Z 1785.000
BLAKEMORE (LIZZIE MCFARLAND) COLLECTION
1860 - 1861; 1864 - 1865; 1918 - 1932; n.d.
Biography-History
Appendix I: John McFarland, III, born in Strabane, Ireland, October l9,
l8l9. He emigrated to the United States at age seventeen and joined an
Irish acquaintance in Manchester (now Yazoo City). Shortly after his arrival,
he was made clerk of the court at Benton. He became a partner with Mr.
Barksdale and engaged in the cotton business with offices in New Orleans
and Yazoo City. On September 20, 1850, he married Lucy Virginia Blanton
of Frankfort, Kentucky, and they had three children: Mary Lizzie (b. 07.30.l85l),
Frank Powell (b. l853) and John, IV (b. l862). The family moved to New
Orleans in the fall of l859. After the outbreak of the Civil War, McFarland
gave his attention to the war effort. When General Butler came to New Orleans
in l862, the family moved back to Yazoo City and became refugees in Georgia
when Yazoo City was occupied. McFarland returned to Yazoo City and wrote
to his wife on October 9, 1863, complaining of the flux. There was a prize
of $l0,000 for his capture, and he was "run out of town" by another Yankee
raid. He contracted pneumonia from exposure in the swamps and died some
days after on October 24, l863.
After McFarland's death, the family moved back to New Orleans. The baby,
John IV, had died while in Georgia, leaving only two children, Mary Lizzie
and John Powell. Mrs. McFarland supported herself by keeping a boarding
house. Mary Lizzie was educated by private tutors in languages, literature
and music and continued these interests throughout her life. On July l4,
l874, she married William Thomas Blakemore, and they purchased a home in
Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Here the family spent their summers, wintering
in New Orleans from October to April until 1906.
Lizzie McFarland Blakemore was a prolific writer and for a time acted
as a newspaper correspondent., She also authored a novel based on her wartime
experience as a child, but the manuscript was never published. She kept
up correspondence with her childhood friend, Senator John Sharp Williams,
until his death. She kept a voluminous scrapbook which her son, Bruce,
presented to the Tulane University Library. She was a charter member of
the United Daughters of the Confederacy, served as Kentucky State President
for one term, and was most active in promoting the monument to Jefferson
Davis, erected at his birthplace in Fairview, Kentucky. Lizzie McFarland
Blakemore died on June 25, 1938.
Scope and Content
This collection contains some of the papers of two members of the McFarland
Family of Yazoo City. John McFarland and his daughter, Lizzie McFarland
Blakemore. The McFarland portion deals with the Civil War. Letterpress
copies of letters written to sympathetic English cotton factors defend
slavery and the South's political stance, and letters written to various
Confederate figures detail his involvement in the Civil War. The Blakemore
portion includes three Civil War letters written from Mobile to her in
Yazoo City. Also included are forty-four letters to her from John Sharp
Williams. These Williams-Blakemore letters reflect the life-long friendship
of the two and provide information on Williams' last years. There is also
some reminiscing of their Yazoo City childhood.
Series Identification
-
Correspondence. 1864–1865; 1922–1932; n.d. 49 items.
Incoming correspondence
of Lizzie McFarland Blakemore; includes three Civil War letters from Mobile,
two letters regarding the Jefferson Davis Birthplace Monument, and forty-four
letters from John Sharp Williams. Arranged alphabetically, thereunder chronologically.
-
Correspondence. 1932. 1 item. Outgoing cover letter with Blakemore's memoir
of John Sharp Williams.
-
Correspondence. 1861; n.d. 1 item. One letter written to McFarland and
Barksdale regarding food needs for the plantation; copy (by Blakemore?)
of McFarland letter (1861) to the editor of the Yazoo Democrat regarding
the death of Mose Phillips.
-
Correspondence. 1860–1861. 1 volume. Letterpress copies of McFarland correspondence
to English cotton factors and various Confederate figures, written from
New Orleans.
A portion of this collection is available on microfilm. (MF Roll # 36340)
