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This was in the Mobile Press Register on Thursday July 15th 2004.
Quote:
Historic surrender site being opened to public
By Jo Anne McKnight
On April 9, 1865, after four years of fighting and privation that killed 630,000 Americans, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean farmhouse in Appomattox Court house, Va., marking the end of the Civil War.
On the same day, after an eight day siege, Fort Blakeley near Mobile fell under the attack of Union troops. Northern soldiers entered the city unopposed April 12, 1865.
And on May 4, 1865, the last contingent of the Confederate Army east of the Mississippi River laid down its guns under the shade of Surrender Oak, a large white-oak tree on the outskirts of Citronelle.
The surrender of the armies of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana was negotiated in this same area, at Magee Farm in Kushla.
Historian Shelby Foote relates that on April 29, 1865, standing on the lawn of that perfectly preserved farmhouse, while a full military band queued up to play "Hail, Columbia"-and a few bars of "Dixie"-Confederate Gen. Richard Taylor and Union Gen. E.R.S. Canby agreed on the terms of surrender of the Southern armies to those of the North.
Then the two men shook hands, enjoyed an alfresco lunch and had a glass of champagne together.
According to Teresa Goolsby, president of the Chickasaw Historic Preservation Society, and Jim Golden, volunteer archivist, Magee Farm will open as a museum at 10 a.m. Saturday, and visitors will have an opportunity to stand on the same grounds as those two Civil War generals abd make the rounds of the historic hom, still furnished with its original sofa, secretary, sewing tables and silver candlesticks.
Located at 6222 U.S. Highway 45, about 1 1/2 miles north of Alabama 158 and almost directly accross the highway from Kushla Baptist Church, the antebellum home, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, sits at the end of a long, oak-lined driveway known as Kushla Avenue, inside Prichard's city limits.
Upon the death of its last owner, Margaret Sturtevant, in January, the house was purchased by the Civil War Trust.
Built in 1848 on 370 acres, Magee Farm, now down to 12 acres of working farmland, had been owned by the interconnected families of Magees, Tisdales and Sturtevants since Jacob Magee came South with the M&O Railroad and, while helping surveying crews, spotted the site on the Chickasabogue.
Besides working for the railroad, "Jacob Magee was a banker in Mobile and owned several warehouses and rental houses," said Golden, a Messinic rabbi whose passion in his off hours is digging through and cataloging the furniture, clothing, photos and personal items belonging to the families who lived at the farm.
When magee built the house, he added a general store, which was operated by William Peckham from Rhode Island. There were also a post office, a school and a grist mill on the grounds, and 1 1/4 miles north, where the road crossed the railroad tracks, stood a small shed where travelers could wait to catch a train.
Magee owned the house until his death in 1883. "The Tisdales," Golden said, "married into the Magee family and lived on the farm with them."
Magee's daughter Winifred, who was married to Peckham, lived there until she sold the property to Alfred Henry Sturtevant in 1898.
Sturdevant was a retired professor who founded Illinois College. His daughter, Helen, was 21 when the family moved to Kushla. She was a college graduate and an accomplished artist and musician-"a very cultured young lady," Golden said, adding that she was also very aware of the historical significance of the meeting between the two Civil War generals and of the importance of her own family.
Helen lived until 1965 and passed along information and artifacts to Margeret Sturdevant, her daughter-in-law, who lived at Magee Farm for 27 years.
"The Sturdevants had four ancestors who came over on the Mayflower. They are related to Noah Webster, to Gen. U.S. Grant, to both of the (former President)Roosevelts and to (former President)Zachary Taylor," Golden said.
There were also Nobel Prize winners in the Sturdevant family. "Julian won for a minor work that led to the discovery of DNA," Golden said. The other, Charles, won for his work with linguistics.
"And Helen," he said, "preserved everything. We have photographs of the house and all the people (who lived there) and all their relatives. We have their letters, their Bibles, their clothing, their personal possessions, their journals."
The Magee Farm house also is important because "it is the only still-standing house, with its furniture and everything intact-where surrender was negotiated during the Civil War," according to Golden.
"When Gen. Lee surrendered at the McLean Farm, the Union Army stole most of the furniture as souvenirs," Golden said, an assertion supported by Foote, who wrote that as soon as Lee's surrender to Grant was complete, "scavengers were at work" at the McLean home.
"The house itself was dismantled and was going to be shipped to the Chicago World's Fair in 1898." Because of problems-"perhaps with funding," Golden said, it sat on a railroad siding for 20 years.
People stole all the bricks, and though the National Park Service rebuilt it, the agency had only about 25 percent of the original house and none of the furniture, Golden said.
The house at Magee Farm is in good condition, Goolsby said. The grounds are being lanscaped and manicured, and when the museum opens, there will be live demonstrations, including spinning, weaving and quilting.
Adult admission is $5, and student rates will be less. For information call (251)675-1863.
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Brian M. DesRochers
GDI
Quote:
Historic surrender site being opened to public
By Jo Anne McKnight
On April 9, 1865, after four years of fighting and privation that killed 630,000 Americans, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean farmhouse in Appomattox Court house, Va., marking the end of the Civil War.
On the same day, after an eight day siege, Fort Blakeley near Mobile fell under the attack of Union troops. Northern soldiers entered the city unopposed April 12, 1865.
And on May 4, 1865, the last contingent of the Confederate Army east of the Mississippi River laid down its guns under the shade of Surrender Oak, a large white-oak tree on the outskirts of Citronelle.
The surrender of the armies of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana was negotiated in this same area, at Magee Farm in Kushla.
Historian Shelby Foote relates that on April 29, 1865, standing on the lawn of that perfectly preserved farmhouse, while a full military band queued up to play "Hail, Columbia"-and a few bars of "Dixie"-Confederate Gen. Richard Taylor and Union Gen. E.R.S. Canby agreed on the terms of surrender of the Southern armies to those of the North.
Then the two men shook hands, enjoyed an alfresco lunch and had a glass of champagne together.
According to Teresa Goolsby, president of the Chickasaw Historic Preservation Society, and Jim Golden, volunteer archivist, Magee Farm will open as a museum at 10 a.m. Saturday, and visitors will have an opportunity to stand on the same grounds as those two Civil War generals abd make the rounds of the historic hom, still furnished with its original sofa, secretary, sewing tables and silver candlesticks.
Located at 6222 U.S. Highway 45, about 1 1/2 miles north of Alabama 158 and almost directly accross the highway from Kushla Baptist Church, the antebellum home, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, sits at the end of a long, oak-lined driveway known as Kushla Avenue, inside Prichard's city limits.
Upon the death of its last owner, Margaret Sturtevant, in January, the house was purchased by the Civil War Trust.
Built in 1848 on 370 acres, Magee Farm, now down to 12 acres of working farmland, had been owned by the interconnected families of Magees, Tisdales and Sturtevants since Jacob Magee came South with the M&O Railroad and, while helping surveying crews, spotted the site on the Chickasabogue.
Besides working for the railroad, "Jacob Magee was a banker in Mobile and owned several warehouses and rental houses," said Golden, a Messinic rabbi whose passion in his off hours is digging through and cataloging the furniture, clothing, photos and personal items belonging to the families who lived at the farm.
When magee built the house, he added a general store, which was operated by William Peckham from Rhode Island. There were also a post office, a school and a grist mill on the grounds, and 1 1/4 miles north, where the road crossed the railroad tracks, stood a small shed where travelers could wait to catch a train.
Magee owned the house until his death in 1883. "The Tisdales," Golden said, "married into the Magee family and lived on the farm with them."
Magee's daughter Winifred, who was married to Peckham, lived there until she sold the property to Alfred Henry Sturtevant in 1898.
Sturdevant was a retired professor who founded Illinois College. His daughter, Helen, was 21 when the family moved to Kushla. She was a college graduate and an accomplished artist and musician-"a very cultured young lady," Golden said, adding that she was also very aware of the historical significance of the meeting between the two Civil War generals and of the importance of her own family.
Helen lived until 1965 and passed along information and artifacts to Margeret Sturdevant, her daughter-in-law, who lived at Magee Farm for 27 years.
"The Sturdevants had four ancestors who came over on the Mayflower. They are related to Noah Webster, to Gen. U.S. Grant, to both of the (former President)Roosevelts and to (former President)Zachary Taylor," Golden said.
There were also Nobel Prize winners in the Sturdevant family. "Julian won for a minor work that led to the discovery of DNA," Golden said. The other, Charles, won for his work with linguistics.
"And Helen," he said, "preserved everything. We have photographs of the house and all the people (who lived there) and all their relatives. We have their letters, their Bibles, their clothing, their personal possessions, their journals."
The Magee Farm house also is important because "it is the only still-standing house, with its furniture and everything intact-where surrender was negotiated during the Civil War," according to Golden.
"When Gen. Lee surrendered at the McLean Farm, the Union Army stole most of the furniture as souvenirs," Golden said, an assertion supported by Foote, who wrote that as soon as Lee's surrender to Grant was complete, "scavengers were at work" at the McLean home.
"The house itself was dismantled and was going to be shipped to the Chicago World's Fair in 1898." Because of problems-"perhaps with funding," Golden said, it sat on a railroad siding for 20 years.
People stole all the bricks, and though the National Park Service rebuilt it, the agency had only about 25 percent of the original house and none of the furniture, Golden said.
The house at Magee Farm is in good condition, Goolsby said. The grounds are being lanscaped and manicured, and when the museum opens, there will be live demonstrations, including spinning, weaving and quilting.
Adult admission is $5, and student rates will be less. For information call (251)675-1863.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian M. DesRochers
GDI
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