Capt. Thomas Hickman on Camp Hardee's committee to meet Mrs. Jefferson Davis

Transcription

Read from the image (line breaks not kept). The opening paragraphs are given in full; the Pelham Chapter committee and General Savage's order that close the item are summarised where marked.

MRS. JEFFERSON DAVIS WILL REACH BIRMINGHAM TONIGHT AT 10 O'CLOCK

Committees from Confederate Veterans and Camp Hardee Will Meet the Train

LADIES HAVE FLORAL TRIBUTE

Mrs. Davis Is On Her to Mississippi to See About the Sale of Her Her [sic] Old Home for Confederates.

Mrs. Jefferson Davis will arrive in Birmingham at 10 o'clock tonight and will remain over until 12:30 tomorrow. Mrs. Davis is on her way from New York to Mississippi and stops over to rest a while in Birmingham. Mrs. Davis has not been here for eleven years and the Confederate veterans and the members of Pelham Chapter Daughters of the Confederacy will do everything in their power to make her visit a pleasant one.

The Confederate veterans and Camp Hardee have both appointed committees to meet Mrs. Davis on her arrival in Birmingham and the executive officers of Pelham Chapter wil cal lon [sic] Mrs. Davis Wednesday morning and present her with a handsome floral design of red and white carnations.

Mrs. Davis will stop at the Morris Hotel and not at the Hillman as announced yesterday in the afternoon papers. A meeting of Camp Hardee has been called for tomorrow morning and the members of the camp will call and pay their respects to Mrs. Davis. It is hoped also, if Mrs. Davis is strong enough to stand the fatigue, that she will permit a public reception in her honor. This will be very informal, the day being Ash Wednesday, and there will be no ceremonies of any kind. Mrs. Davis will merely see and shake hands with such of her friends and old Confederates and such of the public as may wish to call.

Will Go to Mississippi.

Mrs. Davis is on her way to Mississippi, it is understood, to ascertain just what steps the Legislature of that state has taken or will take in reference to the bill now pending before it to purchase the old Jefferson Davis home at Beauvior, which it is proposed to use as a home for old Confederate soldiers. Mrs. Davis will go from Birmingham to Greenwood, Miss., to visit Judge and Mrs. A. McC. Kimbrough.

The Confederate Veterans have named the following committee, which with another committee from Camp Hardee, will meet Mrs. Davis at the depot when she arrives: George W. Bains, H. K. Milner, Henry B. Gray, L. J. Haley, N. L. Miller, James H. Montgomery, Rufus N. Rhodes.

The Camp Hardee committee consists of the Rev. L. S. Handley, General R. D. Johnston, Captain J. B. Francis, Captain Frank S. White, Colonel John W. Bush, Captain Sam Will John, C. F. Enslen, Captain Joseph F. Johnston, Felix McLaughlin, Captain Thomas Hickman, Captain A. C. Oxford, Adjutant J. L. Darby, W. B. Leedy, Prof. S. L. Robertson and Colonel W. H. Denson.

[The item ends with the Pelham Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, committee (Mrs. Joseph F. Johnston, Mrs. D. P. Taliaferro, Mrs. J. A. Rountree, Mrs. Rose Garland Lewis, Mrs. Charles G. Brown) and an order of 10 February from J. H. Savage, brigadier general commanding the Fourth Brigade, Alabama Division, United Confederate Veterans, asking all Confederate camps and soldiers in Jefferson County to meet with Camp Hardee at 9 a.m. on Wednesday 12 February to do honour to Mrs. Davis at the Morris.]

Citation: "Mrs. Jefferson Davis Will Reach Birmingham Tonight at 10 O'Clock," The Age-Herald (Birmingham, Ala.), Tuesday 11 February 1902, p. 5, cols. 2–3; image, Chronicling America, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86072192/1902-02-11/ed-1/?sp=5).