Tucked into Belle Tisdale Booksh's family bible were dozens of faded yellow newspaper clippings. Most of them were obituaries and the longest and most interesting was the obituary of Nathan Tisdale. When my mother first copied the clippings, she had no idea how Nathan fit into the family. There are several Nathans scattered across the tree. Later research shows that Nathan was Belle's first cousin, son of her father's oldest brother Joseph Wade Tisdale and his wife Mary Amelia Wilson.There was one thing in the obituary that caught Mama's eye. One of Nathan's daughters was Mrs. Joseph Daniels. She had been one of Mama's teachers in elementary school. Mama said, "When it came time to study the War between the States, Mrs. Daniels would say, 'Put away your books and I'll read you about the real war.' Then she would read us old letters from people in her family that fought in the war."
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| Obituary of Nathan Tisdale (1831-1901) |
Sunday, July 28, 1901, Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA) page 3.
Source: GenealogyBank.com
ALGIERS AFFAIRS.
Death of a Man of Many
Honorable Scars.
Nathan
Tisdale, another from the now decimated ranks of Confederate
veterans, left this terrestrial sphere last Wednesday to join his
comrades who have gone before. It was at the home of his son, Julian,
in Rochelle, La., that he breathed his last, after a protracted
illness, extending over several years. His body was brought to the
city last Thursday evening, when it was met at Gretna by Hon. Walter
Guion, representing the Army of Tennessee camp, and conveyed to
Metairie cemetery, where it was consigned to the handsome and
well-filled tomb of that organization, in compliance to a long-time
request of deceased. The remains were accompanied from Rochelle by
the members of the family there, in addition to the many relatives
from the city.
Deceased
was over 70 years old, and had lived an honorable and useful life,
and while in health made good earnings, which were devoted to the use
of his family.
Nathan
Tisdale was born in Marengo County Ala., Jan, 8, 1831. He returned to
Mobile with the family in his early years and remained there until 14
years of age, thence to New Orleans, where he resided for two years
with his mother and five brothers. He attended the Washington Public
School, then taught by a man named Lincoln. He then removed to
Covington, where he lived until 1853, when he came to Algiers, where
he entered the Orleans dry dock, owned by Peter Marcy and Dick
Salter, to learn the ship carpenter's trade. In the following year he
was wont to work as a journeyman at full wages on the Louisiana dock
No. 1, owned by John Hughes and F. Vallette, and worked there until
the war broke out, when he volunteered his services as above stated.
When the federal gunboats were coming up the river to capture New
Orleans the Algiers Guards would not remain to be captured, but left
the city. Nathan Tisdale then, prompted by patriotic impulses, sought
to reach his brothers, Richard and Joseph, who were in the Army of
Virginia, and while en route there was detailed to work for the
Confederate government at Charleston, S. C. For several weeks he was
at death's door in the hospital at Magnolia, Miss., with typhoid
pneumonia. He was at the siege of Mobile, when General E. R. S. Canby
attacked it with 70,000 men, when the Confederate forces were only
7,000 men strong. He received a terrible wound there, while in a
rifle pit, the ball cutting away the right eyeball, breaking his
nose, passing through the left jaw bone and lodging in his left
shoulder. He remained in the hospital a long time before he
recovered, and ever since has been a suffer [sic] from the wound. He
was paroled with General Dick Taylor's command at Meridian. He was
not able to do hard work for two years afterwards, and he often spoke
in the highest terms of his old comrade and friend, Captain Mark A.
Morse, for getting him his first job after the war as carpenter on
the steamship Mary Morgan, then in the Texas trade. He only held the
position five months, when he resigned on account of his wife's
ill-health. He worked as carpenter on the steamships Harlan, Gussie,
Hughes, Morgan City and Algiers, all of the Morgan Line. On the
latter ship he did his best work. He was on the Gussie when she was
supposed to be lost at sea; on the Harlan when she was burned at
Bluefields, and while on the steamship Algiers, in Mobile harbor,
fell down an open hatchway, a distance of 18 feet, and lay
unconscious for a long time from the effects of the fall. He had two
ribs broken from another fall, and had a cancer cut from his lip. So
it can be seen that his life was fraught with hardship and
misfortunes, which were only alleviated by the devotion of his
beloved wife and devoted children.
A
few months since his daughter, Eva Tisdale, was buried just as she
had blossomed into beautiful womanhood, and that shock hastened the
death of this good old man. The surviving widow is now at her
daughter's home in Algiers, and the loss of her husband has
prostrated her, coming so soon in the wake of the death of her
daughter.
The
other surviving members of the family are the children: Mrs. Joseph
W. Daniels, wife of the superintendent of station A postoffice;
Walter I. Tisdale, Urania, La.; Mrs. B. F. Pendavis, Tullis, La.;
Julian Tisdale, Rochelle, La., and Edgar Tisdale, who is employed on
the steamship Algiers, of the Morgan Line.
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