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Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech
Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries (0434)LM Rozema, Archivist, and Tyler Williams, Student Assistant
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The collection is open for research.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Mary Hughes Letter, 1862, Ms2023-111, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The Mary Hughes Letter was purchased by Special Collections and University Archives in May 2021.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Mary Hughes Letter was completed in February 2025. Initial description was completed in September 2023.
Mary Kirby Adrian was born to W. and Joanna Adrian in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 30, 1832. She married Alfred Hughes on November 1, 1849, in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), and they had 10 children. In January 1863, the family moved to Richmond, and after the war, they moved to Baltimore. Mary Hughes died on October 30, 1909.
Sources:
U. S. Federal Census, 1850-1870
"Mary Kirby Adrian Hughes", Findagrave.com, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/126370902/mary-kirby-hughes , accessed Feb. 21, 2025.
"Alfred Hughs" in the West Virginia, U.S., Marriages Index, 1785-1971, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/2538/records/1311061 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.
"Sale of Household Furniture.", Daily intelligencer (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]), 05 Jan. 1863, p. 3, available online from the Library of Congress's Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026845/1863-01-05/ed-1/seq-3/ , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.
Alfred Hughes was born to Thomas and Mary von Odenbaugh Hughes on September 16, 1824, in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia). According to the 1850 census, he was a lumber dealer. Hughes graduated the Homeopathic Medical College of Philadelphia (now part of Drexel University) in 1853 and began practicing homeopathic medicine in Wheeling. His sister Eliza C. Hughes joined his practice in 1860.
During the American Civil War, Hughes was a Confederate sympathizer, who wrote for the Baltimore Exchange. He was arrested on May 30, 1862, and imprisoned at Camp Chase, a Union prison camp in Columbus, Ohio, until his parole in October or November 1862. Hughes moved to Richmond in January 1863 to practice and served in the Virginia Legislature until the end of the war.
Alfred Hughes married Mary Kirby Adrian (1832-1909) on November 1, 1849, and they had 10 children, including Thomas Hughes, Esq. Following the war, the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, and he set up another homeopathic practice, while also contributing to the American Homoeopathic Observer. He died on February 25, 1880, in Baltimore.
Sources:
U. S. Federal Census, 1850-1870
Hughes, Alfred, An Essay on Consuetudo Medicine (Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania thesis), January 31, 1853, available online from Drexel University on Archive.org, https://archive.org/embed/ducom_hu_theses_1853hughes , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.
History of the Upper Ohio Valley, With Family History And Biographical Sketches, Vol. I (Madison, Wisc.: Brant & Fuller, 1890), pp. 332-335, 580, available online from HathiTrust, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012288589 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.
"Dr Alfred Hughes", Findagrave.com, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/126370734/alfred-hughes , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.
"Notice. Alfred Hughes, M. D. Eliza C. Hughes, M. D.", Daily intelligencer (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]), 27 April 1860, p. 2, available online from the Library of Congress's Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026845/1860-04-27/ed-1/seq-2/ , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.
"Sale of Household Furniture.", Daily intelligencer (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]), 05 Jan. 1863, p. 3, available online from the Library of Congress's Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026845/1863-01-05/ed-1/seq-3/ , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.
"Doctor Alfred Hughes" in the U.S., Civil War Prisoner of War Records, 1861-1865, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/1124/records/193620 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.
"Alfred Hughs" in the West Virginia, U.S., Marriages Index, 1785-1971, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/2538/records/1311061 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.
"Alfred Hughes" in the U.S., Civil War Prisoner of War Records, 1861-1865, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/1124/records/148712 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.
"Alfred Hughes" in the U.S., Civil War Prisoner of War Records, 1861-1865, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/1124/records/129911 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.
This collection contains a letter by Mary Hughes from Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), to her husband Alfred Hughes on October 28, 1862, during the American Civil War. The letter discusses Alfred's imprisonment as a Confederate political prisoner at Union prison Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio. She also details the measures being taken to secure his release, to get a prison pass, and general updates on family members. The envelope for the letter has a note from Alfred Hughes expressing his love and admiration for his wife, and it is marked as examined by D. B. Tiffany, the prison postmaster.
The collection also contains a transcription of the letter.
See the following related collections:
Alfred Hughes Family Papers, Ms2023-110, also at Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives
Letters to Thomas Hughes, 1871-1875, Accession #10949, which contain letters from his father Alfred Hughes, at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville
Collection of Alfred Hughes, Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02166 at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in New York City
The guide to the Mary Hughes Letter by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).