Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3228 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSher father and mother constantly before her, it is not strange that the aspirations of Jennie Hart Sibley have, from the first, been directed towards thoselarger fields of humanitarian efforts in which her name deserves to be associated with those of the noblest women of the time. . She was born at Augusta,October 22, 1846, and was the first pupil to enter the Lucy Cobb Institute,where she finished in 1863. In 1865, as has already been stated, she marriedSamuel Hale Sibley, son of Josiah Sibley, one of Georgia's greatest merchantsand business men. This was the first big wedding in Augusta after the closeof the war, and it was an occasion properly celebrated by the hosts of friendsand relatives in both families. The ceremony was performed by the Rev.Joseph Wilson in the historic old Presbyterian Church and was followed by ahandsome reception that night. The next day a special train, carrying a bandto furnish music for the large bridal party and guests to dance on the cottonplatforms at the various way stations, was run from Augusta to the bride'shome at Union Point, where other trains met bringing guests from Athens,Madison, and many other nearby communities. The entire grove leading upfrom the depot to the house was ablaze with lights and bon-fires fed with pineknots by the eager darkies. A large pavilion had been erected and al frescodancing was indulged in, interrupted only by the serving of the lavish, antebellum-likebanquet, until approaching dawn warned the revellers to seek abrief rest before returning to their respective homes. Augusta was the placeof Mrs. Sibley's residence for the eighteen years of her married life, but sincethe death of her husband, December llth, 1883, she has lived at her beautifulcountry place at Union Point.In 1895 Mrs. Sibley was one of the world's delegates sent to London; sherepresented Georgia and South Carolina and assisted in presenting the Polyglot petition to Queen Victoria requesting the abolition of the ppium traffic inIndia. This petition weighed two tons, was twelve miles in length, and wassigned by seventy-two million names. It was first presented to PresidentCleveland at Washington and then was put on board a special steamship, withone hundred and fifty American women conveying it to London. It waslargely through the result of this petition that the opium traffic was discontinued in India. Mrs. Sibley has travelled over most of the world, andmade her last trip around the world in 1910. She is best beloved, however,for her splendid humanitarian work accomplished in the State of Georgia.She has allied herself actively with the organization against cruelty to animalsand for the suppression of the child labor conditions, and every other practical philanthropy finds in her an interested and efficient coadjutor.For several years she served on the Lady Board of Visitors to the GeorgiaNormal and Industrial College at Milledgeville. When a girl of sixteen,she assumed the responsibilities of treasurer of the Soldiers' Wayside Home,occasionally assisting personally in dressing the wounds of the sufferingmen. -Mrs. Sibley at the age of seventy years is still a loyal "Daughter of theConfederacy," holding the office of president of the "Miles Lewis Chapter."But the most untiring efforts of her useful life have been in behalf of the prohibition of the liquor traffic. Amid the jeers of the many, for thirty-five yearsshe has stood loyal to this cause, for five years acting as state president of theWoman's Christian Temperance Union. It was during her administrationthat, after eleven years of futile efforts, the bill for "Scientific TemperanceInstruction" in the schools of Georgia was passed. Much of her best workhas been done among young girls and boys, and it is said that she neverallowed an opportunity to escape to say or do something as a practical meansto elevate morally and physically members of the younger and growinggeneration. She is a sworn enemy of the cigarette and maintains that the boysare as good as the girls make them. She has oeen also devoted to the cause ofnegroes, and has lived since her widowhood at the old mansion, which in theyears of her girlhood was surrounded by the '' negro quarters,'' and many of