Vintage Turtle Pincushion

The Moran ladies loved to sew.  We have several tin boxes filled with old buttons and some old dress patterns.  In the attic of Moran Place and in trunks throughout the house we found bolts of fabric, not to mention several sewing machines.  This little turtle with his moving tail and head are sweet reminders of days long gone.

"The Exposition is a fact", January 1, 1896

Tennessee Centennial Exposition Envelop
 and letter  Robert Gates to J.W. Moran

The following letter was sent to John W. Moran from Robert Gates, an Assistant Commissioner of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.  In addition, he served in the Civil War and was a Colonel on the staff of General Nathan Bedford Forrest.  After the war he made a lot of money helping rebuild the Mobile & Ohio and the Mississippi Central railroads which he later lost in the same line of business.  In 1889 he entered the field of journalism   He worked at the Whig and Tribune and later, with the Hon. B.A. Enloe, he founded the Jackson Sun.  From 1884-1885 he served as the Commissioner of Immigration under Tennessee Governor William B. Bate.  In 1889 he became secretary of the Commercial Club of Memphis.   In 1896 he became the Industrial and Immigration Commissioner for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.  He died October 4 1915 in Jackson Tennessee at the age of 74 and is interred in the Gates Family Plot at Riverside Cemetery.

Jackson, Tenn., January 1, 1898

My Dear Sir:

I hope you have taken steps to have all the Centennial Commissioners of your County present when your County Court meets, on Monday, the 6th, inst.  Please present the Centennial matter to the Court in person, with such assistance from members of your Board, or others as you may desire or be able to command.

The amount to be asked for is left to the discretion of the Commissioners, with the admonition to look well to the importance of the interests involved.

You understand that each County Court making an appropriation is authorized and urged to name one of its members as a Director in the Centennial Company, who in addition to the rights and privileges of the office, will be expected to look specially after the interest of his County--its appropriation, its exhibit and the benefits sure to follow a creditable display of resources at the Exposition.

The Court may also appoint a committee of its own to supervise the expenditure of the money appropriated, in connection with the Board of Commissioners, and make such regulations in the premises as it sees fit.  Each appropriation will be for the exclusive benefit of the county making it.

It is respectfully submitted that the matter should be pressed at the pending term of your County Court unless there are overshadowing reasons to the contrary, for the sooner the work of collecting and preparing exhibits is begun the better; and the counties entering upon this work, by reason of adequate appropriations by their County Courts, in January, will have decided advantage over those acting later.

In any event the matter should be fully and forcibly presented to the Court; and if for sufficient reasons it is deemed best to postpone action the Court should be asked to take it under advisement and appoint a committee, of not more than five (5), to investigate the subject and report to an adjourned session of the Court, or in the last resort to the regular April term.  Such a committee will be afforded every means possible for the investigation.

Impress on your Court the fact that the Exposition is a fact, that a majority of the counties will participate, and that no county with resources, with a history, and with pride, can afford to be conspicuous on the occasion of the State's Centennial by its absence and non-participation.  Material interest; patriotism, the strength and glory of a people; and pride, the evidence and support of character, all forbid the possibility.

Respectully,

Robert Gates,

  Ass't Com'r.

Dresden Enterprise Apr 24 1896 - The Illustrated Edition Part 5 "Battle Abbey"

Published in 1896

This is the fifth in a multi-part series featuring the April 24 1896 edition of the Dresden Enterprise.  If you missed the previous posts you can find them here: part one, part two, part three, part four.

Today's post is about the South's Battle Abbey which would not be completed until 1922.  Two very good history resources are available online.  The first is The South's Battle Abbey, published in 1896, which called for the creation of a Confederate "Battle Abbey" which is most likely the basis for the article in the Dresden Enterprise.  

The second publication was called Sketch of the origin and erection of the Confederate Memorial Institute at Richmond, Virginia 1921. 

Battle Abbey

We desire in this big edition of our county paper, The Enterprise, to appeal again to every old confederate in Weakley county in behalf of the Battle Abbey.  It is to be the historic building of the South, and we wish the name of every man in the county that it may be inscribed in this mural monument to our uncrowned heroes.  The majority of those who enlisted long since laid down their arms, crossed the river and are resting with Stonewall Jackson and others of the immortal company under the shade of the trees.   Some yet remain, but the shadows are longer growing as you face toward the West and the setting sun.  The march for all will soon be over.  It remains, therefore, that what is to be done be done quickly.

Send us your name and one dollar for membership in the Confederate Memorial Association.  Each dollar subscribed entitles the subscriber to a certificate of membership in the Confederate Memorial Association in his or her name, or that of any person designated by the subscriber.  This subscription is made and accepted with the understanding that if not used within one year from this date for the purpose intended it shall be returned to the subscriber.  The undesigned are authorized to solicit subscriptions for the Confederate Memorial Association, subject to the following instructions:  Subscriptions shall be evidenced by printed receipts issued to the various soliciting organizations by the executive committee, which receipt shall be in book form, like a bank check book, with a stub bearing the same number as the receipt and both made to correspond when filled for issuance.   All money collected must be deposited to the order of the United Confederate Veterans, to the use of the Confederate Memorial Association, in a bank or other safe depository of the localities where collected and notice of said deposit must be sent monthly to the manager's office, 44 Perido street, New Orleans, La.

Subscriptions are not limited to members of camps or other confederate associations, but those empowered to obtain subscriptions are authorized and urged to obtain all the outside subscribers possible in their respective localities.  The receipt books must be carefully preserved and when called in be returned with all stubs attached and all receipts remaining unfilled and with all receipts may have been mutilated.  

    J.R. McIntosh,

    Ch'm'n. Ex. Com.

The minimum subscription shall be one dollar, but subscriptions may be made for any amount.  Now, we wish to secure a sufficient sum to make all the old soldiers in Weakley members of the Confederate Memorial Association.  Also their wives and daughters, and the widows of those who fell fighting, or died in hospitals, or in camps, or along the march, or who breathed their lives out sweetly in the re-united home circle.  some alas, are very poor--too poor to pay even the membership fee.  Therefore let the grace of liberality abound in those on whom prosperity has smiled.

Emulate the noble example of Charles Broadway Rouss, now a citizen of New York.  He served as a private in the Clack House cavalry regiment of Virginia, than which no nobler ever leaped into battle.  Mr. Rouss served throughout the war, conspicuous for bravery, and now after the lights and shadows of more than a quarter of a century he immortalized himself and his comrades by the gift of one hundred thousand dollars for the erection of Confederate Memorial Association, A Battle Abbey, in which shall be collected, preserved, and displayed relics of every kind, archives containing records and documents of every kind complying history.  A grand work.

This association is to be composed of confederate soliders, their wives, children and friends, under the control of the confederate veterans.  Mr. Rouss sent his check for one hundred thousand dollars to the re-union at Houston.  It was presented by Col. Robt. C. Wood, and to be delivered to the Confederate Veteran Association, whenever a like sum shall have been raised by our people for an endowment fund, and chartered by the Confederate Veterans' Association.  such in brief is the history of the proposed Battle Abbey.  Its erection is a sacred duty.  Let us have your name and subscriptions before our holy day the first of May, when

"Sad, wistful eyes and braking 

   hearts that beat

For the loved sound of unreturning

   feet.

And when the oaks their leafy

   banners wave

Dream of the battle and un unmarked

   grave."

                      Mrs. Sue. F. Mooney,

                      Miss Mamie Tansil,

                              Committee.

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.