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| Olivia South Carolina Tisdale c1890 |
Olivia (pronounced O LEE vee ah) was always known to me as Aunt Lee. Her niece, my Great Aunt Vera Booksh Ventress, told me lots of stories about her. She was born 8 February 1864, the seventh child of Eliza Helen and Benjamin Franklin Tisdale. She never married and was an independent woman supporting herself as a nurse.
She had a busy social life and I found lots of newspaper clippings that mentioned her. One is a column called "Woman's World and Work" in the New Orleans Times-Picayune on June 5, 1895. It says:
"Everyone who attended the recent great festival for the benefit of the House of the Good Shepherd will remembrer the ladies' riding race, which was one of the exciting features of this memorable event. The young ladies who risked their lives in their noble efforts to aid an institution sheltering their less fortunate sisters were Misses Lee Tisdale and Adele Kemp. They are daring equestriennes, and graceful ones as well, and their riding excited unbounded enthusiasm. The committee on sports in charge of this programme, in order to testify their appreciation and that of many friends for the services rendered the cause by Misses Tisdale and Kemp, presented them a few days ago with beautiful souvenirs, and an accompanying letter of thanks, which they will preserve among their precious mementoes."
During the next few years the newspapers were full of stories of the war in Cuba. In 1895 Cuban Nationalists had begun a revolution against Spanish rule. In January 1898 the United States Navy sent the battleship USS Maine to Havana to protect U. S. citizens. The Maine was sunk by a mine explosion in the harbor on February 15. The United States Congress passed a joint resolution acknowledging Cuban independence and authorized president William McKinley to use military measures to end fighting in Cuba. Spain rejected the U.S. ultimatum and severed diplomatic relations. A naval blockade of Cuba was implemented and a call went out for 125,000 military volunteers. Spain declared war on the U.S. and Congress voted to go to war against Spain on April 25, 1898.
It wasn't just soldiers that were off to Cuba. Aunt Lee was a nurse and she went to Cuba with the American Red Cross. It wasn't a very long war but it had big consequences. A cease-fire was signed on August 12, 1898 amd the war officially ended four months later when the Treaty of Paris was signed on December 10, 1898. Besides guaranteeing the independence of Cuba, the treaty also forced Spain to cede Guam and Puerto Rico to the U.S. and to agree to sell the Philippines to the U.S. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on February 6, 1899 by a margin of one vote.
Aunt Lee returned to New Orleans and continued her life a nurse. I ended up with her red velvet photo album full of photos of family and friends, identified for me by my Great Aunt Vera. I have already used several of them in this blog. On page one of the album is a photo of a soldier that Aunt Lee met during her time in Cuba.
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| Aunt Lee's Photo Album Cabinet Card Photos of Ira Roberts and Leonard Sisman |
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