LOUISVILLE, GEORGIA

DURING THE PAST WEEK THERE PASSED FROM THIS EARTH ONE OF THE MOST PERFECT TYPES OF SOUTHERN WOMANHOOD THAT IT HAS EVER  BEEN THE PRIVILEGE OF THIS COMMUNITY TO KNOW - MRS. MARTHA GOBERT GAMBLE, WIDOW OF THE LATE COLONEL ROGER LAWSON GAMBLE, OF AUGUSTA ND LOUISVILLE, GEORGIA. 

MRS. GAMBLE HAD BEEN A PATIENT INVALID AS THE RESULT OF A STROKE OF PARALYSIS FOR THE PAST NINE YEARS, AND OF COURSE AS THE RESULT OF THIS QUIET, SECLUDED LIFE, SHE HAS NOT BEEN AN ACTIVE FIGURE IN THE LIFE OF THE COMMUNITY AS SHE WAS BY THE OLDER ONES, BUT THOSE WHO HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF MEETING HER IN THE LATTER YEARS OF HER LIFE COULD NOT FALL TO BE IMPRESSED BY HER BEAUTIFUL NATURE AND RARE TYPE OF CHARACTER, AND TODAY THROUGHOUT THE SOUTH THERE ARE COUNTLESS MEN AND WOMEN WHO THINK OF PAST DAYS IN THE HANDSOME OLD HOME ON GREEN STREET, WHERE COLONEL AND MRS. GAMBLE KEPT OPEN HOUSE FOR THEIR FRIENDS, AND TEARS WILL COME TO MANY EYES AS THEY REMEMBER SOME

ACT OF KINDNESS, SOME GRACIOUS THOUGHTFUL COURTESY, AND THE NEVER FAILING HOSPITALITY OF THIS LOVELY GRANDE DAME OF THE OLD SOUTH WHOSE SPIRIT HAS JUST BEEN CALLED TO ITS GLORIOUS REWARD. 

MRS. GAMBLE WAS BORN MARTHA GOBERT ON HER FATHER'S ESTATE NEAR LOUISVILLE, GA., AUGUST 4, 1824.  SHE WAS MARRIED TO COLONEL ROGER LAWSON GAMBLE, JUNE 20, 1850.  BOTH WERE DESCENDANTS OF THE LAWSON FAMILY WHO OWNED VAST ESTATES IN JEFFERSON COUNTY.

HER FATHER'S ANCESTORS WERE DISTINGUISHED FAMILIES OF PARIS, FRANCE.  JACQUES PHILIPPE GOBERT, AT THAT TIME HOLDING POSITION OF KING'S ATTORNEY SOUGHT THE SAFETY OF THE ISLAND OF MARTINIQUE, IN THE WEST INDIES, AS A REFUGE IN THE REIGN OF TERROR.  AFTERWARD HIS ON, JACQUES, REPRESENTED FRANCE AS CONSUL WITH RESIDENCE AT CHARLESTON, SC AND AFTERWARDS AT SAVANNAH, GA.

IN 1860, COLONEL GAMBLE AND FAMILY MOVED TO AUGUSTA, WHERE THEY RESIDED IN THEIR HOME, 426 GREENE (NOW OWNED BY MR. ALBERT TWIGGS) UNTIL 1881, WHEN THEY RETURNED TO LOUISVILLE, GA.  DURING THIS TIME THEIR HOME WAS A CENTER OF SOCIAL LIFE IN THE CITY, AND MRS. GAMBLE WAS EQUALLY PROMINENT IN CHURCH WORK, BEING A DEVOTED MEMBER OF ST. PAUL'S AND IN PHILANTHROPIC WORK, AS SHE WAS IN SOCIETY. NO MORE WELL-DESERVED AND BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE COULD HAVE BEEN PAID TO MRS. GAMBLE THAN THE FOLLOWING EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO A MEMBER OF HER FAMILY FROM DR. CHAUNCEY WILLIAMS, OF MOBILE, WHO WAS RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S DURING THE TIME THE GAMBLES LIVED HERE, AND AN INTIMATE FRIEND OF THE FAMILY:

"I HAVE ALWAYS ASSOCIATED HER WITH THE TIME WHEN I FIRST SAW HER IN YOUR OLD GREENE STREET HOME.  THERE WAS A CERTAIN BEFORE-THE-WAR AIR ABOUT THOSE BEAUTIFUL ROOMS, AND SHE SEEMED  SO ENTIRELY A PART OF IT.  THERE WAS A BLENDED GRACE AND DIGNITY IN HER BEARING, WHICH ALWAYS PROCLAIMED THAT INDEFINABLE SOMETHING THAT BETOKENS HIGH BREEDING.  SHE WAS ALWAYS, UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, SO DELIGHTFULLY A LADY OF THE OLD SCHOOL.  SHE KNEW SO MUCH ABOUT THE OLD PEOPLE, AND PLACES OF AUGUSTA THAT IT WAS CHARMING TO HEAR HER TALK ABOUT THEM, AND I NEVER TIRED OF HEARING THE QUAINT TRADITIONS OF HER FAMILY, WHICH HAD BEEN HANDED DOWN BY HER FRENCH MOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER.  THE CIVIL WAR, WITH ITS TRAGEDIES OF LIFE AND FORTUNE, BROUGHT MANY HARD EXPERIENCES TO HER.  BUT SHE ACCEPTED EVERY THING WITH SUCH GRACE AND GENTLENESS AND RESIGNATION, WITHOUT EVER LOSING HER POISE, OR HER CHEERFUL OUTLOOK UPON LIFE THAT I OFTEN WONDERED HOW SHE DID IT.  AND I DO NOT KNOW IF YOU REMEMBER HOW OFTEN SHE HELPED ME WITH THE CARE OF THE POOR FOR MANY YEARS.  SHE HAS A KEEN SENSE OF HUMOR, WHISH RELIEVED THE SORDID SIDE OF THE LIFE SHE TRIED TO HELP AND IMPROVE."

UPON THE DEATH OF HER HUSBAND IN LOUISVILLE, MRS. GAMBLE MOVED TO AUGUSTA AND MADE HER HOME WITH HER DAUGHTER, MRS. W. H. DOUGHTY, JR. IN APRIL, 1906, SHE SUFFERED A STROKE OF PARALYSIS, FROM THE EFFECTS OF WHICH SHE REMAINED AN INVALID PATIENT AND INCOMPLIANTLY HER WEARY SPIRIT WAS RELEASED FROM ITS EARTHLY PRISON ON THE MORNING OF MARCH 16TH.

DURING THE LONG YEARS OF CONFINEMENT TO THE HOUSE IN HER ROLLING CHAIR, SHE DISPLAYED THE SAME BEAUTIFUL CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION, THE SAME WONDERFUL POISE THAT IS THE CHARACTERISTIC OF A FEW RARE SOULS, SHE SHOWED WHEN THE WAR MADE SO TREMENDOUS A CHANGE IN HER FORTUNES, AND SHE WA NO  LONGER A WOMEN OF GREAT WEALTH AS SHE HAS BEEN.  SHE BORE REVERSES AS SUFFERING WITH A GENTLE DIGNITY AND PATIENCE THAT WAS A LESSON TO ALL WHO KNEW HER, AND HER MEMORY WILL BE AN INCENTIVE TO ALL WHO HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF HER FRIENDSHIP.

COLONEL AND MRS. GAMBLE WERE THE PARENTS OF THE FOLLOWING CHILDREN: JUDGE ROGER LAWSON GAMBLE, DECEASED; RUTH STERRETT GAMBLE, DECEASED; MRS. G. K. CHAFEE, OF AIKEN, SC; MILLARD GOBERT GAMBLE AND PHILIPPE LE BON GAMBLE, OF LOUISVILLE, GA., AND MRS. W. H. DOUGHTY, JR., OF AUGUSTA, GA.

MRS. GAMBLE WAS TENDERLY LAID TO REST BY THE SIDE OF HER DISTINGUISHED HUSBAND, AND SON, IN THE FAMILY LOT AT LOUISVILLE, BENEATH THE MYRIAD FLOWERS THAT TESTIFIED TOT HE LOVE IN WHICH SHE WAS HELD, AND THE GREAT SYMPATHY FELT BY FRIENDS THROUGHOUT THE STATE FOR THOSE WHOSE LOSS IS IRREPARABLE.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE, SUNDAY, 3-21-1915