Information from Mrs. Hobart D. (Olive Brown) Shaw of Gulfport, Mississippi, granddaughter of James Brown and the daughter of Joseph W. Brown who was born in this, the family home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, explains the practical use her grandfather made of the two cottages on the grounds, formerly identical in structure—the one on the east, the plantation office, used also as a school room for the younger children who were taught by a governess; the one on the west, the Guest Cottage, often called the Circuit Rider’s House from the frequent use made of it by the traveling Methodist minister in that section.
From September 2, 1848 until May 1873, James Brown was the owner of the Mansion and its surrounding eighty-eight acres more or less, either by Contract and Agreement or by a deed. In May of 1873, after the death of James Brown, it was sold under a decree of the United States Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, and was conveyed by deed of special commissioners to Frank Johnston of Jackson, Mississippi. Through a special warranty deed given by Frank Johnston July 7, 1873, Beauvoir became the property of Mrs. Sarah A. Dorsey, wife of Samuel W. Dorsey.
When Mrs. Sarah A. Dorsey (Sarah Ellis Dorsey) of Tensas Parish, Louisiana bought the Brown property, she gave it its picturesque name, “Beauvoir”. Her ownership of this beautiful coast property was brief, ending Feb. 19, 1879; but her use of it, for the most part, during the years she did own it and her final disposition of it by both will and deed caused Beauvoir to become historic Beauvoir, and made her worthy of outstanding recognition for the splendid contribution she thus made to the welfare of Jefferson Davis.
It was the spring of 1877 that Jefferson Davis, then 69 years old, came back to his beloved Mississippi, seeking rest and a place to write an authentic account of the Confederate government that he had administered for four years as the President of the Confederate States of America. It was fortunate for him that just at that time Mrs. Dorsey, an old schoolmate of Mrs. Davis and one deeply appreciative of his great service to the South, invited him for a visit to Beauvoir; for there he found the place and the congenial atmosphere ideal for the rest he so badly needed and for the work he had in mind. He rented the east cottage, now called the Library Cottage, and fitted the front room with book shelves and furniture at his own expense. He used the second room for his bedroom and prepared the third for his son, Jefferson Davis, Jr. His son made little use of this room, however, occupying it only a few months in 1877, since he died of yellow fever soon afterwards in Memphis. It was later used as a study by Varina Anne (Winnie), youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. Davis.
Memorial Arch—Entrance to Beauvoir
After arrangements were made for board for himself and family, when they could be with him, Davis began work on the history of the Confederate government, which he felt impelled to write. Mrs. Dorsey’s recognition of the value of such a book to the South caused her to donate her services for the clerical help Davis had in writing a part of the first volume of this great two volume history. By this time (April 1878) Mrs. Davis had returned from abroad, leaving Winnie to continue her studies in Carlsruhe, Germany. From the time of her arrival at Beauvoir, Mrs. Davis gave her services lovingly and untiringly as her husband’s secretary, until he finally completed the two volumes, composing “The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government”, and wrote also a “Short History of the Confederate States”.
When Jefferson Davis came to Beauvoir he was, as has been said, “A citizen of no land under the sun, proscribed, misrepresented, and derided”; yet he kept his heart free from bitterness and used the higher mental powers that were still his in his old age, in writing his invaluable elucidation of the government of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865.
Twelve years Jefferson Davis lived at Beauvoir. It was in his second year of residence there, Feb. 19, 1879, that he contracted with Mrs. Dorsey, widow of Samuel Dorsey, to buy for $5,500.00 the Beauvoir property, that she had owned for approximately six years. This deed of sale is found in Book 16, Harrison County, Mississippi Record of Deeds, pages 328-329. But, less than six months after the first payment was made for the purchase of this property, Mrs. Dorsey died leaving a will dated the previous year, January 4, 1878, which made Jefferson Davis heir to all she died possessed of—Beauvoir and five plantations. But regardless of his inheritance of Beauvoir through the terms of Mrs. Dorsey’s will, Davis based his claim to Beauvoir on the deed, recording his purchase of it February 19, 1879. One explanation found for this claim is that the notes still due on the purchase price of Beauvoir were paid in liquidating the debts against Mrs. Dorsey’s estate.
Among the Harrison County court records is a Contract and Agreement entered into by the two parties, Mrs. Sarah A. Dorsey and Jefferson Davis, signed March 20, 1879, which provided for their joint interest in the Beauvoir vineyard and orange grove during their natural lives—same to be cultivated and gathered on joint account.