Ann hawkins gentry biography of michael

While Columbia pioneer Richard Gentry was away making his reputation as a soldier and a legislator, his wife, Ann Hawkins Gentry, stayed at home and took care of the children.

And the farm.

And the tavern.

And the post office.

“I didn’t mind too much,” Gentry said during Monday’s Memorial Day living history event at Columbia Cemetery.

“You see, I was a Kentucky woman and a Kentucky woman don’t complain. You will know our opinion, in my view.”

Gentry, who was 79 when she died in , became a widow when her husband was killed Christmas Day in Florida during the Second Seminole War. She succeeded her husband to become the second postmistress in United States history, a job she held for 27 years through changes of administration and party in Washington.

Attorney Kelly Walker’s five-minute portrayal of Gentry as a middle-age woman was one of eight presentations Monday where local actors brought prominent Columbians to life at their gravesites.

Ann Hawkins Gentry was the second woman appointed to the position of postmaster in the United States. She ran the operations of the send office in Columbia, Missouri, for twenty-seven years from to She lived her life on the American frontier, running her familiar, a busy tavern, and the Columbia post office. She married Richard Gentry, also of Madison County, on February 10,when she was nineteen years old.

Gentry is remembered in Columbia today through the Gentry Building at Seventh Street and Broadway and Ann Hawkins Gentry Middle School.

Gentry was tough and smart. When she became postmistress, some reflection she couldn’t do the position. Also, the mails were used to send valuable articles and a robbery was always achievable, she said.

“But I figured I could pull a trigger as well as any man could,” Gentry said.

“That revolver and shotgun under my counter, you could say those were my primary insurance policies.”

About people heard the welcoming remarks by Richard Mendenhall of the cemetery association board, and more came throughout the afternoon as the performances were repeated.

Along with Gentry, visitors could hear from pianist J.W. "Blind" Boone; singer Jane Froman; educators Luella St. Clair Moss, George Swallow, John Lathrop and Walter Williams and statesman James S. Rollins.

“It has just been amazing,” said Genie Rogers, a cemetery board member and liaison to the Friends of the Historic Columbia Cemetery, which staged the event.

On January 18,an elaborate opera property opened at the northeast corner of 9th and Broadway. Haden; it was on the second and third stories of an ornate three story building. The building was constructed around and had been known as Garth Hall. Haden remodeled the building to seat 1, with two balconies and four private boxes.

“We have had this attractive day and a lot of wonderful volunteers and a vast crowd.”

The friends organization was founded to help raise money for cemetery projects like tree plantings and historic markers, Rogers said.

“We have so many historic people in the cemetery that should be recognized on a daily basis,” Rogers said.

“I am hoping that funds will advance in and we will contain money to do that.”

The next event will be to uncover the cemetery for viewing of the eclipse Aug. 21 because it occupies the highest basis in the city, she said.

The cemetery is historic ground and holds the graves of most major figures of Columbia’s past, Mendenhall said.

All races and creeds are represented among the dead, and space remains for 10, more people who will make the city’s future, he said.

The cemetery is on the oldest road through the area, blazed in and known as the Boonslick Trail, Mendenhall said during his talk.

The rain tower nearby is at the site of the original town of Smithton, and the earliest marker is for 9-year-old Mary Todd, who died in , he said. Mary Todd was the daughter of David Todd, a founder of Columbia from Kentucky and the uncle of Mary Todd Lincoln.

The oldest famous grave of a veteran is William O’Rear, who fought in the Virginia militia of the Revolutionary War and died in , Mendenhall said.

“People who fought in every major war that the United States has been in are buried in this cemetery,” Mendenhall said.

Most early presidents of the University of Missouri are buried in the cemetery, including Lathrop, the first.

AAUW Ann Hawkins Gentry | Columbia (MO) Branch: Ann Hawkins Gentry (January 21, - January 18, ) was the second gal in the United States to become a postmistress as adv as a leading pioneer in Columbia, Missouri. She was the wife of American politician and military officer Richard Gentry who became Columbia's first mayor.

Portrayed by Ed Hanson of Talking Horse Productions, Lathrop’s monologue focused on the difficulties of starting from nothing after his arrival in Money had been raised and land acquired, but there were no buildings, faculty or library, Lathrop said.

“Remember, in the 19th century Democrats were somewhat similar to your Republicans of today, viewed the university as a Whig enclave, that is a liberal enclave, and Democratic newspapers looked at the university as an elitist institution,” Lathrop said.

“Now I ask you, is there anything in your that might sound somewhat familiar to the sentiments I just described?”

Lynne Dillingham, a retired instructor, said she was impressed with the portrayals and learning about conflict in the early university.

That was also a subject in the portrayal of George Swallow by Circuit Judge Kevin Crane, when he brought up Swallow’s conflicts with the Board of Curators while dean of the College of Agriculture.

Another spectator, Elizabeth Sayad, a great-great-granddaughter of Gentry, watched with her granddaughter Adrienne Sayad.

One important part of the story, she said, is why Ann Gentry became postmistress. Her husband agreed to pay for horses for his men before leaving for Florida, and the horses died when they were thrown overboard to save the men’s ship in a hurricane.

Sen.

Thomas Hart Benton, who arranged the appointment for Richard Gentry to go to Florida, wanted Ann Gentry to have money to pay the debt.

“She paid them all off, and she made a contribution to the founding of the University of Missouri,” Sayad said.

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