Meet the artist whose work features vanishing treasure

Professional artist Peggy Snow stands next to her work-in-progress creation at the
 old Primm farm in Brentwood, Tenn. In the right background stands a slave cabin -- one
of two that will be featured in her latest painting.  

Like this blog on Facebook | Follow me on Twitter | Peggy Snow's artwork
Peggy Snow and I stand by the side of a road in booming Brentwood, Tenn., the roar of traffic on busy Moores Lane obliterating part of our conversation. In the distance to our left, peeking above the trees, stand houses in a tony subdivision; to our right stand an ancient farmhouse and two slave cabins. In front of Snow rests the 62-year-old's magic set: an easel. oil paints, drawing charcoal and a 36-by-36-inch canvas.

I showed Peggy Snow this long-ago work
by my paternal grandmother, Mary Banks.

A longtime professional artist, Snow is here to create a painting featuring historic treasure that soon may vanish. Unless a well-heeled group or a wealthy individual step up, the antebellum Primm farmhouse will be demolished. Thankfully, a developer aims to save the log slave cabins, remarkable survivors from the 19th century. (Update: House saved!)

In her outdoor studio, Snow is dressed for the January cold: blue scarf, brown vest, heavy coat and a tan fedora former Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry surely would have appreciated. 

Another writer described Snow, who lives in Brentwood,  as the "architectural angel of death." When she shows up to paint a subject, it's usually doomed. But it's difficult  for me to wrap my head around that description of the 5-foot-2 bundle of giggles and laughs.

Snow and I share a mutual appreciation — a love, actually — for the past. And for impressionist painting, too. Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh are among her favorite artists. My favorite is my paternal grandmother, so I show her an image on my iPhone of an outdoor scene painted long ago by Mary Banks.

The antebellum Primm farmhouse in Brentwood, Tenn.

These two slave cabins -- included in Peggy Snow's painting -- will be saved from the wrecking ball.

Born in Nashville and schooled as an artist in Memphis, Snow is drawn to old structures — decrepit barns, crumbling brick buildings, anything distinctive and set for a wrecking ball. For decades, she has "chased things that were about to disappear." The Primm farmhouse meets her criteria. 

Abandoned and dilapidated, the Greek Revival-style house served as home to a succession of Primms, a family among the earliest to settle in this area of middle Tennessee. In 1845, slaveholder Thomas Perkins Primm is believed to have greatly expanded a log cabin built four decades earlier, probably by physician Jabez Owen. Dairy farmer Charlie Primm, who died in 2011, is the last direct Primm family member to own the property.

A close-up of Peggy Snow's work in progress.

I tell Snow of my November visit to the property. A 19th-century mahogany veneer couch sits in the living room of the farmhouse, near carpets that lay haphazardly on the floor. Paint peels from each of the four Doric columns at the entryway. The slave cabins, which include the original flooring, are packed with 21st-century clutter.

When Snow read about the farmhouse's probable demise, her heart jumped. "I'm not ready." she tells me, "for it to be taken down." And so she scouted out painting positions on public property near the farm, finally settling on a spot near a white fence. 

We glance toward her subject matter — the red-roofed farm house under a deep-blue sky, the slave cabins and another old outbuilding. Then our attention turns to a leafless oak in the side yard. 

“I never get tired of conveying that beauty,” she says of the massive tree. 

Typically between 2 and 3 p.m. Snow sets up her easel and creates until dark. Somehow she blots out the whoosh of traffic. 

"It's easy to focus once I get to this spot," she says. "There's nothing else to do but draw." Snow has weeks to go before her creation — which she aims to sell — is finished.

"I want to be as good as Monet and Van Gogh," Snow says. "I think I can be. It's my drive, my challenge."

Before I leave, I mention another Peggy — my mom, the sweetest lady on our block in Mount Lebanon, Pa. She died in 2018. 

"Oh, I miss my mom, too," Snow says.

And so we part while the sun hangs low in the winter sky. We each have a foot planted in the present, but another firmly rooted in the past.

---

— Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

— View Peggy Snow's artwork here.

Where General Patrick Cleburne's remains rested until 1870

A comrade of Patrick Cleburne's described St. John's Episcopal Church Cemetery as "beautiful as the Garden of Eden -- seemingly a fit place for pure spirits to dwell, and for the haunts of angels." For nearly six years, the remains of the Confederate general -- who was killed at the Battle of Franklin (Tenn.) -- rested there among the among the oaks and magnolias. Let's explore the cemetery in rural Ashwood, Tenn.

A visit to death site of Patrick Cleburne at Franklin, Tennessee

Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne – on foot after two of his mounts were shot out from under him -- was killed by a shot to the chest during the Battle of Franklin (Tenn.) on Nov. 30, 1864. A modern memorial of cannonballs marks the general area of his death on the east side of Columbia Pike, about 40 yards from Federal works, 

Meet Ruby Davis, the bootlegger of Rippavilla

A retouched photo of Ruby Davis hangs in a second-floor room at Rippavilla.

Like this blog on Facebook | Follow me on Twitter
In the late 1950s, Ruby Davis lived at the Rippavilla plantation mansion in Spring Hill, Tenn., a place steeped in Civil War history. Among her other nefarious activities there, Davis sold moonshine — she even kept a ledger book of illicit sales to folks in the area. (It’s in the case below her photo above.) 

Ruby, according to a well-placed source, had a heart of gold, and her daughter had a penchant for marriage — she was married 12 times. (Or was it 10 times? Ah, who’s counting? Once you get past three, it’s hard to keep track.) 

Confederate troops were camped at the Rippaville plantation the night John Schofield’s U.S. Army soldiers slipped past them on the nearby Columbia Pike on Nov. 29, 1864. (The Battle of Franklin was fought the next day.) No, Ruby wasn’t there to distract them. 

This retouched photo of the old bootlegger hangs in Rippavilla, which is open to the public.

I'm a former West Virginian who appreciates the power of moonshine, character and characters. So, I'll carve out time someday to write much more about Ruby, who fascinates me. 😃

---

-- Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

Following 'bread crumbs' in life (and death) of Federal soldier

ABOVE: A document in Valentine Rau's widow's pension file notes his date of death and more. BELOW: A note to Rau's widow on reverse of above document. 
(National Archives via fold3.com.) 

   

Like this blog on Facebook | Follow me on Twitter
Here's how these two documents in the National Archives can open the door to the story of this Battle of Nashville casualty: 

On Dec. 16, 1864, 72nd Ohio Private Valentine Rau of Company C was wounded on the second (and final) day of the battle. The 26-year-old soldier, a native of Germany, was shot in the right side, according to Document 1 (above top). We can presume Valentine was originally treated at a hospital in Nashville -- war-time records can identify which one -- and then sent to Jefferson General Hospital in Jeffersonville, Ind. 

A brief search online reveals much information (including an illustration) about Jefferson General Hospital. Built to replace another hospital at nearby Camp Joe Holt, it was one of the largest U.S. Army hospitals of the war. Jefferson General Hospital  consisted of 27 buildings, each 175 x 20 feet. Each ward had four large cast-iron stoves. Inside the perimeter was a chapel with reading rooms, a post office, a drug and instrument house, and a "dead house" -- a morgue for temporary keeping of the dead.

Jefferson General Hospital was one of the largest U.S. Army hospitals during the war.
(Wikimapia.org.)

By February 1865, Rau -- whose name apparently was anglicized in these documents to "Rowe" -- had taken a turn for the worse. He died on  Feb. 8, 1865. L.G. Olmstead filled out the front of Document 1, noting Rau died in the morning in Ward 1 and that the soldier's wife, Susan, lived in Sandusky, Ohio. On the reverse of the document, E.S Ballard wrote to Rau's widow:

"I send this to give you information concerning the death of Mr. Valentine Rowe. But as I am informed that the particulars have already been written by his lady nurse I will not multiply the words."

(The identity of Ballard could be revealed with further research.)

A quick search online reveals Olmstead was a Presbyterian minister of some renown in Indiana. Document 2 (shown) -- the reverse of Document 1 -- also included the name "C.W. Fitch," another chaplain. 

According "Baird's History of Clark County, Indiana," published in 1909: Fitch and Olmstead were "men of great heart as well as brain. Chaplain Olmstead being a great lover of flowers was responsible for adding materially to the beauty and attractiveness of the grounds [of Jefferson Hospital] by planting many trees and flower beds to cheer the homesick sufferers."

According to Document 1, Rau's funeral was held at 3 p.m. on Feb. 8, 1865. He was buried nearby, probably at a hospital cemetery -- further research could uncover where. According to Find A Grave -- an excellent online research tool --  Rau's remains rest today in the national cemetery in New Albany, Ind.

Information in these documents -- "bread crumbs," I call them -- could lead to much more about the life and death of Valentine Rau. For example:

• Because we have his wife's name, more info on the Rau family could easily be found on ancestry.com. Perhaps even an image of the couple.
• A deeper dive of the county history could uncover an image of Olmstead. (Obscure county, town, etc. history are digitized on archive.org, a fabulous resource.)
• Records from the hospital where Rau was treated could lead to the identity of the "lady nurse" who treated him and more.
• The identity of Rau's regiment could open many doors -- exactly where the regiment fought at Nashville, for example. A speech about the regiment, given in 1875 by a 72nd Ohio officer, is available online here. Perhaps he mentioned Rau. 

Information available on the Internet -- thanks, Al Gore! -- makes the searching/digging infinitely easier than it was decades ago. Enjoy the "digging."

---

-- Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

SOURCES

-- Documents from Rau widow’s pension file, National Archives via fold3.com, a pay site.

A visit to McFadden's Ford at Stones River (Tenn.) battlefield

At the Battle of Stones River (Tenn.) on Jan. 2, 1863, 58 Union cannons opened up on Confederate attempting to cross McFadden’s Ford. Roughly 1,800 became casualties in about 45 minutes. “The dead rebels lay so thick upon the ground,” a U.S. Army officer recalled, “that we could not draw the [cannon] across the field until the bodies had been removed allowing us a path.” I visited the site on the 157th anniversary of fighting there. READ MORE ... from the extremely knowledgeable Stan Hutson here.