The Ladies Parlor
This is the “Parlor”, the
more formal of the two front rooms.
(Point out William Petry’s
and Mollie Hyatt Petry’s pictures.)
William Petry emigrated from
Bavaria with his family to Apalachicola, Florida in about
1840 when he would have been four years old. He served as
First Corporal in the First Florida Infantry of the
Confederate States Army. After the war he moved up the
Chattahoochee River to Eufaula, settling here in 1866. He
became a successful book dealer and real estate developer.
William Petry made the
decorative wooden fan-screen in the bay window. He also
made the decorative screen in the back of the downstairs
hall. His daughter, Lottie Petry, related how he soaked the
wooden strips in the bathtub to make them pliable so he
could weave them into the screen. He planned to make a
similar screen for the bay window in the sitting room, but
he died before he could make it.
Mollie’s ancestors were some
of the very earliest pioneers in Barbour County. Her
great-grandfather settled in the county in 1818, the year
before Alabama became a state. He served on the first
county commission. Mollie’s grandfather became the first
sheriff of Barbour County.
The last major Indian battle in this part of Alabama “the
Battle of Hobdy Bridge” was fought on the Hobdy’s
plantation in 1836 in the southwest part of Barbour County.
The Lanier Club, one of
Eufaula’s literary clubs, held its organizational meeting
in this room on November 5, 1899. “Miss Natalie” Petry
Stewart was one of the twelve founders of the club. Her
daughter “Miss Nattee” Honan, who is 91 years old, is the
most senior member of the club. The Lanier Club still holds
its anniversary meeting in this room every November.
(Point out the photo of Miss Nattee at the Lanier Club’s
100th anniversary.)