Childhood
Emma Hayden Gilham was born in 1855 in Lexington, Virginia in Rockbridge County. She was the daughter of Major William Gilham, Commandant of Cadets and an instructor at Virginia Military Institute (VMI), one of 7 children he had with his wife Cordelia Adelaide (née Hayden) Gilham. Her father was assisted at VMI by a younger teacher who was to become one of the more famous Confederate leaders, Thomas J. Jackson, better known as Stonewall Jackson.
In 1860, Major Gilham prepared a well-known training manual for recruits and militia at the request of Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise. It was entitled Manual of Instruction for the Volunteers and Militia of the United States and was initially published in Philadelphia. As the American Civil War broke out the following year, he was involved with early training of cadets at Camp Lee (also known as New Fairgrounds, or Camp of Instruction) in Richmond, Virginia. In June, 1864, Emma's childhood home on the campus of VMI was burned during a raid led by Union General David Hunter. The house, a campus landmark, was later rebuilt to original specifications after the War.
After the War ended in 1865, William Gilham became president of fertilizer company in Richmond. Emma spent her teen-aged years at Richmond, where she was a débutante at one of Richmond's earliest "Germans", which were formal social gatherings for the young people (the name of these events had no relationship to Germany). She was the sister of Julius Hayden Gilham (April 6, 1852–March 10, 1936) who also buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
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Famous quotes containing the word childhood:
“The route through childhood is shaped by many forces, and it differs for each of us. Our biological inheritance, the temperament with which we are born, the care we receive, our family relationships, the place where we grow up, the schools we attend, the culture in which we participate, and the historical period in which we live—all these affect the paths we take through childhood and condition the remainder of our lives.”
—Robert H. Wozniak (20th century)
“When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to suffer the experience of total loss. It was more than that. It was the period in which we suffered more total losses than in all the rest of our life put together.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“The quickness with which all the “stuff” from childhood can reduce adult siblings to kids again underscores the strong and complex connections between brothers and sisters.... It doesn’t seem to matter how much time has elapsed or how far we’ve traveled. Our brothers and sisters bring us face to face with our former selves and remind us how intricately bound up we are in each other’s lives.”
—Jane Mersky Leder (20th century)