Secretary to the President.
Mr. H. W. Graber,
511 Wilson Building,
Dallas, Texas.
When the letter was handed me, with carbon copies, by my stenographer, I happened to have in my office Judges Rainey and Talbot, who were going to take lunch with me. When I handed them the letter, asking their careful perusal of the same, and after their return from lunch, to tell me their opinion about sending it, when Judge Rainey told me to send it, “It’s a good letter and may have a good effect.”
Some week or ten days after mailing the letter I concluded I would see Colonel Simpson in regard to the matter and handed him a copy of the letter to read, when, after reading it, he became furious, stating that it was an outrage to insult the President, as I had done; first to invite him to our town and after his accepting the invitation, then insult him by asking him to take back what he had said. I called his attention to a clause in the letter, giving my position on a resolution introduced by a member of our Camp, inviting him to be the guest of our Camp while here, which resolution I opposed and succeeded in defeating, however, the matter was passed over with Simpson and I am not advised whether he ever made mention to Roosevelt about this letter. Simpson stated that he believed that he would wire Roosevelt not to come, when I told him he had better do so and not have him come with these expressions hanging over him and lay himself subject to being insulted.
When Mr. Roosevelt started to Texas on his visit, he made a great speech at Louisville, Kentucky, one of the most conciliatory on sectional differences he had ever made and paid a magnificent compliment to the Southern people and especially the Confederate soldiers. This speech was published all over the country, as also here in Dallas, and effectually removed any feeling on the part of the Southern people engendered through his writings and expressions, derogatory to our character.
Then followed the magnificent reception and welcome extended him on his arrival here in Dallas and his subsequent visits to Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio, where he received grand ovations and also on his subsequent tour of the South, gaining in popularity to the extent of receiving almost the united vote of the South, resulting in his sweeping victory in the November election.
CHAPTER XXXIX
My Family.
Our married life was blessed with seven children—four girls and three boys—five of whom are living and happily married. Our oldest, Henrietta Louise, married Doctor Frank M. Dannelly at Waxahachie, and they are now living on a large farm about seven miles from Dallas. Dr. Dannelly is a native of Georgia, in which State his father was a prominent physician, and his mother the gifted poetess, Elizabeth O. Dannelly, who published “Cactus” immediately after the close of the war, embracing a number of war poems, notably “The Burning of Columbia,” a scathing and true denunciation of this inhuman crime, which gained for it a large circulation, demanding a second edition; a second book entitled “Wayside Flowers,” a literary gem, was also very popular. Their union is blessed with three boys. The oldest, Henry G., a graduate of Staunton Military Academy, Virginia, is now in the fire insurance business in Dallas. Henry G. married about three years ago Miss Gwendolyn Dunn of Dallas; they have a sweet baby girl about four months old, which is now our first great-grandchild. The other two boys, Frank C. and Perry, are still at school. Our second daughter, Alice May, married W. D. Hume in Dallas about sixteen years ago and they are now making their home in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where Hume is engaged in the real estate and insurance business; they have no children. Our third child, Augustus Lee, was a fine young man, eighteen years of age, at home with us when, through a mistake of our family physician he was given an overdose of medicine, from the effect of which he never rallied and died in about two hours; this proved the saddest blow of our lives. Our fourth child is Irene, who married B. P. McDonald, Jr., of Fort Scott, Kansas, the son of B. P. McDonald, Sr., one of the builders of the M. K. & T. road into Texas, and for many years treasurer of the road. The old gentleman died here in Dallas a few years ago while still a director in the road and also owner of a short-line road into Cleburne, Texas.