thePiperSHIHTZU

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Thursday, 22 December 2011

JEFFERSON DAVIS AND TRAVELER

Posted on 05:37 by Unknown
This might be a picture of Traveler.
If not, it probably at least looks sort of like him.
Jefferson Davis was a president, but he wasn't the president of the United States.  Instead, he was president of the Confederate States of America, which was a new country that the southern states made during the Civil War.

Mr. Davis was born in Kentucky in 1808.  He went to West Point and then fought in the Mexican-American War.  He got elected a Democratic Senator from Mississippi, and after that, he served as the U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce.  When he finished being in the Pierce administration, Mr. Davis went back to being a senator from Mississippi.  He thought that the South should not leave the Union, but he did believe that states had the right to do that if they chose to.







On February 9, 1861, after Senator Davis had resigned from the U.S. Senate, he was picked to be the provisional President of the C.S.A.  Then in November he was elected to a 6-year term as president.  And nobody even ran against him.  President Davis kept that office during the entire Civil War.

After the War, Mr. Davis went to a place called Beauvoir to do some writing.  Beauvoir was a home that was located near the coast, in Biloxi, Mississippi.  It was owned by a friend of the Davises, Mrs. Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey.  She had named her home "Beauvoir," which is French for "beautiful view."  Mr. Davis liked the house so much that he bought it from Mrs. Dorsey.


Mrs. Sarah Dorsey
When he began staying at Beauvoir, Mr. Davis met Traveler, a dog that he soon came to love very much.  Mr. and Mrs. Dorsey took a lot of trips abroad, because they were rich, and when they were in the Alps, they bought a mixed-breed puppy that had a Russian bulldog for a father.  The Russian bulldog seems to be a breed that isn't around anymore, so I couldn't find any pictures of Russian bulldogs.

Anyway, the Dorseys trained their puppy, Traveler, to be a bodyguard for Mrs. Dorsey.  One time when they were on a camping trip in the Arabian desert, Mr. Dorsey found out that one of his Arabian servants was stealing from him.  So he had the man punished.  After that, Mr. Dorsey went on a 2-day trip, and he left Mrs. Dorsey with an old Arab sheik to take care of her, and Traveler was there to guard her.  In the middle of the night, Mrs. Dorsey woke up when she heard a man scream.  It turned out that the thief who had been punished came back with a big knife to get his revenge by attacking Mrs. Dorsey.  But Traveler heard him and pinned him down.

Another time, when the Dorseys were in Paris, Mrs. Dorsey wore a bunch of expensive diamond jewelry to a party.  After the Dorseys got back to their hotel, Mr. Dorsey went out to smoke with some friends, and Mrs. Dorsey went to bed and fell asleep.  She woke up when she heard the sounds of a fight.  A thief had followed her back to the hotel to try to steal the expensive jewelry.  Traveler attacked him and bit him in the throat.  This man was one of the worst criminals in Paris.  He was sentenced to be hanged, but before that could happen, he died from his throat wound.


After Mrs. Dorsey died, Traveler became Mr. Davis's dog.  They hung out together all the time, and Traveler was a good guard dog for Mr. Davis, just like he had been for Mrs. Dorsey.  The doors and windows of Beauvoir never had to be locked because Traveler always made sure nobody got in unless they were allowed to.  When Mr. Davis wanted Traveler to know that it was okay for somebody to be there, he told the dog, "This is my friend," and let Traveler check the person out by giving them a good sniff.  After that, Traveler accepted the person and let them go wherever they wanted to on the property.

Even though Traveler could be fierce as a guard dog, he was very gentle with children.  He let them pull his hair, pound on him, and ride him like a pony.  He especially liked to play with Mrs. Davis's little niece.

Another thing that Traveler liked to do was chase fiddler crabs on the beach.  Whenever he managed to herd a bunch of them into the sea, he would bark and kick up sand to show how happy he was.  But if he was walking with Mr. Davis on the beach, he acted like a very serious body guard and did not chase the crabs.  He knew it was his job to keep his master safe, and if Mr. Davis got lost in thought and walked too close to the water, Traveler would steer him back up the beach a ways.

Jefferson Davis in 1885
One day Traveler got very sick, and Mr. Davis brought the best doctor in the area to try to make him well again.  But nothing the doctor did made Traveler feel better.  Mr. Davis and the doctor sat up all night with Traveler, and at daybreak, Traveler died with his head on his master's knee.  Mr. Davis was very sad, and he said, "I have indeed lost a friend."

Traveler was buried in a wooden coffin in the front yard of Beauvoir.  A stone was put on the grave to mark it, but later the stone disappeared.  Mr. Davis died in 1889.  For a number of years, members of the Davis family lived at Beauvoir, but finally it was turned into a presidential library.  During Hurricane Katrina, the house was badly damaged, but it has now been repaired and is open again.

I asked Mom if we could go to Mississippi to the beach so that I could chase the crabs.  Mom said that might be fun to do sometime, and I said "How about next week?"  Mom said she didn't think we could go that soon.  So who knows when we'll get there, if we ever do.
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • AN OLD, ABANDONED SCHOOL
    Not too long ago, Mom went to a part of town called Blue Summit, and she had never been there before, so she drove around some, just to see ...
  • "The Meet at Blagdon"
    It's time for me to write about another one of those placemats that Mom bought at an estate sale.  You know the ones I mean:  the placem...
  • AN ARTIST NAMED CHARLES BURTON BARBER
    A long time ago, back in June, when Aunt Cheryl was visiting us, Mom bought a framed print at a thrift store for $15.  This print is one of ...
  • SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL'S CATS
    You've probably heard of Sir Winston Churchill because he was a famous British person who was the Prime Minister during World War II.  W...
  • HOW MANY CATS DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE A CLOWDER?
    Well, first of all, I would like to thank everybody who said they liked my "Ode to Summer" poem that I posted yesterday.  I don...
  • BOA CONSTRICTORS
    There are a lot of snakes called "boas," and what they all have in common is they wrap themselves around their prey and squish it ...
  • THE DOGUE DE BORDEAUX
    I think these dogs look very sad and grumpy all the time, but I guess they can't help how they look.  They also drool and snore, but the...
  • PICASSO'S DOG
    Pablo Picasso was an artist who painted really weird pictures, but we can forgive him for that because he also really loved dogs.  In fact, ...
  • ELIZABETH TAYLOR'S DOGS
    Elizabeth Taylor was a beautiful and famous actress who loved dogs and horses and also other animals, such as cats.  Last week Ms. Taylor di...
  • THE SHAPES OF DOGGY EARS
    If you have looked at very many dogs, which I hope you have, you may have noticed that their ears come in lots of different shapes and sizes...

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (92)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (11)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (12)
    • ►  April (14)
    • ►  March (14)
    • ►  February (14)
    • ►  January (12)
  • ►  2012 (177)
    • ►  December (13)
    • ►  November (12)
    • ►  October (14)
    • ►  September (13)
    • ►  August (12)
    • ►  July (14)
    • ►  June (14)
    • ►  May (17)
    • ►  April (16)
    • ►  March (17)
    • ►  February (17)
    • ►  January (18)
  • ▼  2011 (231)
    • ▼  December (19)
      • THE MAN WHO GOT EATEN BY HIS DOGS
      • MY VISIT TO THE INTERNIST, by Nicky
      • GUESS WHAT! I'M GETTING ADOPTED! by Jacen
      • REINDEER
      • THE NORTH POLE
      • JEFFERSON DAVIS AND TRAVELER
      • AARDVARKS
      • MORE OF MY FAVORITE TV SHOWS
      • MY HORRIBLE WEEK AT PETSMART, by Jacen
      • A DOG NAMED SNOOPY
      • SOME EXCELLENT CAT QUOTES, by Charlie
      • MORE WORDS AND PHRASES
      • ENGLISH BULLDOGS
      • SONNET FOR A MUTT, by Piper's Mom
      • FOUR PRESIDENTS AND THEIR DOGS (or lack of dogs)
      • AN UPDATE AND SOME PHOTOS
      • LOP-EARED BUNNIES
      • NATIONAL MUTT DAY, by Barry
      • MORE FUNNY PEOPLE NAMES
    • ►  November (19)
    • ►  October (21)
    • ►  September (20)
    • ►  August (20)
    • ►  July (22)
    • ►  June (20)
    • ►  May (22)
    • ►  April (21)
    • ►  March (22)
    • ►  February (20)
    • ►  January (5)
Powered by Blogger.