Our Guests Say the Nicest Things

Shantybellum is once again in the B-and-B bidness.  We've had such great responses from our guests that we're now a five-star listing on Airbnb.  But my favorite is when someone artistic decides to leave us a drawing!

The first one is from 2008, but the others are recent.  Gail Siptak, the first artist, is a talent extraordinaire in Houston, TX.  If you'd like to see more of her work, visit her site at gailsiptak.com.

For rates and availability, Shantybellum Guesthouse is listed on Air B&B, Expedia and Travelocity and other related travel sites.

Letter from Agnes Carpenter at Miss. Military Institute to Elodie Rose, 1884

Great news!  Agnes Carpenter was not left at that dreadful school in Albany, New York.  She found happiness and a boatload of fun making trouble at the Mississippi Military Institute. Not sure where that was.  I'll do a bit of research and find out. The letter is transcribed below the photos.

Agnes Carpenter dressed for Mardis Gras

Elodie Rose 

November 26^th

Miss. Military Institute

My dear Elodie,

Well, I think it is about time that some of the girls are writing to me.  If they wait on me to communicate with them first they will never hear from me, I am afraid, as my time is as fully employed as it was at St. Agnes.  I enjoy myself more here than I ever did at my first boarding school, which is owing to the fact that I am getting worse and worse every day of my life. 

There are 6 girls besides myself who are just as bad and pranky as girls are liable to be cultivated in this degenerate age. We form a club of which I am Captain and everyone in the house seems to be mortally afraid of night crimes.  We have (?) ghosts, sleep walkers and (?) The latter would get me into a world of trouble if discovered for we nightly demolish six packages of cigarettes.  Mark my word if you tell Mama on me you will get the worst of it.

Night before last we went and had a midnight serenade with a lot of boys at our back fence.  And among us who is a member of the club was the sweet but shy Beulah Gordon who has such a saintly air connected with herself.  Together with the cigarettes was a large bottle of champagne, which made me quite lively.

I ought to be ashamed to act so as I rank above the other girls in regard to my situation as a scholar.   Am head of school for this month, was the first pupil to whom was… (last part missing)

For more on Elodie and Agnes, go here.

Letter from Agnes Carpenter to Elodie Rose, circa 1883

The letter has been transcribed below the photos.  Agnes Carpenter lived at Dunleith in Natchez,  but was sent to boarding school in Albany, NY.  Such a sad letter.  I remember being homesick like this.  And the school does look grim.  The school continued on as The Doane Stuart School . . . founded in 1975 as a merger between the Roman Catholic Kenwood Academy (founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1852) and the Episcopal St. Agnes School (founded 1870). This unique merger is the only known merger of a Roman Catholic school and an Episcopal school in the United States.

Friday

St. Agnes

Albany

Sept 26

My dear Elodie

            It has been a long time since I received your letter — more than a week ago & I have been expecting to answer it for a long time but could not find time until today.  I have been awfully lonesome since I’ve been here & am half crazy to leave here Christmas.  If I can’t come home I believe I shall be sick just from disappointment. 

It is getting to be dreadfully cold here now, much to the girls’ displeasure as they have none of their wintry garments with them.  Has anyone heard from Alex yet?  I am willing to bet anything that he has been real homesick.  If he feels as I do I can sympathize with him.  I feel more homesick than I did last year for then it was a novelty to me but now nothing but the reality is before me.

The standard has been raised ever so high so now I can’t graduate (if I continued to come here) for perhaps five years or more. Tell Bessie to remember me to Alex when she writes to him. 

Does Juliet Rawle look the same or has she improved in her looks?  Ellen says she is rather stouter than she was when at home before. I wish you would explain to me the reason of Sophie not writing to me.  It seems rather queer in her and I don’t think I have done anything to hurt her feelings.

Emmie and Nannie have not written either since I was here last session.  I have written Carrie Dugan one letter since I have been here but she has not answered it yet.  She seems to be taking her time about it.  But I suppose the poor child is taxed with lessons.  Maybe she has changed her mind & not gone to College at all.

I have only 4 studies with ? &Miss Johnston will not allow the girls to have but 5 anyway.  At that rate it will take us an age to finish one class.  I am perfectly disgusted with girls, teachers & everything.  I want mama to take me away Christmas & put me teaching in New Orleans where I can take everything that I want & not be bothered to death with talk of unnecessary things as I am here.

Then I’d be home in case of sickness or any other emergency.  It would be perfectly heartless for them to keep me here when I dislike it so much. 

I must close now as it is time for walking & I have a letter to write to Ellen.

Answer Soon 

Your devoted friend

Agnes

World War II Letter from My Father to My Great Grandmother

Dear Dear, (He called his grandmother Dear)

     By the time you get this letter I guess Mubber and Daddy will be on their way to see me.  You will probably get this Saturday morning because the mail from here won't leave out until Thursday morning (tomorrow morning).


     The other day I finally managed to take the time off to go and get the packages Mubber sent me.  I really needed the stuff and clothes that were in them.  Also I cashed the money order for $15 that Daddy sent me.  I didn't need it just yet though.

     Today they taught us how to conceal ourselves in the bushes and spy on the enemy.  That is just what I did all last winter when I was hunting ducks on the sand bar.  That's why I wanted to get into the infantry where each man is a single unit.  Yesterday we threw hand grenades.  You pull out a little pin and hold down a lever on the side of the grenade.  As long as the grenade is held tight, the lever stays down.  When you throw it, the lever goes up and sets off a fuse.  After a while the grenade explodes, giving you plenty of time to fall into a trench.  It's a lot of fun, but I won't do it any more, so you don't have to worry.  You see, we are through training with hand grenades.

     We march and drill a lot during the day and also we attend lectures by the officers.  They teach us a lot about first aid and many other things.  It's quite interesting.

     Well, I can't think of anything else worthwhile to tell about, so I'll have to go.  Tell Aunt Bessie and Fannie Rose that I will write them soon.  Also I will write to Taddy again.  I guess Anna and Ida have gotten my letter by now.

     Well, take care of yourself and be sure the gas is off at night.

                                                                                                     Love,
                                                                                                            Howard


For more of my fathers adventures in World War II, go here and here.

Matters Familia - Letter from Greenville 1947

Natchez Cotton Carnival 1921

A New Lease on Life for our Strays in Natchez/Adams County, MS

Annet's House

Found another photo of my great aunt's house on the bluff overlooking the river in Natchez, Mississippi. They had to work to keep that afternoon sun from heating the house. They tried vines and awnings and trees. Last photo is the house as it looks today. The new owners did a fabulous restoration.

The last is a link to a .pdf file of a Union pass I found in the house.  It belonged to my great grandmother, who was from Alton, Illinois.  She was allowed to go back and forth across the Union lines because she was a good dance partner and could play a card game called Euchre.

This link is for the Union Pass.

To read about the history of the house, go to:  http://shantybellum.blogspot.com/2011/09/long-farewell.html

The Showboat's Comin'! - 1951

I've had this picture a few days and have been trying to get information on who's in it and where they were going.  I found out yesterday from Bettye Jenkins that these Natchez belles were on a train on their way to the 1951 film premiere of Showboat, which was filmed in Natchez.  Please see the caption under the photo for identities.  If I've mistakenly identified anyone, please feel free to let me know.

So far, here's what I have:

Man seated in center aisle, Xaviar Cugat, a famous band leader who was married to Charo; woman seated next to him on the right, Gladys Schaifer; seated far right, Katherine Miller; man behind the partition, Joe Kellogg; woman standing in between two other women, Ruth Adele Hayles Lovitt, who was serving as Miss Hospitality in Natchez.

Chicago Negro Tells of Her Experiences

Civil Rights March
Alabama
1965

While going through old family papers, I came upon this little bizarre piece of history.  It appeared in the summer of 1963.  Click the link.

At first, I thought it couldn't have been written by a Black person, but upon doing a Google search, I did find Sallie Mae Lewis and the article.

I don't usually post controversial topics on my blog but this was just so unusual, I felt I had to share.  If anyone knows more about this article and story, feel free to comment.  Please note, however, that all comments will be moderated.

New Municipal Building of Natchez, Mississippi 1903 - 1924

I've been going through boxes of family photos and documents, and came across this little gem, which is known today as Natchez City Hall.  Two of my relatives are listed herein:  C.F. Patterson, my great uncle, who was a judge, and lived right across the street from where I live now.  We knew him as Judge Charlie Patterson.  Also W.H. Pritchartt, who was my great grandfather and was an alderman.  I've included a photo of him as a young man, taken in 1852 at the Strauss Photo Studio, 1818 Franklin Avenue, St. Louis, MO.

Natchez Rifles Group

Natchez Rifles Group
John Davis, Kirby Grafton, P.D. Whitney, (illegible)
Sponsors
Miss Bessie Rose
(Mrs. C.V. Patterson)
Maids of Honor
Miss Jennie Raworth
Miss Estelle Schwartz
(Mrs. Tom Carson)

I've written the identities of these folks exactly as written on the back.  If anyone can help me with further identification as well as a date, and the history of the group, I would greatly appreciate it.

Long Gone

In the pictures
we seldom smiled.

Stubborn children
forced to pause
and pose before the hearth
in the cabin
in the woods
in the childhood
in the life
he'd built
in the
happy time.

He pulls the tattered box
From under the bed,
studies each fading moment
for clues.
The lamp sheds no new light
On the mystery of us.

The smell of dust,
the screen door’s slam,
the island in the pond
saddles in the shed,
the boat, the chill,
the sweat, the water,
the shadow and the light
the silence of a Sunday
night waiting
while he locked the gate.

Turned the key
On another memory.

The sandbar,
Alligator gar and
Busch beer in a pull-tab can.
Dinosaurs, all gone
like the sound of a horn on a barge,
first large then drifting away.

He puts the pictures back,
Hopes the phone won’t ring,
bringing something new
to grieve.
Lying back, he sighs,
Closes his eyes and waits.