MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1995
A 135-year-old mansion in Bolivar will be open to tours Saturday and Sunday for the first time since its owner died June 1. Elizabeth Cotton Ingram, a kindergarten teacher, drama teacher and violinist, left her family home, The Columns, to the Bolivar Historical and Community Foundation, a group she established in the 1970s. Ingram, who was 101 when she died, was the last of three sisters who lived in the Greek Revival home that had been in their family since 1909. She was famous in Bolivar for the plays and pageants her pupils performed and for insisting that they greet her in French each morning. She retired from teaching at 80 and played violin with the Jackson Symphony until she was almost 90. The two-story house with full deep porch, entablature and columns with Ionic capitals was built in 1860 and was used as a hospital by Federal troops during the Civil War. The Columns remains furnished as it was when Ingram died, said Don Shackelford, president of the foundation that will keep the house open for the community (and a member of Ingram’s first kindergarten class).
50 years ago — 1970
The Nixon administration filed a motion with the Supreme Court yesterday that, if granted, would substantially delay a decision as to whether Interstate 40 is built through Overton Park. In a three-page brief signed by Solicitor General Erwin Griswold, the administration asked that the case — now before the Supreme Court — be remanded to federal district court in Memphis for new proceedings. But by last night the state’s attorneys had filed a response in objection to the solicitor general’s motion.
75 years ago — 1945
From the Ozark Mountains to the Cumberlands, from Central Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico, practical dirt farmers from four states will come to Memphis Thursday to participate in the 12th annual Mid-south Farm Forum and Plant to Prosper Rally. The all-day program, sponsored by The Commercial Appeal and the Memphis Chamber of Commerce Agricultural Committee in cooperation with the Extension Services and Farm Security Administration of Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri, is expected to attract some 600 county winners and agricultural leaders. The forum program will be held at Ellis Auditorium. 100 years ago — 1920
The Nineteenth Century Club, the biggest and most powerful women’s club in Tennessee and an important factor in the civic life of Memphis, went on record yesterday as favoring the passage of a group of national and state laws bearing directly on the welfare of women and children. Included in these laws are three which will be presented to Congress — the Smith-towner bill, providing for the creation of a department of education with a secretary of education in the president’s cabinet, and for a largely increased appropriation for education at work; the Sheppard-towner bill, providing for the education of young mothers and the proper protection of infants; and a bill providing for the introduction of physical education as a part of the curriculum of the public schools of America.