Special Collections, Kegley Library, Wytheville Community College
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Processed by: Cathy Carlson Reynolds
Collection is open to research.
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Painter Family Papers, Mss Collection 2006.5, Kegley Library, Wytheville Community College, Wytheville, VA
Donated by Ruth Ann Chitwood in 2001 as part of the W. R. Chitwood Collection.
James Drayton Painter, the son of land baron Abraham Painter (1804-1886) and Emily Ewing Painter (1822-1889), was born on 26 November 1844. He grew up in the Cripple Creek and Ivanhoe areas of Wythe County, Virginia. The Painter family owned extensive property in this area of the county and in 1872 purchased the Brown Hill Furnace. They sold the furnace in 1880 to the Lobdell Car Wheel Company.
Painter enlisted in Co. D (known as the Wythe Minute Men) of the 45th Virginia Infantry Regiment, C. S. A> on 27 February 1862 at Red Sulphur Springs. Captured by Federal forces at the Battle of Piedmont on 5 June 1864, he was incarcerated in Camp Morgan in Indianapolis, Indiana. With thousands of other Confederate soldiers, in March 1865 he was exchanged and returned home to Virginia.
He married Martha Lou Hatcher (born on 24 August 1849) on 28 October 1869; their daughter, Myra Parks Painter, was born in November 1870. Painter owned and managed J. D. Painter & Brothers General Mercantile Store and also was a banker. He was an active member of the Methodist Church in Ivanhoe
Myra Painter married lawyer and judge Henry Massillon Heuser and moved to Wytheville, Virginia. Martha Lou Hatcher Painter died on 27 May 1900 and is buried in Forest United Methodist Church cemetery. James Drayton Painter died at the home of his daughter and son-in-law in Wytheville on 13 March 1932 and was buried beside his wife.
The Painter Family Papers consists of seven folders of correspondence, financial records, tax tickets, and deeds.
Correspondents of James Drayton Painter include Rev. E. E. Hoss of Emory and Henry College, Rev. D. S. Hearon of Sullins College, Rev. James A. Davis of Emory and Henry College, J. R. Baugh, and E. E. Wiley.
This folder contains receipts and notes issued to James D. Painter from Singer Manufacturing Company, Emory and Henry College, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Charles W. Button of the Lynchburg Virginian , Sullins College, Wood, Kasey and Company, Walter D. Moses and Company, and Peirce Brothers and Company.
This folder contains receipts and notes issued to James D. Painter and Myra Painter from W. C. Van Doran, W. H. Spiller, Moelick and Company Grocers, J. H. Grill, J. M. McTeer, R. E. Catron, John Blair, H. M. Heuser, J. B. Waugh, L. H. Huff and Company, and L. E. Painter.
This folder contains tax tickets from Rockbridge County, Virginia issued to L. E. Painter and James D. Painter.
This folder contains tax tickets from Wythe COunty issued to James D. Painter.
This folder contains tax tickets from Lead Mines District, Wythe County, issued to James D. Painter.
This folder includes deeds between Hose Literal and W. J. Edwards in Carroll County; W. M. Painter and Sallie E. Painter and C. H. Wright in Wythe County; and C. H. Wright and W. H. Painter in Wythe COunty.