Lots of names here, so stay with us: The Varina Banks Howell Davis Flower garden is named for the second wife of Former US Congressman and only President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis.
Varina Davis was a well-known very accomplished gardener. She prided herself on her gardens, especially her rose garden. In 1861 she and her husband (who had resigned his Congressional seat when Mississippi seceded from the Union) were pruning rose bushes at Brierfield (their planation near Vicksburg) when a messenger on horseback arrived with the news that Jefferson Davis had been elected President of the Confederacy.
After the war and after Davis was released from prison, they returned to live on a second Mississippi plantation , Beauvoir. Varina Davis created a 2 acre garden of fruit trees and flowers, herbs and vegetables, the centerpiece of which was a round rose garden. Beauvoir and her rose garden are being restored now after what was left of them was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. See (
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For more on Varina Davis and her life with Jefferson Davis, see here: (
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Back to the subject of the waymark:
Ceress Hyland Newell was a longtime resident of Vicksburg who was very active in preserving family and cultural history of old Mississippi families. She was also an avid volunteer at the Old Courthouse Museum, and a gardener herself.
At the seating area of this garden, a brick monument with a marble tablet inset into it is topped with bronze heads of Varina and Jefferson Davis. (Blasterz admit to finding this a bit creepy.) The marble plaque inset reads as follows:
"THE VARINA HOWELL DAVIS FLORAL GARDEN
On a February Day in 1861, as Jefferson and Varina Davis pruned their favorite rose, “The Glory of France,” in the garden of Brierfield, their plantation home several miles south of Vicksburg, a messenger arrived with the news that Mr. Davis had been elected President of the Confederate States of America. He left the next day for the inauguration, and he and Mrs. Davis forever took their places of honor in the pages of history.
In Memory of
Ceress Hyland Newell
1929-1997"
The Davis Garden that is a memorial to Newell occupies the southwest corner of the grounds of the Old Courthouse Museum in downtown Vicksburg.
From GoUpstate.com (Spartanburg SC), her obituary: (
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"Published: Sunday, June 1, 1997 at 3:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, June 1, 1997 at 12:00 a.m.
Ceress H. Newell Ceress Hyland Newell, 68, of 229 Maxine Drive died May 29, 1997, at home. A native of Vicksburg, Miss., she was the widow of Sanford Hamner Newell Jr. and a daughter of the late John Leigh and Ceress Rebecca Bobb Hyland. She received a bachelor's degree in art from Belhaven College in Jackson, Miss., was a member of The Episcopal Church of The Advent of Spartanburg, was a member of the Pinckney District Chapter of the South Carolina Genealogical Society, and was a member of the Vicksburg Historical Society. Survivors include two sons, Sanford ``Sandy'' Newell III of Statesboro, Ga., and Leigh Newell of Pensacola, Fla.; two daughters, Becky N. Marshall of Atlanta and Janie N. Ramsey of Spartanburg; one brother, John Leigh Hyland of Vicksburg, Miss.; and six grandchildren. Services will be held at 2 p.m. today at the Floyd's Greenlawn chapel, conducted by the Revs. Elizabeth Wickenberg Ely and Robert L. Brown. Burial will be in Greenlawn Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to: Vicksburg Historical Society, 1008 Cherry St., Vicksburg, Miss., 39180. The family is at the home."