CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY:  Mrs. Bennedette B. Tobin

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
28 March 2002 
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson - Pages 310-311

MRS. BENEDETTE B. TOBIN.

The following tribute was read by Mrs. Hallie M. Dunk­un, of Waco, 
before the Texas State Division, U. D. C., at San Antonio, Texas:

Madam President and Daughters of the Confederacy: If I could gather 
up in one paragraph the many eulogies that have been written of Mrs. 
Tobin, and if I could picture the calm look and the folded hands and 
the sweet departure of that dear woman, me thinks it would be as grand 
and beau­tiful as one of heaven's greatest doxologies.  Not only the 
grave with its wreath of white blossoms and the bitter deso­lation of 
her loved ones have impressed themselves upon my memory, but her sweet 
influence and gentle manner went into the fiber of my soul, and will 
forever be a part of it.  I look back through the long vista of years, 
when I first met Mrs. Tobin in her magnificent womanhood and with her 
wo­manly ways, she made an indellible impression upon me. She was then 
a leader among women and ruled like a queen in the most important place 
in the world -- the home. Around her were gathered a devoted husband 
and fond children, and in this arena you could feel the woman's power, 
the woman's encouragement and the woman's love permeating the whole 
atmosphere.  She belonged to that older band, a thorough gentle woman 
of the old school, a band which has many a break, each break making it 
closer and dearer until the larger portion are on the other side of the 
river.  We who remain on the earthly side look after them with yearning 
eyes.  When memory spreads before us a glimpse of that "beautiful home 
of the soul" that some have seen in their dreams, and the gates of that 
lovely city stand a little ajar to welcome a chariot of salvation 
bearing our loved friends, can we not picture the dear woman in glorious 
robes of righteousness? Did not the angels exclaim a true, good woman 
is coming? And did not the bells chime and the harps and trumpets make 
the sweetest music to welcome her into the ranks of heaven? But more 
glorious will be the scene when that consecrated Christian woman crowned 
in heaven shall observe us at the loving task from which she was called, 
of trying to vindicate the men of the South and teach their children 
that their fathers were patriots and not rebels, and to make comfortable 
the old Confederate soldier and the dear old wife who stood by his side, 
and caring for the graves of the Confederate dead which are left in our
keeping.