The Palm Beach Post, Friday, March 8, 1940  Page 8

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          UDC Hold Dinner For Monument Fund

 

A benefit dinner for the monument fund of the Thomas Benton Ellis

Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, was held Wednesday

night at the home of Mrs. Chris Ernestine, on Almeira Road.  Mrs.

Ernestine and Mrs. A. C. Adams were hostesses.

 

The house was decorated with a profusion of pink tulips, pink and

coral gladioli, yellow, red and pink roses.  Each table was centered

with a low bowl of sweet peas and ferns.

 

Guests included Mrs. Guy M. Powers, UDC president, and Mr. Powers;

Mrs. Victor Oliver, chairman of the monument fund, and Mr. Oliver;

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Dee, Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Swearingen, Mrs. Olive

Bradham, Mrs. Maude Stillman, Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Lewis, Mrs. Eliz-

abeth Hawley, Mrs. Frank Hirsch, Miss Janet Hirsch, Mr. and Mrs. E.

D. Anthony, Mrs. Jewell Powell, Mrs. Bert C. Teed, A. C. Adams and

Chris Ernestine.

 

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The Palm Beach Post, Monday, March 25, 1940,  Page 7

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                    PATY WILL SPEAK AT SHAFT DEDICATION

 

Final plans for the dedication of a monument to the memory of the

soldiers of the Confederacy, which will be held in Woodlawn Cemetery on the afternoon of April 26, under the auspices of Thomas Benton Ellis chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, were completed yesterday, it was announced by Mrs. Guy M. Powers, chairman in charge of the program.

 

The principal address will be delivered by B. F. Paty, of West Palm Beach, the Lower East Coast’s only candidate for Governor, and the ceremony will feature the county’s observance of Confederate Memorial Day.

 

Mr. Paty will be engaged in a statewide speaking campaign on that date, but will make a special trip to West Palm Beach to deliver the address.

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The Palm Beach Post, Thursday, March 6, 1941,  Page 6

 

UDC Here Authorized To Erect Monument

 

Permission to erect a monument in Woodlawn Cemetery was granted the United Daughters of the Confederacy last night by the city commission.

 

Of Georgia granite, the memorial shaft will be 10 feet high, six feet wide at the base, and four feet thick.  It will weigh 9,400 pounds.

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The Palm Beach Post, Sunday, November 30, 1941,  Page 9

 

TWO MONUMENTS

Editor, Post-Times:

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I am not writing officially as acting librarian of the St. Augustine Historical Society and Institute of Science but as myself… That was a simply superb Sunday edition… Everything was worth while… But there is a But, On page 8;

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“During the past year a handsome Confederate monument was erected and unveiled at Woodlawn Cemetery by the Thomas Benton Ellis Chapter, UDC, it being the only Confederate monument south of Jacksonville.”

 

I regret to say NO.  But there is a monument to the Confederate dead standing in the Plaza here in St. Augustine where it had been for many years—It was first put in what would now be one corner of St. Joseph Lyceum property on St. George Street and later on its application to the City Council permission was given for its present site in the Plaza.

 

It was erected through efforts of Miss Anna Dummett, sister-in law of General Hardee and several old women still recall taking part in entertainments to raise funds for the monument.

 

Perhaps there is something about the Thomas Benton Chapter monument however that would make it the only one of its design.

 

Mrs. Katherine S. Lawson

(Mrs. Edward Lawson)  

St. Augustine

 

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          And Then The Attacks Started

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                                                        Aftermath of the second desecration

                                              (Spray paint and sledge hammer damage)

 

THE MAYOR’S RESPONSE

                                                          

West Palm Beach’s Yankee Mayor; Jeri Muoio 

(Preaching Diversity and Inclusion – Unless…)                                                                                                        

 

Palm Beach Post, August 21, 2017

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Confederate statue to be removed from West Palm Beach

cemetery

 

The city of West Palm announces it will remove a Confederate

memorial from a cemetery.

 

Lisa J. Huriash and Ryan Van Velzer

Contact Reporters Sun Sentinel

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A monument honoring dead Con-federate soldiers is no longer

welcome at West Palm Beach’s Wood-lawn Cemetery, the city

said Monday.

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The 1941 memorial — believed by local historians to be the last Confederate statue in Palm Beach County — will be removed from public display, said Mayor Jeri Muoio.

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                                                        “I believe strongly they are symbols of hate and bigotry, and we don't want that here in                                                              our city,” Muoio said.

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                                                         The city’s move comes after violent protests in Charlottesville, Va., over a decision to                                                                 remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. A man plowed his car into a crowd                                                               of counter protesters in Virginia, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer, police said.

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                                                         As the national debate intensified over the appropriateness of Confederate monuments,                                                           the memorial in West Palm Beach was vandalized multiple times in the past few weeks.

                                                         City officials plan to move the memorial within a week.  

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                                                         It is owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a key organizer behind the majority of the Confederate monuments across the country.

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Muoio said the city’s attorney has been trying to get the group to remove the monument from the cemetery, which is public property. "We have asked them to remove their monument. They have not done that so we are going to remove it for them," she said.

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"We will put in storage for them and they can take it and do whatever they wish, but it will not be on public property."

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The United Daughters of the Confederacy raised money for the piece from 1936 through 1941 by hosting bridge games, bake sales and dinners, said historian Janet DeVries, who leads cemetery tours at Woodlawn.

                                                                                                                                             

It is the only one south of St. Augustine, likely the only Confederate statue in Palm Beach and Broward counties, she said.

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A 2016 study by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that across the country, there are at least 1,503 symbols of the Confederacy in public spaces, including monuments, statues, names of parks, roads and other locations.

More than 700 Confederate monuments and statues are on public property throughout the country, the majority in the South.

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Debate in South Florida over the Civil War and the symbolism behind Confederate monuments and flags is not new in South Florida.

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In 1994, a Confederate flag — along with the flags on Spain, England and France that once ruled Florida — were taken down from Young Circle in Hollywood.

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Most recently, the city of Hollywood last month agreed to rename streets honoring three Civil War-era generals: Robert E. Lee, John Bell Hood and Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was also first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

Under the current Hollywood plan, which will get another vote Aug. 30, Lee Street will become Louisville, Hood Street will become Macon and Forrest will change to Savannah.

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Plans for the monument in West Palm Beach began in the mid-1930s, when the United Daughters of the Confederacy started a campaign drive to re-member unidentified Confederate soldiers buried at Woodlawn.

The group felt they owed “a duty to the noble sons” who died.

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“Too long have we neglected to honor these Southern men,” an organizer said in a 1936 news article published by The Palm Beach Post.

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Graves remain at Woodlawn Cemetery of both Union and Confederate Civil War veterans, buried in close proximity to one another, DeVries said. A spokesperson for the United Daughters of The Confederacy couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.

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The latest vandalism — the monument was spray-painted, and part of it was broken off — happened Sunday. It also was vandalized about two weeks ago, said Sgt. David Lefont, spokesman for the West Palm Beach Police Depart-ment.

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The vandalism is considered a felony because of the extent of the damage, he said.

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West Palm Beach spokeswoman Kathleen Walter said the city cleaned up the monument’s graffiti Monday, “with the understanding that the owners, who don't have the necessary supplies on hand, will clean up and maintain the monument in the future.”

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Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report

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The Palm Beach Post, Thursday, October 26, 2017, Main Edition Page A9

Letters To The Editor

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Laws Ignored Over Confederate Marker

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When Florida laws are ignored by politicians, there is no justice and we become a state of injustice.

 

It has now been two months since vandals twice defaced a Confederate monument formerly located in Woodlawn Cemetery with red paint, then proudly tagged with the name Antifa, a far-left-wing group specializing in anarchist tactics.  No arrests have been made and the crime remains unresolved.  Many hope the defacing of a cemetery war memorial will soon be forgotten too.

 

It has been two months since the mayor of West palm Beach ordered the private Confederate monument, honoring 20 Civil War soldiers buried in the city’s cemetery, removed from the graveyard and stored in an undisclosed location.  The Florida Statutes (F.s. 872.02) prohibit the adverse removal of the cemetery monument without holding a public hearing by the City Commission.  No such hearing was held.

 

It has been two months and the state attorney has failed to investigate the desecration of a cemetery monument, nor has he taken action against a politician responsible for its possible illegal removal.  Under current Florida law, both acts are third-degree felonies.

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The political incorrectness of a person, cause or memorial is not an excuse for inaction.  We are a nation of laws and equal justice—not thought police.  Ignoring existing laws is a slippery slope leading to chaos in a diverse society.

 

Even the Confederate war dead and their memorials in Palm Beach County are entitled to protection under the law,

 

Bob Davidson  

West Palm Beach

 

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At the Mayor’s directive, without city Commission approval, the seventy-five- year- old privately owned, historic monument and the focal point of the cemetery – standing in the shadow of the United States flag, is pulled down.

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THE RESURRECTION

 

Under the leadership of Mary Alice Wratislaw, of the Thomas Benton Ellis Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the original and current owners of the monument, a safe, very respectable site was located in South Alabama, under the care and safeguard of the local SCV camp.  The TBE chapter, UDC and Camp 1599, SCV, both of Palm Beach County, pulled together the funds to have the monument safely transported to the new site – with no help from the City of West Palm Beach.  The gentlemen of the Alabama SCV had the monument cleaned, repaired and re-erected as the focal point in its new location.  An in ground plaque was created bearing the names of the Palm Beach veterans – to be read at each year’s memorial service.

 

 A private re-dedication event was planned and executed with several hundred guests attending, including re-enactors, Florida and Alabama UDC and SCV chapters/camps, members of the SAR and DAR, Jamestown Society, Colonial Dames and Sons of the Republic of Texas.

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“SWEET HOME ALABAMA”

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                       

 

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