The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1894-12-14

q
given his fortune and helIfe Yet AZ the same
j Time do We Dd him son. husband and as father with
press OF study and Of danger and with the Of public
life and office weighing him down. the gentle and
loving eompaniol the guide, the helper whom his
wife says "Hissympathies we're keen and gentle
woman's.n
The irst marriage Jefferson Davis that contracted
with Miss Taylor, was Of such short duration the
home scarcely founded Instead Of the reputed
away match they married, after engagement OF
two years at the home Miss Taylors amt the
presence of nearly all her relatives Mr.. Davis had just
returned from the Indian country, and being out
with exposure and hard service be- naturally domestic in
tastes began to look forward ongngy establishing
restful home, and to quiet life Mr. Davis was
fresh from the Black Hawk and had much Of
the discomorts of army life to the families of the officers
that when he decided to marry he also determined to
resign his commission in tile He resigned in June,
1885, and married the next month. Taking bis young
bride to Mississippi he settled his plantation, "Brer.
feld.u
This tract land while very fertile, situated in
the swamp of the Mississippi and the bred
malaria The young couple both stricken with fever,
and though they fastened to the home of Mr. Davis sister
louisiana Mrs Davis recovered but died in Sep
tember scarcely three months after her marriage During
her illness Mr. Davis lying sick in another part of the
house. lie heard her singing her avorite song and srug
Cling he reached her bedside to find her dying The
grief of the young husband terrible For month his
life despaired of and when at last he able to be
lifted in his faithful negros he shadow of his
former SELF So annotated he and the
cough that had chung him. people thought
him spend the winter in Havana There he rec overed
strength bu. neither hope happiness After several
months in Cuba Mr.. Davis went New York and from
New York to Washington. But though received and
sought after in both places by the most prominent and
most brilliant he found abiding place in their society,"
and in short time he returned Briered and picked up
the threads of life which had foated widen after
death of his young wife.
For eight years this period Mr. Davis rarely left
and us Con
elapse without his leaving his plantation.
A few miles from Brierfeld stood "The Hurricane,
the home of Joseph E. Davis the elder brother
mred friend of jefferson Davis In 1914 Mr.. Joseph
Davis invited Miss Varina Howellthe schoolgirl daugh
ter of his friend W. Howell-o spend Christmas
with the Davis family at the Hurricane. She comes, and
it is amusing to to her first impressions of the
who aerward to be her husband and the ideal of all
her thoughts She wrote to her mother follows:
To-day saw Uncle Joes younger brother. did yon
know he had one?) do not know whether this Mr.. JEFF
erson Davis is old young he looks both at times but
believe he DID, for from what hear he is only two years
younger than you He mpresses me as remarkable
kind of man. but of uncertain temper and be has way
of taking for granted that everybody agrees with him
when he expresses opinion that offends Yet he
most agreeable and he has peculiarly voice
winning manner of asserting himself. do not think
shall ever like him as do his brother joe Would you
believe it, he is refined cultivated and yet he is
democratic
So this little miss of seventeen of the future
! hero and statesman.
seems though that if she did not ever like him as
she did his brother Joe she learned ike him deal
more for before she returned home from her visit and in
about three weeks from the day they met she became
engaged to him and in two months from the time of their
first meeting they married.
Now begins the home life Davis and now also
begins his brilliant public 1t is charming read
of the alteration that this schoolgirl bride gave
her grave. somewhat middleaged husband After bridal
tour, during which Mrs Davis met many distinguished
IN all If cha r;c
lousy amusing fashion, her admiration Mr. Davis the
Davises went to Briered and there remained till they left
for Washington.
Brierfeld 'cat and clayedn house, built by Mr.
Davis own hands and after his plan. 1t was the
typical southern planters home Mrs. Davis says that
though they afterward built much pretentious
house at Brerfield the first always 'home her.
In Washington the Davises always popular and
during their entire residence there they enjoyed much
social intercourse with the brilliant society of the
During the first period of Mr.. Davis, life as senator
they boarded but afterward they Joined the distinguished
few,n as Mrs Davis termed them, who kept house.
1t was in Washington that they lost their born
little boy of wensythree months The grief of Mr.. Davis
shows the tender nature of the For months his
wife tells Us, he walkd the floor hours at night in
agony his loss AMI the cry of child in the
would make him frantic. His devotion to his children
always beautiful and far beyond that either felt
displayed by most fathers
When the children sent from the table for pun
shment he would always call them to his chair and kiss
them before they left the room, little daughter
Margaret Howell would often say: II my father
come home, he lets me be bad.n
Mrs Davis tells many amusing things of her husbands
kindness to the many mendicants and impostors who
hronged the streets ana Hobbies of Washington How
would sometimes walk into the breakfastroom leading
rowzyheaded crying children palecheeked pitifu tired
women and sometimes vagabonds of men whom he had
met the street and who had touched his ever tender
heart by the tales they told All this extremely
Portable for the housewife admit but still showing the
depth of tender and ready sympathy for Gods poor
On the plantation though and among his negroes did
Mr. Davis reign supreme He was the king and idol of
every true heart within those black breasts During
of his solitude and grief after the death of his first
wife he was watched over by them if he had been
child. Men and alike worked for the comfort of
Marse jeff and srove to minister to him personally
and from their well meant but rudey performed offices of
love he suffered numberess Inconvenience yet always
with cheerfuness and with sign of complaining.
The wlole Davis family noted for the generosity
of their dealings with their negroes and Jefferson no
exception to this rule.
When he looked after plantation there