My Old Confederate Home (36 page)

10. The Socialite and the Editor

1.
Messenger
1, no. 1 (October 1907).

2.
The inmates consumed up to five gallons of fruit jam at a meal.
Messenger
1, no. 2 (November 1907).

3.
C-J
, November 12, 1904, and
Messenger
3, no. 3 (January 1910).

4.
C-J
, November 12, 1904.

5.
Messenger
1, no. 12 (September 1908); 2, no. 1 (October 1908); and 2, no. 6 (April 1909).

6.
Messenger
1, no. 1 (October 1907).

7.
Minutes, June 3, 1904.

8.
Minutes, March 2, 1906.

9.
Mount Vernon (Ky.) Signal
, October 13, 1905.

10.
C-J
, March 3, 1906.

11.
Minutes, March 14, 1906.

12.
This endorsement of Henry George is from
Hopkinsville Kentuckian
, March 31, 1906.

13.
The Florence Barlow biographical information and quotes that follow, unless otherwise noted, are from Eagle,
Congress of Women
, 797-803;
Lexington City Directory;
and Seekamp and Burlingame,
Who's Who in Louisville.
The stories of Barlow's father and grandfather come from Perrin, Battle, and Kniffin,
Kentucky;
and Sofia Fox Sea, “Capt. Milton Balow,”
Lost Cause
4, no. 10 (May 1901): 71.

14.
Letter from Florence Barlow to Henry L. Martin, May 8, 1917, KyHS.

15.
Ibid.

16.
Lizzie Duke's biography is recounted in
Messenger
1, no. 1 (October 1907).

17.
Minutes, September 5, 1906.

18.
Writer Jim Wheat of Dallas, Texas, first wrote of the Lizzie Howe–Handley-Duke connection on the Dallas County history Web site (
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jwheat/
). This article, one of several on well-known Dallas madams, is carefully documented. I have checked Wheat's sources, and found some records of my own, confirming that Lizzie Howe left Kentucky and earned her fortune in Dallas as Lizzie Handley, then returned to the Bluegrass (via New York) as wealthy benefactress Mrs. L. Z. Duke.

19.
New York Times
, June 16, 1903; April 28, 1905; and February 10, 1910.

20.
Whatever her origins, Mrs. L. Z. Duke gave liberally to ex-Confederates and Confederate causes. She was one of three major donors for the monument to General Felix K. Zollicoffer in Pulaski County (“Dedication of Zollicoffer Monument,”
ConVet
18, no. 12 [December 1910]: 567-571) and contributed $3,000 toward an addition to the Oklahoma Confederate veterans' home
(Messenger
4, no. 2, December 1910).

21.
Description of the opening of Duke Hall (including quotes) comes from “Kentucky's Confederate Soldiers' Home,”
ConVet
16, no. 9 (September 1908): 466-467; and
Messenger
1, no. 2 (November 1907).

22.
Young himself was in similar hot water twenty years before, when his Louisville Southern Railroad was alleged to have given gifts of stock to the Louisville mayor and city council members. See
New York Times
, October 14, 1885.

23.
Lizzie Duke's past remained shrouded in Kentucky, even after her death on April 9, 1912. Her remains were shipped to Louisville for burial in the Confederate Section at Cave Hill Cemetery by an honor guard of ex-Confederates. Florence Barlow spoke on behalf of the Confederate Home chapter, but no other Daughters of the Confederacy participated in the funeral service. See
C-J
, April 10-12, 1912.

11. The Fiddlers and the Indian Agent

1.
Messenger
4, no. 5 (March 1911). The Old Soldier Fiddlers was a popular act nationwide. Six months before they appeared in Pewee Valley, they were booked for a week at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco on a bill headlined by Lionel Barrymore. At the end of the week the Fiddlers were held over by audience demand; Barrymore wasn't.
San Francisco Call
, October 30, 1910. The description of their act comes from several sources, notably the review of their Orpheum performance,
San Francisco Call
, October 31, 1910.

2.
Hazel Green (Ky.) Herald
, April 30, 1908.

3.
For biographical information on George, see
Memorial Record of Western Kentucky
, 117-118; and “Col. Henry George,”
ConVet
27, no. 9 (September 1919): 346. For more about his military service, read George,
History of the 3d, 7th, 8th, and 12th Kentucky C.S.A.
, written while he was commandant at the Home.

4.
New York Times
, May 4, 1888, and
Messenger
1, no. 8 (June 1908).

5.
Evans,
Confederate Military History
, 360-361.

6.
The best comparative history of Confederate homes is Rosenburg,
Living Monuments
, the source of most information in this section.

7.
For Oklahoma, see “From Annual Report of the Trustees of the Oklahoma Soldiers' Home,”
ConVet
21, no. 6 (June 1913): 310-312; for Texas,
Dallas News
, January 15, 1899.

8.
Only the Mississippi veterans' home came close to the comfortable elegance and setting of the Kentucky Home. Varina Davis, former First Lady of the Confederacy, turned over the family home, Beauvoir, for use as a soldiers' home. Facing the Gulf shore in the little resort town of Biloxi, Beauvoir was not nearly as spacious as Kentucky's old Villa Ridge Inn.

9.
Tennessee visitor: Mrs. T. H. Baker, “The Confederate Home of Kentucky,”
ConVet
23, no. 11 (October 1915): 462-463; Florida visitor,
Pensacola Journal
, June 20, 1905.

10.
Messenger
1, no. 8 (June 1908).

11.
All reported in the “Religion” column of the
Confederate Home Messenger
from 1907 through 1911.

12.
Messenger
2, no. 2 (December 1908).

13.
Messenger
1, no. 2 (November 1907), and 1, no. 4 (January 1908).

14.
Messenger
2, no. 7 (May 1909).

15.
Messenger
1, no. 4 (January 1908).

16.
Messenger
4, no. 2 (December 1910).

17.
Messenger
4, no. 3 (January 1911).

18.
Messenger
4, no. 5 (March 1911).

19.
From untitled ledger of bills paid, 1911 and 1912, KyHS.

20.
Issues of the
Confederate Home Messenger
from 1907 through 1911 include announcements and reports of dozens of Pewee Valley community events held at L. Z. Duke Hall.

21.
Interview by author with Virginia Herdt Chaudoin, July 11, 2007.

22.
Messenger
1, no. 1 (October 1907).

23.
Messenger
3, no. 10 (August 1910).

24.
Messenger
4, no. 7 (May 1911).

25.
Messenger
1, no. 8 (June 1908).

26.
Letter from T. W. Duncan, used with permission of Rebecca C. Myers.

27.
Messenger
4, no. 7 (May 1911), and 4, no. 8 (June 1911).

28.
Messenger
2, no. 11 (September 1909).

29.
Messenger
2, no. 1 (October 1908), and 3, no. 6 (April 1910).

30.
Hazel Green Herald
, April 4, 1908.

31.
Interview with Virginia Herdt Chaudoin.

32.
Messenger
3, no. 2 (December 1909).

33.
Biographical information on the Tree Man from, and letters used with permission of, Rebecca C. Myers.

12. The Farmer and the Daughter

1.
Minutes of the Twenty-third Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1919, KyHS.

2.
Minutes, December 27, 1918, record approval of a “Women's Advisory Committee.” Minutes, February 19, 1919, incorrectly refers to the “Ladies Advisory Committee,” and the mistake occurs occasionally thereafter.

3.
Report by Henry George to Board of Trustees, December 31, 1914, KyHS.

4.
For a while, George enlisted able-bodied inmates to reroof and repaint the main building; but when inmate Elisha L. Herndon fell off a ladder and broke both legs, the commandant decided it wasn't such a good idea to send seventy-year-old men scuttling over the roof and scaffolding.
Messenger
1, no. 8 (May 1908).

5.
Minutes, January 5, 1916.

6.
Minutes of the Twentieth Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1916, KyHS.

7.
Poppenheim,
History of the United Daughters of the Confederacy
, 202–213.

8.
Minutes of the Twenty-first Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1917, KyHS. The national organization was urging chapters to turn their hands to war work. See
Dallas News
, January 27, 1918, and
C-J
, April 23, 1918.

9.
Minutes of the Twenty-first Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1917, KyHS.

10.
Minutes of the Twenty-second Annual Convention, Kentucky UDC, Winter 1918, KyHS.

11.
C-J
, September 26, 1917.

12.
Minutes, August 29, 1917.

13.
Louisville Herald
, September 24, 1917.

14.
Ibid.

15.
Ibid.

16.
Ibid.

17.
For Young's statement, complete with item-by-item price comparisons, see
C-J
, September 26, 1917.

18.
The
Herald
was the first to pick up the two-meals-a-day story, and the paper rode it hard, staying ahead of the other Louisville papers. However, when Young gave his statement (and full access to the Home) exclusively to the
Courier-Journal
, the
Herald
found itself frozen out of its own story. Aside from a few brief follow-ups, the story died away. See also
C-J
, October 6-7, 1917, and November 8, 1917.

19.
The book was
History of the 3d, 7th, 8th and 12th Kentucky C.S.A.
, published by the Dearing Printing Co. in 1911. “The matter was prepared while the author was busy discharging the intricate duties as Commandant of the Kentucky Confederate Home,” George says in the preface.

20.
Letter from Florent D. Jaudon to Mrs. George L. Danforth, September 26, 1916, Filson.

21.
Ibid.

22.
Minutes, December 4, 1917.

23.
C-J
, July 31 and August 1, 1923; and “Col. C. L. Daughtry,”
ConVet
31, no. 9 (September 1923): 348. For some of Daughtry's war stories, see C. L. Daughtry, “Stealing a Yankee Captain,”
ConVet
10, no. 7 (July 1902): 308; and Daughtry, “Three Comrades of the Sixties,”
ConVet
21, no. 1 (January 1913): 18-19.

24.
Lancaster (Ky.) Central Record
, July 10, 1903.

25.
Minutes, January 5, 1918.

26.
C-J
, April 27, 1918.

27.
Minutes, March 5, 1918.

28.
Rosenburg, in
Living Monuments
, writes about the changing role of women at other Confederate homes; see especially 139-141
.

29.
Minutes, December 27, 1918.

30.
C-J
, May 23, 1922, and Johnson,
History of Kentucky
, 1016.

31.
Billy Beasley and his family lived rent-free for a time in an apartment owned by Thomas D. Osborne. See chapter 1.

32.
Seekamp and Burlingame,
Who's Who in Louisville
, 247; and
Louisville Times
, June 13, 1919.

33.
Southard,
Who's Who in Kentucky
, 443.

34.
Louisville Times
, June 13, 1919.

35.
Messenger
2, no. 2 (November 1908).

36.
He was invited in 1909 to return to St. Albans, Vermont, scene of his wartime raid and bank robbery, as principal orator for a regional historical celebration. A group of diehard Union veterans spun up an angry protest, and Young graciously withdrew his acceptance.
Bourbon (Ky.) News
, May 7, 1909, and
Messenger
2, no. 6 (April 1909).

37.
“The Passing of the Gray,”
ConVet
27, no. 3 (March 1919): 76.

38.
Young's cross-country race with death is described in
C-J
, February 23-24, 1919.

39.
Lengthy coverage of Young's life may be found in
C-J
, February 24, 1919, and “The Passing of the Gray.”

40.
Minutes, May 7, 1919.

41.
Minutes, January 2, 1920.

42.
Letter from Commandant C. L. Daughtry to Executive Committee, Board of Trustees, March 31, 1919.

43.
Daughtry's letters and reports to trustees are increasingly peppered with stories of “friction among the employees,” “bickering and recriminations,” and “tracing the blame” during 1919 and early 1920. See letters dated March 31, 1919; September 5, 1919; and circa Summer 1919.

44.
Letter from Commandant C. L. Daughtry to Board of Trustees, undated (ca. Summer 1919).

13. The Trainer and the Undertaker

1.
The chronology, description, and details of the fire on March 25, 1920, unless otherwise noted, are constructed from contemporary newspaper accounts and reports of those who were present. I particularly relied on coverage in the
Courier-Journal
and the
Louisville Herald
, March 26-28, 1920. Charlotte Woodbury's report of the fire, much of which quotes Commandant Daughtry, appears in Mrs. John L. Woodbury, “The Confederate Home of Kentucky,”
ConVet
28, no. 5 (May 1920): 196. Inmates gave reporters different versions of George Wells's shouted warning; I've assembled a version that makes sense (and inserted “goddam” where the papers' editors left only dashes).