FROM LOST CAUSE TO FEMALE EMPOWERMENT: THE TEXAS DIVISION OF THE UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY, 1896-1966 Kelly McMichael Stott, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2001 APPROVED: Richard Lowe, Major Professor Randolph B. Campbell, Committee Member Ronald Marcello, Committee Member Jane Tanner, Committee Member Greg Cantrell, Committee Member Bullitt Lowry, Committee Member Richard Golden, Chair of the Department of History C. Neal Tate, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Stott, Kelly McMichael, From Lost Cause to Female Empowerment: The Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1896-1966. Doctor of Philosophy (History), August 2001, 248 pp., 1 table, 6 illustrations, bibliography, 245 titles. The Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) organized in 1896 primarily to care for aging veterans and their families. In addition to this original goal, members attempted to reform Texas society by replacing the practices and values of their male peers with morals and behavior that UDC members considered characteristic of the antebellum South, such as self-sacrifice and obedience. Over time, the organization also came to function as a transition vehicle in enlarging and empowering white Texas women’s lives. As time passed and more veterans died, the organization turned to constructing monuments to recognize and promote the values they associated with the Old South. In addition to celebrating the veteran, the Daughters created a constant source of charity for wives and widows through a Confederate Woman’s Home. As the years went by, the organization turned to educating white children in the “truth of southern history,” a duty they eagerly embraced. The Texas UDC proved effective in meeting its primary goal, caring for aging veterans and their wives. The members’ secondary goal, being cultural shapers, ultimately proved elusive—not because the Daughters failed to stress the morals they associated with the Old South but because Texans never embraced them to the exclusion of values more characteristic of the New South. The organization proved, however, a tremendous success in fostering and speeding along the emergence of Texas women as effective leaders in their communities. The UDC was an important middle ground for women moving from an existence that revolved around home and family to one that might include the whole world. Copyright 2001 By Kelly McMichael Stott ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Completing this dissertation has been a great personal challenge. Although I owe a great debt to many people, the support of my director has proved invaluable. Richard Lowe has been not only my history professor for the past five years, but he has been my sounding-board, my writing instructor, and my friend. All the best in this project, I owe to him. I would also like to thank the faculty of the Department of History at the University of North Texas, especially Randolph B. Campbell, for their encouragement and financial aid. The Hatton W. Sumners Foundation Scholarship the department awarded me for 1999-2000 has made much of the research for this project possible. In addition, I would like to thank the Texas State Historical Association, which awarded me the Fred White Fellowhip in 2000 to defray travel expenses. Many archivists and librarians across the state contributed to the success of this study. Although space does not permit me to name you all, you have my deepest gratitude for embracing me when I showed up at your doorstep (too often unanounced). My family has despaired that I would ever stop going to school. Despite their making me the butt of many jokes, they have encouraged me to pursue my dream. Thank you, Mom and Dad. You were always there when I needed you. To my husband, Ian Stott, I will always owe a huge debt of gratitude, and to my children, Ryan and Emma. Thanks Ryan for coming with me on all those research trips. You have been the best research partner anyone could have. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... iii LIST OF CHARTS .......................................................................................................... v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS........................................................................................... vi Chapter INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1. THE TEXAS DIVISION OF THE UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY: FEMINIZING TEXAS SOCIETY................................. 18 2. “QUALITY MEMBERS, NOT QUANTITY”: THE WOMEN OF THE TEXAS UDC ................................................................................................. 49 3. CELEBRATING THE CONFEDERACY: DECORATION DAY AND CONFEDERATE REUNIONS ..................................................................... 77 4. HONOR TO THE DEAD: MONUMENTS ..................................................104 5. CHARITY TO THE LIVING: THE CONFEDERATE WOMAN’S HOME............................................................................................................135 6. VINDICATION FOR THE SOUTH: RECONCILLIATION, PATRIOTISM, AND THE FEMALE CITIZEN.....................................................................161 7. PRESERVATION OF THE TRUTH: EDUCATING THE CHILDREN .....195 CONCLUSTION .................................................................................................225 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................231 iv LIST OF CHARTS CHART Page 1. TEXAS MONUMENTS ............................................................................................107 v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Katie Currie Muse in the 1920s .................................................................................48 2. Portrait of Katie Daffan..............................................................................................76 3. Veterans, Daughters, and family members gathered after the monument, “The Last Stand,” unveilied at De Leon Plaza, Victoria, in 1912 ..............................................103 4. Laura Elgin with veterans in front of Marshall’s monument in 1906........................134 5. Eastern view of the Confederate Woman’s Home, 1917...........................................159 6. Texans gathered for the unveiling celebation of Waxahachie’s monument in 1912. ..........................................................................................................................................194 vi INTRODUCTION Civil War-era cannons had been strategically placed around the courthouse in Sherman, Texas, in the early part of the morning, well before the crowds were expected to arrive. The weather looked as though it would cooperate—a clear, fine day expected—no rain or wind as is so often the case in March in north-central Texas. Rain would have dampened not just the spring grass but also the celebration. The soldiers’ gray wool uniforms and the ladies’ hoop skirts would have been soaked, not to mention the banners, flags, and crepe paper that decorated the square and hung from the towering oaks. Mark Farrington, commander of the Colonel Reeves 11th Texas Cavalry Camp #349, Sons of Confederate Veterans, addressed the crowd, made up of the descendants of Confederate veterans and, perhaps, a few curious passers-by. “We are here today not to honor the war, but the warriors,” claimed Farrington in his speech to commemorate and rededicate the county’s one-hundred-year-old Confederate monument, originally unveiled on 3 April 1896.1 The Sherman chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy later estimated that about seventy-five people had attended, not an impressive number, certainly not compared to the original ceremony when more than five thousand spectators had gathered. Still, Texas citizens had attended a Confederate remembrance celebration in 1 Sherman Democrat, 24 March 1996. 1 1996, 131 years after the end of the Civil War, adorned in contemporary attire and ready to honor the memory of a war lost.2 Today many Americans harbor an almost cult like interest in the Civil War and especially in the defeated Confederate South. The popularity of Civil War re-enactments only begins to touch the surface of a phenomenon that began in the 1880s with the creation of the myth of the Lost Cause. A nostalgic celebration, the Lost Cause ritualized a largely invented past and honored a “civilized” culture. “Patriotism, duty, endurance, valor” became the central issues of the remembrance, not military might or slavery. The southern cause became just and legal. Confederates fought for constitutional rights, the principle of self-determination, and the preservation of the homeland. The Confederacy lost the war because of overwhelming northern numbers, not southern shortcomings.3 A host of organizations, particularly the United Confederate Veterans, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, supported the growing Lost Cause mythology. The largest and eventually the most influential of the organizations, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), was formed in Nashville in 1895 and eventually attracted members from all fifty states. Within one year Texas women were seeking to join the national UDC in an effort to commemorate and remember the Civil War experience. Texans took a