This entry is not dated...but since they met each Wednesday I would imagine this would be October 13th, 1880. Here goes:

This is really not my time to write this record, as I am next in age to Lucy but as I am one of the old scholars and all of the old ones have to write before the new, it falls to my lot to perform this task.

We opened our meeting by reading one half of the thirty first Psalm.  Then Miss Florence read Lucie's account of the last meeting which was very amusing and which we enjoyed very much especially as she was not there to take part in our entertainment herself.

Nannie played her own arrangement of "Mockingbird" which was very pretty.  Mattie repeated a very pretty piece called "Perseverance" very well much better than she ever repeated anything. Lou played "Les Borders Du R Line very well and Miss Lou complimented her. Lulie read "A Lament for the ???? Flowers" which was very appreciated at this season (fall).  Mattie Kate read "Half Way Doings" which is a very good sermon preached by a negro.  Sallie played "Mountain Zephyrs".  (Sorry I cannot find the lyrics). 

Miss Lou read a very pretty piece about a walk which two boys took. One of them did not enjoy the walk at all, while the other saw an endless number of interesting things.  There was a very good lesson to be learned from it but I have not time to write it here.

                                                                                                                                 LS
The only girl with the initials LS that year was Loulie Starke. I find her name spelled different ways...sometimes Lulie, sometimes Lula M. Starke, She is found in the book Green Mount After the War on three pages, 192, 216, and 273.  There were only 6 girls on the roster for the year 1880-81 and they were:

Blount, Sallie Lee (married name Mahood)

Fauntleroy, Mattie Kate
Fleet, Lucy
Henley, M. Lou
Sale, Nannie F. 
Starke, Loulie

If you have ever read Green Mount After the War also by Betsy Fleet, copyright 1978, then you are familiar with the name Martha Gaines Baylor. Well, fortunately descendants of hers visited Green Mount in April of this year and they had a photo of her, her husband Richard, one of their sons Herman and another relative, a little girl named Dorothy Baylor [Brown]. She was the daughter of Harry Washington Baylor and Gustavia Corbin Baylor. Thanks to Crystal Baylor Satchell and her brother Warner Baylor I have permission to post these pictures. In the beginning of Green Mount After the War Betsy says that Martha always reminded her of a cylindrical Christmas tree when she was dressed in her fancy clothes. Here she is dressed in her Mid-Wife uniform. That's what she was, a mid-wife. Her husband Richard was a brick mason. Thank you Crystal and Warner and the rest of your family for finally putting names to these faces. We believe that Martha was the last of the servants buried in the slave cemetery here at Green Mount and we think we have finally found that too. It is pretty much directly across from the Fleet family cemetery, just on the other side of the dirt road that divides the property.

DO YOU KNOW NAMES TO GO WITH THE FACES OF THESE GIRLS?

IF SO, PLEASE CALL TERE PISTOLE @ 804-241-5193 OR SEND AN EMAIL TO flytiger@bealenet.com AND PUT IN THE SUBJECT LINE “GREEN MOUNT GIRLS.”

THANKS!

This is a photo of Confederate Captain Alexander Frederick Fleet, Sr. (Fred) & son-in-law Leigh Robinson Gignilliat of Culver Military Academy and probably many of the former students of “Green Mount Home School for Young Ladies” in 1907. (Fred died in 1911 and Gignilliat in 1952.) This picture appears to have been taken on the back porch of Green Mount. Fred and Leigh were traveling from Richmond to Jamestown for the tri-centennial Jamestown Exposition (read below) and we think that perhaps they stopped at Green Mount in between the two locations. Knowing of their planned visit, notice may have been sent around for the former students to come to the house for a reunion. If that is what happened they had a good turnout. The school opened in 1873 and closed in 1888, so the students would have been older of course; although some still look fairly young.

“Expanding his horizons in 1907, Gignilliat began a two-week excursion with the entire Naval School and the newly formed Summer Cavalry School (The Woodcraft Camp was not formed until 1912) to the tri-centennial Jamestown Exposition in Virginia. He broadsided the eastern press with news that Culver was coming to the grand celebration, then cashed in with parade stops in downtown Cincinnati and Richmond, Va., on the outbound trip. At Jamestown, the cadets (the term "midshipman" was not used until about 1920) performed cavalry and artillery drills and entertained hundreds of spectators with a military review.”

SONGS, POEMS AND FLOWERS!

Green Mount
Oct. 5 1880

Oh me! what a cross it is to be the oldest girl in school; for they are responsible for almost everything that happens, and worst than all, they have to be the first one to write the Wednesday evening record, and have all the others taking notes from them, ironically speaking.------

We all joined in the reading of the 30th Psalm, and then adjourned to the music room, where after the usual exerises of reading the record, taking up the collection &c, &c. Lucy played "Tilram" [?Pilram?Pilgram] which was followed by a sweet little verse from Mattie.  Then Loulie played a very pretty Amusement which we thought she played very well, but she didn't seem to think so.  Then Sallie read much to our interest an accounting of the introduction of the beautiful little verse [?] known as Smilax [?The first letter is unidentifiable-same as in the word above Tilram/Pilram] Mattie Kate then gave us The Crown of Roses. Her rendition of it was enjoyed by us very much.  Lou then read one of Mrs. Proctor's beautiful poems called "Words." I echo one of her sentiments viz. that words have their spirits. Yes this is a subject worthy of deeper meditation than we give. Then how careful we should be to give only kind ones.  Nannie read a comical extract. Then Cousins Lou & Florence played The Light Calvary.[sic-Cavalry][by Suppe]. It is needless to say we enjoyed it hugely.  Cousin Lou as usual had on hand a vaes of beautiful flowers & these together with the interesting exercises of the evening kept our eyes, ears, & noses wide open.  This closed our happy Evergreen Society. 

S.B. [Sallie Blount]

LOTS OF SONGS PLAYED

Green Mount

Sept. 29, 1880

After the usual opening exercise, all the members of our society assembled in the music room.  Nannie played Reiter Galop a pieece whcih she learned by ear.  I hope she will soon be able to play some tunes by note.  Mattie read a piece beginning "A million little diamonds", & was followed by Lulie, who read, Our Ships at Sea." Then Lou played Remember Me [could not find], a very pretty tune which we all enjoyed.  Lucy read [not filled in] & Mattie Kate a funnny piece in colored English called "Keep Gittin."  Sallie played "Song of the Robin" very well, so of course we listened to it with pleasure.  Sister read something about Ole Bill, the most famous violinist in the world.  Then She played, Last Hope.  Then the undersigned played "Whispering Winds", which closed a very pleasant meeting.

Florence Fleet

The Evergreen Society Meets Again...Star gazing!

1881-1881 Session

Blount, Sallie Lee

Fauntleroy, Mattie Kate

Fleet, Lucy

Henley, M. Lou

Sale, Nannie F.

Starke, Loulie

Sept. 22, 1880

I had to make the humiliating confession that my record of the last meeting was unfinished & as a punishment for such unpardonable negligence we voted that I should write again.
We were very glad to welcome to our Society Miss Lulie Starke, who played for us the Spanish Dance.    Lou [Henley] read with much feeling "The Death of the Flowers."  It meninded me of the sad & sudden deaths of our freinds Howsie Toombs & Nellie Rice, cut down like the flowers by the early frosts.  I trust we may find them again, in that beautiful Land where the flowers never fade, & partings cannot come.
Lucy played Recreation No. 24 & Mattie read "Try Try Again." [photo]. Nannie read Tennyson's beautiful lines beginning "Break, Break, Break".
Mattie Kate played for the enjoyment of us all Gimbel's Var. on "Old Black Joe." [lyrics].
Sallie read a piece called "The Mountains of the Moon" which was followed by an animated discussion of what is really there & by the expressed hope that we may have an opportunity to see it for ourwselves "one of these days."
Sister [Lou-she is writing the minutes or is she referring to one of her sisters Florence or Bessie?] then played "Music of the Sea" & then we adjourned to hunt Stars in the Mount woods.
We were very successful in fidning them & had such a funny happy time, that we will not soon forget it.

Not signed, but would have been M.L. Fleet again "Lou"

A NEW SCHOOL SESSION/YEAR BEGINS

Green Mount Sept. 15, 1880

With very thankful hearts we met to reorganize our Evergreen Society. The short vacation which had intervened since our last meeting was filled with many mercies & pleasures for us all.
Sallie [Lee Blount]

[Sallie Lee Blount Mahood became a prominent Richmond artist. This self portrait is taken from her book Sallie Lee Mahood Autobiography, c. 1965]

was elected President, & Mattie Kate vice President.  Lucy was re-elected Treasurer, & we decided that the duties of Secretary should be equally divided among us all, consiquently it fell to my lot to write first.
Lou [Henley] played Beauregard's March & Mattie Fleet repeated the Frost. Nannie played Ohachonea [?] Waltz.  Mattie Kate read a pathetic story of how "An Innocent Amusement" proved the ruin of a promising boy.  Sallie played with a great deal of expression "Chant du Berger" & then Lucy read a charming little story full of good lessons called Rob's Magic Mirror.
Mattie Kate suggested & we passed unanimously the resolution not to use any slang, but to strive together for the improvement & happiness of each other both in & out of school.
I hope we may have as happy a session as the last, & that each one of us may try to make the Wednesday evening hour fuller than ever of pleasure & improvements.

M. L. Fleet

This is a copy of the actual page transcribed above. If anyone can figure out the name of the waltz that Nannie played please let me know what it is. It's written about midway down the page.