Crowd Braves Rain to see Unveiling
Daily Press – Newport News, VA. Friday, May 28, 1909 -Vol. XIV No. 122
Thousand People Gather on the Court House Green at Denbigh
Governor is the Principal Speaker
Judge Mann and Mr. Tucker make brief Addresses Refraining from Mention of Politics
Silent Hunts on Hotel Porch
Impressive Exercises
Heedless of a steady downpour of rain, more than a thousand people gathered at Denbigh, Warwick Court House, yesterday to witness the unveiling of a handsome monument to the Confederate dead. The scene was one never to be forgotten at Denbigh. Probably such a crowd has not gathered on the courthouse green within the recollection of this generation and the crowd was no ordinary one. In it were Hon. Claude A. Sawnson (Swanson),
governor of Virginia; Hon. Harry St. George Tucker and Judge William Hodges Man(n), the Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Judge Williams and Col. Catlett, aspirants for the nomination of attorney general, and other prominent individuals whose presence upon any occasion would excite vast interest. |
Then there was Major James Stubbs of York, heading practically all the Confederate veterans on the Virginia Peninsula who were able to make the trip to Denbigh. Beauregard Chapter, Daughters of the Confederacy of
Denbigh was out as a body, the John W. Daniel and Bethel Chapters, and the J. E. B. Stuart Camp, sons of veterans of this city were represented by their leading members, and the Confederate Choir from Lancaster“was there” to sing sweetly the ever dear old Southern songs, having come all the way from their Lancaster home on board the state police boat as the guests of chairman McDonald Lee of the Fisheries Commission. Candidates on Silent Hunt Although the gray-haired and gray-coated veterans in the crowd and the monument on the green in front of the court house were the centers of interest during the day, the candidates were not neglected by any means. All of them shared with the governor a goodly portion of attention and no one needed spectacles to see that, while they were barred from anything like a flourish of trumpets, Mr. Tucker and Judge Mann were engaged in masterly still hunts for support. CONTINUED... |
![]() May 27, 1909 at Warwick Courthouse -
A thousand people gathered for the unveiling of the Civil War Monument inscribed,
"UNVAILED MAY 27, 1909
TO OUR GALLANT SOLDIERS OF THE CONFEDERACY" - noted later by George DeShazior (Warwick County Clerk of Courts 1926-1958) was a misspelling that was later corrected to "UNVEILING," the correction being still visible upon the monument.
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