Mary Johnson Stover

Mary Johnson Stover (May 8, 1832 – April 19, 1883) was a daughter of 17th U.S. President Andrew Johnson and his wife Eliza McCardle. Stover and her three children lived at the White House during the Johnson administration, as Stover's husband, a soldier in the Union Army, had died during the American Civil War and their East Tennessee homestead had been pillaged by Confederates. Stover assisted her older sister Martha Patterson as an acting First Lady of the United States.

Mary Johnson was born May 8, 1832, in the family home on Water Street, Greeneville, Tennessee, the third-born of the five children of Andrew and Eliza (McCardle) Johnson. Andrew Johnson, who had grown up quite poor and had received a minimal education, made a point to send his children to good schools. Mary attended Rogersville Female Institute (originally Odd Fellows Female Institute) in Rogersville, Hawkins County, Tennessee.

In 1852, while her father was serving what would be his last of five terms as the Representative of Tennessee's 1st congressional district, Mary Johnson married Daniel Stover, a farmer from Carter County, Tennessee. According to the 1928 biography of Andrew Johnson by Winston, Stover was "a typical blue-eyed mountaineer, soon to become Colonel of the Fourth Tennessee Union Infantry. He was a man of high courage...Dan, a nephew of Mordecai Lincoln, was the person of all others Andrew Johnson would have selected as a son-in-law." Stover had a "fine plantation" in the Watauga Valley. In 1860, on the cusp of the Civil War, the family was living together in Carter County. Daniel Stover owned a farm worth US$18,000 (equivalent to $645,000 in 2025) and a personal estate worth US$12,000 (equivalent to $430,000 in 2025). Their daughter Eliza Johnson Stover, age five, was attending school. Sarah Drake Stover was three years old, and the baby, Andrew Johnson Stover, was two months old.

In June 1861, Daniel Stover was a delegate from Carter County to the pro-Union East Tennessee Convention. During the first autumn of the American Civil War, Stover participated in a guerrilla warfare action called the East Tennessee bridge burnings. He was one of four men who knew of the plan prior to the last 24 hours before the attacks were to be executed. The November 8, 1861 bridge burning was carried out with the approval of Union leaders, including Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, and was supposed to clear the way for the occupation of East Tennessee by federal forces. Nine bridges were targeted, five were destroyed; Stover led the raid that successfully destroyed Holston River Bridge at Union Depot, also called Zollicoffer, now called Bluff City, Tennessee. However, the United States Army did not come marching in to East Tennessee, and Confederate Secretary of War Judah Benjamin ordered that any captured bridge burners be put to death. To live and fight another day, the bridge burners retreated into the hills. Stover and his allies lived for months in the Pond Mountains in eastern Carter County.

Amidst the ongoing conflict, Daniel Stover remained in hiding in the wilderness through the cold and wet winter of 1861–62, while Eliza McCardle Johnson and her youngest son Frank lived with Mary and her children in Carter County. Mary Stover and her mother Eliza Johnson prepared daily baskets of provisions, baking countless loaves of bread and turning the farm's hogs and beeves into hams and ribs, for the men in the hills and their distressed families elsewhere in the county. Per Holloway's 1871 Ladies of the White House, "Most of the men who were with Mr. Stover were poor, and their families, left to the mercy of their enemies, would have starved, had it not been for the care and generosity of Mrs. Stover." Stover was eventually permitted to come home "on parole" due to intercessions on his behalf by Confederate-aligned friends. In October 1862 the Stovers, Eliza and Frank Johnson were driven out of their Carter County home and sent to Murfreesboro. After they left, the residence and farm buildings were pillaged. The Stovers, accompanied by Eliza, moved around a bit in early 1863, staying for a time in Indiana and in Louisville, Kentucky. The family travelled together to Nashville arriving May 30, 1863, where Col. and Mrs. Stover, Eliza and Andrew Johnson were welcomed by a large crowd. However, due to chronic health problems from his time in the wilderness, Stover "did not see much active service in the field," and resigned from the United States Army on August 10, 1864, due to illness. He died at Nashville just before Christmas of that year.

While her older sister Martha Johnson Patterson, is generally, and rightly, named as the de facto First Lady of the Johnson administration, Mary Stover was also present at the White House for much (but not all) of her father's presidency, and assisted her sister in managing the household and hosting events. For example, shortly after his impeachment, Andrew Johnson hosted a dinner party for 40 guests. Eliza McCardle remained in her room, as was her habit, "but Martha and Mary efficiently took her place as hostesses." One reference says that Mary mainly cared for Eliza while Martha typically handled the work of greeting guests. Martha and Mary together brought five young children to live at the Executive Mansion, and recollections of their energy and strong relationship with "grandpa" (President Johnson) are prominent in various recollections of life at the White House. Among other things, an 1868 birthday party for Andrew Johnson, which was organized by the grandchildren, was one of only two times that Eliza McCardle ever appeared at a public event during her husband's presidency.

The only decoration of the East Room was the erection of a platform for the musicians, which was covered with pink tarleton [wd] and festooned with evergreens. At each corner stood a flower-stand containing beautiful bouquets. The musicians were from the marine band. At seven o'clock Professor Marini, dancing master, marshalled the children in the long hall and arranged them in couples, after which, the grand promenade commenced, led by a son of General Eastman and Miss Lily Stover. The promenade was succeeded in regular order by the following programme: Second, quadrille, Faust; third, polka, Von Bilse; fourth, schottische, Weverein; fifth, Lanciers, Weingarten; sixth, gallop, John Strauss; Intermission. ¶ During the intermission, the juveniles were ushered into the spacious State Dining Room, where a magnificent table, loaded down with cakes, fruits, confectionery, and flowers, and splendidly decorated under the able management of Steward [James L.] Thomas, awaited them. The happy party at once proceeded to do full justice to the good things provided, and for an hour that room contained the merriest throng ever assembled around that festive board. Among the number present were the children of the President's family, Frank Johnson, Andrew Patterson, Andrew Stover, Lily Stover, and Belle Patterson, the latter being also generally regarded as the belle of the party.

— The Ladies of the White House (1871)