Showing posts with label Ada Jack Carver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ada Jack Carver. Show all posts

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Take a Trip to Miss Cammie's Dinner Table

Steve and I went to Natchitoches yesterday to see the Cammie Henry exhibit at Lemee House:  Miss Cammie's Dinner table.  It was a nicely done presentation and I got to see one of the famous tablecloths that Cammie did.  On special occasions she would break out the tablecloth and everyone would sign it.  She would go back later and embroider the names in colored thread.

I'm sure there were several of these tablecloths and the one we saw yesterday had dates after her death which was puzzling.  Another mystery to solve.  Someone else must have picked up the tradition.  Some of the names are family members, some friends, some writers and artists that visited her.


There was a descendant of Cammie's at the exhibit with (I presume) his son.  I wanted to try to talk with him, but so did everyone else, so I didn't get a chance before he made his exit.  Wish I knew who it was.  I'd like to ask him a few questions!

It was too hot to walk around much.  Front Street still had plenty of shoppers but it was light traffic.



We parked down by the river and walked up to Lasyone's for meat pies, then walked down to Lemee House for the exhibit.  Even though it was hot, I love walking around the Historic District.  It's just beautiful.


Even when it's hot.

We passed Bayou Amulet and we thought the marker was interesting.



After the exhibit we went back up Front Street and dipped into an antique shop (thank goodness for air conditioning).  I bought a vintage glass doorknob strictly for practical purposes -- that's what I have in my house and I needed one.  At Kaffie-Frederick I bought two reproduction/modern glass doorknobs (I have a doorknob problem) that are not nearly as cool, or as heavy, but are functional.  Doors without knobs are difficult.

We wanted to eat alligator at The Pioneer Pub for dinner but they don't open until four (although as it turned out later, they were closed up for vacation and we missed out altogether) so we got into the Jeep and headed down the river road to Melrose.  I needed the inspiration.

Steve sat on the back porch of the Bindery and I walked around the grounds.  He likes to sit there and listen to the cows, but even the cows were quiet and still in that heat.



I headed over to Lyle Saxon's cabin - the Yucca House.



It's so peaceful there...


...who couldn't write a book there?



I'd hang a swing at the end of this gallery...



...and watch the horse in the pasture just beyond the fence.


You see him?

I sat there for a few minutes pondering Lyle, Cammie, Ada, Carrie, and all the others that had come to Melrose in the 1920s and 30s for inspiration and camaraderie.  They had a wonderful time!  And part of the lure, or charm, was the isolation.  Even though Melrose looks a little different now, the grounds I mean, the aura or mystique is still there.  When Cammie lived there the place was a riot of color and blooms with something planted or growing just about everywhere.  The grounds are meticulously kept now and are certainly beautiful, but I suspect Cammie would want to sink her spade into the dirt and plant something.  I can just hear her calling Carrie Dormon:  "Bring me some of that yaupon!"

I wandered up to the Big House and went up on the front gallery where Mother Garrett, Cammie's mother, would often sit and visit with callers.


You can't see the river from up there anymore because of all the growth, but back then you could.  The river is on the other side of that road, although it's not really a river anymore.  Now it's Cane River Lake.

I sat up on the gallery for a bit listening to voices gathering below for the next tour through the grounds and house.  There are still remnants of bygone days here, too.


I looked over at "the pit" where Leudivine used to put her geraniums in the winter and where Cammie would store plants to protect them from the cold.  I wondered what was growing in all that open area when Cammie was alive.  There are pictures but the ones I've seen so far are all black and white, so it's hard to tell what was where.


There were a few dirt daubers up there with me catching the breeze, and I don't know if they sting or not, so I went on back downstairs.

I walked around a little more, I walked up to the road and the fence and looked at the house.  I wandered around the cabin Cammie moved to Melrose in 1934 for the purpose of storing her looms.  Cammie would escape the bustle of the guests and tourists and come over to her cabin and practice the lost arts of spinning and weaving.  She made beautiful fabrics, blankets, and upholstery.

Steve and I walked over to the barn and looked for the cat, but we didn't see her.  She was probably asleep in the cool shadows underneath.

We drove back to town, found the Pub still closed, so we headed back to Shreveport.

When I was falling asleep last night I was thinking about Lyle and the cabin.  How hot was it trying to sleep out there in the summer, cicadas singing, mosquitoes, gnats and who knows what other critters trying to get at you.  We saw a fox crossing the road out there and Cammie often wrote about skunks getting under the cabin until she rectified that by modifying the floor.  Malaria was a common malady for the Melrose folks.  But it was apparently worth it for the inspiration and peace that could be found there.

There's still a mystique in the air when you go to Melrose; I'm not sure I can explain what it is, but it's something.  Not ghosts.  Atmosphere, maybe.  I can see exactly why writers and artists longed to be there.

 Like Lyle Saxon said the first time he saw Yucca House, "I could write a book here."

The SIGIS Take a Trip Series:
Take a Trip to the 2012 Defenders of Liberty Air Show at BAFB
Take a Springtime Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden, LA
Take a Trip to Logansport, Louisiana
Take a Trip to the Lock and Dam on Red River
Take a Trip to the 2012 Barkus and Meoux Parade
Take a Christmas Shopping Trip to Second Hand Rose in Minden
Take a Trip to the Fourth Annual Barksdale AFB Oktoberfest 
Take a Trip to Grand Cane's Fifth Annual Pioneer Trade Day
Take a Trip to the 2011 Highland Jazz & Blues Festival
Take an Autumn Trip to Jefferson, Texas
Take a Fall Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden
Take a Trip to the 8th Air Force Museum at Barksdale Air Force Base
Take a Summertime Trip to Grand Cane
Take a Trip to Desoto Parish
Take a Summer Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden
Take a Trip to Natchitoches and Melrose Plantation 
Take a Trip to Ed Lester Farms and a Random Antique Stop
Take a Trip to the Norton Art Gallery and the Masters of Cuban Art Exhibit
Take a Trip to Natchitoches to See the Christmas Lights
Take a Trip to the Third Annual BAFB Oktoberfest 
Take a Trip to Natchitoches and Oakland Plantation

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Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Take a Trip to the Dorcheat Historical Museum and the Minden Cemetery

After driving by The Dorcheat Historical Museum for several years and often commenting that we should go visit, Steve and I finally went inside today to check it out; we were actually in Minden anyway to get the Jeep serviced, and it was a spur of the moment decision, but one well worth the time.

The museum has been open since 2008 and is located on Pearl Street in historic downtown Minden, Louisiana.  The main purpose of the museum is to preserve Webster Parish history and to educate future generations about the past.  The museum does an excellent job on both accounts; what struck me as we walked through the various displays was how unique the displays are and the obvious great effort that has been made to collect and preserve historic items from Webster Parish.  These people have done a lot of work!

We were greeted by Museum Director Schelley Brown Francis as soon as we entered; she offered us a tour which "lasts about thirty minutes," she said, but we decided to just poke around for ourselves this trip; if we'd had more time I would have done the tour and I certainly will next time.

Many of the displays have lovely 5 x 7 cards for you to pick up and keep as you go through; the cards have images on one side and text on the other related to the particular display.  Our first stop was about cotton production and plantation life.



There is a video that loops continuously that talks about the plantation system in the south and the various crops that might be raised (cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, etc.);   There's a huge bale of cotton there where you can feel how tightly packed it is, and cotton seed to inspect.

Here is a cool sign from the Webb Cotton press:


Dorcheat Bayou cuts right through Webster Parish: it starts in Arkansas and empties into Lake Bisteneau; in the early 19th century Dorcheat Bayou was navigable for three to six months per year.  This part of Minden's history is represented by the huge wheel just inside the door:


There was a display about Germantown, a Utopian society established in 1835 just northeast of Minden.  In this display you walk through a typical one room home complete with double bed, a hearth with iron pots nearby, and a baby cradle, among other things.

Minden's educational history is displayed with old yearbooks, band pictures and uniforms, letterman jackets and instruments:


There's a research room filled with historical journals, yearbooks, collections of local fiction, and other documents:


There's a display of the various religious groups in the area; artifacts from various churches are on display:



The museum also has a large meeting room where various speakers give lectures on occasion; you can keep up with those events via the museum's Facebook page.  This room also holds a display of artifacts representing Minden's journey through various wars.  There's an old radio by the WWII display that plays Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor address; the display has a young man (a mannequin dressed in period clothes) sitting in a chair by the radio listening intently.

There's much more that I just didn't photograph such as the old drive-in movie speaker in the entertainment display, or the ammunition plant display, among others.

Before we left we stopped in the gift shop and I bought a copy of Dr. Donnis Taylor's 2011 lecture at the museum on Ada Jack Carver Snell, a Natchitoches born writer prolific in the 1920s and 30s who married and moved to Minden with her new husband who had business there.  Ada wrote beautiful short stories (and a play) reflective of southern life with language that just drips Spanish moss and moonlight.

Of course I had to drive by and look at where Ada lived when she was in Minden; it's an adorable house with a lovely garden in the back in Minden's now Historic Residential District.   I'd like to see what it looked like when she actually lived there.


She quit writing and became a recluse after her husband died in 1959; she lived until 1972 and is buried in the Minden cemetery, next to her husband and her infant son.


The Minden cemetery is also fascinating and I learned something today that I didn't know; again, something we picked up in the museum.

In the old section of the Minden cemetery there are 20-30 Confederate soldiers buried; it's known as the Civil War Trench.  According to the display card I picked up at the museum:
Estimates are 20-30 bodies lie buried along the concrete line...Though names may be lost, their lives are remembered for their bravery & valor in April of 1864.  They likely were from Walker Texas Division & General Polinac's Division of Louisiana.  During bloody battles of Mansfield & Pleasant Hill they were wounded & brought to Minden to be treated.  These divisions had been in Minden a few months earlier, wintering in 1864.
You can read more here.

The "Trench" is in the back corner of the cemetery:



Only one name is known.


All the others are unknown:


The large monument was placed in 1936 by the Daughter's of the Confederacy...


...and the markers were placed by T.M. Scott Camp of Minden's Son's of Confederate Veterans in 2008.

You can go here to read more about T.M. Scott Camp of Minden - it's a cool site but I'll warn you, it plays music when you go there and I hate those autoplay things.  The content is interesting, though.

You can read more about the historic Minden cemetery here and here.

At any rate, it was an interesting afternoon and I learned some things.  I'd like to go back and take the museum tour and go walk though the cemetery among the unusual grave stones and iron fences.  Maybe in the fall...when it's not a hundred degrees with off-the-chart-humidity.

Admission to the Dorcheat Historical Museum is free and they are open Tuesday - Friday from 10 a.m. - 4 pm (closed for lunch).

The SIGIS Take a Trip Series:
Take a Trip to the 2012 Defenders of Liberty Air Show at BAFB
Take a Springtime Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden, LA
Take a Trip to Logansport, Louisiana
Take a Trip to the Lock and Dam on Red River
Take a Trip to the 2012 Barkus and Meoux Parade
Take a Christmas Shopping Trip to Second Hand Rose in Minden
Take a Trip to the Fourth Annual Barksdale AFB Oktoberfest 
Take a Trip to Grand Cane's Fifth Annual Pioneer Trade Day
Take a Trip to the 2011 Highland Jazz & Blues Festival
Take an Autumn Trip to Jefferson, Texas
Take a Fall Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden
Take a Trip to the 8th Air Force Museum at Barksdale Air Force Base
Take a Summertime Trip to Grand Cane
Take a Trip to Desoto Parish
Take a Summer Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden
Take a Trip to Natchitoches and Melrose Plantation 
Take a Trip to Ed Lester Farms and a Random Antique Stop
Take a Trip to the Norton Art Gallery and the Masters of Cuban Art Exhibit
Take a Trip to Natchitoches to See the Christmas Lights
Take a Trip to the Third Annual BAFB Oktoberfest 
Take a Trip to Natchitoches and Oakland Plantation

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