A Guide to the Sexton Family Papers, 1770-1914 #24502

Library of Virginia

The Library of Virginia
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Richmond, Virginia 23219-8000
USA
Email: archdesk@lva.virginia.gov(Archives)
URL: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/

Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Processed by: Trenton Hizer

Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Sexton Family. Papers, 1770-1914. Accession 24502. Personal papers collection. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Francis Sexton, Glen Allen, Virginia, 1 June 1956.

Joseph (b. 1730) and Phebe Sexton (b. 1734) settled in Wythe County, Virginia. Their son Joseph Sexton (1772-1829) established a tannery and saddling business in the town of Evensham, later Wytheville, Virginia. His sons David (1809-1882) and John Sexton (1811-1868) continued the business. John Sexton and his wife Priscilla Sexton's son John M. Sexton was mortally wounded at the battle of Monocacy Bridge, Maryland, and died at Frederick, Maryland, 6 August 1864, and was reinterred in Wytheville in April 1866. Another son, Joseph Campbell Sexton (b. 1833) served as an officer on the staffs of Stonewall Jackson and John B. Gordon, and took over the tannery after his father's death.

Scope and Content Information

Papers, 1770-1914, of the Sexton family of Wythe County, Virginia, consisting of accounts, agreements, Bible records, bonds, deeds, hair, insurance policies, inventories, judicial records, land grants, letters, marriage records, prayer books, receipts, tax records, and wills. Accounts, bonds, insurance claims, judicial records, receipts, and tax records involve the Sexton family's tannery and saddlery business in Evensham, later Wytheville, Virginia. Deeds and land grants are property bought in Wythe County and Wytheville by the Sextons. Bible records, letters, marriage records, prayer books, and wills all concern personal matters of the Sexton family. Letters includes correspondence from relatives who settled in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas, as well as from Wythe County; topics concern the Sexton family business, family news, the Civil War, teachers, and illegitimate children. Three newspapers originally with the collection have been transferred to the Virginia Newspaper Project: WYTHEVILLE DISPATCH, [?14] April 1866; ODDFELLOWS' ADVOCATE (Huntingdon, WVa.), October 1878; and SANDY VALLEY NEWS (Grundy, Buchanan County, Va.), 21 November 1913.