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| Nathan Tisdale (1831-1901) |
Among the newspaper clippings tucked into the Tisdale Booksh family bible was the obituary of Belle's first cousin, Nathan Tisdale. Nathan was the son of her father's oldest brother, Joseph Wade Tisdale and his wife, Mary Amelia Wilson. I wrote about Nathan back in April 2015, but since it has been so long ago I will repeat it.
When my mther was making copies of the clippings she noticed something that caught her 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 ooks 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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| 1901 Nathan Tisdale Obituary,Sunday, July 28, 1901, Tmes-Picayune (New Orleans, LA) page 3. |
TRANSCRIPTION:
ALGIERS AFFAIRS
Death of a Man of Many Honorable Years
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 [July 24, 1901], 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
1855, 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 R.
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[er] 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 afterwatds, 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 [Catherine Lamontis 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 L 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. [probably New Orleans newspaper]
