Wakefield Holly Springs

TerryB

Lt. Colonel
Joined
Dec 7, 2008
Location
Nashville TN
Wakefield in Holly Springs, Miss., was the home of my ggg grandfather, Joel E. Wynne. He pretty much went broke during the war and moved to Arkansas around 1866.

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During and following the war the owners of the fine mansions in town paid their bills by renting out rooms to Union officers. During Reconstruction the widow who owned Wakefield (perhaps having purchased it from your ggg grandfather) scandalized the town by marrying the Union officer who was renting her home. The love affair inspired novelist Sherwood Bonner, who lived across the street, to write the novel "Like Unto Like." The novel is definitely dated, but interesting in that it presents a much kinder and gentler version of Reconstruction than the Thomas Dixon novels even as there are some echos of the Dixon themes.
 
During and following the war the owners of the fine mansions in town paid their bills by renting out rooms to Union officers. During Reconstruction the widow who owned Wakefield (perhaps having purchased it from your ggg grandfather) scandalized the town by marrying the Union officer who was renting her home. The love affair inspired novelist Sherwood Bonner, who lived across the street, to write the novel "Like Unto Like." The novel is definitely dated, but interesting in that it presents a much kinder and gentler version of Reconstruction than the Thomas Dixon novels even as there are some echos of the Dixon themes.
One of the photos in an old family album is of Bonner's father, Dr. Charles Bonner. Sherwood came home from Boston and got past the quarantine thanks to an Union Officer in 1878. She nursed her father and brother during the yellow fever epidemic, but both died. I have lots of photos of those who died, while the majority of those who moved to Texas lived.
 
Wakefield in Holly Springs, Miss., was the home of my ggg grandfather, Joel E. Wynne. He pretty much went broke during the war and moved to Arkansas around 1866.

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That is awesome, @TerryB! I’m sure our ancestors knew one another. We have a couple other members here who also had ancestors in Holly Springs during the war. My ancestors had a plantation in Chulahoma and were also in business with the Hull and Crump families in town. Small world!
 
That is awesome, @TerryB! I’m sure our ancestors knew one another. We have a couple other members here who also had ancestors in Holly Springs during the war. My ancestors had a plantation in Chulahoma and were also in business with the Hull and Crump families in town. Small world!
Many of the ones who stayed after the war died of yellow fever. I sold a pic of Kinloch Falconer, but still have a couple of his brother Howard. They were sort of related to me by marriage.
 
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