United Daughters of the ConfederacyThe Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, was organized in March 1900 by Mrs. Ida V. May Hardy, who was its first president. Originally called the Hattiesburg Chapter #422, the name was changed in the 1920s to the Madge Hoskins Holmes Chapter in honor of the woman who served as president form 1908-1912 and 1918-1927. In November 1956, the members of the chapter voted to restore the original name, but this was short lived because in the 1960s, the chapter was renamed after the Confederate Army General, Nathan Bedford Forrest. A major accomplishment of the chapter dates back to October 1910 when the chapter unveiled the Confederate Monument on the Forrest County Courthouse lawn as the opening event of the twentieth annual reunion of the Mississippi Confederate Veterans. The monument was erected through the Daughters of the Confederacy and the local camp of the Confederate Veterans. On the same day of the unveiling, the corner stone of Kamper Park was laid. The land had been secured from John Q. Kamper in the name of the U.D.C. by Mrs. Hardy in 1902. The land was given with the stipulation that it was to be improved and used as a public park. In 1908, the land was conveyed to the City of Hattiesburg with the same conditions. The tract has since grown into a park, playground, and zoo. Other projects in which the chapter have been involved are the restoration and maintenance of Beauvoir House (the last home of Jefferson Davis) on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the restoration of the Rodney Presbyterian Church in Rodney, Mississippi (which is the state shrine of the Mississippi Division of the U.D.C.), the co-sponsorship of a yearly historical essay contest, and other patriotic and civic activities. |