| The Gardner Hotel was built about 1870 on Gardner Road near Academy Drive. The picture was made from a “tintype” that was taken in 1882. The hotel was built by Isaac Smith for John Almus Gardner, Jr.. The sign at the front was for the “Southern Express Company”. Submitted Louise Arnold |
The town of “Gardner Station”, later just Gardner, was founded in 1856 on land owned by Colonel John Almus GARDNER and is named after him. He was the first President of the Nashville and North Western Railroad. Col. GARDNER was prominent in local and State affairs, serving the Tennessee Legislature for six years as a Senator. He was a member of the 1870 Constitutional Convention. We best remember Colonel GARDNER for his historic speech about the early settlers and early times of Weakley County, given the 4th of July 1886 at the County Seat, Dresden, Tennessee. by MaryCarol
The first business was a steam saw and flouring mill owned by GARDNER & PEEPLES in 1855. Robert H. WATKINS, the first merchant, opened a store in the same year. The first house was built in 1856 for D. W. SCATES. Dr. William E. STONE located in Garnder in 1857. Captain James M. DEAN taught the first school which was established in 1857.
Gardnerville was the name of the first Post Office and was located about one mile north of the present town. Thomas H. GARDNER was the postmaster. It was later moved nearer the railroad and the name changed to Gardner.
In 1877, the Methodist Church was the first church to hold services, and the first paster was Rev. W. C. SELLERS. The Church of Christ was started in 1877, and still has an active fellowship today. The Baptist Church was organized in 1879 and in 1920, the membership moved to Martin.
One of the first private schools in the County, Corona Institute, was started in 1893. It was located in the brick home of Colonel John A. Gardner, who died in 1892 in Texas at the home of his son. It is not known when this school closed. Fire later destroyed the Gardner Home.
John A. GARDNER gave land for a public school in 1870. The frame building built served the Gardner Academy – an elementary and three year high school. The high school was discontinured in 1931, and the building was used for grades one through eight until 1952 when the school was closed. Students were then transferred to Martin. The frame building was replaced by a brick building which was used as a community center until it burned down in 1953. Members of the Community Center purchased the land from the County Board of Education and built another building of concrete blocks with volunteer labor. It still stands today.
Gardner was incorporated in 1869, William P. CALDWELL was the first Mayor. He was a lawyer and served in the U.S. Congress. His home still stands north of the railroad.
Soon after the Civil War, Gardner became the business center of Western Weakley County. It was the only main town between Dresden and Union City. Some of the businesses at this time were : Martin & Brooks Grocery, Medows & Lovelace, Knox & Caldwell, Gardner & Sons, and Smith – Gardner – Ayers Company, Gordon & Penn, J. H. Draughan, Meadows & Hawkins Grocery, F. M. Gardner – Druggist, Earl Cathon and Dr. Sawdeck saloons.
Some of the early settlers in the community were Joshua, Jesse and Alfred GARDNER; D. P. CALDWELL and William FREEMAN. Some of the early families were BOMER, CRAVEN, DALTON, ELDER, FARMER, GRAY, HESTER, MALONE, PETTYJOHN, and WHEELING.
Many of the businesses of Gardner moved to Martin when the North South Mississippi Railroad line was changed in 1873 from the originally planned route through Gardner to Martin. Thereafter, Gardner began to decline.
By Louise Hester Arnold
Gardner Station in Weakley County, Tennessee, was named for Colonel John Almus GARDNER when he gave land for Gardner Station in 1852. He organized the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad and became the first president. Gardnersville was the name of the settlement with a post office, but it was one and one tenth mile north of the present town of Gardner. The village moved when the railroad went through. The first boarding school was the Corona school and Colonel John Almus GARDNER’S nephew, James Franklin GARDNER, was the first teacher in the log school before it became a public school. The Gardner Community Center now stands where four different school buildings have stood through the years.
James Franklin was the son of Joshua and Sarah Caroline (Donelson) GARDNER. Joshua GARDNER was engaged to Betsy BELL of the Bell Witch Legend of Adams, Tennessee. Betsy gave Joshua back his ring because she was afraid of the Witch who said to her, “Please don’t marry Joshua Gardner.” Joshua left immediately for Henry County and in 1840 settled in Weakley County, TN.
Jesse GARDNER, the older brother of John Almus and Joshua GARDNER, married Priscilla GUNN, daughter of Reverend Thomas GUNN. Reverend GUNN’S daughters, Martha and Elizabeth married Betsy BELL’S brothers.
Colonel John Almus GARDNER had a fine two story hotel built in Gardner near the time he had a two story home built in GARDNER in 1872 to 1874. He had decorators to come from Europe. Colonel John Almus GARDNER was a Senator , a lawyer, a candidate for Congress in 1847, a member of the Constitutional Convention and was a member of the lower house of the State Legislature. His son-in-law, William P. CALDWELL was the first mayor of Gardner, ex-member of Congress and a lawyer.
Colonel John Almus GARDNER lived on his farm north of Gardner throughout the Civil War. Some men pretending to be Union soldiers almost hanged him when The Union Army rode up and saved his life. The army that saved his life killed his son Joseph Orlando GARDNER in the Battle of Guntown, Mississippi at the age of seventeen years old.
Washington D. C. GARDNER, son of Joshua GARDNER, enlisted in Company G, the first company of Weakley County that formed at Gardner. The Women of Gardner made their flag. That flag is still in the family in Nashville,Tennessee. Doctor Joe HIBBITTS (now deceased) told the story about the Company G flag and almost hanging of his great-grandfather, John Almus GARDNER. Washington D.C. GARDNER of Company G died in the Battle of Shiloh.
Submitted by Louise Hester Arnold,
Great-Great- granddaughter of
Col. John Almus and Joshua Gardner
Taken from Goodspeed’s 1887 History of Tennessee that belonged to Col John A. Gardner
Note by Louise: If anyone is wondering where Gardnersville was located and where Gardner is today, Gardnersville was one and one tenth mile north of where Gardner is today.
A little GARDNER HISTORY by Louise Hester Arnold
GARDNER – extracts from Weakley County History Book 1998
The SAMUEL PEEPLES home with Price THOMAS family.
MAP of the Gardner area roads.
G. T. Hall Drygoods Store in Martin, Tennessee
Submitted by Judy Hunt Johnson
| Martin Concert Band Postcard Top Right is A. J. Sander Submitted by Judy Hunt Johnson |
My grandmother had a large collection of postcards that were sent to her between 1910 and 1916. The one above is Martin.
Submitted by David G. Wilkins
I have collected POSTCARDS since 5th grade, the ones above are from MARTIN DAYS!
Submitted by Betty Arnold Smith
Charles Lambert TAYLOR and Eleanor (Lena) MASON TAYLOR’S home at 400 Main Street in Martin. I believe there is a Church built there now.
Submitted by Ginger Taylor
Picture of my grandfather, Aubrey Hunt, (first in photo) taken in the barber shop he operated in Martin from somewhere in the 1930’s, I believe, until he retired about 1962-63. He sold the shop to a Roy Miers (Myers). I don’t know if the shop is still in business in Martin or not. The shop, while my grandfather operated and owned it, was known as Hunt’s Barber Shop, and it was located on Main Street, on the side across from where what we used to call the “dime store”, or Ben Franklin store used to be.
Lots of Railroad Tracks, Union Depot on left with Williams Hotel in foreground
Martin owed its growth to the Railroads! With the crossing of the Illinois Central Railroad and the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad at Martin, the town prospered greatly in earlier days.
Union Depot – Martin, Tennessee
from “Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis RY. History and Steam Locomotives”.
NC&StL train (No. 4) standing at the Martin depot about 1900.
OBIT
Weakley County Press – September 25, 1936
Respected Colored Citizen Dies Here
Andrew Shepherd, I. C. R. R. Employee, Leaves Good Record –A Trusted Employee
Andrew Shepherd, “Uncle Shep” as he was familiarly known, one of Martin’s oldest and most respected colored citizens, died at his home here Thursday, September 17th, following an illness of several weeks.
Though born in Virginia November 6, 1848, he moved to this community during early life, when Martin was known by the name of “Frost”. He won fame during the yellow fever epidemic, at which time he remained at his post of duty and was the only representative of the Illinois Central Railroad Company remaining on duty at that time. His tireless and heroic efforts to aid the suffering won for him the commendation of many.
He was nearing 88 years of age, and the influence of his Christian life has been a shining light among his white friends as well as those of his own colored race.
Funeral services were held at the Colored Methodist Church on Sunday afternoon. A special section of the church was reserved for his white friends, who gathered to pay a last tribute to their beloved “Uncle Shep.”
Mr. L. G. McMillion read a paper which gave a part of his record while in the employ of the railroad company. Mr. T. H. Farmer and Mr. J. T. Perkins made impressive talks in tribute to his well-spent life.
The active pall bears were chosen from his colored friend – Charles Cook, T. B. Busby, John Crockett, Albert Parham, J. Mac Sanford and Buck Jenkins and as honorary pall bearers the railroad employees and other old-time friends with whom he had been associated for many years and included Messrs. J. T. Perkins, L. G. McMillion, T. P. Poyner, E. M. Oliver, Woody Harrison, T. C. Ladd, F. M. Birchett, R. W. Condra, T. J. Jeter, J. R. Bruce, M. D. Duke, T. H. Farmer, E. P. Smith, W. B. Knox, G. S. Knox, W. F. Ellis, W. A. Cashion and A. C. Gardner.
The following article about “Uncle Shep” appeared in the Illinois Central magazine in September, 1923:
Andrew Shepherd, Negro crossing watchman at Martin, Tenn., braved the yellow fever epidemic to look after the company’s property there. It was the Mississippi Central Railroad then, and Shepherd was a laborer on the section at Martin.
Each morning Shepherd walked over the section to see if the track was in condition for the passage of trains. When he found something wrong he reported it to the section foreman so that repairs could be made before the first train was due. One morning on his return to the section house after his tour of inspection, he discovered that the entire section crew had left the city. Inquiry brought him the news that the doctors of Martin had ordered everyone who was able to do so to leave the city. The yellow fever was causing deaths by the score.
There was no place for Shepherd to go. No trains on which he could leave were due at that hour. He returned to the section house to await developments, for it was outside of the city, where danger of the fever was less. To go to his home would have been no comfort; his wife had left the city, as had so many others.
The first train through Martin brought the roadmaster. Shepherd told him of the condition there and that he was the only employee remaining. The roadmaster instructed him to stay there, to continue his duties as tractwalker each day and to report by note to the foreman of the adjoining section.
Shepherd stayed. He walked over the section before each train was due. After he had inspected the track he returned to Martin and carried the mail to the section house where he placed it on the trains. No trains stopped at the station in Martin. They went through the city at top speed, then stopped at the section house, where Shepherd gave the crews and passengers all the news of those stricken. Trains often lingered as long as 20 minutes, he says.
On November 1 of that year the first snow fell, and the last person died of the fever. Residents began to return to Martin then, he says.
Shepherd has been in the service of the Illinois Central and its predecessor, the Mississippi Central, for more than 51 years, most of that time at Martin. He was born a slave of the Robert Williams plantation at Farmersville, Va., November 12, 1849, and lived there until after the Civil War. He recalls that his days as a slave were hard, and he received many whippings; but…he still has kind thoughts of his master.
The Williams plantation consisted of about a thousand acres, he says, and was manned by more than 300 slaves. Tobacco, oats, rye, barley, wheat and peas were among the things raised. Everyone worked hours a day in the fields and ate only two meals. The mules were fed once a day, he says. No slave could leave the plantation without a pass. If he did, he was severely whipped. Being late to work, grumbling, slowness and stubbornness were causes for the lash.
When Shepherd first left the plantation, he went to Chattanooga where he worked for a doctor about seven months. Then he accepted a place on a construction gang of the A. G. S., now the Southern, and worked for nine months. The Mississippi Central Railroad started construction, and he became a laborer with a gang at Martin, Tenn., on May 8, 1871.
His first work for this railroad was cutting timber for ties. Some of the trees that grew on the right-of-way made as many as eight ties. In about 18 months the track was opened to traffic between Cairo and Jackson, Tenn. Shepherd then became a laborer on a construction train under Charles Ross. He remained in that work for some time, was sent to a section at Sharon, Tenn., for a year, and was then transferred to Martin in 1874.
That was the year of the Ed Bailey wreck near Martin. It was considered the most dangerous of that day. A box car slipped from a siding to a bridge on the main line just as Mr. Bailey’s train was approaching. The collision caused no deaths, but many were injured. The engine went through the bridge, the fireman was scalded, and Engineer Bailey was dug out from beneath the wreckage. The track was open to traffic after four days, Shepherd says.
He worked on the section at Martin about seven years, and during that time he had his experience with the yellow fever. In 1881 he accepted a position as baggage handler and porter at the station at Martin, and he continued in that work until he was made the crossing watchman February 8, 1914.
The Mississippi Central built its track four inches wider than the present standard gauge. All roads in that part were wide then Shepherd says. When the Illinois Central took charge of the road, the gauge was made standard. Then when cars had to be transferred to other roads, wider trucks had to be put on the cars. The cars were hoisted while this was being done. Sixty cars a day were all that could be transferred at Martin, he says. They were 32 feet long then.
Two years ago he made a visit to the Williams home in Virginia, but found things much different from the way they were when he left there more than 50 years before. The plantation had become smaller by sales of land, and there were only two of the family there – the youngest daughter and son of his master. They were both married and had grandchildren.
Submitted by Rebecca Holder
During the 1800’s epidemic diseases took the lives of many of our ancestors. Outbreaks of cholera, smallpox and dysentry were common. But for West Tennessee, Yellow Fever posed the greatest threat, especially in the urban towns like Memphis. During epidemic outbreaks, people of Memphis would flee the city, taking trains headed east, south or north. The towns along the rail lines were hardest hit – Milan, Paris and Martin among them. During the 1878 epidemic, nearly 25,000 people fled Memphis within two weeks – and this is how Yellow Fever arrived at Martin in 1878, unpaying passengers aboard the trains were the female Aedes aegypti mosquitos – the carriers of the disease.
Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1873 claimed 2,000 lives in Memphis – the most ever of an inland city
Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 claimed 5, 150 lives in Memphis with 17,000 infected.
Yellow Fever was still a concern by 1905 from this Dresden Enterprise article
Desden Enterprise
Friday, August 18, 1905
“Yellow Fever
We are doomed to an epidemic that may reach West Tennessee, although it may not spread beyond the borders of Louisiana, still it would be a good idea to clean out your premises and keep them cleaned out, use lime and other disinfectants freely, burn old rubbish, drain out all old ponds which become stagnated in the dry season. If you are going somewhere on the train, you must have a health certificate bearing a county or municipal seal.”
Submitted by MaryCarol
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Below abstracted from Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture online
Yellow Fever caused fevers, chills, hemorrhaging, severe pains, and sometimes a jaundicing of the skin, which gave yellow fever its name. The trademark of the disease, however, was the victim’s black vomit, composed of blood and stomach acids.
Although its cause was unknown until 1900, yellow fever was transmitted from person to person by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito. Sailors on ships from the Caribbean or West Africa, from which the disease most likely originated, docked in New Orleans, where mosquitoes spread the disease from the infected person to the local population. River traffic carried yellow fever up the Mississippi Valley as long as mosquitoes were available to transmit the disease from human to human. Reprieve came only with the first frost.
————
The following newsaper articles submitted by Rebecca Holder
According to the Weakley County Press, December 12, 1937, A. A. Atkinson was the second man to fall victim to the fever, and was the first man to be buried, being buried in an old cotton patch west of the Illinois Central Railroad. At first it was the intention of those who had the burial of Mr. Atkinson to bury him where the Methodist Church now stands, but they decided to take him out on the west side and then buried him in a cottom patch.
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Weakley County Press – Friday, August 6, 1954
Devastating Yellow Fever Epidemic 76 Years Past
By Eleanor Jeter
Ever hear of the yellow fever epidemic? Sure you have. And you know that the relatively small plot of land on Elm Street is known as the yellow fever cemetery. But how many of you younger generation have ever heard your grandparents or “greats” tell about the time it actually happened?
Martin was by no means what it is today. As a matter of fact, about the only resemblance might be the running of the same railroad track which was such a key item in this happening.
Well, here’s the finished product of a story that legend, fact, and the passing of the years have combined to make. The time was in 1878 on an August day, doubtless rivaling in heat our current scortchers, when an old Irishman named Pat, employed by hotel owner William Martin, helped to clean out a boxcar that Mr. Martin had ordered from New Orleans in which to ship some corn (other phases of the story state that it was wheat) to a distant city.
Now as fate (and the sake of this story) would have it, the very same week, a huge ball characteristic of this era was held, and Mr. Martin, a “gay young blade” of the day was dancing with one of the Holland girls when he was stricken. Both of them were victims of the disease.
Also helping to clean the boxcar were Tom Harvey, Jim Fields, Pleas Clements, and John Hawks, who was the only man not to catch the fever. Clements took the disease and recovered. Harvey and Jim Fields, who both died of it, were the first.
Legend has brought this story through the years with two different ways of yellow fever’s being brought here. It is told that there were mosquitos in the empty car, causing the epidemic, while another accounts that it began from the dead body of a tramp found in the car. We are left to guess and base fact on the belief that the epidemic did strike Martin, taking a toll of some forty-two lives.
Specially trained nurses from New Orleans were immediately sent for by the doctors attending to the epidemic, Dr. G. W. Dibrell and Dr. Charles Sebastain, who were said to have disagreed at first as to whether the cause of the various illnesses was cholera or yellow fever.
With the death of A. A. Atkinson arose the first question as to burial. Thus he was the first victim to be ‘buried in’ the present day yellow fever cemetery which at that time was sporting a fine cotton crop!
The list of those who lost their lives in the epidemic, which may relate the victims to various now living Martinites, is as follows:
Thomas HARVEY
Jimmie FIELDS
W. H. MARTIN
Mr. LEWIS
T. P. ESTEP
Walter GREEN
Mrs. JOHNSON
Mrs. Marshal MARTIN
W. Z. LOONEY
Mr. and Mrs. Abner ATKINSON
Miss Mollie HOLLAND
Miss Minnie HOLLAND
Ben MURPHY,
T. J. MURPHY
Tom ACRES,
Miss Forest DIBRELL
Mrs. Henry DRAUGAN
Harrison VOWELL
James CARTER
L. A. BLAKE
Mrs. L. A. BLAKE
William CARTER
Mrs. James CARTER
Walter JOHNSON
E.[Emanuel] HOLLAND
Charles GARDNER
Mr. JONES the artist
Mrs.JONES, the artist’s wife
Captain POWELL
Captain DEAN
Wm. BOYD
Joe FELPS’ little child
two negroes
a child of Mr. and Mrs JONES
R. J. McCOMB
Mrs. DRAKE
W. V. BRAWLEY
Mrs. ACRES
Mrs. FUQUA
James KIMBRO
(These names were taken from a list published in a 1915 issue of the Martin Mail.)
Well, all this happened in Martin in 1878. The following year New Orleans and many other points in Louisiana and Mississippi were hit by yellow fever. And here, the citizens of Martin with their own recent epidemic still fresh in their minds, contributed what probably should go down in Martin’s history as being one of it’s most noble, yet simple, deeds.
When trainload after trainload of refugees began to come through Martin to points north, they were not allowed to stop in the corporate limits of any town in the South. Nevertheless, upon arriving outside the city limits of Martin, they would find water and food placed there for them.
So goes the tale of the great yellow fever epidemic in Martin– an account of the heroic way in which near disaster was combated. The only part of this that has been told for the sake of colorful legend was the leading to belief that from old Pat to Billy Martin to Minnie Holland to the other persons was the disease carried. In medical actuality, yellow fever can only be transmitted by a specie of mosquito known as the egypti aedaes.
Nevertheless, the plot of land on Elm Street is living (or rather it should be said, dead) proof of the disastrous 1878 yellow fever epidemic in Martin.
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The History of a “Happytown”
From the Centennial Edition of the Weakley County Press, June 28, 1973
Research and Composition by Ronald C. Thomas
Note** The following is just the Yellow Fever part of the article.
It is not known exactly how yellow fever invaded Martin except that a boxcar ordered from Memphis by William H. MARTIN to ship corn to St. Louis apparently carried the mosquitoes to the city. It is believed the mosquitoes came from Central America through the port of New Orleans northward through Memphis and on to Martin. There were 400 cases of the disease with 51 deaths. The first victim was William MARTIN, son of Mr. Billy, and Abner ATKINSON was the second. Mr. ATKINSON became the first person to be buried in what is now called the Yellow Fever Cemetery. The cemetery is located at the corner of Elm and Lee Streets and is a constant reminder of the suffering the town endured.
There are many stories about family struggles and heroic deeds during the epidemic. Two items concern individuals performing tasks in a way that helped lessen the danger for those involved.
Only two doctors served the city in 1878, Dr. DIBRELL and Dr. C. M. SEBASTIAN. Dr. DIBRELL, who was older and not well, soon left the town. He had lost members of his family and buried them near where the American Legion home now stands, thus leaving 28 year old Dr. SEBASTIAN as the only physician in the city and the surrounding area. He immediately erected posters warning the people to leave the city, but “his diagnosis was ridiculed and he was called a young upstart.” Dr. SEBASTIAN put his wife and three small daughters on a train for Middle Tennessee to stay with her father. En route they were refused a hotel room when the clerk learned they were from Martin and were forced to spend “the night in a stable.”
With the number of yellow fever cases rising rapidly, Dr. SEBASTIAN knew he would be unable to help all those that were stricken. He dispatched an urgent telegram to Dr. PIERCE of Union City stating, “For God’s Sake and the Sake of Humanity, Give Me A Hand.” Dr. PIERCE came and was a great help to Dr. SEBASTIAN, especially when Dr. SEBASTIAN became ill with a light case.
Dr. SEBASTIAN also evolved a theory about the transmission of yellow fever from one person to another. At the time, it was not known that the mosquito was the carrying insect. He observed that one person would be stricken with the dreaded disease, but instead of an individual near becoming ill next, someone in another location would be afflicted. He believed that the disease was probably not contagious, but carried from person to person by an insect. “He called it a gnat—and that this gnat was chained to a given location by the laws of nature per se, and was blown by the winds and carried in some way to another location.” He first related his theory to a meeting of the Illinois State Medical Convention and later to various other groups. “For years he was derided locally for his theory and any swarm of flying insects were hilariously hailed as ‘Dr. Sebastian’s damned gnats.’”
The second individual who contributed toward lessening the suffering was Andrew SHEPHERD, a Negro crossing watchman for the Mississippi Central Railroad. Put in charge of the company’s property during the epidemic, he refused to leave when Dr. SEBASTIAN ordered everyone to vacate the city. His job prior to the epidemic was to walk the tracks each morning inspecting them to see if they were in proper condition for the passage of the trains. If he found anything wrong, he would report it to the section foreman, so that repairs could be made before the first train was due. On his return to the section house one morning after an inspection tour, he discovered that the entire crew had left the city because of Dr. SEBASTIAN’S order. Many had already died from the disease.
SHEPHERD had no place to go nor any way to leave the city as no train was due. He could not go home as his wife had already left so he returned to the section house to await development, “for it was outside of the city, where danger from the fever was less.” SHEPHERD remained at the section house until the next train arrived which carried the railroad’s roadmaster. SHEPHERD informed him of the city’s condition and told him he was the only remaining employee. He was instructed to stay in Martin as someone was needed who could continue to check the tracks in order that possible wrecks might be averted.
SHEPHERD stayed and continued to report on the condition of the tracks. His excellent work enabled the trains to pass through Martin at top speed before stopping at the section house on the edge of town. This kept passengers from being stricken while passing through the city and helped keep the epidemic confined. Each day he would carry the mail to the waiting trains so the people of Martin could communicate with relatives and friends. Also, he would inform passengers and crews of the progress being made in combating the disease and noted, “Trains often lingered as long as twenty minutes.”
He continued this schedule for five weeks and “Although he was alone, time did not hang heavily on Shepherd’s hands, for he was a very busy man. He helped at the station and tended the switches in the yard, together with his other duties.” Finally, in November after the first frost, the danger lessened and along with other residents, SHEPHERD’S wife returned.
The suffering caused, the lives interrupted, and the fear the disease brought is difficult to imagine. The best example of how the people of Martin felt is through a poem written by W. P. CALDWELL and called “one of the most beautiful poems written in years by a Tennessean.” Although the title is uncertain, it is believed to be the “Yellow Demon of Death.”
In the deep placid shade of its whispering trees
Reposed the young city that hot summer noon
When the Angle of Death spread his wings on the breeze-
‘Twas the darkness of night on the brightness of noon.
For days that were fair and skies that were blue
Green black as a pall in the shade of the wing;
He call’d and there answered the loved and the true-
The doom’d for the courts of the merciless king.
Bright hopes were blighted that can’t be relighted;
Tender ties perished—no more to be nourished,
Fond hearts were parted—to be reunited
At the throne of the Father, whose they had cherished.
Then courage and manhood, and kindness and love
And heroic faith gleaming and bright in the van;
Stood forth in that hour of trial to prove
“That life is best spent that is given for man.”
We’ve seen the Dark One by the battle’s red glare
He call’d for the strong and his strength fell away
Till anguish and writhing beneath their hot chain
Did reason, unseated and writhing beneath their hot chain.
To the demons of madness that tortured the brain.
He breath’d on the youth, ‘till he bent a high head,
Tamed a proud spirit and dim’d a bright eye;
With his elders he rests in the halls of the dead
‘Till the good angels summon him home to the sky.
To the matron he turned and at his hot breath
The springs of her blood and her life dried away;
Resigned her want from to the Keeping of earth,
And freed her brave soul from its union of clay.
He signed the maid and her step lost its Spring,
Her lips its red hue—her cheek its rose;
The voice that gladden’d and cheer’d with its ring
Was still’d and hush’d in eternal repose.
While here from the parents the children were borne
And they left alone to their grief and their weeping—
There from the parents the children were torn
And ‘neath the same mold are tranquilly sleeping.
There neighbor and friend and husband and wife
Were smitten and fell by that poisonous breath—
All ties that are nearest and dearest in life
Were loos’d in the grasp of that terrible death.
Not goodness nor strength, nor beauty, nor love,
Could shield or exempt from the horrors he wrought,
May God in His mercy look down from above
And pity the sorrows the Plague Angel brought.
After the epidemic, population growth virtually stopped, but by 1883 the town could boast of a population of 1,200 and in 1893 had increased to a total of 2,000….
*Note above a photo of cemetery:
Some of those victims of the 1878 epidemic of “Yellow Fever,” spoken of in the ‘History of a Happy Town’ rest here in the Yellow Fever Cemetery located on South-bound Highway 45E. Some of the names on the tombs include those Mrs. Sarah E., wife of W. H.DRAKE, Born Nov. 10, 1846, Died Oct. 27, 1878; Emanuel HOLLAND, Jan. 7, 1823-October 9, 1878; Mollie Lue, Sept. 15, 1859-Sept. 24, 1878; Minnie A. (Mollie and Minnie were daughters of B.C. and M.P. HOLLAND) October 4, 1861-Sept. 24, 1878; Mary L.WHITE, wife of M.C. DRAUGAN, Feb. 14, 1843-Oct. 6, 1878; A. ATKINSON, Oct. 14, 1830-Sept. 9, 1878; L. A.BLAKE (an early mayor of Martin) Nov. 25, 1843-Sept. 24, 1878.
