At this time last week, we were headed to Savannah for a couple of days to enjoy the historic setting. Our B&B host gave us a map and excellent advice about what to see and where to eat.
On our first night, we walked through the historic district along the river. We noted a lot of construction all over the city. And of course, the Spanish Moss hanging from the ever green Live Oak.
Norris spotted the fact that the many of the sidewalks were embedded with oyster shells. We learned that this concrete substitute is called Tabby, and was used as a building material due to the lack of limestone and other rock. You can see it in the texture of the sidewalk in this photo of Norris.
This is one of several photos we took at the Historic District's 22 squares, one of the more charming aspects of the city.
Here are some random photos of the homes and streets we walked.
Savannah is a very tourist friendly, walk-able city - we put eight or nine miles on our shoes in two days.
The historic district homes reminded us of Charleston, but there were a lot fewer gardens. Here's one of the more elaborate ones we did find.
This must be one of the largest houses in the city - it's now a law office.
On our second day, we took one of the trolley tours. It was interesting, but not as good as others we've been on - our guide was also the driver and seemed to be reading a script. We expected to see a pirate come on board as we'd seen the night before, but we had different visitors. This colorfully-dressed actress represented the Gullah population and culture.
After the tour, we visited the roundhouse at the old Central of Georgia railway....
... and the nearby Savannah Battlefield memorial park, with this recreated fort to represent the 1779 Siege of Savannah, or Second Battle of Savannah.
We toured the Green-Meldrim house, which is where General Sherman's headquarters was after the March to the Sea.
The home is owned by St. John's Episcopal Church,which operates the tours but also uses it at a parish house. We had lunch at a nearby tea room where we had this view.
We made a stop at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist.
The interior was bright and lavishly decorated.
We had to stop at Big Duke, the city's Fire Alarm from 1872 to 1985.
We also toured the Owens-Thomas house. This is a view of the back garden.
This is the front of the Owens-Thomas house, a fine example of English Regency architecture. The architect, one of the first in this country who was professionally trained, designed it with a system of running water for baths, sinks and water closets. The elegant front porch has twin curved staircases.
On our last day, we made a point of visiting the city Farmer's Market in Forsyth Park - we certainly don't see this much color at our markets in November.
The Italian-made fountain at the Park was ordered from a catalog and is not unique in this country.
The park was bustling with people - these ballet students posing for a photographer just beyond was just one of the most interesting groups we saw.
Later Saturday morning, we headed to Fort Pulaski National Monument. We enjoyed the National Park Service demonstration of a cannon firing. Two of the "Union Soldiers" are park rangers - the others are volunteers.
Here's a shortened video showing the end of the firing sequence -
This is the view from the fort out past the mouth of the Savannah river to the ocean.
We went on the guided tour of the fort. Typical of our National Park Service, the Ranger Guide was passionate about the subject, so we learned a lot about Civil War artillery, tactics and strategies. The main lesson was that Pulaski, one of our Third System forts built after the War of 1812, was made obsolete by the rifled cannon.The engineers and generals thought these forts were invincible, but it was given up on by the Confederates on the second day of bombardment.
We spent more time at Fort Pulaski than we planned, so we did not climb the Tybee Lighthouse but did stop for a photo.
Our last stop at Tybee Island was a short look at the beach. The wind and temperatures meant it was empty - but if you look very closely you might see evidence of a couple of kite-surfers out in the ocean.
After the Six Mile cemetery visit, Ellen and I headed over to the Hayden Historical Museum. We stopped to admire the monument to one of Hayden's many favorite sons who went on to illustrious careers, Ed Whitcomb, Indiana's 43rd governor. My photo of the monument is not very good, but you can see it at this link - Friends of Ed Whitcomb. I do have a good closeup of this plaque.
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Ed Whitcomb, now 95, is still living in Indiana. There is a wonderful video about him at this link -Video. The story of his WWII experience is dramatic enough for a feature film - but after his service as governor and approaching his 80's, he made a solo sailboat trip around the world. I am distantly related to him.
Inside the museum, Ellen might have stayed reading in the library and talking with Museum Director Rodger Ruddick for the entire two hours we were there, but there were things to see. I published a few photos when I was telling the Civil War history on my quilting blog (several seen at this link) but here's one I didn't publish there. This is needlework done by my great-aunt Carol, made from linen her grandmother and aunts processed during the Civil War.
I think a real treat the museum offers is the new addition, a stand-alone building they named "A Place Called Yesterday." Lester Tracey, also a Museum Director, donated his collections of parlor instruments and Life Magazines to the museum for display. Here are two photos of the magazines I took.
But the best part was when Lester demonstrated the instruments. This first one is not really a "parlor" organ - it was loud and you could see how effective it would be at getting the attention of passersby.
I made some audio recordings during my last visit and decided I could post a couple of them here. First we have the Regina music box - (you can see higher resolution versions of these on YouTube)
The audio from my laptop does nothing to convey how glorious the music emanating from that wooden box is.
And here Lester demonstrates one pre-electrical volume control system -
We kept Lester and Rodger talking past visiting hours and headed back to Louisville for the night. On our return trip Tuesday we stopped in Berea Kentucky at the Artisan Center, then had lunch in town at the historic Boone Tavern. I took Ellen's picture while we were waiting for our meal.
It was great to have Ellen's company on my pilgrimage. It was a long trip to make to such an obscure place as Hayden! What Ellen didn't know when she agreed to come along, is that the Hayden Museum is the Center of Gravity - here's the Congressional Record proof. I don't mind saying the odd force has had its pull on me. Maybe Ellen too - she says she would go back there.
Readers of my quilting blog are familiar with my Cousin three times removed, Eli W. Hause from the letters he wrote to my great grandfather Calvin in Hayden Indiana while serving with the Union Army in the Civil War.
In August 2014, Norris and I stopped in Hayden, Indiana, to visit the Hayden Historical Museum and visit the cemeteries where my mother's grandparents are buried. The plot at Six Mile Cemetery where my grandmother buried her father before my mother was born was suffering a lot of damage, some just from age, but some caused by the falling branches of a magnificent but now dead oak tree.
The dead tree is seen in the above photo, right of center. My great-grandfather's headstone, dating from 1923, was separated in two.
His grandmother's stone was leaning up against the base of the tree with several others.
And Cousin Eli's marker was leaning at about a 45 degree angle - I highlighted the carving with chalk for the photo.
I spoke to the Hayden Historical Museum director, who relayed my concerns about the dead tree to the church that now has the responsibility for this cemetery. Sometime before my next visit (April 2015), the dead tree was removed. But Eli's stone was now also broken.
When Eli died in 1877, the government provided headstones for veterans buried in National Cemeteries, but not for those in private cemeteries - that happened only about two years later. The Veterans Administration will not issue a marker for a grave that already has a headstone. When I found Eli's simple marker had broken, that cleared the way for me to apply for a Veterans' marker for him. I had to jump through a couple of hoops to prove that Eli was indeed buried here - somewhat difficult because responsibility for the cemetery had changed hands and the cemetery map was lost decades ago. The museum director came to my aid again, contacting the Jennings County librarian who specializes in genealogical research, who, working from home, found this notice in the North Vernon Plain Dealer of February 15, 1877: "Mrs. C. H. Wilkins of Hardenburg, informed us on
Wednesday, of the death of Eli Hause of this place, the night
before of pneumonia*. Mr. Hause was 30 years of age, and
leaves a wife and two children." (Hayden was then called Hardenburg.) That notice, along with my photo of the Hause family marker and the brass plaque the people of Hayden placed in 1980, gave enough proof he was there. (*from Calvin's diary, we know that Eli's pneumonia was a complication of typhoid fever.)
Shaw Monuments in North Vernon helped by authorizing the VA to have the 240 pound granite stone delivered there.
Shaw Monuments placed it for me and also made repairs to other headstones in the family plot. The museum director sent me photos a few weeks back, but I mentioned to my friend Ellen I wanted to go and see the improvements for myself. She said she'd go along and so we went to Hayden.
Calvin's stone restored.
This is Polly Maynard's stone, set back in its original place next to her husband's.
While I was at it, I asked Shaw Monuments to see what they could do with Eli's son's marker. John Harris Hause died a few weeks after his father at the age of seven and a half.
It appears they did not repair John's stone but resetting it as they did, it does mark his place next to his father's new granite stone.
I've made a couple of donations to the church for cemetery maintenance and hope that next Memorial Day, the children of Hayden will finally place an American flag on Eli's grave.
