Henry Bedinger III (45)
Henry Bedinger III, was the first United States minister to Denmark, born 3 February 1812, the twelfth of thirteen children of Daniel Bedinger and Sarah Rutherford. Henry was the only male heir of Daniel Bedinger to have offspring. He was born at the imposing brick and stone home built by Daniel Bedinger and named “Bedford”, for the first syllable of his family name and the last of his wife’s family name. Henry is often referred to as Henry Bedinger III to distinguish him from his grandfather Henry Bedinger I, born Johann Henricus Büttinger in Durstel, Alsace, France in 1703, and his uncle, Henry Bedinger II, the son of Henry Bedinger I.
We know little about the youth of Henry Bedinger III. He went to several schools, in Shepherds- town, and in Frederick, Maryland.
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He did not receive University training, probably on account of the expense. At the age of twenty, he began the study of law in the Charlestown 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 Southern Literary Messenger. Bedinger's poem shared the page with a prose piece written by a young Messenger staff member, Edgar Allan Poe. [i]
Henry Bedinger married Margaret Rust, the daughter of General George Rust, of Leesburg, Virginia, who had been superintendent of the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry during Andrew Jackson; administration. Less than four years later Margaret Bedinger died, leaving two young children, George and Virginia, in their father's care. After accepting the offer of General and Mrs. Rust to raise and educate their grandchildren, Henry Bedinger decided to enter "ole jade politics", hoping that a political career would prove more lucrative than his law practice. In 1844 he was nominated by friends in the Democratic party in Charles Town for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. Bedinger won the election and took his seat in the Twenty-ninth Congress in 1845. While in Washington, Henry Bedinger met Representative John Watson Lawrence, a fellow Democrat, from New York. Lawrence, a successful banker, had been accompanied to the capital by his wife, Mary, and their two oldest daughters, Caroline (Carrie) and Eliza. Intellectual Carrie Lawrence went with her father to hear debates in the House, where she found the witty, poetic flights of Henry Bedinger, known as the "silver-tongued orator of Virginia," of great interest. Despite Mr. Lawrence's stern warnings that the easygoing southern congressman with gallant manners would never earn enough hard Yankee dollars to afford even the salt for his bread, Carrie became engaged to Henry Bedinger, fifteen years her senior. The wedding took place on August 17, 1847, at Willowbank, the Lawrence's elegant home in Flushing, New York. Henry Bedinger had been renominated and reelected to the Thirtieth Congress by Virginia Democrats in 1846. In 1848, however, Berryville lawyer Richard Parker received the nomination in his stead, and in March Bedinger left Washington. [i]
Source:
[i] Alexandra Lee Levin, 1980, Henry Bedinger of Virginia, First United States Minister to Denmark, in Virginia Cavalcade, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 184-190.
[i] Alexandra Lee Levin, 1980, Henry Bedinger of Virginia, First United States Minister to Denmark, in Virginia Cavalcade, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 184-190.
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