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Texas home for Confederate veterans chartered
On this day in 1884, the John B. Hood Camp of United Confederate
Veterans obtained a state charter for a residence for impoverished and
disabled Confederate veterans. The Albert Sidney Johnston Chapter of the
United Daughters of the Confederacy helped raise funds that enabled the
camp to purchase land at 1600 West Sixth Street in Austin from John B.
and Mary Armstrong. The home opened on November 1, 1886. The UDC held a
"Grand Gift Concert and Lottery," with prizes donated by the public, and
raised over $10,800 to support the home. Operating funds continued to
come from public contributions until 1891, when the state assumed
control and support and the name officially became Texas Confederate
Home. The John B. Hood Camp deeded the property to the state on March 6,
1891. The complex had several buildings, including the large
administration building and living quarters, a brick hospital, and
private cottages. During its first two years of operation 113 veterans
were admitted to the home, and from 1887 to 1953 more than 2,000 former
Confederates were housed there. In 1929 the home had 312 residents, but
by 1938 the number had dropped to thirty-eight, whose average age was
ninety-three. Thomas Riddle, the last veteran, died in 1954 at the age
of 108. During its last decades, the home was used to house senile
mental patients from other state institutions, disabled veterans of the
Spanish American War and World War I, and their wives. In 1963 the
remaining residents were sent to Kerrville State Hospital, and the
Austin facility was transferred to the Austin State Hospital as an
annex. The buildings were razed in 1970 to make room for University of
Texas married students' housing.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- TEXAS CONFEDERATE HOME
- UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY
- HOOD, JOHN BELL
- JOHNSTON, ALBERT SIDNEY
- KERRVILLE STATE HOSPITAL
- AUSTIN STATE HOSPITAL
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Screwmen protest hiring of African Americans (1882)
- Gideon Lincecum dies (1874)
- Military historian Slam Marshall joins the army (1917)
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