A shadow was cast over Steven's life by a murder that was committed in Gettysburg in 1824. The body of a black servant girl, whose name was Dinah, was found in a shallow pond. She had apparently been killed by a blow to her head. She was pregnant, and rumor had it that the fetus was whitish, indicating a white father. Rumors also began to circulate widely that Thaddeus Stevens was the white father of Dinah's unborn child, and that it was he who killed her.
The rumors about Stevens being guilty of this crime circulated not only by word of mouth, but also in letters to the editor in newspapers, in which his name was never mentioned but in which his identity was strongly hinted at. Finally, seven years after the murder, an editor and political enemy of Stevens wrote an editorial in which there could be little doubt that he was accusing Stevens of the murder. Stevens promptly sued the editor for libel and won his case. Despite this legal exoneration, however, doubts and gossip continued.
All through his life Stevens would be accused of sexual irregularities, fornication, adultery, and bastardy. In a paternity suit that went to trial, Stevens was cleared of having fathered a child.
Among his disreputable pastimes was gambling. He also drank heavily, up to a moment in his life when he abruptly gave it up. When a drinking companion suddenly died after a drinking bout, Stevens hauled upstairs every bottle and keg he had stored in his cellar, and emptied their contents into the gutter in the street in front of his house.
Not as much is known about Lydia Hamilton Smith (1813-1884). A mother of two who was separated from her husband, she worked for and with Stevens from 1848 until his death.
Upon his death, Stevens, who never married, bequeathed to Smith $5,000 in cash and some personal furnishings. With those funds and her property management experience, Smith later operated her own boarding houses in Lancaster, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. She became prosperous enough to purchase Stevens’ home and law office on South Queen Street.
Sources: Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County and www.harpweek.com.
In Back to the Basics, by Michael Zak, at page 27, appears the following:
The firm backing of his constituents is all the more remarkable considering that he was as married to a black woman as a white man could be in those days. In 1843, when he was 51, a widowed free black woman, Lydia Smith, along with her two young sons, moved in with the naver-married Stevens to serve as his housekeeper. As demonstrated by their devotion to each other until his death, their relationship evolved into husband and wife. Mindful of the prejudices of the age, Stevens was always careful to refer to her as "Mrs. Smith," but Lancaster neighbors knew to call her "Mrs. Stevens."
After he died in August 1868, Republicans renominated Stevens for another term. The dead Stevens won "a nearly unanimous victory." (B2B, p109)
1848 Lydia Smith comes to work for TS
23 Aug 1848 -- Nominated by Whig county convention as congressional candidate
10 Oct 1848 -- Elected to 31st Congress
