We are fortunate to have in our collection, "Mrs. Walton's" own copy of Mary Ware, The Little Colonel's Chum, given to Mrs. Henry Ware Lawton by Annie Fellow's Johnston. The dedication Annie Fellows Johnston gave to "Mrs. Walton" speaks volumes.
"Because she was born in Mar's month, the bloodstone became her signet, sure token that undaunted courage was the jewel of her soul.
__________With love and good wishes,
Annie Fellows Johnston
This simple inscription gives a major clue as to the enigma of the Little Colonel character, Mary Ware. All sources we have found in our research either claim that the Mary Ware character is completely fictional, or a composite drawing from the lives and experiences of Annie Fellows Johnston's sister Albion, or Annie's daughter Mary. The inscription above adds another clue to the real-life composite identity of Mary Ware. Perhaps, in this volume at least, Annie Fellows Johnston was thinking of her friend Mary 'Ware' Lawton
For real die-hard fans now:
Indeed, the book Mary Ware's Promised Land (1912), deals largely with the social problems of tenement housing in Evansville, Indiana, and was the life's work of Albion Fellows Bacon. Undoubtedly, Promised Land, at least is based on sister Albion.
Yet, the more we delve into the life of Annie Fellows Johnston, we find more and more to tell us that the relationship with the author and Mrs. Lawton ("Walton") was extremely close. Even the naming of some of the characters of the books seems to have been suggested by Mrs. Lawton. The most convincing example is the choice of the name Ranald for the "Little Captain" (first in Little Colonel's Holidays). An unusual enough name, Ranald was in fact the name of Major General Henry W. Lawton's best friend, commander of the famous 4th Cavalry during the Indian campaign years (thank you RRau22@aol.com for that insight), and suggest strongly Mrs. Lawton's influence.
Now Mrs. Lawton's name was Mary (though her family and close friends knew her as Mamie). As Mrs. Henry Ware Lawton, enduring a number of hard times and tragedies of her own, the name "Mary Ware" is just too obvious to ignore.
Now we have the inscription above on the first book of the Mary Ware series. In this book, Mary Ware, the Little Colonel's Chum, the passage appears as "Because he was born in Mar's month....." at the beginning of "The Jester's Sword" (which also uncannily, through the first part, at least, describes General Lawton very well). But before that, in the book, the girls at Warwick Hall began the craze of birthstone rings. There, at Mary Ware's 17th birthday party on March 17 at Warwick Hall, they make Mary hang upside down and perform an acrobatic stunt, and Elise Walton says that's what Mary gets for being born in Mars' month.
Mrs. Lawton is already the model for 'Mrs. Walton' throughout the Little Colonel series. Yet, as Mrs. Walton, the character is a mature, seasoned and rather dignified matriarch character. Through the hours and hours of time Mrs. Lawton and Annie Fellows Johnston evidently spent together in conversation, it is quite possible that Mrs. Lawton had spun stories of her younger days that Annie Fellows Johnston used to inspire much of the personality and tales that were incorporated into the Mary Ware character.
This Site:
Home Page What's New? Biography of Annie Fellows Johnston,
Books on Line (Complete Original Little Colonel Book Series)
The Little Colonel (link to U. Penn))
The Giant Scissors
Two Little Knights of Kentucky
The Little Colonel's House Party
The Little Colonel's Holidays
The Little Colonel's Hero
The Little Colonel at Boarding-School
The Little Colonel in Arizona
The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation
The Little Colonel, Maid of Honor
The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding
Mary Ware, The Little Colonel's Chum
Mary Ware in Texas
Mary Ware's Promised Land
Check our home page for more titles by AFJ on other sites
The People & Characters: The Little Colonel, Papa Jack and Mrs. Sherman, The Old Colonel, Two Little Knights of Kentucky, Two Little Knights of Kentucky(2), Uncle Sidney & Aunt Elise, parents of the Two Little Knights of Kentucky, Grandmother McIntyre, Aunt Allison, The Waltons, Rob and Anna Moore, Betty, Joyce Ware, Jack Ware, Mom Beck, Walker, Katherine Marks, Gay Melville, The Lees of Arizona, Small Parts
Their Final Resting Places
The Places: in Pewee (Lloydsboro) Valley: Map, Map 2, Where it all began, The Locust, The Beeches Edgewood, The Little Colonel's Cottage, The Railroad Station, "Lloydsboro Seminary", Clovercroft, The Post Office, Churches, The Haunted House at Hartwell Hollow, Confederate Home Rollington, Minor Places In Old Louisville: The Culbertson Mansion, "Home of a Hero" Elsewhere: The Cuckoo's Nest (Indiana), Lee's Ranch, Camelback Mountain & Hole-in-Rock (Arizona), San Antonio and The Little Town of Bauer (Boerne), Texas, The Gate of the Giant Scissors (France)
Letters from Annie Fellows Johnston and "Mrs Walton"
Scrapbook
Links
Cooking with The Little Colonel
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