1837–1920

Introduction

Born: Ap­ril 7, 1837, Fe­li­ci­ana, Ken­tuc­ky.

Died: Ap­ril 10, 1920, Ar­kan­sas.

Buried: Greenwood Cemetery, Dallas, Texas.

Pseudonym: Lenora.

portrait

Biography

Lou was the daugh­ter of Lu­ther Sin­gle­ta­ry and Eli­za­beth Ha­mil­ton Stell (or Stell-Morgan), and wife of John Jo­seph Bed­ford (mar­ried 1857).

She was still in Ken­tuc­ky in 1870. She had six child­ren, two of which, along with her hus­band, died be­fore 1891.

In 1893, she was in El Pa­so, Tex­as, where she was the so­cial and li­ter­ary ed­it­or of the El Pa­so Sun­day Morn­ing Trib­une. By 1910, she was in Dal­las, Tex­as.

Works

Bedford’s first work, A Vi­sion and Oth­er Po­ems (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio & Lon­don, 1881). It was well re­ceived, and gar­ner­ing com­pli­ments from the likes of Ol­iv­er Wen­dell Holmes, Hen­ry Wads­worth Long­fel­low, and Paul Ham­il­ton Hayne.

Her oth­er works in­clude:

Poem

Science and the Gospel

’Twas Science that impelled the first rude bark
E’er launched upon the bosom of the Main;
Stood at the helm of Noah’s wave-tried Ark
Against which Neptune waged his war in vain;
And still ’tis hers to light the rugged way
Thro’ labyrinths of darkness into day.

Science hath spanned broad seas with iron bars,
Linked with the cable the grand Hemisphres;
Pointed the way to undiscovered stars—
And patient waits whilst each bright orb appears;
Born ere the Years began, her destiny
Is co-existent with Eternity.

’Twas she that grasped the slender inert wire,
And to it fettered subtle human Thought;
And Man stood awed when the electric fire
Flashed the first message: See what God hath wrought!
Ah! in this veiled Presence who shall dare
Aught but His power and wisdom declare?

Throughout the vast creation’s utmost bound,
She is the fixed, unerring, Polar Star,
Which guides the ship that speeds the joyful sound
Of Peace, good will to men, to lands afar,
While the idol’trous islands of the sea
Join the glad refrain: Salvation’s free!

The Railroad, Cable, Telegraph and Press,
Are instruments within the Father’s hands,
To send the Gospel thro’ earth’s wilderness,
From the Antarctic to the Arctic lands;
When Earth was young and Man’s an infant race,
He needed not these winged means of grace.

When for God’s glory Man would penetrate
The ice-bound fields around the Northern Pole,
Me thinks no obstacle will be too great
Before the Gospel tread to backward roll;
For Science and the Gospel hold the key
To every door of every land and sea.

And tho’ e’en thousands perish by the way,
The work of these twin sisters will go on;
Benighted lands shall see the Gospel Day,
Alike ’mid Arctic snows, ’neath tropic sun;
The Banner of the Cross remain unfurled
While it stands written, Into all the world!

Lou Sin­gle­ta­ry Bed­ford
Gathered Leaves, 1888

Sources

Lyrics