Posted on 03/20/2002 4:41:31 PM PST by Dawgsquat
1848 - 1903
|
The James Brown Years First recorded purchase of the gulf side property and the construction of the main house and two out buildings. 1873 - 1879 The Sarah Dorsey Years The story of the lady who gave Beauvoir it's name, and the sale of Beauvoir to Jefferson Davis. 1877 A Writer's Retreat The writing of Jefferson Davis' two volumes of The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. 1879 - 1889 Jefferson Davis, Symbol to the Cause The retirement years of the only President of the Confederate States of America. 1879 - 1889 The Davis Family at Beauvoir The Davis children Jefferson Davis and his dog, Traveler Touching account of man and man's best friend. 1889 A Time of Mourning The Death of President Jefferson Davis 1889 - 1903 A Wife and Daughter's Responsibility 1903 A Shrine to Jefferson Davis The final sale of Beauvoir to the Mississippi Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans. |
A Planter's Paradise
1848 - 1873
James Brown acted as his own architect and construction superintendent in building the house. He brought slaves from his Madison County plantation to perform the routine work, and he built a sawmill on the property. Skilled work was done by carpenters and decorators from New Orleans. Most of his lumber was cut from trees on the property or in nearby Handsboro, although cypress lumber came from the Back Bay swamps. Slate for the roof was imported from England.
Brown completed the house by 1851, but he still had not received title to the land. This was finally obtained on July 16, 1855 by bidding the property for $3,000 at a Harrison County Court auction. Meanwhile, Brown had added two small tracts to the property, one bought from G. Didier on October 12, 1852, and the other from W. H. and M. D. Teagarden on December 27, 1852.
A four room cottage to the rear of the house was already on the property, and it was used by the Brown family during the construction. Later, it served Brown and other owners, including Jefferson Davis, as a kitchen and servants' quarters.
Brown also constructed two small cottages, originally identical in plan, one east and one west of the house. The cottage to the east is now known as the Library Cottage, but Brown also used it as an office and as a school room for his children, who were taught by a governess. The west cottage, now known as the Hayes Cottage, was first a Guest House, but became known as a Circuit Rider's House due to frequent use by the Methodist circuit rider serving the area.
Brown owned Beauvoir until his death. Beauvoir was never a plantation, due to its infertile soil, which consists of sand and a thin layer of decayed vegitation. Beauvoir was a coastal home for the Brown family, while they continued to operate their Madison County plantation. In May, 1873, the property was sold under order of the United States Court for the Southern District of Mississippi to Frank Johnston (afterward the state's attorney general) of Jackson, Missisippi.
Library Cottage as it Appears Today
Arriving that night, he took a room in a small inn at Mississippi City. The next morning, he hired a horse and buggy to take a look at the property. The lots were covered with bushes, and the fences were gone. He then drove to the east to visit his old friend Sarah Dorsey at Beauvoir. He found she had left the previous Saturday to visit her Louisiana plantations, but he did look over her property. He wrote that it was "fine place," having a "large and beautiful house, and many orange trees yet full of fruit." He had no idea, on this day of November 18, 1875, that he was visiting the place where the last dozen years of his life would be spent.
His next trip to the Gulf Coast was a year later. The Tilden-Hayes presidential election controversy was raging. Davis travelled form New Orleans to visit relatives near Biloxi and to find a place on the coast where he could write undisturbed. He considered putting a small cottage on his lots, and he hired a man to clear the bushes, although he remembered that before he left her in England, Varina had told him not to get a house on the Gulf Coast.
When Sarah Dorsey heard that Davis was on the coast, she invited him for a visit. Arriving at Beauvoir in December, Davis was impressed by the peaceful atmosphere. The house was surrounded by live oaks, magnolias, and cedars, with Spanish moss festooning the live oaks. The sea lay in front of the house, and behind it was an orange grove. Beyond it was a pine forest, crossed by a running brook, on the banks of which grew wild azalea, bay, yellow jasmine, and sweet olive. There were six acres of scuppernong grapes. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad cut through the property, and north of the railroad was a virgin forest of long-leaf pine.
When Dorsey discovered that Davis was seeking a place to write his long-delayed book, she showed him her east cottage, which consisted of one room with a pillared gallery completely surrounding it. She urged that the rear gallery could be closed and could become a bedroom and dressing room, while the large room, could be lined with bookshelves.
Dorsey agreed to $50.00 per month for board, including provision for Davis' servant, Robert Brown. Davis paid for the carpentry expense of readying the east pavilion for use. Dorsey arranged for Major W. T. Walthall, Davis' secretary, to board nearby. The arrangement was ideal. Major Walthall had left a large number of official letters and documents with a Mrs. Leovy in South Carolina during the flight from Richmond. There were retrieved, and, by February, 1877, Davis, Walthall, and Dorsey were all hard at work on Davis' book. Dorsey volunterred her services as Davis' amanuensis on the book, and her talents and literary experience were very valuable.
Davis also brought his 20-year-old son, Jefferson Davis, Jr., to Beauvoir, and he occupied one of the two small rooms built on the rear gallery of the east cottage. Jeff, Jr. assisted in taking dictation for the book. Mrs. Davis remained in Europe until October, 1877, when she sailed for New York. Both Davis and Jeff, Jr. went to Memphis to greet her on her arrival there, but, she still refused to live on the Gulf Coast and made her home with her daughter Margaret in Memphis. Eventually, conditions there became too crowded, and, with extreme reluctance, she finally left for Beauvoir.
At first she was somewhat resentful of the help Sarah Dorsey had provided on Davis' book, and she soon became busy taking over the duties of amanuensis. Once established at Beauvoir, to her surprise, she began to like it there. After a few weeks on the job, she wrote to a friend in Paris that Sarah Dorsey "makes us very comfortable...I am very fond of her but do not like the climate..."
In October of the following year, Davis received a hard blow. His fourth and last son, Jeff, Jr., died of yellow fever in Memphis. The Davises had had six children, four boys and two girls, and now only the daughters, Margaret and Winnie, remained.
While Davis was writing The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, many Confederate leaders came to Beauvoir to assist him by clarifying various historical points. During the Christmas season of 1877 General Jubal A. Early visited Davis. Sarah Dorsey approached General Early about Davis' financial condition. She told Early that she had learned that Davis was almost destitute. She also said that she felt that she did not have long to live, and that she intended to leave her entire estate to Davis. But she warned Early that he must not let Davis know of her intentions because he would not permit it if he knew her plans.
In February, 1879, Sarah Dorsey offered to sell Beauvoir to Jefferson Davis, and on February 19, the title was passed to Davis for $5,500, to be paid in three installments, the first of which was paid immediately. Dorsey then moved to New Orleans.
Following General Early's visit, and well before the sale of Beauvoir to Davis, Sarah Dorsey made her will on January 4, 1878, leaving her estate to Jefferson Davis. It is noteworthy that after her death, Davis paid the two remaining installments due on Beauvoir in order to liquidate debts owed by Dorsey's estate. Consequently, Davis did buy Beauvoir, and he paid for it in full.
Apparently, Sarah Dorsey had known for some time that she had cancer, which seems to have prompted her will and the sale of Beauvoir to Davis. By June of 1879, her doctors knew that she would not live much longer, and she died in the early morning of July 4, 1879. Jefferson Davis and other prominent Southerners accompanied her body to Natchez for burial beside her husband.
In her will, Sarah Dorsey stated:
I owe no obligation of any sort whatever to any relative of my own. I have done all I could for them...I therefore give and bequeath all my property, real, personal, and mixed, wherever located and situated, wholly and entirely, without hindrance or qualification, to my most honored and exteemed friend, Jefferson Davis, ex-president of the Confederate States, for his sole use and , in fee simple forever; and I hereby constitute him my sole heir, executive, and administrator. If Jefferson Davis should not survive me, I give all that I have bequeathed to him to his youngest daughter, Varina. I do not intend to share in the ingratitude of my country towards the man, who is in my eyes, the highest and noblest in existence."
The Sarah Ann Ellis Dorsey Years
1873-1879
Sarah Dorsey purchased 600 acres, including James Brown's house, on July 7,1873 from Frank Johnston, and after the death of her husband, Sarah Dorsey made her home at Beauvoir. She gave the house the name it still bears, signifying its "beautiful view." A cousin, a Mrs. Cochran, made her home with Sarah Dorsey at Beauvoir.
Dorsey had completed her education in England and was a woman of exceptional educational standing. She corresponded with numerous intellectual and literary figures all over the world. She even held membership, which was rare for a woman, in the New Orleans Academy of Science. She wrote many magazine articles and six novels: Agnes Graham was serialized in 1863 in the Southern Literary Messenger and was published in book form in 1869. Lucia Dare was published in 1867, Athalie in 1872, and Panola in 1877. Two other novels, Vivacious Castine and The Vivians were written for the Church Intellegencer and were never published in book form. Her finest work was a biography of Governor Henry W. Allen of Louisiana, a close friend of the Dorseys. This book, published in 1866 bears the title Reflections of Henry W. Allen.
Sarah Dorsey spent less than six years at Beauvoir, selling the property to Jefferson Davis on February 19, 1879.
Symbol of the Cause
Jefferson Davis continued writing The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government after purchasing Beauvoir. After the two volumes were completed, Davis began to travel around the South and to write magazine articles.
A universal amnesty bill pending in Congress was slated to pass some 11 years after the war. Senator James G. Blaine from Maine rose at the last minute to offer an amendment reading:"...with the exception of Jefferson Davis." offered to promote his candidacy for president. A storm of protest arose, a Kentucky newspaper expressing it well: "The idea of making Jefferson Davis a vicarious sufferer for acts for which he is no more answerable than thousands of his followers is one which every honorable Southern man will resent." But the amendment passed and Jefferson Davis alone remained a non-citizen. But Blaine did not become president ~ his reputation became stained by his involvement in a major railroad scandal, and crowds throughout America marched down streets shouting: "Blaine! Blaine! Continental liar from the state of Maine!" But he was an American citizen, while Davis was not.
Many people urged Davis to apply for a pardon, so that the Mississippi legislature could elect him United States senator. At the time, all senators were elected by their state legislature, not by the people. But Davis would not apply, and he avoided politics. The Mississippi legislature, on March 10, 1884, in a joint meeting of both houses, honored Davis, who spoke to that body:
"It has been said that I should apply to the United States for a pardon, but repentance must precede the right of pardon, and I have not repented. Remembering, as I must, all which has been suffered, all which has been lost, disappointed hopes and crushed aspirations, yet I deliberately say, if I were do do it all over again, I would again do just as I did in 1861."
Some were fearful that he would give offense to the North, but they were satisfied when he continued:
"...Our people have accepted the decree. It therefore behooves them...to promote the general welfare of the Union, to show the world that hereafter, as heretofore, the patriotism of our people is not measured by lines of latitude and longitude, but is as broad as the obligations they have assumed and embraces the whole of our ocean-bound domain."
During his later years, Davis made numerous trips in which large crowds honored him in ceremonials. In contrast to the criticism he received when the Confederacy fell, Davis was greeted with tremendous ovations. In 1886, in trips to Montgomery and Atlanta, his reception surpassed any which he had previously received. He always spoke of the fact that the United States was now one country and on the theme of reconciliation. Despite this, some Northern newspapers claimed to see danger for the country. However, not all Northern newspapers were so obtuse. The Springfield, Massachusetts Republican noted Southerners' "unswerving purpose, bravery, and resolution" and said:
"And when the end came, it was the defeat of men devoted to what was in their estimation a patriotic purpose...Now they gather to commemorate the lost cause, with no desire to recall it, only to recognize it for what it was to them, to assert it to the world and go about their affairs again."
"That is the way we read the honors to Jefferson Davis...How could we respect the Southern people if they did not believe in the thing they undertook to do...if they did not honor their leaders and their soldiers, nor exalt their services and their sacrifices? They do well to cherish the sentiment that hallows their story."
This perceptive paper understood that the South was not refighting the war, but was merely giving expression to its love and reverence for those who had sacrificed so much.
In 1887, following a speech in Macon, Georgia, Davis became seriously ill. When he recovered, he considered his days of public speaking over. But a convention of young men was held in March, 1889 at Mississippi City, only six miles from Beauvoir, and a delegation asked him to address them. He began his remarks with: "Friends and fellow citizens," but he stopped and said:
"Ah, pardon me, the laws of the United States no longer permit me to designate you as fellow citizens, but I am thankful that I may address you as friends. I feel no regret that I stand before you a man without a country, for my ambition lies buried in the grave of the Confederacy."
He continued with these memorable words for his young audience:
"The faces I see before me are those of young men; had I not known this I would not have appeared before you. Men in whos hands the destinies of our Southland lie, for love of her I break my silence, to speak to you a few words of respectful admonition. The past is dead; let it bury its dead, its hopes and aspirations. Before you lies the future ~ a future full of golden promise; a future expanding national glory, before which all the world shall stand amazed. Let me beseech you to lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to take your places in the ranks of those who will bring about a consumammation devoutly to be wished ~ a reunited country."
It was almost a full century before Davis became a fellow citizen of these young men. Senator Mark Hartfield of Oregon introduced a Senate Joint Resolution returning citizenship posthumously to Jefferson Davis. It would, he said, right a "glaring injustice in the history of the United States." Passed unanimously by a voice vote, the resolution was successfully sponsored in the House of Representatives by Representative Trent Lott of Mississippi, whose district included Beauvoir. On October 17, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the resolution into law. Jefferson Davis was no longer a non-citizen in the land of his birth ~ a nation he had served as an army officer, a Congressman, a wounded Mexican War hero, a United States senator, and a secretary of war.
Jefferson Davis' Family
The President's children, circa 1866. From left to right: Jefferson, Jr., Margaret, William, and Varina Anne. The photograph was taken in Montreal while President Davis was incarcerated in Fort Monroe, Virginia.
Jefferson Davis, Jr. , 1878. The photograph was taken a few weeks prior to his death of yellow fever.
Family at Beauvoir, circa 1885. From left to right seated: Varina Howell Davis Hayes, Margaret Howell Davis Hayes, President Jefferson Davis (holding Lucy White Hayes), Mrs. Jefferson Davis, (holding Jefferson Davis Hayes. Servant standing in background.
The children of Jefferson Davis and wife, Varina Howell Davis, follow:
1. Samuel Emory: July 30, 1852 - June 30, 1854
2. Margaret Howell: February 25, 1855; married Joel Addison Hayes January 1, 1876; died July 19, 1909.
3. Jefferson Davis, Jr.: January 16, 1857 - October 10, 1878.; never married.
4. Joseph Evan: April 18, 1859 - April 30, 1864
5. William Howell: December 16, 1861 - October 16, 1872
6. Varina Anne (Winnie), "The Daughter of the Confederacy", June 27, 1864 - September 18, 1898; unmarried.
The above geneological data were obtained from the Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi, and "Jefferson Davis" - Private Paper, 1823-1889", selected and edited by Hudson Strode - 1966.
Of the six children, only three ever visited Beauvoir, (Jefferson Jr., Margaret, and Winnie). Only one ever lived at Beauvoir, Winnie.
By: L. H. L.
Excerpted from the Confederate Veteran
Vol. XVII, No. 4, April, 1909
Mr. Davis was very fond of animals and birds. He always gathered the scraps from the breakfast table to feed his peafowls, and his dressing gown pockets were heavy with grain for his beautiful pets. He had a large flock of peafowls, of which he was very proud and fond. Every morning Mr. Davis would take his excercise on a short pavement leading from the back steps at Beauvoir. "It is just the length of my excercise path in prison," he would tell his friends. Up and down, up and down this pavement he would walk, at his heels and all around him his flock of peafowls. One old cock especially would spread his gorgeous tail, droop his wings, and strut after Mr. Davis in the most comical fashion. Evidently, the bond of friendship between the two was a close one.
Fond as Mr. Davis was of his peafowls, his especial pet was his dog, Traveler, the same name as Robert E. Lee's famous horse. This dog had a very wonderful history. Mr. (Samuel W. ) Dorsey, husband of Mrs. Sarah Dorsey, from whom Mr. Davis purchased Beauvoir, had traveled all over the world. On the Bernise Alps, Mr. and Mrs. Dorsey purchased the young puppy, whose father was a Russian bulldog. The puppy was named Traveler. They carried the young dog everywhere with them, and he was trained to be Mrs. Dorsey's bodyguard. Once, while camping on the Arabian Desert, Mr. Dorsey had one of his Arabian servants punished severely for theft. The next day, Mr. Dorsey and some of the Arabians went on a two days' journey, leaving Mrs. Dorsey and the camp in the charge of an old Arab sheik. That night, while asleep under the tent, Mrs. Dorsey was awakened by a spring and growl from Traveler, then the shriek of a man. She sprang from her cot, quickly got a light, and found the Arab who had been beaten by Mr. Dorsey's orders pinned down to the ground by Traveler, a huge knife lying beside him, where it had fallen from his hand. He had cut his way into the tent and crept in, evidently determined to wreak his vengeance upon her for the stripes he received.
Mrs. Dorsey had magnificent diamonds, which she wore at night to a reception at the Tulleries. On her return to the hotel, she went at once to her room, while her husband and some friends walked out to smoke. She quickly went to sleep, but was aroused by a sound of a desperate struggle on the floor, where Traveler had succeded in throwing the theif who had followed her, attrracted by the glitter of her diamonds. This man was one of the worst characters in Paris, and the gallows were cheated when he died of the wound in his throat torn by Traveler's teeth.
After Mr. Dorsey died, Traveler was given to Mr. Davis and became his constant companion and guard. He allowed no one to come on the place whose good intent he had any reason to suspect. The entire place was under his care; not a window or door was locked or barred, for everything was safe while Traveler kept his sentry march on the wide porches that surrounded the house on every side.
If Mr. Davis wished to safeguard ther coming and going of anyone and give him the freedom of the place, day or night, he would put one hand on the person's shoulder and the other on the dog's head and say: "Traveler, this is my friend." The dog would accept the introduction very gravely, would smell his clothes and hands, and "size him up" generally; but he never forgot, and, henceforth, Mr. Davis' "friend" was safe to come and go unmolested.
As fierce as the dog was, and as bloody as was his record, he was as gentle as a lamb with little children. Mrs. Davis' small niece, a child about two years old, make the dog her chosen playmate, and the baby and the dog would roll together on the grass in highest glee. She would pull his hair, pound on his head, or ride around the place on his back, the dog trotting as sedately as a Shetland pony. This child lived some distance down the beach; but she went home day after day in perfect safety, guarded and guided by Traveler.
Traveler would rush around in hot pursuit of fiddler crabs, which was a pet diversion of his, and would bark and throw up the sand with his paws in wild glee when he had succeeded in driving a number of the ungainly objects into the sea.
But even fiddler crabs had no attraction for Traveler when he went to walk with Mr. Davis. He was then a bodyguard, pure and simple, and had all the dignity and watchfulness of a squad of soldiers detailed as escorts. Mr. Davis would become buried in thought, almost oblivious to surroundings. Traveler had his own ideas of what was right and proper; so if in absorption Mr. Davis would walk very close to the water Traveler would gently take his trousers leg in his teeth, or, by bounding between him and the sea, he would manage to call attention to the big waves coming in.
One day, Traveler seemed very droopy and in pain. As ordinary measures did not relieve him, Mr. Davis wrote a note to a friend who was the most celebrated physician in that part of the country. The doctor came, but nothing seemed to relieve the dog's suffering. All night he moaned and cried, looking up into Mr. Davis's face with big, pathetic eyes, as if begging for help from the hand that had never before failed him. All those long hours, Mrs. Dorsey, Mr. Davis, and the doctor kept their hopeless watch, for the work of the vile poisoner had been too well done for remedy. Just at daylight he died, his head on Mr. Davis' knee and his master's tears falling like rain upon the faithful beast. As Mr. Davis gently laid the dead dog upon the rug, he said softly: "I have indeed lost a friend."
Traveler was put in a coffin-like box, and all the family were present at the funeral. Mr. Davis softly patted the box with his hand, then turned away before it was lowered into the ground. The dog was buried in the front yard of Beauvoir, and a small stone, beautifully engraved, marked the place, (but at some time during the intervening years, that stone has unfortunately disappeared).
President Jefferson Davis overlooking the beach at Biloxi
When the ship docked at Bayou Sara, above Baton Rouge, two doctors examined Davis and diagnosed him as suffering from acute bronchitis, complicated by malaria. When the ship reached New Orleans, a number of prominent men met it, among them was Dr. Chaille, the dean of the medical faculty of Tulane University, and Justice C. S. Fenner, to whose home on First Street Davis was taken. A noted New Orleans physician, Dr. C. J. Bickham, joined Dr. Chaille, and the two concurred in the diagnosis of the Bayou Sara doctors. Lingering for about three weeks, Davis died on December 6, 1889.
Varina Davis decided that her husband should be buried in New Orleans, choosing the tomb of the Army of Northern Virginia at Metarie Cemetery as his burial site. The funeral ceremonies have been called "The South's Greatest Funeral."
Special trains brought thousands to New Orleans from all over the South. The city was crowded with prominent Confederates, both civilian and military, while private soldiers and private citizens poured into the city. A number of Jefferson Davis' former slaves also made the journey. One of them, William Simpson, wept openly at the funeral. When asked by a Northern reporter how he felt about Davis, Simpson replied: "That I loved him, this shows, and I can say that every colored man he ever owned loved him."
Less than four years later, in May, 1893, Jefferson Davis was removed from the tomb in Metarie Cemetery, and a special train furnished by the L & N Railroad carried his body to Richmond Virginia. Huge crowds and flowers marked the course of the train as it wound its way across the South. He rests today in Hollywood Cemetery, surrounded by his family. It is appropriate that his final resting place be in the city of his greatest labor as the only President of the Confederate States of America.
Jefferson Davis catafalque, a ceremonial platform used to carry the remains of Jefferson Davis in the 1889 funeral procession is on display in the Confederate Museum at Beauvoir.
A Wife and Daughter's Responsibility
Because Sarah Dorsey's will had provided that Winnie should inherit Beauvoir in the event that Jefferson Davis died prior to Dorsey, Davis decided to leave Beauvoir to his youngest daughter, Winnie.
Winnie Davis was born Varina Anne Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Virginia on June 27, 1864, during her father's presidency. She became known as "The Daughter of the Confederacy" and was a favorite of Confederate veterans at their reunions after the war.
Like so many associated with Beauvoir, Winnie Davis followed literary pursuits. Besides writing a number of articles and poems published in national magazines, she wrote three novels: An Irish Knight of the 19th Century, based on the life of Robert Emmett, published in 1888; The Veiled Doctor, published in 1895; and A Romance of Summer Seas, published in 1898 and considered her best work.
In 1887, on one of her trips before her father's death, Winnie met Alfred Wilkinson, a young attorney in Syracuse, New York, where she had gone after a visit with the Pulitzers in New York. In Syracuse, Winnie was a guest of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Emory, the son of Federal General William H. Emory, and old friend of the Davis family. At a party, some of the local people were rude to the daughter of the Confederate president, and Alfred Wilkinson defended the Southern cause. It was love at first sight for both Winnie and Wilkinson, and Winnie wondered how it would seem to the South and to the old veterans if she married a Yankee. Winnie kept her romance a secret, and, in September, 1888, Wilkinson came to Beauvoir to ask for Jefferson Davis' consent to their marriage. Davis liked Wilkinsonhowever, he declined to give his consent, knowing that it would raise a storm of protest around the South. Davis asked Wilkinson to prolong his visit in order that they might become better acquainted, and finally have his consent. But, Mrs. Davis refused to give hers. Despite this the young couple decided to be married anyway, although the romance was still a secret. When word leaked out, a flood of critical and even threatening letters descended on Beauvoir. Many intimate friends were horrified at the news, as were many veterans. Winnie was completely dismayed at having brought new trouble on her father, and the marriage plans were abandoned. Neither ever married.
On September 18, 1898, Winnie Davis died at Narragansett Peir, Rhode Island. Her death was attributed to malarial gastritis. Her grave is near her father's in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.
Upon Winnie Davis' death, the ownership of Beauvoir reverted to Mrs. Jefferson Davis. Mrs. Davis had returned to Beauvoir very tired and worn after her husband's funeral. She found several first draft chapters of an autobiography whis Jefferson Davis had begun, and she quickly realized that she had an important task to perform ~ letting the world know what sort of man Davis had been. Inspired by this idea, she plunged into the work of massive proportions, totalling 1,632 pages. It was published by the Belford Company as Jefferson Davis, Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, a Memoir by His Wife. Two years later, when the New York World offered her a salary for a weekly article, Mrs. Davis moved to New York, as did Winnie, who was offered a similar corespondent's position. Operating Beauvoir had been a financial strain, and the work provided both with a regular income.
During the period when Winnie had owned Beauvoir, an offer by a hotel corporation of $90,000 for the property had been firmly refused. Both Winnie and Mrs. Davis wanted Beauvoir to become a shrine to the memory of Jefferson Davis. After Mrs. Davis acquired ownership, she also refused offers for the property. However, in 1903, she sold Beauvoir for the token sum of $10,000 to the Mississippi Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans with the stipulation that it would be operated as a Confederate soldiers' home, with the house itself becoming a shrine to the memory of the former Confederate President.
A Shrine to the Memory of Jefferson Davis
Mrs. Kimbrough, friend, and neighbor whose life's work became the preservation of Beauvoir
When Mrs. Davis decided to sell Beauvoir, Mrs. A. McC. Kimbrough, a long-time close friend to Jefferson and Varina Davis, began what many have called her life's work ~ the preservation of Beauvoir as the "Mount Vernon of the Confederacy." She began an incredible volume of correspondence, newspaper appeals, talks, personal appeals, and every conceivable means to accomplish this end. Her activities even included the writing of a song to help raise funds.
Sheet music of "Beauvoir", words written by Mrs. Kimbrough in her efforts to preserve the home of Jefferson Davis, with music composed by Jean Buckley.
Finally, after it was arranged for the Mississippi Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans to buy Beauvoir, Mrs. Kimbrough helped that organization raise the purchase price. No other person compares with her in the accomplishment of this dream, and it is hardly possible to give Mrs. Kimbrough as much credit as she deserves for her efforts.
In making the sale, Mrs. Davis made several provisions to assure the carrying out of her intentions. They were:
How nice of you, Dawg, to take the missus to such a grand place...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.