For a wonderful article telling the details of Mrs. Hood's extraordinary life, please copy and paste the following link:
http://www.historicoakwoodcemetery.com/stories_ouida_hood.asp
From Monroe County, Michigan History David Eby
Very interesting article by David Eby Monroe News , Hood home was on East Hurd Road at the Double R.R. TRACKS south side of road in 2024 still standing
An elaborate monument for an amazing Frenchtown woman
By David L. Eby
For The Monroe News
In Raleigh, North Carolina, there is an extraordinary cemetery grave monument that was created and erected 90 years ago for a Monroe County woman who died in Monroe in 1930. Her name was Ouida Estelle Emery Hood.
Ouida was born on Sept. 19, 1883, in Raleigh. She died in Monroe on Feb. 27, 1930, at the age of 46. She was said to have been an exceptionally beautiful woman with a vibrant personality.
After her death, barrels were filled with soil taken from her flower gardens on Hurd Rd. and shipped to North Carolina by railroad and the soil placed on her grave. Literally.
She is mostly forgotten in Monroe County but still is written about in North Carolina. Hundreds of visitors still stop at her grave each year. They are drawn to its size and the elaborate, highly artistic bronze work. It is considered one of the finest individual grave monuments in the South. In the 1930s it drew hundreds of visitors weekly to see the masterpiece.
Monroe County bound
Ouida Emery had a difficult childhood in Raleigh and she was ostracized because of her economic status. She married a man named Wallace C. Hood who was also from North Carolina.
He was an automobile designer. Wallace was stationed at a military post near Raleigh during WWI with a Michigan man named Franklin Stanley Prikryl who was a successful Detroit real estate developer.
The two men became fast friends and Franklin offered Wallace a job after the war, but he would have to move to Michigan. The Hoods accepted the offer and moved to Detroit where they lived until about 1920. They then settled in Frenchtown Township on Hurd about a half-mile west of N. Dixie Hwy.
Ouida fell in love with the area, her home and her neighbors. She became quite involved in the community. Her life was filled with purpose and she lived the last 10 years of her life here. She became very active in local agricultural organizations.
After they arrived and took up residency in Frenchtown Township, Franklin moved in with the Hoods as a rent-paying border.
That arrangement went on for a number of years and lasted until one day Wallace came home, packed his bags and quietly left, never to return. He deeded Ouida their Hurd home. Franklin continued to rent a room from Ouida after Wallace left.
The Hood Motor Truck Co.
Some years earlier Wallace, Franklin and other investors started their own truck manufacturing company in the 1920s. It was called the Hood Motor Truck Company and the plan called for the trucks to be built in Monroe. Using Wallace's automotive designer skills, they were able to make a single prototype truck model that passed all the tests and requirements.
They sold stock for the company, but in the end they could not raise enough
money to build a manufacturing plant to produce them and the company failed. The single manufactured truck sat in the yard of the Hood home on Hurd for years and deteriorated in the weather. Its fate cannot be determined.
Ouida was always doing things for area children and her neighbors. She and Wallace had no children of their own. She gave parties and entertained constantly. Every Christmas she gave an elaborate party and entertained as many as 300 local children. During Easter, she held large Easter egg parties where up to 1,000 colored Easter eggs were placed in a five-acre field for scores of children to find.
Each child would receive a chocolate egg and she had prizes for the children who found the most eggs. Franklin was involved as well in her activities. Once he chartered a bus and filled it with local farmers and wives and took them on a theater trip to Detroit.
She built the Frenchtown Grange Hall for the farm families in her area so they could have a community center for social and educational events and programs. She was quite involved with the Frenchtown Grange organization as well as the Monroe County Extension Service. She organized the first Extension Service Ladies Economics Club in Frenchtown Township.
She organized the first 4-H clubs in Monroe County in the 1920s and also the first Juvenile Grange in the county, which was Frenchtown Juvenile Grange #85. She served as the Juvenile Grange's " Matron" (leader).
She spent large amounts of time and money on flowers and shrubbery to keep the Frenchtown Grange hall looking exceptionally nice. The first 4- H clubs she founded were likely organized at her home and if not there then at the Frenchtown Grange Hall.
A sudden death
Her health declined rapidly after a surgical procedure and her death came somewhat suddenly. When Ouida died, Franklin had her body shipped back to her birthplace in Raleigh, per her wishes.
He bought a double lot in what was considered the most beautiful part of Oakwood Cemetery. The cemetery is very historic and is within walking distance of the state capitol building and the governor's mansion. The cemetery is the final resting place for 1,500 Confederate soldiers, four Civil War Confederate generals and seven past state governors.
In his grief, Franklin set out to create a spectacular monument for Ouida that would be second to none. He pursued a specific German company to create the immense granite memorial and he commissioned the same company to cast the intricate bronze Angel statuary and tablets. The German company was considered to be the best in the world.
The three angels that surround the tablet with a likeness of Ouida are amazingly lifelike. Their detail is astonishing to see close up.
Franklin hired a neighbor on Hurd to dig and fill about 50 wooden barrels of soil from Ouida's flower gardens on Hurd and shipped it by rail to Raleigh to place on her grave. She found her happiness in Monroe County and was buried in North Carolina with soil from her beloved Michigan home and gardens.
In total, Franklin spent $40,000 in 1930-31 building Ouida's monument. It was an enormous amount of money back then. An average house in 1930 sold for $ 6,000 in comparison.
Today, Franklin's $40,000 expenditure would equal about $624,000 in 2021 dollars. It was spent without reservation. About $ 500 of the $ 40,000 was donated by Ouida's neighbors and friends in Frenchtown Township as well as the organizations she started or helped. Franklin provided the rest.
When Franklin built the monument he had Ouida's name engraved on it and also his own. He had intended to spend eternity next to her. For reasons unknown he changed his mind and was buried in California in 1962 when he died. There is an empty grave beside Ouida's that visitors think has Franklin in it because of the engraved names. They are wrong.
Buildings still standing
There is a separate bronze tablet by the monument that says: " To Know Her Was to Love Her." It has listed the Frenchtown Township organizations she was part of that contributed to the monument. They read: " Frenchtown Grange # 749, Frenchtown Juvenile Grange #85, Havecost School Children, Boys and Girls 4- H Clubs and Ladies Economic Club."
After Franklin completed the monument he went bankrupt. He sold the Hurd house (which still exists) that Ouida had signed over to him shortly before her death and he moved into a house across the road and rented a single room while he worked at salvaging his finances.
One day he simply left Monroe unannounced and never returned. The Frenchtown Grange Hall, which was located at the intersection of Vivian and Fix Rds., was sold and moved in the 1950s to Mentel and Fix Rds., where it became the Oak Grove Hall, a long time area wedding reception venue. Today, it is the DTE Monroe Activity Center.
What remains is Ouida's amazing story and her masterpiece North Carolina grave monument.
Assistance with this article was provided by Ken and Brent Havecost.
David L. Eby is Newsletter Editor for the Monroe County Historical Society. He can be reached at daveeby@ yahoo. com.
The Ouida Estelle Emery Hood monument in Raleigh, N.C. It cost $40,000 to build in 1930, or about $624,000 in today's dollars.
http://www.historicoakwoodcemetery.com/stories_ouida_hood.asp
From Monroe County, Michigan History David Eby
Very interesting article by David Eby Monroe News , Hood home was on East Hurd Road at the Double R.R. TRACKS south side of road in 2024 still standing
An elaborate monument for an amazing Frenchtown woman
By David L. Eby
For The Monroe News
In Raleigh, North Carolina, there is an extraordinary cemetery grave monument that was created and erected 90 years ago for a Monroe County woman who died in Monroe in 1930. Her name was Ouida Estelle Emery Hood.
Ouida was born on Sept. 19, 1883, in Raleigh. She died in Monroe on Feb. 27, 1930, at the age of 46. She was said to have been an exceptionally beautiful woman with a vibrant personality.
After her death, barrels were filled with soil taken from her flower gardens on Hurd Rd. and shipped to North Carolina by railroad and the soil placed on her grave. Literally.
She is mostly forgotten in Monroe County but still is written about in North Carolina. Hundreds of visitors still stop at her grave each year. They are drawn to its size and the elaborate, highly artistic bronze work. It is considered one of the finest individual grave monuments in the South. In the 1930s it drew hundreds of visitors weekly to see the masterpiece.
Monroe County bound
Ouida Emery had a difficult childhood in Raleigh and she was ostracized because of her economic status. She married a man named Wallace C. Hood who was also from North Carolina.
He was an automobile designer. Wallace was stationed at a military post near Raleigh during WWI with a Michigan man named Franklin Stanley Prikryl who was a successful Detroit real estate developer.
The two men became fast friends and Franklin offered Wallace a job after the war, but he would have to move to Michigan. The Hoods accepted the offer and moved to Detroit where they lived until about 1920. They then settled in Frenchtown Township on Hurd about a half-mile west of N. Dixie Hwy.
Ouida fell in love with the area, her home and her neighbors. She became quite involved in the community. Her life was filled with purpose and she lived the last 10 years of her life here. She became very active in local agricultural organizations.
After they arrived and took up residency in Frenchtown Township, Franklin moved in with the Hoods as a rent-paying border.
That arrangement went on for a number of years and lasted until one day Wallace came home, packed his bags and quietly left, never to return. He deeded Ouida their Hurd home. Franklin continued to rent a room from Ouida after Wallace left.
The Hood Motor Truck Co.
Some years earlier Wallace, Franklin and other investors started their own truck manufacturing company in the 1920s. It was called the Hood Motor Truck Company and the plan called for the trucks to be built in Monroe. Using Wallace's automotive designer skills, they were able to make a single prototype truck model that passed all the tests and requirements.
They sold stock for the company, but in the end they could not raise enough
money to build a manufacturing plant to produce them and the company failed. The single manufactured truck sat in the yard of the Hood home on Hurd for years and deteriorated in the weather. Its fate cannot be determined.
Ouida was always doing things for area children and her neighbors. She and Wallace had no children of their own. She gave parties and entertained constantly. Every Christmas she gave an elaborate party and entertained as many as 300 local children. During Easter, she held large Easter egg parties where up to 1,000 colored Easter eggs were placed in a five-acre field for scores of children to find.
Each child would receive a chocolate egg and she had prizes for the children who found the most eggs. Franklin was involved as well in her activities. Once he chartered a bus and filled it with local farmers and wives and took them on a theater trip to Detroit.
She built the Frenchtown Grange Hall for the farm families in her area so they could have a community center for social and educational events and programs. She was quite involved with the Frenchtown Grange organization as well as the Monroe County Extension Service. She organized the first Extension Service Ladies Economics Club in Frenchtown Township.
She organized the first 4-H clubs in Monroe County in the 1920s and also the first Juvenile Grange in the county, which was Frenchtown Juvenile Grange #85. She served as the Juvenile Grange's " Matron" (leader).
She spent large amounts of time and money on flowers and shrubbery to keep the Frenchtown Grange hall looking exceptionally nice. The first 4- H clubs she founded were likely organized at her home and if not there then at the Frenchtown Grange Hall.
A sudden death
Her health declined rapidly after a surgical procedure and her death came somewhat suddenly. When Ouida died, Franklin had her body shipped back to her birthplace in Raleigh, per her wishes.
He bought a double lot in what was considered the most beautiful part of Oakwood Cemetery. The cemetery is very historic and is within walking distance of the state capitol building and the governor's mansion. The cemetery is the final resting place for 1,500 Confederate soldiers, four Civil War Confederate generals and seven past state governors.
In his grief, Franklin set out to create a spectacular monument for Ouida that would be second to none. He pursued a specific German company to create the immense granite memorial and he commissioned the same company to cast the intricate bronze Angel statuary and tablets. The German company was considered to be the best in the world.
The three angels that surround the tablet with a likeness of Ouida are amazingly lifelike. Their detail is astonishing to see close up.
Franklin hired a neighbor on Hurd to dig and fill about 50 wooden barrels of soil from Ouida's flower gardens on Hurd and shipped it by rail to Raleigh to place on her grave. She found her happiness in Monroe County and was buried in North Carolina with soil from her beloved Michigan home and gardens.
In total, Franklin spent $40,000 in 1930-31 building Ouida's monument. It was an enormous amount of money back then. An average house in 1930 sold for $ 6,000 in comparison.
Today, Franklin's $40,000 expenditure would equal about $624,000 in 2021 dollars. It was spent without reservation. About $ 500 of the $ 40,000 was donated by Ouida's neighbors and friends in Frenchtown Township as well as the organizations she started or helped. Franklin provided the rest.
When Franklin built the monument he had Ouida's name engraved on it and also his own. He had intended to spend eternity next to her. For reasons unknown he changed his mind and was buried in California in 1962 when he died. There is an empty grave beside Ouida's that visitors think has Franklin in it because of the engraved names. They are wrong.
Buildings still standing
There is a separate bronze tablet by the monument that says: " To Know Her Was to Love Her." It has listed the Frenchtown Township organizations she was part of that contributed to the monument. They read: " Frenchtown Grange # 749, Frenchtown Juvenile Grange #85, Havecost School Children, Boys and Girls 4- H Clubs and Ladies Economic Club."
After Franklin completed the monument he went bankrupt. He sold the Hurd house (which still exists) that Ouida had signed over to him shortly before her death and he moved into a house across the road and rented a single room while he worked at salvaging his finances.
One day he simply left Monroe unannounced and never returned. The Frenchtown Grange Hall, which was located at the intersection of Vivian and Fix Rds., was sold and moved in the 1950s to Mentel and Fix Rds., where it became the Oak Grove Hall, a long time area wedding reception venue. Today, it is the DTE Monroe Activity Center.
What remains is Ouida's amazing story and her masterpiece North Carolina grave monument.
Assistance with this article was provided by Ken and Brent Havecost.
David L. Eby is Newsletter Editor for the Monroe County Historical Society. He can be reached at daveeby@ yahoo. com.
The Ouida Estelle Emery Hood monument in Raleigh, N.C. It cost $40,000 to build in 1930, or about $624,000 in today's dollars.
For a wonderful article telling the details of Mrs. Hood's extraordinary life, please copy and paste the following link:
http://www.historicoakwoodcemetery.com/stories_ouida_hood.asp
From Monroe County, Michigan History David Eby
Very interesting article by David Eby Monroe News , Hood home was on East Hurd Road at the Double R.R. TRACKS south side of road in 2024 still standing
An elaborate monument for an amazing Frenchtown woman
By David L. Eby
For The Monroe News
In Raleigh, North Carolina, there is an extraordinary cemetery grave monument that was created and erected 90 years ago for a Monroe County woman who died in Monroe in 1930. Her name was Ouida Estelle Emery Hood.
Ouida was born on Sept. 19, 1883, in Raleigh. She died in Monroe on Feb. 27, 1930, at the age of 46. She was said to have been an exceptionally beautiful woman with a vibrant personality.
After her death, barrels were filled with soil taken from her flower gardens on Hurd Rd. and shipped to North Carolina by railroad and the soil placed on her grave. Literally.
She is mostly forgotten in Monroe County but still is written about in North Carolina. Hundreds of visitors still stop at her grave each year. They are drawn to its size and the elaborate, highly artistic bronze work. It is considered one of the finest individual grave monuments in the South. In the 1930s it drew hundreds of visitors weekly to see the masterpiece.
Monroe County bound
Ouida Emery had a difficult childhood in Raleigh and she was ostracized because of her economic status. She married a man named Wallace C. Hood who was also from North Carolina.
He was an automobile designer. Wallace was stationed at a military post near Raleigh during WWI with a Michigan man named Franklin Stanley Prikryl who was a successful Detroit real estate developer.
The two men became fast friends and Franklin offered Wallace a job after the war, but he would have to move to Michigan. The Hoods accepted the offer and moved to Detroit where they lived until about 1920. They then settled in Frenchtown Township on Hurd about a half-mile west of N. Dixie Hwy.
Ouida fell in love with the area, her home and her neighbors. She became quite involved in the community. Her life was filled with purpose and she lived the last 10 years of her life here. She became very active in local agricultural organizations.
After they arrived and took up residency in Frenchtown Township, Franklin moved in with the Hoods as a rent-paying border.
That arrangement went on for a number of years and lasted until one day Wallace came home, packed his bags and quietly left, never to return. He deeded Ouida their Hurd home. Franklin continued to rent a room from Ouida after Wallace left.
The Hood Motor Truck Co.
Some years earlier Wallace, Franklin and other investors started their own truck manufacturing company in the 1920s. It was called the Hood Motor Truck Company and the plan called for the trucks to be built in Monroe. Using Wallace's automotive designer skills, they were able to make a single prototype truck model that passed all the tests and requirements.
They sold stock for the company, but in the end they could not raise enough
money to build a manufacturing plant to produce them and the company failed. The single manufactured truck sat in the yard of the Hood home on Hurd for years and deteriorated in the weather. Its fate cannot be determined.
Ouida was always doing things for area children and her neighbors. She and Wallace had no children of their own. She gave parties and entertained constantly. Every Christmas she gave an elaborate party and entertained as many as 300 local children. During Easter, she held large Easter egg parties where up to 1,000 colored Easter eggs were placed in a five-acre field for scores of children to find.
Each child would receive a chocolate egg and she had prizes for the children who found the most eggs. Franklin was involved as well in her activities. Once he chartered a bus and filled it with local farmers and wives and took them on a theater trip to Detroit.
She built the Frenchtown Grange Hall for the farm families in her area so they could have a community center for social and educational events and programs. She was quite involved with the Frenchtown Grange organization as well as the Monroe County Extension Service. She organized the first Extension Service Ladies Economics Club in Frenchtown Township.
She organized the first 4-H clubs in Monroe County in the 1920s and also the first Juvenile Grange in the county, which was Frenchtown Juvenile Grange #85. She served as the Juvenile Grange's " Matron" (leader).
She spent large amounts of time and money on flowers and shrubbery to keep the Frenchtown Grange hall looking exceptionally nice. The first 4- H clubs she founded were likely organized at her home and if not there then at the Frenchtown Grange Hall.
A sudden death
Her health declined rapidly after a surgical procedure and her death came somewhat suddenly. When Ouida died, Franklin had her body shipped back to her birthplace in Raleigh, per her wishes.
He bought a double lot in what was considered the most beautiful part of Oakwood Cemetery. The cemetery is very historic and is within walking distance of the state capitol building and the governor's mansion. The cemetery is the final resting place for 1,500 Confederate soldiers, four Civil War Confederate generals and seven past state governors.
In his grief, Franklin set out to create a spectacular monument for Ouida that would be second to none. He pursued a specific German company to create the immense granite memorial and he commissioned the same company to cast the intricate bronze Angel statuary and tablets. The German company was considered to be the best in the world.
The three angels that surround the tablet with a likeness of Ouida are amazingly lifelike. Their detail is astonishing to see close up.
Franklin hired a neighbor on Hurd to dig and fill about 50 wooden barrels of soil from Ouida's flower gardens on Hurd and shipped it by rail to Raleigh to place on her grave. She found her happiness in Monroe County and was buried in North Carolina with soil from her beloved Michigan home and gardens.
In total, Franklin spent $40,000 in 1930-31 building Ouida's monument. It was an enormous amount of money back then. An average house in 1930 sold for $ 6,000 in comparison.
Today, Franklin's $40,000 expenditure would equal about $624,000 in 2021 dollars. It was spent without reservation. About $ 500 of the $ 40,000 was donated by Ouida's neighbors and friends in Frenchtown Township as well as the organizations she started or helped. Franklin provided the rest.
When Franklin built the monument he had Ouida's name engraved on it and also his own. He had intended to spend eternity next to her. For reasons unknown he changed his mind and was buried in California in 1962 when he died. There is an empty grave beside Ouida's that visitors think has Franklin in it because of the engraved names. They are wrong.
Buildings still standing
There is a separate bronze tablet by the monument that says: " To Know Her Was to Love Her." It has listed the Frenchtown Township organizations she was part of that contributed to the monument. They read: " Frenchtown Grange # 749, Frenchtown Juvenile Grange #85, Havecost School Children, Boys and Girls 4- H Clubs and Ladies Economic Club."
After Franklin completed the monument he went bankrupt. He sold the Hurd house (which still exists) that Ouida had signed over to him shortly before her death and he moved into a house across the road and rented a single room while he worked at salvaging his finances.
One day he simply left Monroe unannounced and never returned. The Frenchtown Grange Hall, which was located at the intersection of Vivian and Fix Rds., was sold and moved in the 1950s to Mentel and Fix Rds., where it became the Oak Grove Hall, a long time area wedding reception venue. Today, it is the DTE Monroe Activity Center.
What remains is Ouida's amazing story and her masterpiece North Carolina grave monument.
Assistance with this article was provided by Ken and Brent Havecost.
David L. Eby is Newsletter Editor for the Monroe County Historical Society. He can be reached at daveeby@ yahoo. com.
The Ouida Estelle Emery Hood monument in Raleigh, N.C. It cost $40,000 to build in 1930, or about $624,000 in today's dollars.
http://www.historicoakwoodcemetery.com/stories_ouida_hood.asp
From Monroe County, Michigan History David Eby
Very interesting article by David Eby Monroe News , Hood home was on East Hurd Road at the Double R.R. TRACKS south side of road in 2024 still standing
An elaborate monument for an amazing Frenchtown woman
By David L. Eby
For The Monroe News
In Raleigh, North Carolina, there is an extraordinary cemetery grave monument that was created and erected 90 years ago for a Monroe County woman who died in Monroe in 1930. Her name was Ouida Estelle Emery Hood.
Ouida was born on Sept. 19, 1883, in Raleigh. She died in Monroe on Feb. 27, 1930, at the age of 46. She was said to have been an exceptionally beautiful woman with a vibrant personality.
After her death, barrels were filled with soil taken from her flower gardens on Hurd Rd. and shipped to North Carolina by railroad and the soil placed on her grave. Literally.
She is mostly forgotten in Monroe County but still is written about in North Carolina. Hundreds of visitors still stop at her grave each year. They are drawn to its size and the elaborate, highly artistic bronze work. It is considered one of the finest individual grave monuments in the South. In the 1930s it drew hundreds of visitors weekly to see the masterpiece.
Monroe County bound
Ouida Emery had a difficult childhood in Raleigh and she was ostracized because of her economic status. She married a man named Wallace C. Hood who was also from North Carolina.
He was an automobile designer. Wallace was stationed at a military post near Raleigh during WWI with a Michigan man named Franklin Stanley Prikryl who was a successful Detroit real estate developer.
The two men became fast friends and Franklin offered Wallace a job after the war, but he would have to move to Michigan. The Hoods accepted the offer and moved to Detroit where they lived until about 1920. They then settled in Frenchtown Township on Hurd about a half-mile west of N. Dixie Hwy.
Ouida fell in love with the area, her home and her neighbors. She became quite involved in the community. Her life was filled with purpose and she lived the last 10 years of her life here. She became very active in local agricultural organizations.
After they arrived and took up residency in Frenchtown Township, Franklin moved in with the Hoods as a rent-paying border.
That arrangement went on for a number of years and lasted until one day Wallace came home, packed his bags and quietly left, never to return. He deeded Ouida their Hurd home. Franklin continued to rent a room from Ouida after Wallace left.
The Hood Motor Truck Co.
Some years earlier Wallace, Franklin and other investors started their own truck manufacturing company in the 1920s. It was called the Hood Motor Truck Company and the plan called for the trucks to be built in Monroe. Using Wallace's automotive designer skills, they were able to make a single prototype truck model that passed all the tests and requirements.
They sold stock for the company, but in the end they could not raise enough
money to build a manufacturing plant to produce them and the company failed. The single manufactured truck sat in the yard of the Hood home on Hurd for years and deteriorated in the weather. Its fate cannot be determined.
Ouida was always doing things for area children and her neighbors. She and Wallace had no children of their own. She gave parties and entertained constantly. Every Christmas she gave an elaborate party and entertained as many as 300 local children. During Easter, she held large Easter egg parties where up to 1,000 colored Easter eggs were placed in a five-acre field for scores of children to find.
Each child would receive a chocolate egg and she had prizes for the children who found the most eggs. Franklin was involved as well in her activities. Once he chartered a bus and filled it with local farmers and wives and took them on a theater trip to Detroit.
She built the Frenchtown Grange Hall for the farm families in her area so they could have a community center for social and educational events and programs. She was quite involved with the Frenchtown Grange organization as well as the Monroe County Extension Service. She organized the first Extension Service Ladies Economics Club in Frenchtown Township.
She organized the first 4-H clubs in Monroe County in the 1920s and also the first Juvenile Grange in the county, which was Frenchtown Juvenile Grange #85. She served as the Juvenile Grange's " Matron" (leader).
She spent large amounts of time and money on flowers and shrubbery to keep the Frenchtown Grange hall looking exceptionally nice. The first 4- H clubs she founded were likely organized at her home and if not there then at the Frenchtown Grange Hall.
A sudden death
Her health declined rapidly after a surgical procedure and her death came somewhat suddenly. When Ouida died, Franklin had her body shipped back to her birthplace in Raleigh, per her wishes.
He bought a double lot in what was considered the most beautiful part of Oakwood Cemetery. The cemetery is very historic and is within walking distance of the state capitol building and the governor's mansion. The cemetery is the final resting place for 1,500 Confederate soldiers, four Civil War Confederate generals and seven past state governors.
In his grief, Franklin set out to create a spectacular monument for Ouida that would be second to none. He pursued a specific German company to create the immense granite memorial and he commissioned the same company to cast the intricate bronze Angel statuary and tablets. The German company was considered to be the best in the world.
The three angels that surround the tablet with a likeness of Ouida are amazingly lifelike. Their detail is astonishing to see close up.
Franklin hired a neighbor on Hurd to dig and fill about 50 wooden barrels of soil from Ouida's flower gardens on Hurd and shipped it by rail to Raleigh to place on her grave. She found her happiness in Monroe County and was buried in North Carolina with soil from her beloved Michigan home and gardens.
In total, Franklin spent $40,000 in 1930-31 building Ouida's monument. It was an enormous amount of money back then. An average house in 1930 sold for $ 6,000 in comparison.
Today, Franklin's $40,000 expenditure would equal about $624,000 in 2021 dollars. It was spent without reservation. About $ 500 of the $ 40,000 was donated by Ouida's neighbors and friends in Frenchtown Township as well as the organizations she started or helped. Franklin provided the rest.
When Franklin built the monument he had Ouida's name engraved on it and also his own. He had intended to spend eternity next to her. For reasons unknown he changed his mind and was buried in California in 1962 when he died. There is an empty grave beside Ouida's that visitors think has Franklin in it because of the engraved names. They are wrong.
Buildings still standing
There is a separate bronze tablet by the monument that says: " To Know Her Was to Love Her." It has listed the Frenchtown Township organizations she was part of that contributed to the monument. They read: " Frenchtown Grange # 749, Frenchtown Juvenile Grange #85, Havecost School Children, Boys and Girls 4- H Clubs and Ladies Economic Club."
After Franklin completed the monument he went bankrupt. He sold the Hurd house (which still exists) that Ouida had signed over to him shortly before her death and he moved into a house across the road and rented a single room while he worked at salvaging his finances.
One day he simply left Monroe unannounced and never returned. The Frenchtown Grange Hall, which was located at the intersection of Vivian and Fix Rds., was sold and moved in the 1950s to Mentel and Fix Rds., where it became the Oak Grove Hall, a long time area wedding reception venue. Today, it is the DTE Monroe Activity Center.
What remains is Ouida's amazing story and her masterpiece North Carolina grave monument.
Assistance with this article was provided by Ken and Brent Havecost.
David L. Eby is Newsletter Editor for the Monroe County Historical Society. He can be reached at daveeby@ yahoo. com.
The Ouida Estelle Emery Hood monument in Raleigh, N.C. It cost $40,000 to build in 1930, or about $624,000 in today's dollars.
Inscription
"To the glory of God and in loving memory of our dearly beloved neighbor, sister, worthy lecturer, matron, leader, teacher and organizer."
"To know her was to love her."
"A devoted lovable christian woman of honor and character, of wonderful personality. A lover of children, a tireless worker for child welfare, a friend of all birds and animals, a lover of flowers and all the beauties of nature. Full of undying courage and civic progressiveness, who so unselfishly gave of her time, health, strength and labor. Whose high ideals, love, cheerful smile, kindness, untiring service to all made our community a better place in which to live."
"She was worthy lecturer of Frenchtown Grange No. 749, organizer and matron of the first juvenile Grange in Monroe County, organizer of the first Boys and Girls 4-H clubs in Monroe County, Organizer and leader of the first ladies Home Economics Club of Frenchtown. Active in all constructive and progressive undertakings, her charming hospitality made her home a meeting place for old and young, for fathers and mothers, and a playground for all children."
"Her works do follow her."
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