Sunday, June 26, 2016

EUGENIA TUCKER COCHRAN FITZGERALD



The Founder of Alpha Delta Pi



   Eugenia Tucker grew up in a world of wealth and privilege, surrounded by people who had to struggle just to get by.  Her father, a wealthy planter, sent her to Wesleyan College in Macon, where she could obtain the finest education a fine young lady could receive.  While at Wesleyan, Eugenia and a small group of school girls founded the Adelphean Society, the first society or sorority for college women in the United States, on May 15, 1851   The Adelphean Society evolved into Alpha Delta Pi, the oldest women's sorority in the world.

     Eugenia was born January 29, 1834 in the Buckeye District of Laurens County. Her father, Dr. Nathan Tucker, was a Rhode Island native who came to Laurens County in the 1820s to set up what later became a widespread and lucrative medical practice.  Dr. Tucker, amassed one of the largest plantations in Laurens County.  His home, Buena Vista, was located at the northeast corner of the Buckeye Road and Jackson Lake Road, formerly known as the Wrightsville and Oconee Road. Dr. Tucker, one of  the largest slave owners in the county, was known far and wide for his compassion for his slaves.  As a delegate to the Secession Convention of 1861, Dr. Tucker voted "no" on the issue of leaving the Union.  During the war, he forbade Gen. Samuel Wray Ferguson's Mississippi Cavalry, who was on picket duty between Sherman and Andersonville, from camping on his plantation.

     Laurens County's school system in the 1840s was less than sufficient, especially for the upper class children of the county's wealthy planters.  Dr. Tucker, who surprisingly had no college education, wanted the best possible education for his five children, four girls and one boy, Lucien Quincy Tucker.   Dr. Tucker employed governesses from the North to help him in raising his family. His wife, Elmira Horn Tucker, died at a young age.  One governess, because of her radical abolitionist ideas, caused such a stir with the house servants that she was promptly dismissed and sent home.  The library of the thirteen - room Tucker home  was lined with shelves filled with all of the classical literature of the day.  Dr. Tucker subscribed to the best magazines and once a year shipped them off to Philadelphia for binding.  Lucien and Eugenia were sent to closest private academy  at Midway, near Milledgeville.   Eugenia and her brother completed their courses at the academy. Lucien was sent to Princeton University to complete his formal education.
       
     A daughter of a neighbor returned from Macon with stories of how wonderful Wesleyan was.  Eugenia had never seen much of the world.  Dublin, fourteen miles away, was a lifeless and decaying town.  Midway was a little better, not far from the capital city of Milledgeville.  Eugenia, like her father, was a lover of books. Eugenia dreamed of going to college.  Finally, Dr. Tucker consented and summoned Hector and Paris, two of his most trusted servants, to fetch his  finest black horses and hitch them  to the big carriage.  Uncle Peter, another of Dr. Tucker's oldest and most faithful servants, took Eugenia on the fourteen-mile ride up the Oconee Road to Oconee Station on the Central of Georgia Railroad.  From Oconee, Eugenia boarded the west bound train for Macon.  It was a new world with strange faces all around her.  Eugenia lips quivered.  Her heart beat raced.  The dreaded entrance examination was upon her.   Naturally,  she passed the test and entered the Junior class at Wesleyan, which in 1836 became the world's  first college established exclusively for women.

     The girls began their days with a 6:30 a.m. prayer, followed by a series of two-hour recitations.  Their day ended with a 7:00 p.m. supper.  Bed time was 10:30.  Upon meeting other members of her junior class, Eugenia found that "they were more of mischievous enjoyment than their lessons."   She decided that what Wesleyan needed was a women's society, one that "would influence her friends to
join her in forming an association for their advancement."  Nineteen young girls (Eugenia was only seventeen) gathered on  May 15, 1851.  Prof. Edward A. Meyers, an English professor at the college, suggested that the group call themselves, "The Adelphean Society."   The word "Adelphean" was derived from the Greek word meaning "sister."  Eugenia was elected as President of the society.

     Along with Eugenia, five of her closest friends are considered the original founders.  The girls were mostly from influential families in the state.  Ella Pierce was a daughter of Bishop George F. Pierce, the college's first president. Octavia Andrew, who entered Wesleyan at the age of thirteen, was a daughter of a Bishop James O.  Andrew. Other founding members were Mary Evans, daughter of a Methodist minister in Macon, Elizabeth Williams, and Sophronia Woodruff.

     Eugenia graduated as valedictorian of her Wesleyan Senior Class of 1852.   In an elegant ceremony in the Tucker home on December 4, 1861, Eugenia joined hands in marriage with  Judge Arthur Erwin Cochran, formerly of Wilkinson County  but then a resident of Glynn County.

     Judge Cochran was one of the most brilliant lawyers in the state.  He was a member of the Georgia legislature and a member of the Secession Convention, where he, like his future father in law, supported remaining  in the Union.  Cochran,  the first judge of the Brunswick Superior Court Circuit,  recognized the need for better railroads.  He resigned from the bench and was named the first president of the Macon and Brunswick Railroad.  The town of Cochran, Georgia is named in his honor.    Judge Cochran, a widower, had one son, Arthur Emmett Cochran, whom Eugenia raised as her own.   The younger Cochran, represented Pierce County in the Georgia legislature at the tender age of twenty one and later established a successful practice in San Diego, California.   Eugenia returned to Macon to live with her new family.  Following Judge Cochran's death in 1865, Eugenia, who was bequeathed a substantial fortune, toured with friends in Europe, places she had read about in her father's library.  After eight years of widowhood, Eugenia married Dr. Edmund Fitzgerald, of Macon, who was also a widower, with a beautiful young daughter.  Eugenia wrote in her memoir,


   "Nothing in my life give me more sincere pleasure than to see her occasionally and to feel that she regards me as her mother."  Following Dr. Fitzgerald's death in 1887, Eugenia moved to Washington, D.C. to live with her step daughter and her new husband, a civil engineer Captain A.F. Lucas.  Eugenia outlived most of her relatives.  Her sister, Ella, married Col. John M. Stubbs of Dublin, but who, like many young women of her time, died too young.   Her brother Luicien served with honor as a Captain in the 57th Georgia infantry during the War Between the States.

     The Adelphean Society became Alpha Delta Phi in 1905.  Nine years later, the name was changed to Alpha Delta Pi, to avoid confusion with a men's fraternity.  That same year, Wesleyan officials abolished all sororities at the school.  Eugenia remained active in the alumni association of Alpha Delta Pi, whose motto was originally,  "We live for each other."   She was affectionately known by generations of sorority members who succeeded her as "Mother Fitzgerald."  




   Suddenly, on 10th day of December in 1928, Eugenia died in her sleep in Fort Worth, Texas, where she had been living the last eighteen years with her niece Roberta Andrew Flournoy.  She was buried in Oakwood Cemetery. In August of 1933, her body was disinterred and brought back to her second hometown of Macon. She was buried beside Dr. Fitzgerald.   At the age of ninety four, Eugenia had been the oldest alumni of Alpha Delta Pi and Wesleyan College.  She was the last survivor of those six young girls, who one hundred and fifty years ago today, founded the first and the oldest women's sorority in the United States.

1933: THE YEAR OF THE WOMAN


1933: THE YEAR OF THE DUBLIN WOMAN

In 1933 it was still a man’s world.  Most women worked in the home.  Some women taught school, while others worked in clerical, domestic and other less than glamorous jobs.  But it was in the deep dark year of the Great Depression that a few of the women then and formerly of Dublin took off their aprons, put their brooms in the closet (just for a little while anyway) and set out to find their rightful place in our society.  During this month of March when we celebrate Women’s National History Month and on this International Women’s day, here are a few stories of the scores of Dublin women who excelled beyond their usual triumphs of managing our homes, families and every other thing left in their charge.

Charlotte Hightower Harwell was very good at her job.  The only problem was that every other court reporter in the state of Georgia in 1932 was a man and she was just a 20-year-old woman.  In derogation of the long-standing practice of male court reporters, Dublin Judicial Circuit Judge J.W. Kent appointed Mrs. Harrell as his court reporter, making her the first woman court reporter in Georgia.  She later worked in LaGrange and in Gainesville for the Northeastern Judicial Circuit, which included the counties of Hall, White, Lumpkin and Dawson.  Mrs. Harwell distrusted stenograph machines and recorded most of her trials by shorthand. It was said that she was such a good typist her hands were at one time insured by Lloyd's of London. Former Chief Superior Court Judge Richard Kenyon of Gainesville said, "For years, she was one of the brightest, most competent court reporters that this area has known."  "All the lawyers had great respect for her," said Gainesville lawyer Julius Hulsey. "Nobody ever questioned her transcripts," he added.  Mrs. Harwell retired in 1975 after a 42-year career as a court reporter.   Charlotte Hightower Harrell died on May 22, 1995 and is buried in the Alta Vista Cemetery in Gainesville, Georgia.

Elizabeth Garrett Page was born in Hancock County, Georgia in 1903.  Her father, A.W. Garrett, was one of the leading bankers and businessmen of “Dublin’s Golden Age.”  In November 1933, this 30-year-old mother of four was appointed by the Dublin City Council to the Dublin City Board of Education, making her the first woman to serve in that capacity.  Mrs. Page’s appointment came at a time when women had been voting on a regular basis for only a decade.  Educated at Wesleyan College, Mrs. Page was the first president of the Parnassus Club and president of the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.  Mrs. Page was also active in the First Methodist Church, where she was the first president of the Leader’s Class.  Mrs. Page served as the Society editor for the Dublin Courier Herald and operated a private kindergarten from 1949-1966.   Mrs. Page died on March 3, 1986 and is buried in the mausoleum in Northview Cemetery in Dublin.

Aretha Miller Smith was born in Laurens County on July 22, 1914.  After graduating from high school in 1930, Aretha went to work in the  law office of W.A. Dampier.  In those days it was not mandatory for candidates for the bar to attend law school or pass a written test.  An applicant only needed to be presented for admission by practicing attorneys and pass an oral test administered by the judge of the Superior Court After three years of reading and studying the laws of Georgia, Miss Miller appeared before Judge Kent for her  examination on her knowledge of the law.   She passed and in December 1933 at the age of  19, Miss Aretha Miller became the first female attorney in Dublin, the first in the Dublin Circuit, one of the few female attorneys in the state at that time and most likely the youngest female attorney in the history of Georgia.

In addressing the court upon her admission to the bar, Miss Miller expressed her joy and humbly pledged her untiring efforts toward the cause of human justice, realizing the great responsibility and the uplifting influence that may be exerted in a community by a good lawyer.  She worked with W.A. Dampier until 1943, when Mrs. Smith joined in the war effort when she took a position in the Judge Advocate’s office at Robins Field in Wellston (Warner Robins), Georgia.    Aretha Miller Smith practiced law in Dublin for more than three decades before her death on December 23, 1969.  She is buried in Northview Cemetery in Dublin.

Jesse Baldwin, daughter of Sidney A. Baldwin and Mary Searcy Baldwin, was born on October 28, 1888.  Following the death of L.Q. Stubbs in 1933, Miss Baldwin was appointed as the first female Deputy Clerk and United States Commissioner of the Dublin Division of the Southern District of Georgia. Miss Baldwin died on April 26, 1977 and is buried in Northview Cemetery in Dublin.

In 1933, Sarah Orr Williams was beginning her 12th year as a secretary to a United States Senator from Georgia.  She began her career in Washington, D.C. as secretary to the legendary senator Thomas E. Watson.  Following Sen. Watson’s death in 1922, Gov. Thomas Hardwick, who would later move into a home a block south of Miss Orr’s home on Bellevue Avenue and South Calhoun St., appointed Watson’s close friend Mrs. Rebecca L. Felton to fill Watson’s unexpired term. Senator Felton retained Sarah in her office making her the first secretary of the first female United States Senator in the history of the country.  A new election was held that fall and another legendary senator, Walter F. George, was elected to succeed Mrs. Felton.    Sarah Orr remained as Sen. George’s secretary until 1934, when Sen. George replaced her with his nephew.  Sarah Orr, daughter of former mayor and a leading Republican in Dublin, married Gladstone Williams, a writer for the Atlanta Constitution and other newspapers in Washington and Miami.   While working at the Atlanta Constitution, Gladstone became acquainted with Margaret Mitchell.  In writing her epic novel “Gone With the Wind,” Mitchell modeled her character of Rhett Butler after Williams, who also bore a slight resemblance to the actor Clarke Gable who played Rhett Butler in the movie version of the novel.  

 Known as a colorful character and treasured for her sharp wit, keen mind and undying loyalty to friends, Sarah Orr remained a volunteer for the American Red Cross, March of Dimes, American Cancer Society and numerous other charities.  During her years in Dublin, Sarah Orr was instantly recognized while wearing her trade mark hats and long cigarette holders.  She was an avid supporter of the Laurens County Historical Society and the Laurens County Library.    Among her lasting contributions to the heritage of our community were the articles she wrote on the waning historical places and sites in our area following the post World War II boom.   She died at the age of eighty-four on March 18, 1981 and is buried in Northview Cemetery.

One of Dublin’s most well known and respected teachers was Bertha Sheppard Hart.  Bertha Hart,  a daughter of M.M. Sheppard and Julian Caroline Page, was born in Johnson County on September 8, 1878 near Wrightsville.  Mrs. Hart was the wife of long time county agent John F. Hart.  The Harts moved to Laurens County in 1922.   In 1929, Mrs. Hart published “Introduction to Georgia Writers.”  In this definitive bibliography of the works of Georgia authors, Mrs. Hart sought to encourage her students and students across the state to strive to become great writers.   Her most famous work was as the editor of “The History of Laurens County, Georgia, 1807-1941.”    Mrs. Hart was a popular speaker to civic, patriotic and cultural organizations in addition to her years of devotion to teaching Sunday School at First Baptist Church.  Bertha Hart served a four-year term as President of the Woman’s Study Club as well as terms as Regent of the John Laurens Chapter, NSDAR and as an officer of the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.  She was a substitute librarian at the Carnegie Library and was named “First Lady of Dublin” by the Beta Sigma Phi sorority.  She died on April 18, 1949. Her ashes were buried beside her husband in Union Point Cemetery in Union Point, Georgia.

The year 1933 was an especially gratifying year for Nella Braddy.  Born in Americus and reared in Macon and Dublin, Miss Braddy was one of the country’s
most successful women writers and editors.  Miss Braddy was a daughter of Robert E. Braddy, Sr., a prolific writer of letters and articles in his own right.  Her brother, Robert E. Braddy, Jr., was an admiral in the United States Navy and was awarded the Navy Cross, the country’s second highest award for heroism.

Miss Braddy was educated at Wesleyan College, Converse College and Columbia University in New York.   She began teaching in Georgia public schools, but soon decided she would pursue a career in writing.   Nella went to work for Doubleday Publishing Company. It was at Doubleday where she met her husband Keith Henney, a writer of radio text books and electronics magazine articles.  As an editor at Doubleday, Miss Braddy compiled and edited articles of some of the world’s most famous authors.  Among her landmark works are the “Standard Book of British and American Verse,” “O. Henryana,” “The University Library” series and the “New Concise Pictorial Encyclopedia.”  Though she was considered one of the country’s foremost female encyclopediasts, Braddy admitted she had a poor memory for facts.


In the early 1930s, her bosses assigned her to a project that would change the course of Nella’s life forever.  Nella was charged with working with Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy in the compilation of Keller’s book “My Religion.” Over the years the  trio worked closely writing the manuscript and gathering information for the book.  The three became intimate friends.  It was during this time that it occurred to Nella to write a biography not on the world famous Helen Keller, or her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy.  In 1933, Doubleday published “Anne Sullivan Macy, The Story Behind Helen Keller.”  The book received rave reviews from the New York Times and the leading literary critics of the day.  In appreciation for her friendship, Keller and Macy surprised Nella with a brand-new car, which she hesitantly accepted and didn’t know how to drive.   Miss Braddy continued to work with Helen Keller in various book projects.  In 1941, Nella Braddy authored  "Rudyard Kipling, Son of Empire,” the most definitive biography of the British/Indian author.   Her “Reader’s Digest” article on Anne Sullivan Macy was considered one of the best in the magazine’s first quarter century.

Grace Warren Landrum, one of two daughters of the Rev. William Warren Landrum and Ida Dunster, often visited in Dublin at the home of her sister Mrs. Margaret Landrum Watkins. In 1912, Miss Landrum founded the Dublin Woman’s Study Club to promote the study of literature, art and music.   For the rest of her life, Miss Landrum maintained close ties to the Woman’s Study Club as an honorary member.  She was born July 18, 1876 in Providence, Rhode Island.  In 1898, she was the first Southern woman to graduate from Radcliffe College.  Miss Watkins began her teaching career at the Washington Seminary in Atlanta. She taught at the Kentucky Home School for Girls in Louisville, Kentucky, before obtaining her A.M.
Degree from the University of Chicago in 1915.  She was a Professor of English at Tennessee College in Murfreesboro and Head of the English Department at Westhampton College.  Grace Landrum was awarded a Ph. D. in English from Radcliffe in 1921.  From 1927 to 1947, Dr. Landrum was an English professor and Dean of Women at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1919, Miss Landrum published “Charlotte,” a biographical novel of one of her gifted students.  She was a member of the honor society Phi Beta Kappa and a prolific writer of journal articles on l iterature. Of her most enduring legacies at William and Mary was the establishment of the “Yule Log” ceremony at Christmas.   The Yule Log is carried through the crowed of students who each take a sprig of holly and touch the log and tossed the burning sprig into the Yule Log Fire,  symbolically tossing away their worries for the rest of the year.  Dr. Landrum’s original idea included the wearing of 18th Century costumes and the passing of a boar’s head throughout the crowd.  More enduring legacies at William and Mary are Landrum Hall and Landrum Drive named in Dr. Landrum’s honor and memory. After retiring from William and Mary, Dr. Landrum taught briefly at the University of Redlands in California.   Grace Warren Landrum died in Columbus, Ohio on April 21, 1951. Always considered as an honorary citizen of Dublin, Miss Landrum was laid to rest beside her sister Margaret Landrum in Northview Cemetery.

Mrs.  John S. Adams was one of the leading members of a large number of women’s patriotic organizations on the local, state and national levels.   Born Lucia Augusta Stanley on January 2, 1874, Mrs. Adams was a daughter of Capt. Rollin A. Stanley, C.S.A. and Rebecca Lowther.  She was a member of what was undoubtedly Laurens County’s most prominent family.  Her brother Harris McCall Stanley was the editor of the Dublin Courier-Dispatch, school board president, military officer, and founder of the Dublin Chautaugua and the Carnegie Library.  In 1911, he was elected Georgia’s first Commissioner of Commerce and Labor.  Another brother, Vivian L. Stanley,  worked in the newspaper business in Dublin.  A former postmaster of Dublin, Stanley was elected to the Georgia Prison Commission and played a pivotal role in the extradition of Robert Burns, whose story became immortalized in the book and the movie “I Was a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang.”  Her eldest brother was Ira Lowther Stanley.  Ira L. Stanley began his newspaper career with the Dublin Gazette.  He was one of the founders of the Dallas Evening Herald and other newspapers in Texas.   Frank R. Stanley, the fourth of her brothers to work in the newspaper business, was printer of the Gainesville News.

Mrs. Adams was called to join and lead nearly every patriotic women’s organization in Dublin.  She was the first president of the Thomas McCall Chapter of the Daughters of 1812.  Mrs. Adams was a Regent of the John Laurens Chapter NSDAR, state president of the Colonial Daughters of the 17th Century, state regent of the Daughters of 1812, President General of the Colonial Daughters of the 17th Century, and national Curator General of the Daughters of 1812.  She and her husband Judge John S. Adams lived in “Prences,” their home on Bellevue Road, which is now being restored by Lana and Allen Thomas.  She and her husband moved to Washington, D.C. in the mid 1930s when he took a position with the Treasury Department.   Judge and Mrs. Adams returned to Dublin when he took a position as the Referee in Bankruptcy for the Dublin Division of the Federal Court.

There were other outstanding Dublin women in 1933 who are  too numerous to mention here. They will have their own place in other columns.  It was a year when actress Eugenia Rawls was beginning to step off the college stage toward the bright lights of Broadway.  It was a year when Madge Hilburn Methvin was one of the only female editors of a Georgia newspaper.  In a time when food was scarce to many people, Henrietta (Mrs. S.R.) Dull, the food editor of the Atlanta Constitution, was the country’s foremost expert on Southern cooking.    There were even more unsung women that never were afforded the credit of their enduring efforts.   The year was 1933,  the year of the women of Dublin.  

JOANNA TROUTMAN


“The Betsy Ross of Texas”

On June 14 of every year, we, as Americans, celebrate Flag Day in honor of the “Stars and Stripes,” traditionally, but not positively, designed as the first flag of the United States of America.  On this Flag Day, let us take time to remember another famous flag designer whom you may have never heard of.  This is the story of a young Middle Georgia girl, who, 180 years ago,  designed one of the most enduring  flags in American history  - the legendary “Lone Star Flag” of Texas.

Joanna Troutman, a daughter of Hiram Baldwin Troutman, was born on February 19, 1818.  Some of her biographers state that she was born in Crawford County, but at that time, the state of Georgia’s boundaries did not include any land west of the Ocmulgee River.  Joanna was most likely born in Baldwin County, the state capital, where her parents were living during the 1820 Census.  After the lands west of the Ocmulgee were opened, the Troutmans moved to Crawford County, southwest of Macon.

When an urgent call was sent out throughout Georgia and the South for volunteers to aid Americans living in Texas against the threat of harm from the Mexican Army, Col. William Ward, of Macon, recruited a company of volunteers from the Middle Georgia area and Columbus.

During a November 12, 1835 meeting in Macon, more than $3,000.00 was raised to form a company for service in Texas.

Seventeen-year-old Joanna heard of the mission from family and friends who were volunteering.  The legend is that Joanna took a portion of her white silk skirt and fashioned it into a battle flag with a five-pointed blue star on both sides with "Liberty or Death" on the obverse and "Ubi libertas habitat.”  On the reverse it was written, “Ubi nostra patria est,"  or "Where liberty dwells, there is our country."   One story goes that Joanna presented the flag to Col. Ward while his battalion was marching through tiny Knoxville in Crawford County on its march to Texas.

Unlike the legend of Betsy Ross, which most likely was concocted by her grandson after the Civil War, absolute proof of Joanna’s creation of the flag can be found in an extant letter.

     "Columbia, Ga., Nov. 23, 1835.
     
     "Miss Troutman: Col. Ward brought your handsome appropriate flag as a present to the Georgia Volunteers in the cause of "Texas and Liberty." I was fearful from the shortness of time that you would not be able to finish it as tastefully as you would wish but I assure you, without emotion of flattery,  that it is beautiful and with us its value is enhanced by the recollection of the donor.”
     
     “I thank you for the honor of being made the medium of presentation to the company, and if they are what every true Georgian ought to be your flag shall wave over fields of victory in defiance of despotism. I hope that proud day will soon arrive, and, while your star presides, none can doubt our success.”
     
     “Very respectfully,”
     
     Your friend, Hugh McLeod
   
It is believed by some that it was Lt. McLeod to whom Joanna delivered her flag.  McLeod, a native of New York City, had just  moved to Macon.  He had graduated dead last in his United States Military Academy class at West Point in 1835.  While on his way to his first assignment in Louisiana, Lieutenant McLeod was attracted to the Georgia Battalion of Volunteers and followed them to Columbus.  McLeod would have to wait to go to Texas until he resigned his commission a year or so later.  He served as the adjutant general and the inspector general of the Texas army.

Troutman’s flag was first unfurled on January 8, 1836, in Velasco on the Gulf Coast at the American Hotel in what is now Freeport, Texas.  Col. Ward’s battalion joined the army of  Colonel James Walker Fannin, who is said to have raised the “Lone Star” as the first national flag of Texas. Fannin,  a native of Twiggs County, Georgia, and his command were captured and massacred at Goliad on Sunday, March 27, 1836.

After the massacre, the story of Troutman’s flag was soon to be forgotten.  Torn to shreds during the battle, not a single scrap was saved as a souvenir.  In gratitude for her gift of the battle flag, Troutman was presented with two pieces of silver from the personal belongings  of the captured Mexican leader General Santa Anna.

Joanna Troutman returned to a normal life.  She married S. L. Pope in 1839. The Popes, who had four sons, lived on their  large farm, “Elmwood,” outside of Knoxville.   In 1875,  after her husband died in 1872, Joanna married W.G. Vinson, a one time state representative.

Joanna Troutman died on July 23, 1879 and was buried in her family cemetery near her home.    Lying in eternal peace and obscurity for more than a third of a century, memories of Joanna and her important contribution to the State of Texas were resurrected in 1913.

Texas governor and native of Camilla, Georgia, Oscar B. Colquitt, sought and was granted written permission to have Joanna’s remains reinterned in the state capital at Austin.  Texas officials hired prominent sculptor Pompeo Coppini to design a proper and fitting bronze statue to capture the importance of her memory to all Texans.  Eventually, a portrait artist was hired and his painting of the “Betsy Ross of Texas” hangs in the capitol building.

So now you know the story of a famous heroine of Texas, who never traveled to the Lone Star State, but whose memory will continue to live on in the minds of true Texans for as long is there is a Texas.