The President's
Daughter
A story of trials anil sa<ln«*ss. romance
and public adulation in the postwar
South.
prove that use was up only .
One member of the town board
claimed that the biggest problem
would come not in removing the odor
and taste from the water, time would
remedy that, but what to do in the
event that the populace developed
such a taste for the booze-laced mix¬
ture that they would henceforth de¬
mand it. He claimed that this would
place a burden on the town’s finances
and would probably result in a tax in¬
crease to raise the funds necessary to
meet the cost of permanently treating
the water with sour mash.
Famous Far and Wide
The story hit the local papers and the
area dailies. The Durham Morning
Herald ran a large humorous cartoon
on the editorial page of their Sunday
edition. The wire services picked it up
and the story went all over the world.
Folks got letters from friends and rela¬
tives they hadn’t heard from in years,
most of them requesting samples of the
water. Those Franklinton residents
who commuted daily to work in other
towns were besieged with questions
and requests for samples.
Of course the potency of the water
was greatly exaggerated, but the booze
was there and it really could be smelled
and tasted all over town, especially
smelled. The odor was particularly
noticeable in the hot water. As some¬
one said. "You can run a tub of hot
water for a bath and it smells like you
have a barrel of mash working off.”
The smell lasted for days.
Residents enjoyed the spill im¬
mensely. Charlie Hight. who would
later be elected mayor, manager of one
of the town's drug stores, put a sign on
the store windows, limiting customers
at the soda fountain to two glasses of
water.
Yes. everybody enjoyed the town’s
unusual bit of recognition while it
lasted, except that one official, that is.
He never did take it too kindly, and
told the reporter who broke the story
that the whole thing was his fault.
What really got him. though, was when
the same thing almost happened again
a few weeks later w hen the revenooers
got another still on the other stream
feeding the reservoir. Like to have
blown his top sure enough. Sent town
employees out and they pumped every
bit of that mash. beer, and whiskey
into tanks and hauled it miles away for
disposal.
Guess pollution is in the eye of the
beholder. Just depends on w ho is being
polluted and with what.
Written by Nelle R. Check.
Historian of the Winnie Davis
Chapter. United Daughters of the
Confederacy. Reprinted courtesy
"The Chatham Record". Pitts-
boro N.C.
Varina Anne (Winnie) Davis was
born June 27. 1864. in the White House
of the Confederacy at Richmond. Vir¬
ginia. while her father. Jefferson
Davis, was serving as the only Presi¬
dent of the Confederate States of
America.
The new* baby, the sixth and last
child born to the Davises, was nick¬
named Piecake. and described by her
mother as "so soft, so good . . . white
as a lily, and has such exquisite hands
and feet, and such bright blue eyes."
Just nine months later, the last week
of March. 1865. Mrs. Davis, with her
four children, fled from Richmond, ac¬
companied by her sister Maggie. Hllen.
a mulatto maid, the coachman. James
Jones, and. as escort. Burton Harri¬
son. the President’s secretary.
The train left at ten that evening, but
after twelve miles, the engine gave out.
and they all spent the night in a leaking
car. Finally, after several days they
reached Charlotte. North Carolina,
and were taken to a house rented for
them. On Sunday after they left.
Richmond had fallen, the city evacu¬
ated. and within hours Federal troops
were occupying the Lxecutive Man¬
sion.
President Davis had left Richmond
also, to set up a temporary capital
elsewhere. Thus the Davises were two
fugitives traveling separately along
country roads, exchanging messages
by couriers, but missing connections
for several weeks, for when Jefferson
Davis arrived in Charlotte. Mrs. Davis
and her group had left. She had se¬
cured an ambulance and wagon, and
with the family huddled in the ambu¬
lance. they had traveled over muddy
roads, through the woods, with Mrs.
Davis getting out and walking five
miles in the darkness in mud over her
shoe tops, carrying Winnie in her
arms.
I .ate in April the President caught up
with his family, but on May 10 he was
captured and taken to Fortress Mon¬
roe. Virginia, where he remained im¬
prisoned for almost two years.
Taunted and Threatened
Robbed of all her money and the
children's clothing. Mrs. Davis was
made virtually a prisoner at the Pulaski
Hotel in Savannah. Georgia, and the
children taunted and threatened. She
finally sent them to Canada, along w ith
her mother and sister, and kept only
Winnie w ith her.
This continued until April of the next
year, when she was allowed to visit her
children. In May (1866) she was al¬
lowed to visit her husband for the first
time, and to eventually be installed as
a family in a four-room apartment
connected to the ramparts by a little
bridge.
At Fortress Monroe Winnie imme¬
diately became a pet. It was the begin¬
ning of a long and loving association
between Jefferson Davis and his
youngest daughter. Visitors would
find him sitting on the door building
blocks with her. or reciting his favorite
poems.
He later spoke of Winnie as being
"The only gleam of light in that long
night."
Released from Fortress Monroe in
May. 1867. and being "a citizen of no
land under the sun. proscribed, mis¬
represented. and derided." Jefferson
Davis and his family visited relatives
and noted acquaintances in Canada.
Cuba. F.ngland. Scotland and Hurope
from 1867-1876.
During these years Winnie had a
governess. When the family returned
to the United States. Winnie, now 13.
was a clever, imaginative little girl,
much beloved by her father. In 1877.
immediately after Margaret's wed¬
ding. the Davises took Winnie abroad
THE STATE. March 1983
22
