An Attempt to Educate

In my previous posting, I highlighted a booklet that I recently purchased titled Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Convention Of The Oklahoma State Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (1932). The Proceedings notes the culmination of a project to fund and then give the “Confederate Museum” in Richmond, Virginia, a portrait of Stand Watie. This was accomplished at a cost of $168.48; the artist, Rev. Gregory Gerrer, was a monk at the St. Gregory’s Abbey in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Gerrer was a rather well known artist at the time, and you may read more about him by clicking the link on his name. Mrs. Lutie H. Walcott reported that the portrait was placed in the “Solid South” room and she stated “I think Oklahoma has done one big thing [,] for the eyes of some of [the] other states have been opened at last to what Indian Territory stood for during the war between the states.” Admittedly, I would like to know what she thought “Indian Territory stood for” during the conflict, but it is obvious these women were attempting to educate others about the war in the trans-Mississippi. The process still continues ladies!