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"Where did you get all this stuff?" is probably the most frequent question asked of me when a visitor views my collection. Before I could collect, I had to educate myself on what to look for. I read every book I could get my hands on that had photographs of actual Civil war artifacts. This helped me to identify items that other people might not recognize as being from the Civil War. I searched out the antique shops and later bought from, and became friends with, others who had been dealing in Civil War antiquities before I did. Their experience helped me to know how to spot a fake. Several of my friends are knowledgeable enough to be appraisers for the Antiques Roadshow on PBS. As my reputation grew as a respected Civil War dealer, people began bringing me family heirlooms from the Civil War that they desired to sell. So that is how my collection grew.
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HOW DID I GET MY START? I have been interested in old things and have bought and sold antiques for most of my adult life. When I was a boy, back in the piney woods of north Florida, I remember my cousin, T. T. Wentworth, would come to visit in order to talk to the old men in the area. At that time, Taylor county had a lot of people who lived to be over 100 years old. Some of these old gentlemen were veterans of the Civil War. T. T. Wentworth was collecting Civil War relics and would buy swords, bowie knives, pistols and revolvers, uniforms and such from them. He opened his original museum in 1957 near Pensacola, Florida in Ensley. In 1988, a state grant allowed the old city hall in Pensacola to be renovated for the relocation of the Wentworth collection. It is now called the T. T. Wentworth Jr. Florida State Museum. One day, when T. T. had a group of the old veterans gathered on the porch, one of them, a Mr. Franklin shook my hand and said::
I also had two great-grandfathers who fought for the South in the great War Between the States. They both were at the battle of Gettysburg. These were powerful influences on my life |
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