Shelby County TN Archives Biographies.....MOORES (Borland), Fanny Green September 1848 - August 23, 1879 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tn/tnfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Bill Boggess william-boggess@webtv.net February 16, 2006, 5:03 am Author: Bill Boggess (revised: 02/16/06)    +++ POET FANNY GREEN BORLAND +++    Princeton, that picturesque county seat of Dallas County Arkansas created 1 Jan 1845 with its green spire rising above the tree tops, and with its gentler sex busy comforting the wounded and passing soldiers during our Civil War while their fathers, husbands and brothers were off doing battle against the Federal forces, yielded at least one great poet, Fanny Green Borland (1848AR-1879TN)! (spelling in father's will)    Fanny's poem "The Dead Confederacy" gained world-wide acclaim when, reportedly, Catholic Priest Father Abram P Ryan (1838/9VA-1886KY) distributed it, in London, England, with other pieces of her work.. It was published in their Cosmopolitan 21 Dec 1871, so reported in Little Rock Gazette's article, inside front page, Sunday 21 Jan 1872 issue, also see 27 Dec 1865 entry in 1863-1866 published diary of Virginia Davis Gray! The Cosmopolitan printed;             "It is with a feeling of pride and sadness that we present this poem to the British public,..." and,             "We are glad to take this young author by the hand and welcome her among the ranks of the poets." , so said The Daily Arkansas Gazette of her;             "Her first attempt at poetry, when she was but twelve years of age, was published in the GAZETTE. Even at that early age her fugitive pieces were widely copied and favorably commented on by the press."    To better understand this brilliant, tender loving, young, charming, talented teenager, one needs only to read the 1863-1866 diary of artist/writer/school teacher Virginia Davis Gray (1834ME-1886AR), annoted and published by Dr Carl H Moneyhon, UALR, in Spring and Summer issues of 1983 Arkansas Historical Quarterly.    Even her name is endearing, --- named by her father for his aunt Fanny Green of Suffolk, VA who with husband George Godwin, helped raise him in 1820, her half-brother, Harold in 1840, Solon's nephews Thomas in 1850 and General Euclid in 1851.    Love, and respect flowed freely from the Borland family of Mexican-American War fame, Major Solon Borland, USA, (1811VA-1864TX) and his third wife, Mary Isabel Melbourne (1824LA-1862AR), with Mary's magical singing voice thrilling many Arkansan as well as fellow senators, statesmen, and ministers of Kings while in Washington City and at home in Hot Springs, Princeton and/or Little Rock.(see; http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/hertford/bios/borland1.txt and http://www.sallysfamilyplace.com/MulberryGrove/Borland.htm or "That Man Named Solon", http://www.rootsweb.com/~arpulask/Solon.Borland.html    Fanny, born in Little Rock, "City of Roses", Arkansas to U.S. Senator Solon Borland, M.D. and Mary Isabel Melbourne, September 1848, moved to Princeton at age 11, most likely attending Princeton Female Academy. Its new head-master in 1860/61 was Oliver Crosby Gray (1832ME-1905AR) with able assist by artist/writer wife Virginia LaFayette (Davis) Gray (1834ME-1886AR) fresh from Holly Springs, Mississippi (earlier, Minnesota after 1858 marriage in Maine). Solon was in Memphis, editor/owner of newspapers and in Feb 1861, defeated in attempt for public office, returning to Arkansas as aide-de-camp for Governor Rector raising troops and seizing Ft Smith 24 Apr1861. (see;http://www.rootsweb.com/~arwashin/pics/grays.html or "The Story of Two ARKANSAS Pioneer School Teachers", http://www.rootsweb.com/~arpulask/Col.MrsOCGray.html).    With a Civil War approaching, her father, Colonel Solon Borland, CSA, organized, what later became CSA's 3rd Arkansas Cavalry Regiment (fought in more engagements than any other Arkansas unit, so said Maj Collier in his 1965 book, "The War Child's Children" ), in which many from Princeton enlisted 29 Jul 1861, forming Company A, "Princeton Light Horses", including Oliver Crosby Gray, later its commander. Her father, with health being at issue, resigned January 1862, returning to medical practice in Little Rock.        Fanny, with a younger sister to care for, suffered heart-breaking losses: brother George Godwin Borland (1846AR-1862TX) died 24 Jun 1862, returning home from CSA service due to bad health, their mother died following an extended illness, 23 Oct 1862, then their father, from his Princeton sick bed, 14 Sep 1863, left for Texas, leaving funds and two slave girls with widow Mrs Martha Holmes (Capt Wm T.M. Holmes, killed, 5 Oct 1862 following the blood letting at Cornith, MS where he was in command of Company A, 3rd Ark Cav) --- to look after his daughters, ages 16 and 14 and there died of pneumonia, first day Jan 1864 near Houston, at age52.    Fanny, according to General John M. Harrell ( a private under Borland 1861) in 1894 publication Confederate Veteran, page 2, also from her front page obituary of The Memphis Daily Avalanche, --- was among the belles-of-the-ball of Little Rock and Memphis following the war.    Married at age 20 in Colonel and Virginia Gray's Little Rock home by the very honorable Reverend Thomas Rice Welch (1825-1886) to James C Moores, a Memphis saddler, Tuesday morning 21 Apr 1869, moving to Memphis taking with them sister Mollie. Little Rock's Gazette, among other nice things, wrote http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/shelby/vitals/marriages/borland2mr.txt ;             "The Bluff City has snatched a lovely prize from our 'City of Roses'"!    Fanny visited her surrogate parents/friends Oliver and Virginia Gray at Little Rock from Memphis many times, so recorded in Virginia's transcribed, unpublished 1867-1872, diary, "The Diverting History of Little Tarley Gray" kept of her son Carl Raymond (1867AR-1939DC) (later, vice-chairman of Union Pacific RR) and her transcribed, unpublished, forty letters (1857-1886) to Davis family members.    Tragically, Fanny's life was shortened by the yellow fever epidemic of Memphis, This terrible event having taken the lives of her and her sister's husbands along with some 5,000 others in 1878, --- then her on Saturday, 23 Aug 1879, the month before becoming 31 years old, in her sister's Memphis home. Her death was stated in http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/shelby/obits/m/mooresbo2ob.txt (who was A. A. L. ??) as;             "...short violent attack of yellow fever." Surviving was son, George Borland Moores, found with their half-brother, Harold "Bourland", USMA 1860, (1835NC-1921AR) in 1880 census with sister, Mary (Mollie) Melbourne (Borland) Beattie (1850AR-1938MO) still in Shelby County, for 1880 census as "Marg". Mollie soon to become Matron at Arkansas' Deaf Asylum until Jun 1889 when she, with her three children, became second family of Colonel Oliver Crosby Gray, whose first wife, her very closest of friends, Virginia, died a lingering cancer death, 17 Aug1886.    Arkansas History Commission's research project #76-0003, according to Russell Baker, yielded little, resulting in his article published in Pulaski County Historical Review, Fall 1981, now found to be partially incorrect.    Russell copied, for me, newspaper articles and guided me to Fred W Allsopp's 1933 published book "The Poets and Poetry of Arkansas".    Special Collections at University of Arkansas has a signed copy of "The Dead Confederacy" in its files, --- otherwise compilation of Fanny's poetry was not made nor printed. Her poems and writings, reportedly, were only published in newspapers and other like publications of the day, of which we have found but five. Found: The Dead Confederacy, 12/21/1871, London's Cosmopolitan, & 1/21/1872 Arkansas Gazette, and UA's Special Collection. At My Fathers Feet, Allsopp's 1933, "The Poets and Poetry of Arkansas" David O Dodd, Allsopp's 1933, "The Poets and Poetry of Arkansas" & "Pulaski County Historical Review",Fall 1981 Judge Not By The Outward Look, 11/29/1862, Arkansas Gazette, To My Son's Scrap-Book, 3/23/1873, Arkansas Gazette Other known missing work listed in her obituary: The Baby of Lillie Dilsey at The North Born Dead and, a 1878 tribute to Colonel Harvey Washington Walter's death by yellow fever. NOTE: We would like very much to have all copies of all her work in order to provide an album of such. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/shelby/bios/mooresbo3bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/tnfiles/ File size: 8.6 Kb