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SAINT FRANCIS 
UNIVERSITY
FOUNDED 1847

Indentation was not planned.  I was just centering type for heading & failed to change.  Had made copies before I noticed. B.

NELSON THOMAS SHIMM FOR HER
NT SOFA"

m her island cliffs
dampden" rends
rooping fleur-de-lis
Bewails the Orleans maid
When Italy wafts through cloudless skies
Her Garibaldi's name
And Austria tells from ramparts high
Of Louis Kosuth's fame
When Scotch sigh o'er Wallace's grave
And Freedom weep the martyred brave
When patriot lands for country's sake
From Emmet's tomb the shamrocks break
When o'er the fanes of other lands
The storied radience shines
We turn to thee o sun kissed isle
And on thy peaks see Freedom smile
And Hayti sea-girt ocean gem
"Twas Toussaint won thy diadem!

Sarah Ann Nelson Thomas Shimm (1845-1885) was a black female who wrote articles for an early Washington D.C. newspaper under the name of Faith Lichen because newspapers would not published material written by a black person.  Mrs. Shimm composed the above poem to accompany her sofa which was upholstered with a tapestry which she embroidered with scenes from the life of Toussaint L'Ouverture and displayed at the New Orleans World's Fair in 1884.  The poem is from the collection of Dr. Charlene Byrd, Mrs. Shimm's great grand-daughter.

© Dr. Charlene Byrd, Nitro, West Virginia