Her next home, in Oxford, Ohio, where Dr. Junkin had been elected to
the presidency of Miami University, was not a dream of delight to the
poetic soul of the young girl, for Scotch Calvinism, perhaps more
rigid than the Calvinism of Calvin himself, which did not admit of
fitting square dogmatic nails into round theological holes, insured a
succession of oft-recurrent tempests for the family, as well as for
the good doctor. The one letter which remains from the correspondence
of Margaret Junkin at that time, though indicating a buoyant nature on
the part of the writer, gives a sad view of financial difficulties,
her mother's fragility, uncongenial climate, and the persecution
directed against her father. Some of these misfortunes were obviated
by a return to Easton, Dr. Junkin having been recalled to the
presidency of Lafayette College, from which he had withdrawn a few
years before because of a disagreement with the trustees on a question
of government.

Not long afterward the failing health of Margaret's young brother
Joseph led Dr. Junkin to accept the presidency of Washington College,
Lexington, Virginia, in the hope that change of climate might bring
health to the invalid. Thus in the fall of 1848 the step was taken
which made Margaret Junkin one of our Southern poets, devoted to her
adopted State and a loved and honored daughter thereof.

On the arrival in Lexington a younger member of the family wrote:

My first memory of Lexington is of arriving, at midnight, in a
December snowstorm, after a twelve hours' ride from Staunton in
an old stage coach. This was before there was a turnpike or plank
road, and the ups and downs we had that night made an impression