Organization of the Monumental Society of Hardeman County (1866)
A number of citizens of Hardeman met at the residence of Mrs. ROPER, in Bolivar, for the purpose of organizing a “Monumental Society,” the object and aims of which are to devise measures and means for erecting a shaft to the memory of the sons of Hardeman who lost their lives in the late unhappy war. We have been handed the following Preamble, etc., of the organization by A. T. MCNEAL, Esq., with the request to publish the same, which we cheerfully do:
Preamble
Inasmuch as we deem it a sacred duty of the living to pay some respect to the memory of those who fell in the late struggle, giving up their lives in a cause which was ours as well as their own; and as many of the purest and best citizens of our county perished at the post of duty, and now rest in graves unknown and unmarked, we believe it due from us to each and every one of them to hand down to posterity some testimonial of our appreciation of their sacrifice, therefore – Resolved, That we, the undersigned, agree to form ourselves into an organization for the purpose of bringing this object to the attention of the people of our county, and pledge each other that we will use our best energies to have erected, in Court Square in the town of Bolivar, or some other suitable place, a monument commemorative of the Confederate dead of Hardeman county.
signed: Mrs. R. P. NEELY, Pres, A. T. MCNEAL, Sec’y, R. S. HARDY, Treas., and members Mrs. E. P. MCNEAL, Mrs. R. G. CRAWFORD, Mrs. Pitser MILLER, Mrs. H. HARKINS, Mrs. R. S. HARDY, Mrs. M. P. ROBERTS, Mrs. A. ROPER
The Bolivar Bulletin. (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.), 12 May 1866, Page 3. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.