Collection Title: United Daughters of the Confederacy, Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter Records

Collection Number: M204

Dates: 1901-1982

Volume: 2 cu.ft.

Provenance: Donated by the Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, April 1983.

Copyright: This collection may be protected from unauthorized copying by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code).

Biographical/Historical Sketch:

The Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, was organized in March 1900 by Mrs. Ida V. May Hardy, who was its first president. Originally called the Hattiesburg Chapter #422, the name was changed in the 1920s to the Madge Hoskins Holmes Chapter in honor of the woman who served as president form 1908-1912 and 1918-1927. In November 1956, the members of the chapter voted to restore the original name, but this was short lived because in the 1960s, the chapter was renamed after the Confederate Army General, Nathan Bedford Forrest.

A major accomplishment of the chapter dates back to October 1910 when the chapter unveiled the Confederate Monument on the Forrest County Courthouse lawn as the opening event of the twentieth annual reunion of the Mississippi Confederate Veterans. The monument was erected through the Daughters of the Confederacy and the local camp of the Confederate Veterans. On the same day of the unveiling, the corner stone of Kamper Park was laid. The land had been secured from John Q. Kamper in the name of the U.D.C. by Mrs. Hardy in 1902. The land was given with the stipulation that it was to be improved and used as a public park. In 1908, the land was conveyed to the City of Hattiesburg with the same conditions. The tract has since grown into a park, playground, and zoo.

Other projects in which the chapter have been involved are the restoration and maintenance of Beauvoir House (the last home of Jefferson Davis) on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the restoration of the Rodney Presbyterian Church in Rodney, Mississippi (which is the state shrine of the Mississippi Division of the U.D.C.), the co-sponsorship of a yearly historical essay contest, and other patriotic and civic activities.

Scope and Content:

The records of the Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy span the years 1901-1982 and consist of two (2) cubic feet. The collection will be useful to scholars and researchers who are interested in the role and function of twentieth-century Confederate patriotic organizations.

The collection is comprised of correspondence, financial records, minutes, brochures, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, registers, yearbooks, collected items, and other record types. The correspondence is quite sparse and deals mainly with the financial affairs of Kamper Park. In regard to the Park, there are copies of legal documents which detail its ownership and control, first by the U.D.C. and then the City of Hattiesburg.

The most significant and fruitful records in the collection are the minutes which trace the evolution and development of the chapter. At the same time, the minutes reflect an inhibiting aspect of the collection in that there are many chronological gaps in the various record types. For example, the span of the minutes begins in 1914, continues to 1917, picks up again in 1928 and procedes with some regularity through 1977. In general, the bulk of the other records are concentrated in the 1950s and 1960s.

Box and Folder List:

Created by: Bobs M. Tusa & Yvonne Arnold
Prepared and maintained by
The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries Special Collections
http://www.lib.usm.edu/spcol/index.php
118 College Drive #5148   Hattiesburg, MS 39406-5148

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Revised: December 13, 2004