Dr. S. K. Axson, the grandfather of Ellen Axson, the first wife of President Woodrow Wilson, was pastor of the church from 1857 to 1889. The Wilson marriage ceremony was performed by Dr. Axson in the manse of the church.
All Savannah mourned when, on April 6, 1889, firebrands tossed by the wind lodged on a cornice of the graceful steeple, too high to be reached. Soon the old church was in ruins. But the city resolved that the historic church must be restored. A new building was erected which is an exact reproduction of the former church. To it, as to its predecessors, ecclesiastical architects go on pilgrimage as a part of their education.
One of the old customs still continued in the church is the assembling of the communicants at a table which is laid the entire length of the broad aisle, as well as in the transept aisle.
Photo by Ph. B. Wallace
THE CABILDO, NEW ORLEANS, LA.
LXXVIII
THE CABILDO OF NEW ORLEANS
WHICH SAW THE TRANSFER OF LOUISIANA TO THE
UNITED STATES
When Count Alejandro O'Reilly, Irish Lieutenant-General of Spain, entered New Orleans on July 24, 1769, he came as the avenger of the disorders that followed the transfer of Louisiana to Spain by the Treaty of Paris. After putting to death some of the leaders in the revolt, he reorganized the civil government. Among other innovations he instituted the Cabildo as the law-making body for the province, to take the place of the French superior council. The meeting place was a building on the Place d'Armes. In this square, on the coming of O'Reilly, the flag of France had been displaced by that of Spain as Aubrey said, "Gentlemen, by order of the King, my master, I absolve you from your oath of fidelity and obedience to his most Christian majesty." The Spanish and French officers then had gone together to the cathedral, next door to the meeting place of the Cabildo.