Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Papers of the McGill-Mahone Families, Accession #1627, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was deposited in the Library on March 12, 1943, and was made a gift to the Library by William H. McGill of Charlottesville, Virginia, and Henry P. McGill of Petersburg, Virginia, on October 23, 1979.

Scope and Content Information

The McGill-Mahone collection is comprised of items generated by the McGill and Mahone families of Petersburg, Virginia. The collection includes business and personal correspondence, financial papers, bound financial and business records, legal documents, student class notebooks, and miscellaneous printed material. The contents of the collection concern three general topics: 1) papers pertaining to the management of property owned in Virginia by James and John Dunlop of London, England, and administered by Robert Leslie of Petersburg, Virginia; 2) papers pertaining to the tobacco firm Watson & McGill, in Petersburg, Virginia, of which Robert Leslie, R. L. Watson, and John McGill were the initial partners; and 3) papers of William Mahone pertaining to his Virginia political and business career after the Civil War.

The first group of papers, those relating to James and John Dunlop of London, England, date from 1771 to 1847. Included are land deeds for property purchased in Virginia by James and John Dunlop, primarily in Petersburg and Chesterfield County; indentures for shares in the Upper Appomatox Canal Company purchased by James and John Dunlop; bills of sale for slaves owned by Dunlop; financial records for "Roslin," an estate near Petersburg owned by Dunlop; and letters to Robert Leslie from James Dunlop regarding Leslie's management of Dunlop's legal and financial affairs in Virginia. Many of these letters concern tobacco trade between the United States and England. There is also some correspondence between Leslie and Dunlop's executors following Dunlops death ca. 1843.

The second group of papers, 1848-1918, consist of the personal and business papers of John McGill of Petersburg, Virginia, son-in-law of Robert Leslie. McGill was a partner in the tobacco firm of Watson and McGill, which operated in Petersburg, Virginia, and carried on both a foreign and domestic trade in tobacco. The financial papers include correspondence, bills, and orders, as well as numerous bound financial volumes. Also included in this section are financial papers and correspondence regarding "Dunedin," an estate owned by John McGill.

Personal correspondence in this section is comprised primarily of letters written by William M. McGill and Henry McGill to their parents, Mr. and Mrs. William L. McGill, between 1916 and 1918. The letters were written while the two were attending various schools in Virginia, including Virginia Military Institute, Cluster Springs Academy, and Shenendoah Valley Academy.

The third group of papers pertain directly to General William Mahone and his business and political activities from 1870 to 1895. Mahone, a former Confederate general, was a controlling force in Virginia politics from around 1870 until 1883, when his party, the "Readjusters," lost control to the "Conservative Democrats." A division among Virginia politicians occured in the 1870's, when those who supported a reduction of Virginia's pre-war debt ("Readjusters") opposed those who felt Virginia should repay its entire debt plus interest ("Funders"). Mahone and his followers successfully supported several Readjuster candidates for the governorship and legislature, with Mahone being appointed a United States Senator in March 1881. Mahone's control of Virginia politics lasted until 1883, when the Readjusters lost majority control in the legislature, followed by the election of Fitzhugh Lee as governor in 1885. During this period, Mahone also served as president of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad, a consolidation of three largely state-owned short lines between Norfolk and Bristol into one privately-owned railroad, authorized by legislation passed in 1870 by the General Assembly.

Mahone's correspondence concerns Virginia politics, including the southwestern region; the railroad and mining interests owned by the railroad; and the Richmond Whig , which Mahone controlled through railroad patronage. Correspondents include James Branch, C.E. Evans, John Everett, E. Fitzgerald, Abram Fulkerson, George W. Grice, Robert W. Hughes, J.B. Hurt, J.A. Johnson, John W. Johnston, James Lawson Kemper, Nathaniel B. Meade, E.C. Robinson, John M. Robinson, George Rye, John C. Shields, J.H. Slaughter, C. Maurice Smith, Charles W. Statharn, James C. Taylor, W.F. Taylor, W.H. Turner, and R.F. Walker. In addition, there are several letters from each of the following persons: John S. Barbour, Frank S. Blair, William E. Cameron, John W. Daniel, Jubal A. Early, William C. Elam, Fitzhugh Lee, Harrison Holt Riddleberger, Waller Staplers, C.W. Stringfellow, and Gilbert C. Walker. Miscellaneous printed material and maps of mineral deposits in southwestern Virginia and property owned by Mahone in Washington, D.C., are also present.

The bound volumes consist primarily of the business records of the tobacco firm Watson & McGill from ca. 1830 to 1920. These include daybooks, journals, ledgers, order and shipping registers, invoice books, and letter books. Two tobacco workbooks are present with weekly time records of women employed in stemming tobacco. Also included in the bound volumes are several financial volumes regarding the management of James and John Dunlop's property in Virginia by Robert Leslie. There is a detailed journal, 1829-1831, of "Roslin," a property in Virginia owned by the Dunlops, which lists financial transactions and includes an inventory of the Roslin property, as well as a daily work record of the slaves and hired hands.

Other bound volumes include a journal of the minutes of the Smyth County Pomona Grange meetings, 1875-1879; a journal of surveying done by A. F. Bonham; and eight class notebooks, 1876-1888, of William Mahone, Jr., R. Butler Mahone, and William L. McGill.