Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Franklin Fretwell Papers, 1819-1886, Accession #11296, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This material was purchased by the Library from Jerry N. Showalter, Bookseller, of Ivy, Virginia, on March 24 and September 22, 1997.

Scope and Content Information

This collection of business papers consists of ca. 2,900 items, ca. 1819 (1850-1886) n.d., and pertains to the business of Franklin Fretwell of New Hope, Virginia. There are correspondence, accounts, customer orders, purchase orders, receipts, and miscellaneous business papers. Fretwell mainly dealt with merchants from Richmond and Lynchburg, Virginia during the 1850s, with merchants from Richmond, Virginia during the Civil War, and with merchants from Baltimore, Maryland after the war.

The correspondence is chiefly of a business nature although some of it does contain personal news. There is much correspondence from Albemarle County, Virginia locations, including Afton, Brownsville, Howardsville, Mechums River, Scottsville, and Yancey's Mill. Letters from Franklin Fretwell's brothers, Brightberry and Burlington, and his brother-in-laws, James H. Jarman and William P. Jarman, contain some news of family and friends.

Letters from Brightberry Fretwell discuss business matters including the sale of timothy seed and clover seed. Topics of interest include his marriage (September 30, 1857); incidences of measles among the children and the negroes (March 21 and April 18, 1858); the shooting of Archy Bellamy by Henry Oaks in Brownsville (March 21 and April 18, 1858); the deaths of Kitty and Ritter and illness of Jimmy at Burlington Fretwell's (May 6, 1858); the Dunkards and their sacrament (August 20, 1858); purchase of land from William A. Brown on Green Mountain (November 8, 1859); and the loss of negroes to illness (July 2, 1858, November 8, 1859 and December 4, 1859).

Letters from Burlington Fretwell are of a more personal nature. His letter of August 7, 1854 relates that Elizabeth and the baby are home from Alum Springs in much improved health, and mentions an illness of bowel complaints among the hands with two deaths, the death of Munroe Carter's child, and George being ill with rheumatism. On October 25, 1854, he discusses a hand "Harry" who "took up with an old wooden leg woman in Covesville..." and has since received several whippings and has apparently run away. In a letter of August 13, 1860, he strongly advises his brother to stop drinking so much as it will ruin him, his family, and his business.

Letters from James H. Jarman and William P. Jarman discuss business matters including the sale of timothy seed and clover seed. Topics of interest include the prominence of the measles, buying out Fielding Rothwell, and the shooting of [Archy] Bellamy by Henry Oaks at James Woodson's store (March 27, 1858); the deaths of Kitty and Ritter and illness with measles of Jimmy at Burlington Fretwell's and the death of William Woods (May 3, 1858); the death of John Maupin and of Mrs. Elbert Head following the birth of her child, the injury of [Fielding] Rothwell in a fall in the sawmill, and the birth of a daughter to Ann Ellen Woods (July 15, 1858); the death of Henry Wayland's child from sore throat (October 2, 1860); the death of Chap of pleurisy and the arrangements made for the provision of his wife Mildred and their family in his will (February 8, 1862); an accident involving Jarman and his horse in which he received injuries (January 27, 1860); and, finishing his ice house and having a well dug (April 1, 1870).

There are three letters written during the Civil War from William Croft (November 12, 1861) and Robert C. Davis (November 19, 1862 and January 16, 1863) which deal chiefly with business matters. The latter of these letters discusses camp life and the activities of the Confederates in building fortifications against the Yankees.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by name and subject.