Florence Carson Warfield Sillers (September 25, 1869 – April 5, 1958) was an American socialite and historian. A member of an influential American family with colonial ties, Sillers was a prominent figure of Mississippi

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

and was a founding member of the Mississippi Delta Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was a member of multiple lineage and historical societies including the Colonial Dames of America, the National Society Magna Charta Dames and Barons, and the

Mississippi Historical Society The Mississippi Historical Society (MHS) is a historical society located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The society was established in 1858 but was terminated soon after because of the outbreak of the American Civil War. It remained in hiatus u ...

. In 1948 she published the ''History of Bolivar County, Mississippi'', a book on the history of Bolivar County that glorified the Confederacy and contributed to the

Lost Cause The Lost Cause of the Confederacy (or simply Lost Cause) is an American pseudohistorical negationist mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery. Firs ...

narrative.

Biography

Sillers was born on September 25, 1869 in Booneville, Missouri and grew up in Louisiana and Mississippi. She was the daughter of Colonel Elisha Warfield and Mary Anderson Carson. Her father, a planter who owned a plantation in

Bolivar County, Mississippi Bolivar County ( ) is a county located on the western border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,985. Its county seats are Rosedale and Cleveland. The county is named in honor of Simón Bolívar, earl ...

near Rosedale, served as a Confederate Officer in the 2nd Arkansas Infantry Regiment during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Her paternal ancestors had come from

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

to the Province of Maryland in the 17th century. Sillers was the great-granddaughter of the physician and horse-breeder

Elisha Warfield Elisha Warfield Jr. (February 5, 1781 – May 15, 1859) was an American physician and a Thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder whom ''Thoroughbred Heritage'' calls "one of the most important early figures in Kentucky racing and breeding." ...

and a grandniece of the suffragist

Mary Jane Warfield Clay Mary Jane Warfield Clay (January 20, 1815 – April 29, 1900) was an American socialite, suffragist, abolitionist, and political activist. An early leader in the suffrage movement in Kentucky, she began by forming a suffrage club at her home in 18 ...

. In 1887, at the age of seventeen, she married Walter Sillers, a lawyer and member of a prominent

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...

family, and had six children; Anna Farrar Sillers, Mary Sillers Skinner,

Florence Sillers Ogden Florence Carson Sillers Ogden (October 2, 1891 – June 23, 1971) was an American newspaper columnist, socialite, conservative political activist, and Racial segregation in the United States, segregationist. She wrote the column ''Dis 'n' Dat'' fo ...

, Walter Sillers Jr., Evelyn Sillers Pearson, and Lillian Burrill Sillers Holleman. She was his second wife. Her husband owned several plantations in Bolivar County and was a Mississippi Democratic executive committee member. She lived with her family in a Victorian style mansion on Levee Street in Rosedale. As a prominent society figure in Mississippi, Sillers was member of multiple social societies and civic organizations including local chapters of the Colonial Dames of America,

American Farm Bureau Federation The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), also known as Farm Bureau Insurance and Farm Bureau Inc. but more commonly just the Farm Bureau (FB), is a United States-based insurance company and lobbying group that represents the American agri ...

, American Red Cross, Mississippi Delta Council, and the Rosedale Country Club. She was a member of the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

and served as treasurer of the King's Daughters Hospital of Rosedale for twenty years. She was also a member of the

Texas State Historical Association The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is a non-profit educational organization, dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, on March 2, 1897. , TSHA moved their offices from Austin to the University of N ...

and the

. Sillers was a founding member of the Mississippi Delta Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She later served as regent of the Chapter. In 1948 Sillers authored a book on the history of Bolivar County, titled ''History of Bolivar County, Mississippi'', that glorified the Antebellum South and the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

. Sillers was also a member of the National Society Magna Charta Dames and Barons, a society for descendants of signers of the Magna Carta. Sillers died on April 5, 1958 and is buried at Beulah Cemetery in

Beulah, Mississippi Beulah is a town in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 242. Beulah is served by Mississippi Highway 1. Lake Beulah, an oxbow lake formerly connected to the Mississippi River, is west of the town ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sillers, Florence Warfield 1869 births 1958 deaths 20th-century American women writers American women historians Spouses of Mississippi politicians American Red Cross personnel American socialites Colonial Dames of America Daughters of the American Revolution people Historians from Mississippi Historians of the American Civil War Lost Cause of the Confederacy People from Boonville, Missouri People from Rosedale, Mississippi

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

Methodists from Missouri Methodists from Mississippi