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Something strange has
happened in Harlem, Georgia, which must be of
interest to all Sons. It concerns Babe's father's
grave, in the town cemetery.
Any account of Babe's life
will say that he never knew his father, as he was
10 months old when Oliver Sr died suddenly, on
November 25, 1892.
Babe certainly did not know
his father, though he probably visited the grave,
and his mother must have done so. Although the
family moved from Harlem to Madison in 1891, Emmie
retained a house in South Hicks Street until 1898.
It is probable that her mother moved into the empty
house, and this was the reason for Emmie returning
to Harlem to give birth.
If Babe and/or Emmie did
visit the grave, they would have seen the headstone
engraving, saying that Captain Oliver Hardy died on
November 25 1892, and, presumably, they did not
argue with that.
The grave stayed that way
until about two years ago, when a second memorial
plaque was added, saying that Oliver died exactly
one year earlier, 1891.
This raises a host of
questions in itself, but the biggest mystery is who
instigated the change and who authorised it? And on
what basis was the new information
accepted?
If Oliver died in November
1891, he never knew his child, who was born in the
following January.
But this is a minor point
compared with the many others, which the new date
raises:
- Who gave
the stonemason the "wrong" date of Hardy's
death, ie a year later than the actual death.
Emmie was not a poor woman, and could afford
a gravestone immediately after the death.
Even if the stone was carved much later, the
mason would have found out the date of death, so
he could carve it. If the work was done soon
after the death, no stonemason would carve the
date of a future year on the headstone. And if
the year was wrong, Emmie, who surely visited
the grave, would have noticed at the
time.
- The
Mortuary Committee of the Confederate Survivors'
Association paid tribute to Oliver Hardy thus:
"Oliver Hardy of the 16th Georgia Regiment,
found always faithful at the drumbeat. This man
followed the flag and fought the battles of his
brave regiment on the historic fields of
Virginia. He was a man of great endurance, and,
having survived the war for 25 years, died
suddenly in the twinkling of an eye." (McCabe's
book Babe, p.4). The Civil War ended in
1867. 25 years later is 1892.
-
- Morgan County Court
issued a summons against Oliver Hardy, to appear
on the first day of October 1892, over an unpaid
electricity bill for the hotel. The hearing duly
took place and the sum was paid.
- After
Oliver's death, Emmie applied to the Ordinary
Court for financial support for Norvell,
obviously already born, since no court would
entertain an appeal for an unborn child, and the
court invited objections to be placed by the
first Monday of January, 1893. This notice was
published in the Madisonian, dated December 23rd
1892.
- Hotel
owner Turnell and Mayor Butler would not allow
Emmie to take over as official manager of the
hotel after Oliver's death. She therefore
embarked on a new venture, to be called The
Hardy House, and to be opened in April
1893.
- In the
Birmingham interview with McCabe, Babe says: "My
father Oliver Hardy…died when I was quite
young…"
- The
Georgia Historical Quarterly (Autumn/Winter
2003) contains an article by Prof Bob Wilson,
about Babe's time in Georgia. He says Oliver and
Emmy took over the Turnell Butler Hotel in
Madison, in 1891 when Emmie was pregnant. He
gives Babe's date of birth (18th January 1892)
and states: "…ten months later, on November
22, Captain Hardy died of a heart
attack."
- In his
highly respected research paper Oliver Hardy,
Genius of Comedy, was a Madison Boy, Marshall
Williams adds a detail: "On November 22
1892, just two weeks short of his
fifty-first birthday, Oliver Hardy…died
quite suddenly." Marshall Williams is a
historian and senior executive at the Morgan
County Records Archives, based in Madison
Ga.
- Emmie was
able to return to Harlem to give birth in
January 1892 because Oliver was on hand to run
the hotel in her absence.
- Oliver
Hardy, former County Tax Collector, hotelier,
bon viveur, distinguished soldier, was
well-known in Madison and frequently featured in
The Madisonian. The issues during the week of
November 22 1891 make no mention of his death.
The issues for the same period in 1892 are
missing.
- On
October 28 1892, The Madisonian ran an article
on the Turnell Butler Hotel, and included the
words: "Captain Oliver Hardy has made a name for
himself as a host."
Can all these things be
wrong?
Whoever commissioned and
arranged for the new memorial must have had some
powerfully convincing reasons, yet none have come
to light. A fascinating mystery, indeed.
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