FACES , REMEMBRANCES AND FIRST MINUTES OF NEW SCHOOL YEAR 1880-1881

Here again are the family faces of Green Mount. If it were not for Benny, so much history would have been lost forever. His journal written from age 13 until his death at 17 1/2 from which his niece Betsy Fleet wrote the book Green Mount is without a doubt the greatest material treasure here at the Fleet home place.

Dr. Benjamin Fleet ~ Pa (1818-1865)


Maria Louisa Wacker Fleet, Ma, Mrs. Fleet (1822-1900)

Benjamin Robert Fleet ~ Benny (1846-1864)

David Wacker Fleet (1851-1937) & James William Fleet (1856 - 1927)


Alexander Frederick Fleet ~ Fred (1843-1911)

Maria Louisa Fleet ~ Lou (1849-1917)

Florence Fleet (1852-1903)

Betsy Pollard Fleet ~ Bessie (1854-1904)

Another Betsy Fleet (see below), who was Willie's daughter died in 1996. "Ma" would have been her grandmother. In her lifetime she had written both Green Mount and Green Mount after the War and had found the journals from which I am typing this blog. She referred to these journals in her books as well. However, her preface in the second book GM after the War I would like to share before we begin the minutes for the next school year. Below her photo I hope you will read her words. She wrote beautifully and it's interesting to me that she felt the way she did as a child, having very little self confidence. She is pictured in her Navy Uniform, proof that she overcame that feeling of inferiority.

She was born in 1902, was an officer in WWII, a rare position for a woman in her day. She never married, but left a legacy of words that continue to educate and enlighten us today. She died in 1996. We miss her and her sister Mary very much. There are so many questions we wish we could ask them today.

Betsy Fleet (1902-1996)

Preface in Green Mount After the War, by Betsy Fleet, 1978:

Among my first memories are those of the "Green Mount Girls" who used to spend a day or sometimes many days at Green Mount. They would look intently at my two sisters and me for some trace of resemblance to my aunts, Florence, Betsy, and Lou, and my grandmother, Maria Louisa Wacker Fleet, who had conducted the Green Mount Home School for Young Ladies. Invariably they looked away without saying anything and we could sense their disappointment. We wondered how anyone could be as talented and beautiful and good as everyone said our grandmother and aunts were. We never knew them, for they died before we were born, with the exception of Aunt Lou, whom we knew when we were very young. On the occasions when the former "school girls" came, there was always a large dinner, and afterward we were allowed to come out of the kitchen, our accustomed dining place when there was company, and join the guests in the parlor. We found footstools and usually seated ourselves behind the chairs where the "the girls" sat, as we were shy and didn't like being stared at.

About the same time Martha Ann Gaines Baylor arrived and was greeted by the former students as warmly as they had greeted the family. She was tall, spare, very dark and had the aristocratic bearing of some of her race. She always described herself as a "Green Mount family piece." Her grandmother, Milly, had been the mammy for Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Fleet's children and her mother, Mary, had been the cook. They stayed with the family all their lives, even when Gen. Philip Sheridan and his men camped in the front fields and took their husbands, Joshua and Harry, away with them; the men escaped, however, and found their way back. Martha Ann put on a snowy white cap for these occasions and innumerable starched white petticoats under her black dress. She always reminded me of asymmetrical cedar tree.

Then the reminiscences began about the absent ones, and everyone contributed all she presently knew about them, some of which was so sad that tears accompanied the recounting. At that point Martha Ann, who had to a great degree that "peculiar gift" which an old negro preacher referred to when he prayed "O Lord, who has given thy people a peculiar gift of mimicry, teach them to mimic thy Son,"would say, "You jes' ought to seen Nancy get happy last Sunday at Morning Star Church." Nancy had waited on the table when the school was in session. Martha Ann, who had the most supple body, in fact was double-jointed, would in imitation of Nancy get up and shout and exhort; increasing in momentum, would show how Nancy made a flying leap over the pews and how it took six men to catch her. When one thought he had succeeded, according to Martha Ann, he found his arms full of starched petticoats.

The conversation inevitably turned to "dear Mrs. Fleet," and one after another spoke of what she had meant to her. When "Father sent me here just after Mother died," one said (that would have been Sallie Blount) "I felt, and I am sure I saw, a warm glow of light and love radiating from her; in fact, I still feel her comforting presence." Aunt Lou was so overcome that she spread her handkerchief over her face. Martha Ann got to her feet and with short, quick steps walked the length of the room, saying, "As Old Miss would say, "Now girls, don't let the clouds obscure the sunshine!' "It must have been a perfect imitation, for everyone in the room burst into spontaneous laughter.

Always we wondered what our grandmother was like. From where we sat we could see her portrait over the mantel, but the serene young girl in early nineteenth-century dress holding a red bird on her finger gave little clue to the "dear Mrs. Fleet" and "Old Miss" who dominated the conversation. Now she comes to life for us in the letters and papers found in trunks and boxes in the Green Mount attic. Some of the letters written during the Civil War were published with her son Benny's diary in Green Mount (1962); many of the remaining letters are presented here...The letters show how "Ma," widowed before the war ended, on a plantation ravaged by both armies, with no money and little credit, kept her home, educated her six children, and held the family together by using her only resources--education, love, courage, and a firm and abiding faith in God.

I hope these pictures and the words of Betsy will help us return to the years here at Green Mount, where the "school girls" continued to hold their meetings of the Evergreen Society. The girls flourished and were groomed in the most contemporary and yet lady-like fashion of their day.

Their minutes begin...

Green Mount Sept. 15, 1880

With very thankful hearts we met to reorganize our Evergreen Society. The short vacation which had intervened since our last meeting was filled with many mercies & pleasures for us all.

Sallie was elected President & Mattie Kate Vice-President. Lucy was re-elected Treasurer, & we decided that the duties of Secretary should be equally divided among us all; consequently it fell to my lot to write first.

Lou played "Beauregard's March" & Mattie Fleet repeated the Frost. Nannie played "Chachouca Waltz." Mattie Kate read a pathetic story of how "An Innocent Amusement" proved the ruin of a promising boy. Sallie played with a great deal of expression "Chant du Berger," & then Lucy read a charming little story full of good lessons called "Rob's Magic Mirror."

Mattie Kate suggested & we passed unanimously the resolution not to use any slang, but to strive together for the improvement & happiness of each other both in & out of school. I hope we may have as happy a session as the last, & that each one of us may try to make the Wednesday evening hour, fuller than ever of pleasure & improvement.

M.L. Fleet