Henry Bedinger (45)

Henry Bedinger was born on February 3, 1812, the twelfth child of Lieutenant Daniel Bedinger, a former superintendent of the U.S. Navy Yard at Norfolk and Sarah Rutherford Bedinger.  Raised at Bedford, an imposing brick house built in 1800 on the outskirts of Shepherdstown, Virginia (now in West Virginia), Henry was educated in academies at Shepherdstown and Frederick, Maryland. In 1832, at the age of twenty, he began to study law in the Charles Town office of his brother-in-law William Lucas.  To perfect his public speaking he joined a debating society, and for relaxation he tried his hand at poetry.  One of his poems, a macabre piece entitled "The Curse of the 'Betrayed One'-A Fragment”, appeared under Bedinger's pen name, Hugh Blair, in the September 1835 issue of the Southern Literary Messenger.  Bedinger's poem shared the page with a prose piece written by a young Messenger staff member, Edgar Allan Poe.

The Potomac by Henry Bedinger written in Copenhagen while he was Minister to Denmark. This image is from "See Shepherd's Town", Vol. III, 1997, p. 1, by the Historic Shepherd's Town Commission.

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    An Invitation to Alec

         by Henry Bedinger(45)
 
My wife’s awa;’ my wife’s awa’,
Na mair she can me tease;
She’s gan til her father an’ mither an’ a’,
And I can do as I please.
 
So if you’re in for a night of joy,
And gin grat fun ye wad see,
Just don your plaidie my merry boy,
And o’er the meadow to me.
 
A wee bit room in eastern wing,
A ceiling so love and snug,
A cheerfu’ bleeze in the chimney neuk
And ablains a bit of a jug.
 
A bit of jug wi’ the barley bree,
A jest and merry sang,
And twa, thra friends what helping me
To push the hours along.
 
The wind may roar an’ the rain may fa’,
My wife’s awa’, my wife’s awa’;
Na mair she can me tease,
She’s gan til her father an’ mither an’ a’,
An’ we can do as we please.