This pendant with a Shreveport connection has historical value.

Not everything that is old has worth

Is something old historic? Sometimes someone will ask me about an item they believe to have value. Many items brought to me have some historic value, whether they are letters, journals or artifacts a person brought back from a war. Occasionally, these items will be priceless, if not to history, to the family. And then there are other things.

A gentleman from the northern part of Caddo Parish brought me an object he suspected was valuable. He transported it in the back of his pickup and delivered it in a wheelbarrow. It was several shades of tan and almost three feet wide. He was clearly proud of this discovery.

“Do you think this thing is old?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” I replied. He responded, “How old do you think it is?” Thinking back to my undergrad studies, I replied. “Tens of millions of years old.”

“Wow! he said, “There are lines on it, and it looks to me like somebody carved on it.” I told him I didn’t think someone had carved it.

“Well, what do you think it’s worth?” he asked.

I responded with a question, “What do you think it’s worth?” He smiled, and it seemed to me that he thought this object might guarantee his retirement.

“Where did you get it?” I asked. He indicated that he dug it up in his front yard and brought it to find out what it was worth. While I am not a geologist, I was able to explain that it was a very fine example of agate rock that, if cut, would have beautiful colors and shine up magnificently. He didn’t seem to have an interest in that.

Again, he asked, “What do you think it’s worth?” Not wanting to crush his feelings or dreams of retirement, I explained that I had never seen one quite like it, but that I didn’t think it was worth a lot. “If I were you, I would protect it,” I said. “Is the hole still there?” He said it was. I suggested he could put it back in the hole to see and enjoy every day. To him, it seemed valuable, but to history and geology, it was just a large north Louisiana rock.

What makes something historically valuable?

It must have some measure of worth. This can be due to rarity, significance to a person or event, or its ability to shed some new light on a facet of history heretofore forgotten or unknown.

Several years ago, while researching yellow fever in Shreveport, I was surfing on eBay and typed in “yellow fever Shreveport 1873.” Much to my amazement, someone in California was offering an object that looked like a pendant.

It was engraved on the front: “From the Howards of Shreveport, La.” On the back: “For Christian Kindness Heroic Conduct Epidemic 1873.”

Since it was being sold, it didn’t have great value to the person in California. I bought it immediately and contacted the seller to ask if he knew where it came from. The seller only knew that it had come down through the family. I asked if he knew who it had been awarded to, but that information, too, was unknown.

I had recognized it as an award from the Howard Association, a benevolent society that provided medical relief in areas of the South suffering from yellow fever. Originally, it would have featured a nameplate showing the name of the recipient just above the pendant. That was missing.

During the great Yellow Fever Epidemic here in 1873, all but one doctor died, and almost all of the trained nurses were taken by the epidemic. Seven young women, at their great peril, volunteered to help those who were dying. They survived. The Howards considered the volunteer nurses to be angels of mercy and referred to them in newspapers as “The Angels.” Only two of the seven medals awarded to them are known to exist, and this is one of them. Sadly, I will never know which of the brave women received it.

The Howard Association had been in Shreveport. One of its members was U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant Eugene A. Woodruff, sent here to clear the Great Raft (giant logjam). He died during the epidemic and is buried in Oakland Cemetery, where his tombstone indicates he was a member of the Howards.

So, how is this object valuable? First, it is gold. Second, it displays intricate artisanship. Thus, it has intrinsic value. To me, as a historian studying the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1873, it has greater value, and I am proud to have safely protected it. However, to our region, it is an integral part of our history and, historically, it is priceless.

Dr. Gary Joiner is a Professor of History at LSU Shreveport, where he is the Director of Red River Regional Studies and the Strategy Alternatives Consortium. He can be contacted at Gary.Joiner@lsus.edu.