The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1919-08-15
BOYS IN CRAY
HOLD REUNION
AT CULLEOKA
CELEBRATE SEVENTY.NlNTH AN
NlVERSARY OF M. e. TOMLlN.
SONS BIRTH.
AVERAGE AGES SEvENTY-SEvEN
Eloquent Tribute Is Paid the Record
of the Confederates as citizens by
J. |. Finney, Editor CT The Herald.

Merritt B. Tominson, the Confederate
veterans Of the Cul!eoka community
assembled in reunion at his beautiful
home Saturday, where they enjoyed
the hospitality for which that home
has been famous for half century.
Mrs, Tomlinson's daughter, Miss Mat
tie, assisted by Mrs. John p. Graham,
dispensed hospitality in a manner that
brought wildly to the minds of the
old soldiers that which has always
been in the South the subject of song
and story
The old veterans spent the entire
day beneath the shade of the giant
beech trees that make the TOmlin-
son lawn one of natures beauty spots.
They went over again the stirring
scenes of the days that tried mems
souls. In fancy they tented once more
on the old camp ground; they heard
the roar of the cannon, the shrieks
of the dying, the call OF the charge
They saw again the desolatiOn and
the havoc of war. The average age Of
these veterans who helped in war
and in peace to make the name of the
Confederate soldiers synonym for all
that is best in life, was seventy-seven
years The oldest present was that
gallant old soldier and fine old citi
zen Capt. Joe Love, aged eighty-five
Two boys, Joe Tomlinson and Marion
Taylor, both aged seventy-three, being
therefore only nineteen when Lee sur
rendered at Appomattox and it's IA
nous apple tree, were the youngest Of
the lot. Others present with their
ages were: Joe Ballanfant. "A; Tom
Shaw, rs; Jim Hall, 70; Tom Bryant
70. Another present, who would have
been a soldier at sixteen, but for the
objections of parents who already
had two boys in the service, was
-dsl scr. Jesse ~Fomlinson, brother got
the host
During the afternoon music both vo-
cal and on the Victrola were rendered
Miss Brownie Tomlinson led in the
rendition of number of the old songs
sacred to the Confederate soldier. J.
]. Finney, editor of The Herald, was
called upon for an address. In re-
spending he said that when he adj
dressed veterans of that great army
Of Lee and Jackson, veterans of that
greater army that restored Anglo
Saxon civilization in the South, had
in the face of almost insurmountable
difficulties repaired all the ravages of
war, he felt sense of his own unwor-
thinesS. He paid tribute to the sol
der sin war, but he said that the Con-
federate's chief claim to glory would
always be his nratchless record in
peace. History, he declared offered
but one parallel and that was the be
haviOr of the Puritans when they
were dismissed from the army CT
England upon the restoration O.
Charles H.
Mr.. Finney contrasted conditions
at the close Of the. war in the South
and those that prepailed now. he
pictured the ruin and devastation that
the Confederates faced when they r.
turned to their homes in siXty-tiVe,
how the great foundation of Their
economic and social life had been
wiped away. He said that they had
repaired the ravages of war and made
the South to bloom and blossom a.
the rose because they went to work to
raise cotton and corn and hogs and
hominy and did not spend their time
raising hell They did not work
either by the man made clock nor
did they try to avoid honest labor
through organization and strikes.
They worked from sun to sun. In
closing, he said:
Your ranks are fast thinning. In
a little while the Confederate soldier
will be only glorious memory of
deathless valor in war; of the highest
type of Anglo-Saxon citizenship in
peace. | can wish nothing better for
our country, which we all love with
deathless devotion, than the spirit
and example of the Confederate sol
der will live on forever and animate
those who must take up the stainless
banner that is soon to drop from Your
palsied hands. We are upon the eve
of troublous days for our country. A
great organization Of segment of our
people emboldened by the repeated
concessions from eowardly politicians.
are threatening destruction to our con-
stitutional government and death to
the principles of law and order and
liberty for which you fought hun
dred pitched battles and for which
your grand sons but recently fought
T..