Calling Card Sunday: Invitation to Tea 1899

Mrs. George W. Martin
Tea.
Friday, December the eight,
Five to eight.
Reply

This invitation was sent to Charles Harrell Moran, often misspelled as Harold.  It was mailed November 1899 from Mrs. George W. Martin.  Postmarked Nashville Tennessee.  George W. Martin was a prominent citizen of Weakley County Tennessee, living a few miles outside of Dresden Tennessee.  An excellent biography can be found in the Sketches of Prominent Tennesseans William S. Speer, published in 1888.

CSA Military Record
Remarks: Deserted July 18, 1862

He was the fifth child of  William Martin, 1806-1859, and Sarah Glass.  Both originally from Halifax County Virginia, removing to Weakley County Tennessee.  George attended the Male Academy of Dresden and boarded with the family of Maj. Alfred Gardner, distant cousins of the Morans.  He attended Union University and during the Civil War joined the Ninth TN Regiment in May, 1861, serving under Captain Bradford Edwards in Company G.  The service records indicate that he deserted on July 18, 1862.  Other sources indicate after his term of service expired in 1862 he did not re-enlist choosing instead to return to his home in Weakley county.

Geo. W. Martin Passport
Application 1863

 After a few months he decided to leave the country and headed for Europe.  He remained in Europe but returned to New York just before the end of the war.  Like most people he returned to his home to find it in ruins.  He remained there two years.  His next venture was to erect a grist mill at Gardner Station. A few years later Martin began a career in politics by serving in the 38th Gen. Assembly of TN.

He married Miss Mattie Williams in 1878, the woman who I believed was the sender of this tea invite.  He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1883, the same church his wife had belonged to since infancy.

George W. Martin died in 1913 and is buried in Eastside Cemetery, Martin TN with his wife Martha Lee Williams.