Fin de Siecle Club, Jackson TN, 1898

Fin de Siecle: of, relating to, or characteristic of the close of the 19th century and especially its literary and artistic climate of sophistication, world-weariness, and fashionable despair.

Source: Merrian-Webster Online Dictionary. 

Some quick research tells me that several of the people (Mrs. R.H. Cartmell, Mrs O.J. Nance, N.S. White, Miss Callie Mallory, Mrs. J.E. Springbett) on the member list resided in Jackson TN which leads me to think the book came into the family through Ida Moran.  She married William G. Timberlake of Jackson TN and resided there after her marriage.

The Battle of the Strong was serialized in The Atlantic Monthly starting in January 1898.  It came out later that year in book form and was a best seller in the United States ranking number 10 on the best seller list for that year and rising as high as number 2 the following year. Source: Wikipedia

Fin de Siecle Club book guidelines and member list:

This book must be forwarded to the next on the list, on the 1st, & 15th, of each month.  A heavy fine will be imposed for careless handling.  Notify the Sec. Miss Callie Mallory, if not delivered on time, or abused.

Name   Rec'd  Deliv'd Condition

1. Mrs. H. Tomlin 

2. Mrs. J.D. Morgan

3. Mrs. C. Sutton

4. Mrs. R.H. Cartmell

5. Miss Callie Mallory

6. Mrs J.R. Withers

7. Mrs. H.C. Iroy

8. Mrs. W.R. Stout

9. Mrs. Riley Ely

10. Mrs. N.S. White

11. Mrs. Muse

12. Miss Mary Bell

13. Miss Mamie Caldwell

14. Mrs. P.J. Murray

15. Mrs. W. Chandler

16. Mrs. Hamilton

17. Miss F. Mallory

18. Mrs. S. Reid

19. Mrs. R. Balch

20. Mrs. Fulghum

21. Mrs. J. Friddle

22. Mrs. J. Springbett

23. Mrs. P. Bates

24. Miss A. Stephens

25. Mrs. O.J. Nance

26. Mrs. Tom Long

Dr. and Mrs. Shobe Smith Sr.

I came across an envelope that contained a small piece of stationery engraved with the name Mrs. Shobe Smith, Sr.  

On the inside the following note is written:

This was written by Miss Ida Moran. President of Dresden Music Club.  Reading it at Club meeting in Her Home- Dresden

Maybe some day I'll come across what was read at the meeting!

In the meantime I was curious about the Smith's and who they were.

Before she married Dr. Shobe Smith, Sr. she was Mattie David Wooldridge, daughter of  David Hinds Wooldridge and Martha Jane Senter.  According to the death certificate David Wooldridge died in Nashville and was buried in Gleason, Tn.  

Shobe Smith was the son of Rebecca Shobe and Alexander Hannibal Smith of Smiths Grove, Warren County, Kentucky.  A good biographical profile of A.H. Smith can be found at Rootsweb.  According to Census records Shobe was born Moses Shobe Smith.  He and Mattie were married September 26, 1894 in Weakley County.  James A."Bump" Irvine was a witness and bondsman for the marriage.  He is also our 1st cousin twice removed!   A picture of  "Bump" can be found on an earlier blog post.  The 1910 Census shows the following children of Shobe and Mattie: Raymond age 13, Wooldridge age 10, Frank G. age 7, Shobe Jr age 3 and Clarence was under the age of 1.

Dr. Shobe Smith was a dentist in Dresden.  Here's a scan of an advertisement from the Dresden Enterprise dated October 11, 1895 for his dental practice:

Shobe Smith,
Dentist.
Office in rear John R.
Thomason's law Office.
All Kinds of
DENTAL WORK
Done in first-class Style, and at
reasonable prices.
Oct 11 1 y.

Football, Baseball, Chi Phi Fraternity 1899

Dear Brud:

Your letter received this morning and if you have no very serious objections to having your letter answered so soon will write you a few lines now.  I consider myself quite fortunate to receive letters from both you and Ide on the same day.  I don't understand what that good luck can mean, only hope you will keep it up.

That trip of yours to New York in the Governors private car certainly sound like a fairy tale, but of course I will pretend to believe it.  No I didn't get banged up very seriously when taken in the Chi Phi Fraternity but I can assure you that it took no little amount of nerve to live through the program.  My Fraternity is not one of the largest in college, but it is very select.  I consider myself very fortunate in being invited into it.

Yes I was green enough to try for the foot-ball team and had a good show for substitute quarter back, but thought it would be better for me  stop and try for the base-ball team next Spring as my chances are good for making it.

We are to play the Baltimore Medical College today.  I think the score will be very close and the chances are that we may be beaten-will sen you an account of the game when it comes out.

I think there is very little danger of Miss Delana and I ever getting up a case.  Sometimes I may fall in love with a girl six months or a year older than I but I draw the line when it is three or four years.  We are only good friends and I don't think Harriet will ever have any ground for complaint.  I have just returned from the foot-ball game which turned out to be a very exciting score was 0 to 0.

I will have to bring this letter to a close write soon.

With love to all,
Your brother Jim

Don't forget to send me the Enterprise and Sunday's American.

Another Grand Victorian, ca 1905

If you think Moran Place is beautiful then this Victorian will knock your socks off.  We think it was the original home of Ida Moran and William G. Timberlake and was probably one of George Barber's Victorian designs.  I had actually come across a smaller not nearly as clear photo of this home with a woman standing on the porch.  Where the other picture was small and grainy, this picture is just perfect.  If you look closely you can see that it was actually snowing the day the photographer snapped this image.  I would love to have seen this home decorated at Christmas.

Kent remembers stories of the Timberlakes having a Victorian home in Madison County Tennessee.  Later, they moved into Jackson and lived at 399 Highland which is still there today and is home to a design firm.  We think the home in Jackson might also be a George Barber design.  The photo's of the interior of the home on Highland are just amazing.  They have a ghostly feel to them and just looking at the grand piano I can almost imagine Teatot (Ida's nickname) playing a waltz.

Ida Morehead Timberlake in her wedding dress

Ida Morehead Moran, known as Teatot, married William Gilmer Timberlake on November 26, 1902, in Dresden Tennessee.  They made their home in Jackson Tennessee where Will was a successful Attorney.

Teatot and Will were blessed with a daughter, Dorothy Louise Timberlake, born in 1906 but she died at the age of four on July 15, 1910.

Of the three Moran girls Ida was the best musician.  She played piano at many functions and probably got her musical talent from her mother, Sophia Riley Gunn, who was Dresden's music teacher and first organist at the Methodist Church.

Ida died June 25, 1936, from lobar pneumonia.