootings that marked their early marriage. And this third year of Fanny and Lawrence's marriage would also see Fanny's third pregnancy.1 Resuming his duties at the college, Lawrence again became active in the First Parish Church. In the last weeks of that winter, Lawrence often led evening prayer meetings during the week and he became a regular participant, offering the prayer Frances Caroline Adams, c. 1858. Joshua L. Chamberlain, c. 1858. or giving the reading during sabbath services. There was great religious interest in Brunswick at this time, and the many new converts who joined the church earned 1858 the label of a year of "revival."2 By the last of April, however, Lawrence was busy moving his family into the Berry house, a newly built home in the center of town that provided the Chamberlains with more room. New carpets were purchased and they supplemented their furnishings with pieces from the Brewer family home. Before sending Lawrence a secretary that he had used in his childhood home, Sae discreetly removed his letters , making separate bundles of those from Annie Chamberlain and those from Fanny. Having rented the whole house, Lawrence had room for more of his books, and Fanny, despite being six months pregnant, held a party for Bowdoin's junior class that summer. They both enjoyed the society of his students at Bowdoin, and Lawrence, when time allowed, had "many a good outing" with them "among the trout-brooks, or along the shores of the Bay..." His positive attitude toward the students at Bowdoin, with his favorable perception of their level of maturity and their potential for responsible behavior, was one of several opinions that placed him at odds with a number of the faculty members at Bowdoin.3 Lawrence, by this time, had experienced being both student and professor at Bowdoin. With the insights that each standing provided, he developed his own ideas of an effective role for a college professor, ones that did not always concur with that of the veteran professors. In his History of Bowdoin College, Louis Hatch described the conflicting attitudes at Bowdoin in the mid-1800s: "We have had two distinct theories of college life;...the great professors, Packard, Smyth, Newman, Cleaveland and Upham,...treated students as boys under parental discipline...in the grotesque aspect of policemen, patrolling the campus by night; J6 and in the more dubious role of detectives scenting out deviltry in Sodom and Gomorrah, as the ends of Winthrop Hall used to be called;...these grave professors were lending to mischief just that dash of danger which served to keep the love of it alive." The second approach to college discipline that Hatch described was the one practiced by then president of Bowdoin, Leonard Woods, of whom Hatch said: "The one ambition of his life was to touch what was best in the hearts of the young men entrusted to his care." While Woods "perfunctorily deplored... robbed henroosts, translated livestock, greased blackboards and tormented...