PRESTON, Margaret Junkin, American author: b. Milton, Pa., 19 May 1820; d. Balti more, Md., 28 March 1897. She was the daughter of George Junkin (q.v.), a well known Presbyterian clergyman, who in 1829 moved with his family to Germantown, Pa., and in 1832 to Easton, Pa., where he became the first president of Lafayette College (q.v.). From 1841-44 she lived at Oxford, Ohio, where her father had moved after accepting the presi dency of Miami University. In 1844 he be came once more president of Lafayette College, necessitating the removal of his family again to Easton. In 1848 her father accepted the presidency of Washington College, now Wash ington and Lee University, at Lexington, Va., at which place the family continued to reside from then on. In 1857 she was married to John T. L. Preston, one of the founders and a member of the faculty of the Virginia Mili tary Institute. Later on he served on the staff of Stonewall Jackson, who had married Mrs. Preston's younger sister. Mrs. Preston con tinued to reside in Lexington until 1892, two years after her husband's death. She then moved to Baltimore, Md., where until her own death she made her home with her oldest son. In 1855 she translated the Latin hymn 'Dies Is& and in 1856 published her first book, a novel entitled 'Silverwood.> Her subsequent
work is almost entirely in verse and is charac terized by deep religious feeling and an ardent espousal of the Confederate cause. She pub lished 'Beechenbrook; a Rhyme of the (Baltimore 'Old Songs and New> ' (1870) 'Cartoons) (Boston 1875) ; 'Centen nial Poem for Washington and Lee Univer sity, Lexington, Va., 1785-1:-:5> (New York 1885) 'For Love's (1886) ; 'A Handful of Monographs, Continental and English' (New York 1886) ; 'Colonial Ballads, Sonnets and Other Verse> (Boston 1887) ; 'Semi-Cen tennial Ode for the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Va., 1839-89> (New York 1889) ; 'Chimes for Church Children) (Philadelphia 1889) ; 'Aunt Dorothy; An Old Virginia Plantation Story) (New York 1890). Her diary, giving an interesting and valuable his tory of her life in the South, is published in part in Elizabeth Preston Allan's 'Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston> (Boston 1903). Consult also Picket, L. C., 'Literary Hearthstones of Dixie) (Philadelphia 1912).