Mary Elizzabeth Austell Farris
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March is National Women’s History Month and in their honor, I would like to dedicate this article to the gallant Ladies of the South.
Without a voice and without a vote, they played a vital role in the fate that was dealt them, involving themselves in just about every aspect of the war effort, making a difference in any way they could, proving their worth along side their male counterparts.
Never before could women become so involved in activities of this nature without the fear of losing their status as “ladies.” Their days were long, their tasks numerous, their work grueling. They proved time and again that there was much more beneath their bonnets than just a bunch of pretty curls.
But this was nothing new for the women of this era.
As a matter of record, the United States began the 19th century with 16 states, which stretched along the East Coast from Massachusetts to Georgia. There were five million people, primarily engaged in agriculture. The average woman’s life span was less than 40.
Women married at about age 22 and went on to have one child every other year for an average of seven or eight children. But one child out of every 10 never made it past childhood. The United States ended the 19th century with 45 states, which stretched from coast to coast. The population had swelled to 75 million people, now engaged in both agriculture and commerce. And, the average woman’s life span had lengthened to more than 50.
At the end of the century, women married later at about age 27 and went on to have three to four children in a span of 10 years.
It is indeed hard for today’s modern day, opinionated, accomplished, and worldly woman to even imagine what it would have been like to walk in our great-grandmother’s shoes. Never forgetting that those shoes belonged to a more or less second class citizen, a baby-making machine, expected to look pretty, provide creature comforts, and “do her man proud”, while at the same time providing the nurturing and care her family demanded, which included cooking, cleaning, sewing, even working in the garden or fields, from daylight to dark.
They cared for their children in life, and then cared for their graves in death. Some women experienced so much heartbreak with the loss of multiple young children that they tried to avoid attachment until after age six.
This was a “privilege” reserved for the wealthier class, such as Caroline McGavock, of nearby Carnton Plantation in Franklin, who lost three of her five children at a very early age, and left the surviving two in the care of a nanny until they were past the most precarious stages. At the other end of the scale, let us not forget the plight of the poor African American woman, who “produced” and had no say in the fate of either herself or her offspring.
Most women of that day had very little to do with decision-making, financial matters, and often times, even the choice of a husband. Yet, they persevered, accepted their fate, and most of the time, made “lemonade out of lemons.”
There is simply no way to measure their fortitude, their endurance, or their strength of character. But it is shown in the growth of our nation, from coast to coast, east to west, north to south.
When war came to their homeland, the sacrifices of women were numerous, and the desperate and hard times excluded no one. While each and every one had her own story to tell, the fate of the lesser-known woman of that day and time has been lost to history in so many instances and their voices remain forever silent.
One such story of just an “ordinary” woman of that era is that of my great-grandmother, and it is my honor to share her story with you. As was so typical of the times, including the fate of Murfreesboro’s own Mattie Ready Morgan, Mary Austell Farris would not live to celebrate her 50th birthday, and only one of her eight children, my grandfather, Dr. John Kennerly Farris, Jr., would enjoy the privilege of old age.
Mary Elizzabeth Austell was born May 7, 1836. Her father was William Austell who came to Tennessee from South Carolina in 1829. She and John Kennerly Farris were “joined in matrimony at 9:00 o’clock on Thursday morning, August 27, 1857 by Rev. J. L. Payne” according to family records.
John Farris was studying the practice of medicine at the time and had apprenticed himself to Dr. J. E. Hough, a physician in Pleasant Hill, in Coffee County. A year later the couple moved to Arkansas where Dr. Farris established his own practice.
They lived in Montgomery County, Arkansas for the next two years and it was here that their first child, a daughter named Ella K., was born on September 20, 1858. It was also here that she would die a year later on November 20, 1859 and was buried two days later.
John and Mary returned to Tennessee in the autumn of 1860 and the remains of little Ella were brought with them. Obviously, the grieving couple could not bear the thought of leaving their baby daughter alone in a strange land with no one to care for her grave.
According to Dr. Farris’s own records, she “was disinterred on October 15, 1860 (Sunday) and re-interred on November 17, 1860 (Saturday) in Coffee, County, Tennessee.” Mary was seven months pregnant at the time, so the long journey home must have been an especially difficult one for her. Their second child, a son, Samuel Jackson Farris, was born on December 7, 1860.
One year later on November 26, 1861 Dr. John Farris, along with his two brothers, Bud and Sam, enlisted for service in the Confederate Army, Company I, 41st Tennessee. Mary and her one-year-old son, Sammy, went back to her home to live with her father at his farm in Coffee County. She did not know that she would not see her husband again until late December of 1864.
Mary’s mother had died pre 1850 and during the time prior to her marriage as the oldest female child, she had been the “lady of the house.” The 1860 census shows William Austell as being a very wealthy farmer with real estate valued at $7800 and personal property of $6000, including three slaves.
During the war, William Austell was one of the Coffee County civilians who was arrested and imprisoned by the Federal authorities. Being a staunch supporter of the Cause himself, with a son, two sons-in-law, and numerous other relatives serving the Confederacy, this is no surprise. But what a terrifying experience this must have been for the very genteel Mary!
John Farris served the Confederacy as a physician from the time of his enlistment until he took the Oath in March of 1865. He participated in the Battle of Fort Donelson where he was captured and spent the next seven months as a prisoner of war.
After being exchanged, he went on to participate in the major Battles of Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville. During this time he kept a diary in the form of letters to his wife that he inscribed in small journals to be sent home at convenient opportunities. In a letter of November 16, 1862 he instructs her that “…I hope you will bear my absence with fortitude. I want you to be a soldier in forbearance & a lady in manners. …” And in a letter written on August 30, 1863, he writes: “Today I would like to know where you are and what you are doing. … Are you sitting now in sorrow, trying to smoke trouble off by the use of the odorous pipe? I hope not. I hope your mind is free from trouble and your lips from the pipe. …” Following John’s return home, and the end of the war, they continued to live at her father’s farm where John practiced medicine in the community of Hillsboro and Prairie Plains until 1901.
There would ultimately be six other children, three sons (John Kennerly, Jr., Amos Austell, and William Rice) and three daughters (Sue Jennie, Mary Elizzabeth, Jr. and Sophia Cordelia) born to the couple but of these, only one son, John, Jr., would live to a ripe old age of 72. Samuel died at age 49, William Rice, Sue Jennie, and Mary Elizzabeth, Jr. would all die in their early-mid twenties, Amos at age 10, and Sophia at one year -- all from consumption, which was tuberculosis. On March 21, 1885, not quite 49 years old, Mary, too, would succumb to the disease, which had ravished her family for more than a decade. |
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