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Letters pertaining to Virginia, 1821-1867, Accession #11006, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
These letters were purchased by the Library from Timothy H. Bakken of Halvor Americana, Clarendon Hills, Illinois, on June 24, 1991.
This collection contains nine letters, 1821-1867, from various Virginia families. The first two letters are from Virginia army officers. James Bankhead of Fort Johnson C[ourt] H[ouse] (February 5, 1821) writes to an unknown recipient; the letter discusses military matters and mentions General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, Lt. Harrison, and Maj. [James McMillan] Glassell. The second letter, September 23, 1824, from M[ann] P[age] Lomax to "Mason," was probably written to Richard Barnes Mason (1797-1850). This letter is more personal, as between friends, and Lomax asks Mason to bring back some items from New York for him.
The next three letters (1829-1849) deal with slavery in Virginia and Tennessee. The December 5, 1829 letter from L. Smithson, Jr., Lynchburg, Virginia, is chiefly about hiring workmen, but he mentions a runaway named "Joe" who had been gone for some time. The March 1, 1846 letter from C.S. Palmore of Spring Hill, Fayette County, Tennessee, to Edward S. Brown, an attorney in Ballsville, Virginia, discusses the relative merits of living in Virginia and Tennessee. The letter also mentions the sale of negroes and one in particular named "George". A letter from H.W. Fry, Richmond, Virginia to [A.N. Montgomery of Lynchburg], April 20, 1849 mentions in the postscript the bond for a slave's hire.
The next letter is concerned with the Virginia tobacco trade, from John L. Ligon, Richmond, Virginia, to Jedediah Jewett, Portland, Maine, October 13, 1854. This is a letter to a northern client.
A February 2, 1861 letter from Stokes & Rives, Richmond, Virginia, to Hudson Martin of Nelson County, Virginia, is concerned with a deed with W[illia]m H. Moore & Co. The letter mentions W[illia]m C. Carrington, lawyer for the county.
The last two letters are personal letters from "Aleck" of "Leeton Forest" to Nannie L. Pollock of Leesburg, Virginia. The letters are dated October 2, 1866 and March 19, 1867. The second letter mentions Gov. William Smith's wife. The main focus of the letters is regional gossip and news of Nannie's family.