HGB Ep. 494 - Beauvoir House

 Moment in Oddity - Perpetual Stew (Suggested by: Jannae McCabe and Mariessa Dobrick)

Pease porridge hot, Pease porridge cold, Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old. The earliest record of this rhyme was around 1760 and referred to a porridge made from peas. It is said that oftentimes the stew would be served for dinner, left in the pot which would reference the 'cold' then be reheated for dinner again. Now, the nine days old portion of the rhyme is what gets me. I understand the premise behind perpetual stew but my mind paints a graphic picture of the possible intestinal problems produced by spoiled peas porridge. Well now, forget the nine days part and substitute that with 50 years! There is a restaurant in Bangkok called Wattana Panich. This family owned restaurant is famous for a soup that has been feeding locals and traveling foodies for half a century. One of the family members stated, "We never make the soup new, instead we store it every night and add new ingredients and water to it every day". Now, the ingredients added daily ARE cooked prior to being added to the soup, so the meats are cooked through before going into the stew. And reports are that the stew is very flavorful with some of the meats incorporated being goat, buffalo and beef. The restaurant has won numerous awards over the years and they always stay very busy with customers. I can be somewhat daring in trying different delicacies, but for me, consuming a soup that has been simmering for as many years as I have been on this earth, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - President Garfield's Assassination

In the month of July, on the 2nd, in 1881, President James Garfield was shot and mortally wounded. Charles J. Guiteau was his assassin. Guiteau harbored ill will for the newly elected President. This was due to feeling slighted for not receiving acknowledgement and compensation for the efforts Guiteau made during Garfield's election. Guiteau believed he should be awarded a diplomatic post for his supposedly vital assistance. This assistance related to Guiteau having written a speech initially supporting Grant, but when Grant lost his nomination, the speech was sloppily converted into a support speech of Garfield. This perceived slight ultimately led to Guiteau stalking the newly elected president to the dire day of July 2nd. The President was scheduled to leave for holiday from the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station. Garfield did not have a security detail with him, as was common for early presidents. After President Garfield entered the station's waiting room, Guiteau shot twice. The first bullet grazed the President's shoulder and the second lodged in his back. The second bullet was not able to be located and Garfield was told he would not survive the night. He did however survive and then the task to locate the bullet moved forward. Alexander Graham Bell devised a metal detector to try and locate it. Unfortunately the metal bed frame interfered, as did a doctor who insisted the bullet would be lodged in Garfield's right side. As it turned out, the bullet was actually on Garfield's left side and would have been found if Bell was able to use his detector on that side. The President's conditioned continued to worsen and he passed away on September 19, 1881 after less than nine months serving as the nations President. 

Beauvoir House (Suggested by: Rebecca Holliman) 

Beauvoir House is located in Biloxi, Mississippi. This was once the home to former president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis. The estate is nearly 175 years old and provided a place of refuge not only for Davis, but for Confederate veterans. There was a hospital, chapel and a cemetery for them. Today, the house is open for tours and there are stories of ghostly Confederates and the apparition of Jefferson Davis himself. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Beauvoir House.

Indigenous people have been in the Biloxi area starting from 8,000 BC and into the 1700s. The French were the first Europeans to arrive here and they became friends with the Biloxi Indians who were called Bilocci by the French and that is where the city gets its name. This was the capital of French Louisiana for a time. The flags of six countries have flown over the city in its time starting with France, then there was England, Spain, the Republic of West Florida, the Confederate States of America and the United States flag. Biloxi was not a city with a large population, but by the mid 1800s it had become a summer resort area. The town was incorporated in 1838. Biloxi fared well during the Civil War, seeing no battles and no damage and was occupied by the Union for most of the war. After the war, tourism and canning of seafood became the major industries. Biloxi is today a co-seat for Harrison County and is the fourth largest city in the state of Mississippi. Gambling is legal in Mississippi, so the gulf town is popular with casinos as well. One of the most well known historic sites in Biloxi is Beauvoir.

Beauvoir was built in 1848 by planter and entrepreneur James Brown and he was the architect. The home was built to face the Gulf of Mexico and the name "Beauvoir" means "beautiful to view." And the name is perfect because the property is surrounded by massive magnolia, cedar and oak trees that are dripping in Spanish moss. The Oyster Bayou runs across the property behind the house. The property covered 608 acres.The main house was built in the Greek Revival style. This is a raised cottage with a full basement that was used for storing food and wine. The large veranda is surrounded by square wooden pillars and the front doors have opaque glass with a berry and leaf pattern. The interior of the house was designed for natural ventilation to keep it cool. There is a wide hall with four rooms coming off of it upon entering the house. There is a front and rear parlor with white marble mantelpieces and two bedrooms on the other side. To the rear is another block of four rooms. All the rooms have access to the veranda. The kitchen was in a separate building behind the house at one time. A unique feature to the home are the frescoed walls and ceilings of the hall and parlors that feature shells, mythological figures and garlands of fruit and flowers.

There were also two cottages added to the property that flank the house. They each have pagoda-like roofs and were single rooms with two entrances and floor length windows. Despite all the land and being referred to as a plantation, Beauvoir was never a working plantation and only had gardens later when the Davises lived there. In 1873, the property was sold to a man named Frank Johnston, but he didn't own it for long. The next owners would be Samuel and Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey. Sarah was born and raised in Natchez, Mississippi and she became a novelist and historian. Her biography about the Louisiana wartime governor, Henry Watkins Allen, is a historical classic that is part of what has come to be known as Lost Cause literature. Her husband Samuel was much older and he passed in 1875, so her half-brother Mortimer Dahlgren moved in with her. 

Sarah had heard that Jefferson Davis and his family were having difficulties and so she invited him to rent one of the cottages on the property, which he did in 1877. Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky on June 3, 1808. His brother Joseph pushed for Jefferson to be well educated, so he attended Transylvania College in Kentucky before going to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1824. Davis wasn't much of a cadet. He placed 23rd in a class of thirty-four. He continued to serve in the military though and saw some action during the Black Hawk War in 1832. In 1833, he met future President Zachary Taylor's daughter, Sarah, and he fell in love. The couple were married in 1835 without the blessing of Taylor. Their wedded bliss was short lived as the couple contracted malaria and Sarah died just three months after the nuptials. Davis was devastated and he became a recluse for ten years. He eventually found love again with Varina Banks Howell and the two married in 1845. The couple would have six children, two girls and four boys, but only the girls would reach adulthood. That same year, 1845, Davis' political life began and he was elected to the US House of Representatives for Mississippi. He eventually served 6 years as US Senator from Mississippi, 4 years as US Secretary of War and even ran to become governor of Mississippi in 1851.

But, of course, what he is most well known for is becoming the first and only President of the Confederate States of America. Mississippi was the second state to secede leading up to the Civil War, with South Carolina being the first. Davis believed that the Constitution protected the rights of the states to secede, but he wasn't in favor of such a drastic move. He argued against it for a time, but was “drafted” to lead the Confederacy. He had to be drafted because he didn't want the job. He wanted a military post. On February 18th, 1861 Jefferson Davis was sworn in as President of the Confederate States of America. Davis had owned a plantation with slaves, so he was in favor of the institution. Jefferson was a popular president at first, but his personality would soon clash with many people. He would reward unsuccessful military officers, his administration had a lot of infighting and he was chronically ill. The Confederacy would suffer a number of defeats in 1865 and by April 2, 1865, Davis and the other members of the Confederate government were forced to flee from Richmond because the Union was on its way there. Davis was captured by Northern soldiers near Irwinville, Georgia on May 10, 1865.

Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years. He was charged with treason, but never was brought to trial. He was released on bond in May of 1867 and his trial which was dragged out to 1869 was cancelled by the prosecution. Davis and his family traveled throughout Europe for a while before returning to America in Tennessee. That brings us to 1877 and Davis has been invited to rent a cottage at Beauvoir and he took Sarah Dorsey up on that offer. Varina Davis joined her husband at Beauvoir in 1878 and the following year, their daughter Winnie joined them after studying in Europe. In 1879, Davis signed a contract to buy Beauvoir for $5,000 that he was going to pay in three installments, but a few months later Mrs. Dorsey passed and at the reading of her will, Davis was surprised to hear that she had left the property to him. The Davis family moved into the main house and Davis used the cottage on the east side as a study and the books, desk and chair that are in there today were his, as was the color scheme, which features a blue ceiling and yellow walls. The west side cottage was used like a guest house and the Davis' daughter Margaret and her family stayed there often. Mrs. Dorsey was an author and she had encouraged Davis to write a history of the Confederacy, which he did called "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government" and it was published in 1881.

Jefferson Finis Davis died in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 6, 1889. The year before his death, Davis wrote, that the young men of Mississippi should “lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to make your places in the ranks of those who will bring about a consummation devoutly to be wished—a reunited country.” Mrs. Dorsey had provided in her will that after Jefferson Davis died, that Beauvoir should go to his daughter Winnie. She remained single her entire life and she and her mother stayed on at Beauvoir for a time while Varina wrote a book called "Jefferson Davis: A Memoir." Varina and Winnie moved to New York City in 1891 and Winnie passed in 1898. Varina inherited Beauvoir at that time and in 1902 she sold most of the property to the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. She stipulated that Beauvoir would need to be used as a museum to honor her husband and a home for Confederate veterans and widows. The Sons of Confederate Veterans built a dozen barracks buildings, a hospital, and a chapel behind the main house to accommodate the veterans. From 1903 to 1957, approximately 2,500 veterans and their families lived at the home and many of the veterans who died there were buried in a cemetery that was added to the property. 

The museum at Beauvoir was opened in 1941 and tours were offered starting then and continue to today. Also added to the property were a Jefferson Davis Gallery, gift shop, the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier, and the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library. Hurricane Camille blew through in 1969 and devastated most of the gulf coast of Mississippi. Beauvoir stood up pretty well suffering some flooding and losing the front stairs of the main house. The east cottage lost its front steps and veranda. Some of the outbuildings were demolished and the landscaping was lost as well. Hurricane Katrina did a number to the property in 2005 when the storm hit Biloxi head-on. The main building was severely damaged with its porches being destroyed and a part of the roof was lost. As for the rest of the property, one cottage was destroyed as was the Library Pavilion, a barracks replica, the Confederate Museum and the director's home. The Davis Presidential Library lost 35% of its collections.

The destroyed buildings are slated to be reproduced as replicas. The main house is suffering from deterioration caused by settling after restoration was done in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The ceilings have come down in a couple rooms and painting is needed. Beauvoir sits on 52 acres today. The cemetery holds 784 graves and features the United Daughters of the Confederacy Memorial Archway. Jefferson Davis' father Samuel Emory Davis is buried here as is a Davis niece and her husband and there is also the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier. Original headstones were just made from wood with hand painted markings. The government eventually provided stones for the veterans. The information on many of them is incomplete or wrong. Many burials have no markings as they were for the wives of the veterans.

Stories of hauntings have persisted at the property for decades. Appearances of Jefferson Davis are the most abundant. Many times, visitors have complimented the staff on the great Davis impersonator they have and, of course, there never is any impersonator at the site. Winnie also makes appearances in wedding photos. She is usually seen looking out of a window. Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina have also been captured in photographs. People claim to feel as though they are being followed in the home. And a bust cries tears. 

Scott Rogers heads up MGCParanormal, a paranormal investigation group that conducted a ghost hunt at Beauvoir in 2014. He told the Tuscaloosa News, "One (staffer says) he sees Jeff Davis a couple of times a week standing in the main hall. Full-body apparitions are a rarity, but they’re normal there. There’s a file, I’m guessing 30 or 40 photographs that visitors have sent back to them. There are photographs of full-body apparitions that aren’t supposed to be there. They have captured Jeff Davis, his wife, Varina, his daughter, Winnie, and, they haven’t been captured, but it’s common occurrence for them to talk about a Confederate soldier walking the grounds at times whenever they don’t have people doing re-enactments." The group found the cemetery to be the most active place on the property. They also had an investigator get touched, a tablecloth moved and a rocking chair started rocking on its own.

Kitsaa Stevens works in museum development and programs at the museum and she told WGNO that the spirits "like to entertain our guests. One of our favorite stories is that we had a guest come in the gift shop and she told Miss Rosie that the rein-actor that we had portraying Jeff Davis was really rude. He told her to stay out of his wife’s garden. No matter what Rosie told her or anyone else, we did not have any actors on the property that day. Rosie told her that she should listen to Jefferson Davis." Stevens also shared a story about the way that Winnie Davis presents herself in hauntings, "My seniors were on the steps of the house and we heard Winnie’s piano play, inside the house. The curator was quite adamant at the time, to not touch the piano. 40 seniors turned around and said, we’re not even in the house." 

Walt Grayson worked as a weather anchor and eventually hosted a segment called "On The Road" with Mississippi TV channel WLBT. He joined in on a ghost hunt at Beauvoir. He was pretty skeptical, even when a Spirit Box seemed to respond to the investigators. One of them heard the name Mr. Albert come across, so he repeated the name and immediately got, "What?" And then a little later they got another name on the Spirit Box: "Walt." An investigator asked, "Did it say Walt?" Then the box continued, "Walt, Walt, Walt, Walt, Walt…" Needless to say, Walt Grayson wasn't as much of a skeptic after that and didn't like the feeling of being the hunted rather than the hunter.

Michael Kleen wrote an article about Beauvoir in 2017 and in it he revealed, "A building with a history like Beauvoir (as the Davis home is called) usually has a few ghost stories, so I wasn’t surprised to see an article called 'What’s that in the window at Beauvoir?' sitting on the main desk in the research library. Written by Charles L. Sullivan in 2004, it told the story of a photograph taken by Charlie Brock, a Confederate re-enactor, in 1984. The photograph was of his wife and two of her friends, dressed in period clothing, on the east side of Beauvoir. When the photo was developed, two figures mysteriously appeared in one of the windows. At the time the picture was taken, the house was closed to visitors, locked, and the security motion detectors were in place. Never-the-less, two humanoid forms stand in the window. One is noticeably taller than the other. The shorter of the two figures is also the easiest to see. 'She' appears to be wearing a white dress. Two of the three women walking on the lawn were wearing blue dresses, and one was wearing a dark red dress. The window was also at porch level, above the heads of the three women, making it unlikely (unless the window was angled downward) that this was a reflection." 

Jefferson Davis haunts a couple of other places as well. Fort Monroe is technically in Virginia, but all through the war it was securely in Union hands and in fact is still an active army base.  It was here that Davis was confined after his capture, kept in shackles twenty-four hours a day in Casemate No.2.  Oddly, Jefferson Davis’ ghost has not been reported there but on the citadel’s ramparts, called the Terraplain.  On a moonlit night one may see the gaunt figure wandering beneath the flagpole that sits atop the walls, pacing to and fro, wishing to be free.  His wife, Varina, also haunts the old fort, in an apartment provided for her on the fortresses grounds.  The windows in that apartment have been known to rattle all of their own, the spectre of Varina expressing her frustration at her husband’s incarceration no doubt.

And apparently, the Davis' had a child who died during the war and that child haunts the Davis’ previous residence in Richmond, sometimes called “The Confederate White House." Clearly, members of the Davis family are not at rest in the afterlife. Is Beauvoir House haunted? That is for you to decide!