My Old Confederate Home Read Online Free
Author: Rusty Williams
committee, served as the group's secretary, and drafted the constitution presented to the veterans that evening. Major Eastin was at the podium, but former Sergeant-Major John H. Leathers was the one who got things done. 11
Like Billy Beasley, John Leathers was born in 1841, and both had been Confederate infantrymen who earned their sergeantsâ stripes in combat. The similarities ended there.
Leathers was born in northern Virginia, son of a cabinetmaker and the youngest of seven children. Working in his father's shop, writing bills of sale, delivering invoices, and keeping inventory, Leathers showed an early aptitude for numbers and organization. By age sixteen he was clerking at a dry goods store in Martinsburg, a crossroads town on the eastern slopes of the Appalachian Mountains just ten miles south of Maryland and the Potomac River.
In 1859 young Leathers came to Louisville, having been called there by an uncle for employment with a retail druggist in the city. A year later he became bookkeeper in the wholesale clothing firm of William Terry & Company.
At the first news of war Leathers put down his ledger books, returned home, and enlisted in the Second Virginia Infantry of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. By the time Leathers returned to Louisville in the autumn of 1865, having healed from an injury suffered at Gettysburg, his old employer had founded a new firm and was holding a position open for the returning veteran. Leathers needed only to buy a new suit of clothes and settle in to manage the firm's accounts.
During the five years he kept books for the wholesale clothing firm of Jones & Tapp, Leathers built a reputation as a tight-vested young man: composed, controlled, and diligent at balancing assets and liabilities to the penny. It became apparent that Leathers's business skills extended beyond account books, and in 1870 the twenty-nine-year-old ex-Confederate was admitted as a partner in the renamed firm of Tapp, Leathers & Company. 12
Because of his business, Leathers adopted the habit of wearing stylish suits and cravats of the best fabrics. And he wore them well. Leathers seemed to stand taller than his five-foot, ten-inch height, largely because of his broad shoulders, slim waist, and rigid posture. His hair was a sandy brown, cut slightly shorter than current fashion. Older men wore their beards full, but Leathers shaved to a neat mustache and an imperial, a pointed tuft of beard on the lower lip and chin. Even at a young age, John Leathers exhibited the demeanor of a serious man.
Throughout the 1870s and early 1880s Leathers managed the operations of Tapp, Leathers & Company while his partner, P. H. Tapp, a native of Florence, Alabama, cultivated customers. By 1885 more than 500 employees under Leathers's supervision were manufacturing Kentucky jeans and lines of men's and boysâ dress clothing for retailers throughout the country.
In 1885 Theodore Harris, a successful Louisville financier, moved his Louisville Banking Company to a new building at the corner of Fifth and Market Streets. Harris had narrowly avoided the financial panics of the 1870s and was now poised for aggressive expansion throughout Kentucky. He was looking for a man with âall the snap and dash of Young Americaâ to direct the growth of his bank. On April 1, 1885, Harris and his board of directors convinced John Leathers to oversee day-to-day operations of the Louisville Banking Company. 13
Three years later, by the night of the organizational meeting of ex-Confederates at Louisville's City Hall, Leathers's âsnap and dashâ had resulted in the tripling of deposits of the Louisville Banking Company. The forty-four-year-old former infantryman was head of Kentucky's largest financial institution.
At Eastin's nod, Leathers distributed printed copies of the constitution he and his committee had drafted for discussion by the veterans present. Louisville city court judge W. L. Jackson moved that the constitution
Like Billy Beasley, John Leathers was born in 1841, and both had been Confederate infantrymen who earned their sergeantsâ stripes in combat. The similarities ended there.
Leathers was born in northern Virginia, son of a cabinetmaker and the youngest of seven children. Working in his father's shop, writing bills of sale, delivering invoices, and keeping inventory, Leathers showed an early aptitude for numbers and organization. By age sixteen he was clerking at a dry goods store in Martinsburg, a crossroads town on the eastern slopes of the Appalachian Mountains just ten miles south of Maryland and the Potomac River.
In 1859 young Leathers came to Louisville, having been called there by an uncle for employment with a retail druggist in the city. A year later he became bookkeeper in the wholesale clothing firm of William Terry & Company.
At the first news of war Leathers put down his ledger books, returned home, and enlisted in the Second Virginia Infantry of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. By the time Leathers returned to Louisville in the autumn of 1865, having healed from an injury suffered at Gettysburg, his old employer had founded a new firm and was holding a position open for the returning veteran. Leathers needed only to buy a new suit of clothes and settle in to manage the firm's accounts.
During the five years he kept books for the wholesale clothing firm of Jones & Tapp, Leathers built a reputation as a tight-vested young man: composed, controlled, and diligent at balancing assets and liabilities to the penny. It became apparent that Leathers's business skills extended beyond account books, and in 1870 the twenty-nine-year-old ex-Confederate was admitted as a partner in the renamed firm of Tapp, Leathers & Company. 12
Because of his business, Leathers adopted the habit of wearing stylish suits and cravats of the best fabrics. And he wore them well. Leathers seemed to stand taller than his five-foot, ten-inch height, largely because of his broad shoulders, slim waist, and rigid posture. His hair was a sandy brown, cut slightly shorter than current fashion. Older men wore their beards full, but Leathers shaved to a neat mustache and an imperial, a pointed tuft of beard on the lower lip and chin. Even at a young age, John Leathers exhibited the demeanor of a serious man.
Throughout the 1870s and early 1880s Leathers managed the operations of Tapp, Leathers & Company while his partner, P. H. Tapp, a native of Florence, Alabama, cultivated customers. By 1885 more than 500 employees under Leathers's supervision were manufacturing Kentucky jeans and lines of men's and boysâ dress clothing for retailers throughout the country.
In 1885 Theodore Harris, a successful Louisville financier, moved his Louisville Banking Company to a new building at the corner of Fifth and Market Streets. Harris had narrowly avoided the financial panics of the 1870s and was now poised for aggressive expansion throughout Kentucky. He was looking for a man with âall the snap and dash of Young Americaâ to direct the growth of his bank. On April 1, 1885, Harris and his board of directors convinced John Leathers to oversee day-to-day operations of the Louisville Banking Company. 13
Three years later, by the night of the organizational meeting of ex-Confederates at Louisville's City Hall, Leathers's âsnap and dashâ had resulted in the tripling of deposits of the Louisville Banking Company. The forty-four-year-old former infantryman was head of Kentucky's largest financial institution.
At Eastin's nod, Leathers distributed printed copies of the constitution he and his committee had drafted for discussion by the veterans present. Louisville city court judge W. L. Jackson moved that the constitution
Readers choose
R.E. McDermott
Rennie Airth
David Rogers
Derek Catron
Delia Sherman
Craig Russell
Karoleen Vry Brucks
Jonathan Meades