As a Texas spring blooms all around her, Stone frets about rumors of the death of a famous Confederate general.
From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, who chronicled her Louisiana family’s turbulent experiences throughout the Civil War era.
Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.
(Photo edited by Bob Rowen)
As a Texas spring blooms all around her, Stone frets about rumors of the death of a famous Confederate general. March 30, 1865
Tyler, Texas
The little town is looking lovely now in its spring decoration of peach and apple blossoms and the circling fields of soft green wheat and rye. It seems to be peeping through a bouquet of pink and white blooms.
We have been renovating our last summer’s clothes. We have not a single new thing to make up. If Mr. Smith does not soon send that cotton which must go on to San Antonio, I do not know what we will all do for clothes. …
Stone tries to write as her brother nurses a black eye, the result of a school fight.
From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, who chronicled her Louisiana family’s turbulent experiences throughout the Civil War era.
Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.
(Photo edited by Bob Rowen)
Stone tries to write as her brother nurses a black eye, the result of a school fight.
March 24, 1865
Tyler, Texas
Mamma and Mollie Moore have just gone on a visit to the hospital. Johnny is lounging in the rocker plying me with questions with his eye so bruised and blackened he can scarcely see, the effects of his first fisticuffs. He had a regular fight yesterday with a Tyler boy and says he came off decidedly second best. He is sore and stiff today. He declares he fought the boy from a sense of duty because the boy had been insulting to the girls at school and partly, I think, for his teacher Mr. Hand’s sake.
He entered the field of combat in the real spirit of Don Quixote, for he had no personal injury to avenge. He feels better now that he has worked off some of his superfluous steam. He has been at boiling heat for a month, eager for a fight. We think he will settle to his studies now with renewed interest. He has a satisfied look, long a stranger to his face. …
For my readers in San Antonio — if you’re as fascinated with Loreta Velazquez as I am, this presentation and discussion of her life on Thursday at UTSA should be a treasure trove of information.
During this Women’s History Month, we show photographs of some of the local women who contributed to the field of music during the period after World War I through the 1940s. These women shared their musical talents through various activities, from classical music performances to radio broadcasting. Some are remembered only by the local community. Others achieved international fame and their recordings are still commercially available.
These photographs, from our San Antonio Light Photograph Collection (MS 359), were all taken by the newspaper’s staff photographers.
Lydia Mendoza, “The Lark of the Border,” poses with her guitar at the time she was appearing at the Nacional Theater in San Antonio, January 1948. (MS 359: L-3514-A). Mendoza (1916-2007), the first star of recorded Tejano and Norteno music, began singing publicly in San Antonio in the late 1920s. By 1934, she had achieved national attention through her recordings and radio performances. She received…
The party that bonded the Stones to the Tyler community was a success. But Stone herself enjoys an even greater success: a new beau, Lt. Holmes.
From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, who chronicled her Louisiana family’s turbulent experiences throughout the Civil War era.
Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.
(Photo edited by Bob Rowen)
The party that bonded the Stones to the Tyler community was a success. But Stone herself enjoys an even greater success: a new beau, Lt. Holmes.
March 9, 1865
Tyler, Texas
The tableaux passed off as a grand success and made quite a nice sum of money. It is quiet now. Most of our soldier friends have left, one new acquaintance remaining, Lt. Holmes, a Louisianian. He took part in the entertainment and we saw him frequently. Before he came, Lt. Dupre told us he was so “fast ” that he would not bring him to the house, but he came with someone, and as far as we can tell is behaving all right. He seems full of life and fun. …
Mamma received today her application for My Brother’s transfer. It was disapproved, and so that ends our last hope of seeing him until this cruel war is over. We hear all the troops on this side are to be ordered across the river to reinforce the Army of [Northern] Virginia. When we hear from Jimmy again, their command may be marching over. It is a dark hour for us now. Only bad news, but the darkest hour is just before the dawning.
Miss Mollie Moore, “the Texas song bird,” has been very kind, lending us books, among others new novels. … They promise to be quite interesting. I am hoarse from reading aloud so long tonight. Mamma was tired and lying down. It has been too cold today to do anything but hover over the fire and read. …
Stone finally embraces in writing her Tyler, Texas, community as she and her mother help residents raise money for home Confederate veterans.
From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, who chronicled her Louisiana family’s turbulent experiences throughout the Civil War era.
Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.
(Photo edited by Bob Rowen)
Stone finally embraces in writing her Tyler, Texas, community as she and her mother help residents raise money for home Confederate veterans.
It is astonishing, given her vivid condescension to and disdain for Texans recorded in past entries, to see Stone not just befriend Tyler residents but to also dismiss any potential disparagement from her fellow Louisiana refugees.
Note her new friendship with Mollie E. Moore, who will eventually become a celebrated poet and successful writer.
March 3, 1865
Tyler, Texas
Our interest for the last ten days has centered on the all-engrossing theme of tableaux. All the society young folks of the town with Mamma as head and front of the affair are busy getting up an entertainment, tableaux, music, and charades, to raise money for establishing a soldiers’ home. The natives, very unexpectedly, asked us to take part; and as Mamma knows more of such things than all the rest of them put together, she soon found herself sole manager of the affair and I am her [deputy]. I have taken no part but they kindly allow me to attend all rehearsals, and I have had a gay time but for being bored to extremity by Dr. Weir, whom I nearly hate.
We have become acquainted with all the creme de la creme of the city, and from one to a dozen are always dropping in to discuss something or ask Mamma’s advice. I know most of the love affairs of Tyler now. I hope Janie Roberts and Lt. Alexander will make a match. They are very much in love with each other and it would be quite suitable. The young people have rehearsed here several times when it was too bad to go to the church. …
Anna Meagher was asked to play at the entertainment but some feeling of pique prevented her, and they all speak most contemptuously of the whole affair. But we are glad the ice is at last broken, and we are friends with the people of the town. It is far more agreeable, and there are many nice people when one finds them out. Mollie E. Moore, a poetess, is a charming girl and we are becoming quite friends. They live near. The other refugees can laugh at us if they like, but we are having the most enjoyable life. …
Daily observations on the Hudson River as it passes through New York City. The section of the Hudson which passes through New York is historically known as the North River, called this by the Dutch to distinguish it from the Delaware River, which they knew as the South River. This stretch of the Hudson is still often referred to as the North River by local mariners today. All photos by Daniel Katzive unless otherwise attributed. Twitter @dannykatman
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