Florence Drewry letter to J.W. Moran 1911

This letter is to J.W. Moran from Florence Drewry Blakemore.

Dresden Feb 13th 1911

My Dear Friend:

Nannie has just finished writing to you, and if I chance to give Jim a few of her items kindly excuse it.  Mr. Moran of course you remember old Dr. CUTLER.  I was starting to write something of Mrs. GARRETT being compelled to believe that "tis an ill wind that blows nobody any good" in this case she is the beneficiary of a good slice of the goods.  The ill wind having blown her husband to Washington, you to Nashville, and a good one wafted Jim to his, in her unprotected state.  You will wonder when Dr. Cutler comes in.  Our Father was always amused when he made a quotation by his raising his voice and giving the author. many times I heard him and the old Dr give the author with such an air

Oh!  Mr. Moran Dresden has been at a white heat our Martins fight for the Courthouse.  The same old fight, though the tactics were new this time only it would be but the beginning of the end.  I always find myself thinking "Tacky Martin".  Jim EDWARDS was here on a brief visit last week.  He saw his new building and Tom McELWRATHs for the first time and is delighted with the improvements.  While Jim might not to look old, he is the freshest looking man I ever saw.  He and Fannie MORAN look like they did when they were children.  He represented all his Texas friends as well as prospers and the state firmly divided into Bailey and Anti-Bailey.  Ethel Jones will give a Valentine party tomorrow night in the interests of the "WCTU"

Measles has hit the town in different localities and I have been in rather closely , never having had it.  So I simply do not know anything.  Mrs. MOONEY is with Maud in Nashville. Mrs. MCCUAN has been quite sick for several weeks.  Mr. BARRS place looks lonesome and so does yours.  I am very much interested in  you getting back to see to your garden and "things" visions of "Cantaloups" are beginning to scamper though my mind.

Everything looks all right at your home so far as the care of it is concerned but it is so lonely not to see you all there.  Make hast and get well.  Give my love to Harrell & Fannie & the family & Jim and Harrell came home both well.

Sincerely,
Florence Blakemore

Barr None

We don't know if the Barr's were just very good friends of the Moran's or if they have a family connection to us.  What we do know is that the Barr's were important to the Moran's because we have several pictures of them starting with a photo of the Barr children, Bessie and Hugh Jr., along with Marion Moran taken about 1886.  

We also can discern from the census records that the Barr's had a deep and abiding affection for each other because with very few exceptions, this family of four lived together throughout their lives and were interred beside each other.  One other interesting note, I can't verify whether the name is Henry Hugh or Hugh Henry. Both father and son were called Hugh.  On Hugh Sr.'s death certificate his name is listed as Henry Hugh Barr.  On Hugh Jr.'s death certificate his first name is listed as Hugh, there is a -- where the middle name would be and of course his last name is Barr.

Here is a picture of Henry Hugh Barr Sr.  His father Finley M. Barr, came from North Carolina and his mother, Arrilla Nix, was born in South Carolina. Henry was born in Tennessee.  He had an older sister named Louise Barr.  I don't know the exact order of his life but I do know he attended law school because there are entries in the Dresden Enterprise indicating that he was a local attorney. In addition, he is listed on the Board of Directors for the newly formed Dresden Bank.  Sometime in the mid-late 1870's Hugh was living in New York and that's where I suspect he met Leonora Shannon.  They married in 1878 per the census records. They came back to Dresden and in the 1880 census are listed with a four month old baby girl named Mary.  I believe that daughter did not live very long.

Henry Hugh Barr Sr.
Dec. 16, 1849-
May 4, 1936

Leonora Shannon was born in New York in 1850.  Her father, Robert Shannon, was born in Ireland and her mother, Esther Brown, was born in New York.

Leonora (Nora) Shannon Barr
Sept 20, 1850 -
April 27, 1914

Their next child was another girl and they named her Bessie I. Barr.  She was born abt 1881/82 in New York according to the census records.  So either the Barr's were living in New York again or they were perhaps on an extended visit.  By 1900, the Barr's were living in Nashville.  Bessie attended Ward Seminary, which merged with Belmont College in 1913, in Nashville Tennessee.   In 1900, she was a senior and her class picture is in The Iris, the annual yearbook for Ward Seminary.  A sample of her writing, A Story of the Pink Silk, is in the yearbook too.  She was also the Associate Business Manager on the Iris Editorial Staff and is pictured with the other staff members.  While we don't personally have any school pictures of Bessie we do have one of her when she was 14 years old and she played Lady Genvra in "The Mistletoe Bough" at the Vendome Theatre, Nashville, February 1896.  Bessie never married.

Bessie Barr
1896, The Mistletoe Bough
Feb. 1896
front side

Backside of the Bessie Barr Image
Notice the image of the little boy that bled onto the back.

I haven't identified a picture of Hugh Barr Jr. yet.  Hugh was born in 1883.  He became a professional just like his father did except Hugh Jr. chose medicine.  He earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, class of 1907.  According to volume 11, 1911 of the Vanderbilt Quarterly, Hugh had been practicing in Dresden but in 1911 he moved his practice to Nashville, TN.   Hugh never married.

Throughout the census records the family of four lived together either in Dresden or Nashville TN.  Leonora was the first to pass away.  She died in 1914 from atherosclerosis. Hugh Sr. died in 1936 from bronchiectasis. Hugh Jr died in 1952 from a myocardial infarction   Bessie died in 1967.  All of the Barr's are interred in Sunset Cemetery in Dresden, Tennessee.