The Original Moran Place

Before J.W. Moran built the grand Victorian house in 1895 the Moran Family was living in a much more modest one-story home built by his father, James Henderson Moran the first.  If you are facing the current Moran Place the original would've been off to the left.

These photographs are from 1947.  I imagine they were taken as keepsakes of the old homestead prior to it being torn down.

On the steps are Bump Irvine, Jim and Virginia Moran and their grandson Jim the fifth.

Here they are again but this time Harrell "Brud" Moran has joined them.  He's the long-legged fellow on the end.

Bump

Here's cousin James A. "Bump" Irvine.

Jim, Virginia and Carrie

This is Virginia again with her friend Carrie Lou LaFon Pentecost, the wife of Cayce Pentecost, and of course little Jim.

I like the double doors to the house.  You can see they have the screen door propped open.

Jim, Jim and Jim.  

I like this photo of the three Jim's because you can see the built in seats on either side of them.  The screen door is closed in this picture.

Jim, Bump, and Brud

And the last picture in this series shows three gentlemen with their hats.  Even in a "casual" setting the men were in suits and the ladies wore dresses.   How the world has changed!

Ben and Elbert

Today's post is about something that is as ephemeral as it gets, a napkin.  This particular napkin is embossed with the names Ben and Elbert.  In today's society it isn't unusual to see the names of men linked together but I was positive one of these people was NOT a man.  I was also positive that I would never know who Ben and Elbert were but actually I was able to smoke them out rather quickly using Findagrave.  I searched Sunset Cemetery with the first name Elbert and was rewarded with three hits: Elbert Lee "Skinny" Call, Elbert Hoyt Hutcherson and Elbert Thomas Reavis.  A quick look at each profile and I was able to determine that the Elbert on the napkin was Elbert Thomas Reavis whose wife was Benjamin Virginia Loyd!  E.T. Reavis opened a dry good store in Dresden in the 1890's.  It's still there today.  Say hi to them on Facebook.

Elbert (E.T.) and "Miss Ben" were married December 23rd, 1895 by Pastor A.J. Meadows at the Methodist Episcopal Church South.   I would imagine that some, if not all, of the Moran's would've attended the ceremony unless mourning customs decreed that it was too soon to be in public.  Sophia Moran, the matriach of the Moran family, had died in October of that year.

I'm going to make a guess here and imagine that this napkin was probably from the 50th wedding anniversary party of ET and Miss Ben which would've been Dec 23rd, 1945.  Miss Ben passed away the following year.

It just goes to show that even a napkin can be a connection to the past.

And just as I suspected, this napkin was saved from their 50th anniversary party because I just now came across this newspaper clipping:

Mr. and Mrs. Elbert T. Reavis of Dresden, Tenn., observed the 50th anniversary of their marriage at their home Dec. 28.  Mr. Reavis is a pioneer merchant of Dresden.  Mrs. Reavis is the daughter of the late T.E. Loyd.

Dresden Enterprise Apr 24 1896 - The Illustrated Edition Part 2 "A Dead Town"

This is the second in a multi-part series featuring the April 24 1896 edition of the Dresden Enterprise.  If you missed the previous post you can find part one here.  The following segment was written tongue in cheek by an unknown contributor and is entitled "A Dead Town."

Cumberland Presbyterian Church

A  DEAD  TOWN
{Contributed}
Eleven years ago, when the effort was being made to abolish the charter of Dresden, and thereby drive the saloon from the town, the economics of the movement urged with zeal and eloquence, with argument and invective, that the result of success would be the destruction of the business of the town----a wiping out of all public spirit, and end to progress, in short, that Dresden would soon be a "dead town."  In spite of these doleful predictions, in the face of the convincing arguments thus offered, with the certain prospect of ruin before them, a majority of the people rushed heedlessly to their doom, and Dresden ceased to be an incorporated town, the majority, in its blindness, deciding that the absence of a police and no whisky was more tolerable than the presence of both.








Eleven years have now elapsed and our citizens are able to see the effect of their greivous (sic) error, in the
fact that new residences have been built in the village by only the few persons whose names follow, at an average cost of not exceeding one thousand dollars, towit: Gus Atkins, V H Davis, R T Overton, J F Brinkley, G Landres, Wm McCuan, B Jackson, W.J Reavis, Nat Moore, E H Ayres (e), Joe Nanney, G W Winstead, R G Maloan, the Methodist Parsonage, J A Irvine, G A Dowd, J G Thomason (2), G S Boyd, T A McElwrath, C P Meadows, John McGlothlin, J E Jones, A V Boden, T M Little J W Moran, T L Woods, (3), J B Jolly, C A Bailey (2), Joe Loyd, G I Baxter, J W Killebrew, A E Gardner (2), J R Thomason, T A McElwrath, H W  Paschall, W H Riddle (2), W T Mangum, Jeff Harris, H L Hill, C M Ewing and J W Rogers, besides the remodelling and rebuilding of the residences of J A Gibbs, Lea

Harris, W C Holt, and Will Fuller, and among the colored people Cullen Edwards, Nancy Bondurant, Ike Fowler, Bledsoe and Ruffan Rogers, and several others whose names we do not now recall.


The business houses erected are, six iron fronts, one by J.M. Meadows on lot that stood vacant since the great fire here in the 60's, three by J.W. Moran, one each by J.A. Gibbs and B.D. Irvine, and the two-story Brick hotel, on north side of the square.










The brick banking houses of the Henry County Bank and Weakley County Bank, the brick livery stable of J.A. Paschall and the iron roofed and weatherboarded livery stable of E.A. Maloan; while two story frame buildings have been built A.V Boden, B.D. Irvine and E.L. Rogers.  The J.W. Rogers frames, The Enterprise Office and T.L. Woods' business house have been remodelled.  Wm. McCuan built a business house near the depot, and McCuan's and Fuller Bro's., tobacco warehouses and the spoke factory, giving employment to fifty men and supporting as many families, complete the list of business houses.

Irvine & Scott

The public buildings are limited to two churches, two school houses and the new depot.  To be strictly just we must not omit the establishment of the Weakley County Bank and the Dresden Bank, neither of which has during the long continued depression failed to meet promptly every demand, and both of which have paid fair dividends to the stockholders.

As a striking contrast to this doleful record of sloth, inertness and decline, let us now look at the rapid growth, striking progress and marked prosperity during the ten years preceding the suicidal act of its citizens in repealing its charter, during which time residences were erected by the following persons, greatly to the delight of every lover of the town, towit; M.D. Cardwell, R.N. Irvine, S.P. Scott and J.M. Meadows, at an average cost of probably not less than $1,500.  The Irvine& Scott flouring mill was also built during this period, but has been entirely refitted with new machinery of the latest construction and most approved styles within the last few years.

Of public buildings, there was built during that ten years, THE JAIL.


In the face of these startling facts, of this record of decline and degeneration, of rapidly approaching death there are, strange as it may seem, men in our town who are not ashamed to admit that









 they assisted in the fatal act which has brought such ruin and destruction upon our town, and obstinately assert that they have no regrets for what they have done.  There are even some blinded, hard-headed and misguided individuals, who go so far as to say they would like to see the town "ruined some more," on the same lines.

Weakly (sic) County Jail

The complete list of links in this multi-part series:
part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine, part ten, part eleven, part twelve, part thirteen, part fourteen, part fifteen, part sixteen, part seventeen, part eighteen, part nineteen, part twenty, part twenty-one, part twenty-two, part twenty-three.