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TOMMY: The Civil War Childhood of a President
This is the story of President Woodrow Wilson growing up in Augusta, Georgia, during the Civil War years where the Wilson family resided from 1860 into 1870's. This childhood biography, the only one of its kind, allows readers to share experiences with Tommy (as he was called during his early years) as he grows from a two-year-old to a teenager. Readers will learn that Tommy's earliest memory was the election news of Abraham Lincoln. They will learn that Tommy watched the Confederate wounded arrive at his father's church-turned-hospital, gazed in wonder at the Union war prisoners housed within the churchyard, and helped his community prepare ammunition for the Confedneracy. Readers will learn about Wilson family life during reconstruction. They will learn that Tommy, like many students, was a reluctant scholar who did not enjoy school and did not learn to read until he was nine years old. The lessons learned from family and church, and the history lived, were lat! er evident as President Wilson guided his country through World War I. ***(The book also includes an early photograph of Thomas Woodrow Wilson plus other photos and historical drawings related to the story and their historical significance to Augusta during the Civil War. Readers will also learn that the home of the Wilson's is now under historic reconstruction, and the church where his father preached is one of the major landmark churches in downtown Augusta, still in use today.
109 pages, Paperback
First published April 25, 2013
6 people want to read
About the author
Julia Faye Smith
18 books24 followersJulia Faye Dockery Smith, a native of Alabama, attended local public schools in Tuscaloosa. She began her writing career in the 7th grade at Tuscaloosa Jr. High when she won a writing contest. On stage to accept her reward, $25.00, she was asked if she wanted to say anything. She replied, "Someday I will write a book."
She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Montevallo, receiving a degree in education with an English major. She received her master's degree in education with an emphasis on reading from Colorado State University.
After beginning her teaching career in Florida, she married a journalist and took several years' hiatus to raise three children. She returned to the classroom in Colorado and completed her 34 years of teaching in Georgia classrooms.
She and her husband, Jim, currently live in Florida with two of their three children and all five of their grandchildren. Their third child lives in Texas. Faye and Jim enjoy travelling, writing, research, and most of all family.
Her most recent book, Something to Prove, Ann Lowe, America's Forgotten Fashion Designer is about the African American designer, born in Alabama, who designed Jacqueline Kennedy's wedding dress to JFK. Movie rights have been sold.
Tommy, The Civil War Childhood of a President, Faye's first book, is the result of Mrs. Smith happening, by chance, upon the Augusta, Georgia boyhood home of President Thomas Woodrow Wilson. She wanted to read of his Civil War childhood and when she searched for books on this subject, found there were none. She felt that the thirteen years President Wilson spent in Augusta represented a singular moment in our nation's history and the most formative years of a young boy's life. Working from bits and pieces of information, searching records and journals of the time, reading his speeches, and meeting with people knowledgeable about his past, Mrs. Smith was able to write about President Wilson's youth. By then, she no longer thought of him as President Woodrow Wilson, but, like his family she knew him as Tommy.
She has also published a genealogical history of the paternal side of her family: Dockery-Morrison Family History. In this collection of ancestral facts, family histories and mysteries are examined.
In 2011, Mrs. Smith, her husband, daughter and granddaughter, spent the month of June in Italy. This sparked an interest in the genealogy of her husband's Italian family. His mother's parents and his grandparents immigrated from Italy in the early 1900s. The result of their trip is a book tracing the grandparents' births in Italy. It shows the lives two young Italian immigrants, one from southern Italy and one from northern Italy who come to America separately. It tells of six-year old Esterina arriving in 1906 and fifteen-year-old Vincenzo arriving six years later in 1912. In 1915, the couple lied about their ages and married in Delaware. The research produced a story of Italian immigrants living the American dream through their hard work and determination and setting an example for their family that lasted over fifty years.
Then there is the Grannie Kate Series. Originally written individually for her family, they are now being republished as a historical family fiction series for youngsters. Among the titles are: Watermelons Under the Bed, Flip Flop Phil (both now available at Amazon), The Lovely Alligator, Owl Summer, Playing in Sarah Kate's Backyard, and The Legend of the Snow Queen. Some of the Grannie Kate books are picture books while others venture toward chapter books.
Faye explains the Grannie Kate series and the idea of historical family fiction. "The main character is Grannie Kate, a grandmother who exemplifies the love of several grandmothers in our family. She is a combination of the grandmothers who guided and still guides us.
The beauty of using historical family fiction, family stories in fiction form, is that the w
She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Montevallo, receiving a degree in education with an English major. She received her master's degree in education with an emphasis on reading from Colorado State University.
After beginning her teaching career in Florida, she married a journalist and took several years' hiatus to raise three children. She returned to the classroom in Colorado and completed her 34 years of teaching in Georgia classrooms.
She and her husband, Jim, currently live in Florida with two of their three children and all five of their grandchildren. Their third child lives in Texas. Faye and Jim enjoy travelling, writing, research, and most of all family.
Her most recent book, Something to Prove, Ann Lowe, America's Forgotten Fashion Designer is about the African American designer, born in Alabama, who designed Jacqueline Kennedy's wedding dress to JFK. Movie rights have been sold.
Tommy, The Civil War Childhood of a President, Faye's first book, is the result of Mrs. Smith happening, by chance, upon the Augusta, Georgia boyhood home of President Thomas Woodrow Wilson. She wanted to read of his Civil War childhood and when she searched for books on this subject, found there were none. She felt that the thirteen years President Wilson spent in Augusta represented a singular moment in our nation's history and the most formative years of a young boy's life. Working from bits and pieces of information, searching records and journals of the time, reading his speeches, and meeting with people knowledgeable about his past, Mrs. Smith was able to write about President Wilson's youth. By then, she no longer thought of him as President Woodrow Wilson, but, like his family she knew him as Tommy.
She has also published a genealogical history of the paternal side of her family: Dockery-Morrison Family History. In this collection of ancestral facts, family histories and mysteries are examined.
In 2011, Mrs. Smith, her husband, daughter and granddaughter, spent the month of June in Italy. This sparked an interest in the genealogy of her husband's Italian family. His mother's parents and his grandparents immigrated from Italy in the early 1900s. The result of their trip is a book tracing the grandparents' births in Italy. It shows the lives two young Italian immigrants, one from southern Italy and one from northern Italy who come to America separately. It tells of six-year old Esterina arriving in 1906 and fifteen-year-old Vincenzo arriving six years later in 1912. In 1915, the couple lied about their ages and married in Delaware. The research produced a story of Italian immigrants living the American dream through their hard work and determination and setting an example for their family that lasted over fifty years.
Then there is the Grannie Kate Series. Originally written individually for her family, they are now being republished as a historical family fiction series for youngsters. Among the titles are: Watermelons Under the Bed, Flip Flop Phil (both now available at Amazon), The Lovely Alligator, Owl Summer, Playing in Sarah Kate's Backyard, and The Legend of the Snow Queen. Some of the Grannie Kate books are picture books while others venture toward chapter books.
Faye explains the Grannie Kate series and the idea of historical family fiction. "The main character is Grannie Kate, a grandmother who exemplifies the love of several grandmothers in our family. She is a combination of the grandmothers who guided and still guides us.
The beauty of using historical family fiction, family stories in fiction form, is that the w
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November 20, 2015
A bit hard to read about the Confederate cause as the noble cause of a future president and his minister father.
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