MARGARET DAVIS HAYES MEMORIAL ROOM
The second room on the right is a memorial to Margaret Davis Hayes. It contains the bedroom suite of burled walnut formerly used in this room. This furniture had been sent from Beauvoir after it was no longer the Davis home, and thirty-nine years later it was shipped back in the same crates with labels in Mrs. Davis’ handwriting still on them. The pillow cases on Margaret’s bed were among the linens used by Mrs. Davis, when newly wedded to Jefferson Davis. Grouped around the mantel in this room are pictures of the homes, important in the lives of both Mr. and Mrs. Davis—the one in the center, Mrs. Davis’ girlhood home, “The Briars”, in Natchez, where she and Jefferson Davis were married; the one on the right, “Rosemont”, at Woodville, Mississippi, Davis’ boyhood home; and the one on the left, “Beauvoir”, the last home of Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson Davis. The most important of the Hayes family photographs, making this room distinctive as a memorial to Margaret Davis Hayes, is the one of Margaret herself with her baby, Jefferson Addison Hayes, whose name was legally changed to Jefferson Hayes Davis to make it possible for the renowned name, “Jefferson Davis”, to be passed from son to son for years to come.