Jefferson Davis and the name

Whenever you discipline yourself to notice historical detail, your mind becomes alert to other interesting facts that you simply hadn't previously noted. The problem is, of course, that you become so taken up in little "side" journeys that you may never return to your "main" road, whatever that is. But it will make you quick to notice things in what others say--to expose the gaps in their thinking and to add interesting, and perhaps significant, points they missed. Indeed, if you look at life from your own perspective for long enough, you get a kind of "angle" on life which will, I believe, begin to shape the way that others think.

This essay arises out of a remark made during a tour of the Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham House, currently the administration building of Belmont University, in Nashville, TN. She (1817-1887) was the daughter of Oliver Hayes of South Hadley, MA. He had come to the South in the early 19th century to find his fortune, and he found that in law and religion. Well, one of his grandons (Joel Addison Hayes, Jr.), a nephew of Adelicia, married the only daughter of the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. She, Margaret Howell Davis, became, of course, Margaret Howell Davis Hayes. Jefferson Davis had no other children who survived into adulthood.

The Hayes' began to have children shortly after their marriage on January 1, 1876 in Memphis TN. Children that came of that union were: (1) Jefferson Davis Hayes, b. 1877; (2) Varina Howell Davis Hayes, b. 1879; (3) Lucy White Hayes, b. 1882; (4) Jefferson Davis Hayes , b. 1884, and (5) William Davis Hayes, b. June 9, 1889. Well, as time or luck would have it, President Jefferson Davis' first grandson died at three months (hence his next grandson took the first grandson's name); his last grandson was born six months before the grandfather died. But the point seemed to be that the noble name of Davis was going to "die out."

An Interesting Historical Datum

So with this fact in mind we come to the following interesting story, taken from a book entitled Notable Southern Families describing the death and funeral of Jefferson Davis in the early summer of 1889. Jefferson Davis Hayes, born in 1884, was five years old when his grandfather, the "Great Southerner" died. Then, I quote:

"Standing by his grandfather's bier he heard some one say that the dead statesman left no one to bear his name. The boy proudly proclaimed that he was his grandfather's namesake, which was of course quite true. The whole circumstance was explained to him and he insisted that he wanted to be named for his grandfather. The Bishop of Mississippi, who was present was deeply touched and in the presence of the family and close friends, he laid his hands, one upon the boy's head, the other upon the cold forehead of President Davis and said: 'I christen thee Jefferson Davis.' The change of name was subsequently legalized by legislative enactment in three states: Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia."

From 1892 on, then, Jefferson Davis Hayes took the name Jefferson Hayes-Davis. He went to Princeton, graduating in 1907, and then moved to Colorado Springs CO. Then, fast-forwarding to 2008, there was a story in a Colorado Springs newspaper, where the grandson of this Jefferson Hayes-Davis was a banker in Colorado Springs and was doing everything he could to keep the "flame" of his great, great-grandfather alive. The year 2008 was the 200th anniversary of Jefferson Davis' birth. He had a hard time competing with Abraham Lincoln, however, the 200th anniversary of whose birth we celebrated in Feburary 2009.

Conclusion

This fascinating story, whether it is true in all its details, leads yet to further questions. Wouldn't it be interesting to get hold of copies of those legislative enactments in those three states to discover what, actually, they said? Why were laws passed in these three states permitting it, since the Davis family in the 1880s-1890s didn't have a connection with Louisiana and Virginia? Perhaps these were by way of a resolution. And, why, ultimately, did it matter that Mississippi would do this? Jefferson Hayes-Davis was born in 1884 in Memphis, and his residence in 1892 was in Colorado Springs. What does Mississippi have to do with it?

Way leads to way. Perhaps an enterprising reader will find all these enactments and confirm that Jefferson Hayes-Davis (after 1892) was indeed born in Tennessee and lived in Colorado Springs at the time of the name change. We still don't have all the facts, though we have uncovered a fascinating little diverting detail about life. I have discovered, however, that a possible Louisiana connection is that Jefferson Davis was buried there, in a New Orleans cemetery for 18 months after this death; then his widow had his remains removed to the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA (aha, the Virginia connection..). Still would like the texts of the legislative enactments....

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