Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Papers of the Grinnan Family, Accession #2118-a, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Grinnan Family Papers were a gift to the Library by R. Bryan Grinnan, Sr. of Norfolk, Virginia on November 8, 1983.

Scope and Content Information

This addition to the Grinnan Family Papers consists of ca. 1800 items (9 Hollinger boxes and one oversize folder, ca. 3.1 linear shelf feet), 1773, 1789, 1802(1843-1937)1981, chiefly correspondence, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, manuscripts, photographs, financial and legal items, and other related material pertaining to the Grinnan family of "Brampton", Madison Mills, Madison County, Virginia, and associated Coalter, Bryan, Duryea, Glassell and Tucker families.

The bulk of the collection consists of papers relating to the Rev. Dr. Randolph Bryan Grinnan (1860-1942). He was a son of Dr. Andrew Glassel Grinnan and Georgia Screven Bryan and was born at "Brampton" on April 21, 1860. He attended Hampden-Sydney College from 1876-1878, the University of Virginia, 1878-1880, 1881-1882, and Union Theological Seminary, 1882-1885. After being ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1885, Grinnan went to Japan where he served as a missionary from 1885-1898. He lived and worked in Kobe, Kochi, Nagasaki, and other Japanese cities. In 1886, he married Lena Leete in Tokyo; after her death in 1893, Martha Estelle Duryea (in 1896). Hampden-Sydney College conferred a Doctor of Divinity degree on Grinnan in 1897. He returned to the United States a year later. He served as pastor of Woodland Church, Louisville, Kentucky, 1899-1902; 1912-1916; and Colley Memorial Church, Norfolk, Virginia, 1916-1936. He died on July 21, 1942. His papers reflect his life and career but contain mostly letters to him from various members of his family and acquaintances, especially his father and his son, Dr. Randolph Bryan Grinnan (1907-). There are a few letters from Grinnan during his service in Japan in which he describes not only his own activities, but Japanese life and customs as well. Also present are his scrapbooks, notebooks, a diary, various articles written by him regarding Japan, and various other items including his University of Virginia certificates, newspapers clippings and other related items. Further information regarding Grinnan's work in Japan can be found in An American Missionary to Meiji Japan by Robert Leroy Hilldrup in the University of Virginia Rare Book Department.

Dr. Randolph Bryan Grinnan, Jr. (1907- ), the only son of the Rev. Grinnan and Martha Duryea, is represented in the collection by his letters to his parents and relatives while he was a medical student at the University of Virginia during 1920's and 1930's. There are also letters from his during his internships at Boston City Hospital and Doctor's Hospital in New York City, and from his wife Adelaide Buist Grinnan, to his mother.

Topics of interest in the correspondence include a biography of John Randolph of Roanoke; the War of 1812; politics in 1849 including the Whigs, the tariff, the loco-focos and John C. Calhoun; secession; the Civil War; blacks; life at the University of Virginia in the 1870s, 1880s, 1920s, and 1930s; life at Hampden-Sydney College in the 1870s; Pantops Academy, Charlottesville, Virginia in the 1880s; missionary life and work in Japan in the 1880s and 1890s; the Kentucky gubernatorial election of 1899; the Spanish-American War; life at Randolph Macon Women's College in the 1930s; and genealogical and family matters.

There are passing references to Franklin Pierce, cholera and yellow fever in New Orleans in the 1850s; vaccination in 1853; abolitionists; James Barbour; 1877 election victories by Wade Hampton and Francis R.T. Nichols; Grover Cleveland; the battle at Foochow and life in China in 1884; Benjamin Harrison's possibly involving the U.S. in a war with Chile, 1892; Dr. Fridtjof Nansen's book on Greenland, 1898; the battle of Dongola, 1896; a visit to General Rosser's wife in 1890; a missed visit to Theodore Roosevelt, 1902; a 1928 visit to the University of Virginia by Calvin Coolidge and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson; the election of 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt; Colgate W. Darden, the symbolism of a big storm that year, and comments by Louis I. Jaffé and Walter Lippman; and the Independent Coalition of American Women's campaign against the New Deal and for Alf Landon.

Also of interest in the correspondence are impressions of the following places: Norfolk, Virginia; Europe; London; Denver, Colorado; Port Gibson, Mississippi; New York City; Asheville, North Carolina; Hendersonville, North Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina; Charlottesville, Virginia; Kempsville, Virginia; San Francisco, California; Louisville, Kentucky; and various cities in Japan. Prominent correspondents include John Stewart Bryan, Judah P. Benjamin, Joseph Henry, Samuel Hopkins, John Letcher, James A. Seddon, Samuel Hopkins, John Letcher, James A. Seddon, Samuel Southard, Thomas Tudor Tucker, and St. George Tucker.

Families correspondents throughout the collection include: Corbin Braxton Bryan, Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan, Georgia Screven Bryan, John Randolph Bryan, Joseph Bryan, John Coalter, John H. Duryea, Eudora Glassell, James M. Glassell, Andrew Glassell Grinnan, Cornelia Grinnan, Daniel Grinnan, Ella Grinnan, Georgia Bryan Grinnan, Helen Grinnan, Lena Leete Grinnan, Martha Estelle Duryea Grinnan, Nina Stuart Grinnan, St. George Tucker Grinnan, and Delia Bryan Page.

Several of the letters in the collection contain references to the University of Virginia student life in the 1880s, 1890s, 1920s and 1930s, including football games in 1891 and 1927; Jefferson Day activities in 1930; a 1927 performance of "The Beggar's Opera" at Cabell Hall by the original London cast; a Japanese student in 1892; the Lawn; the Anatomical Laboratory; a map of the Grounds in 1930; and the high cost of fees to obtain access to the Library's Reading Room in 1881. There are letters mentioning or written by Noah K. Davis, Francis P. Dunnington, John W. Mallet, Socrates Maupin, and Charles S. Venable.

There are many references to the Civil War, Confederate sentiments and battles, including Big Bethel, Harper's Ferry, Yorktown, and the occupation of Culpeper. Of special interest are typescript copies of the letters and diary of Lt. John F. Sale, Company H, 12th Virginia Infantry in which he describes life as a Confederate soldier and refers to Seven Pines, the Sharpsbure campaign (particularly Crampton's Gap), Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, the Petersburg campaign, the C.S.S. Florida and C.S.S. Alabama. His accounts are interesting for the descriptions he gives of the unpleasant side of army life: lice, desertions, looting of dead bodies, depriciated currency, high prices and scarce goods, and pillaging of the countryside.

The collection also contains letters from Major James McMillan Glassell to his wife in 1833; several items pertaining to John Randolph of Roanoke including a copy of an account of his final illness by Dr. Francis West, and letters to John Coalter, chiefly from members of his family including St. George Tucker.

Items of special interest include an 1867 marriage certificate for a black couple, Abram and Lucy Carter, and Lucy Carter's will, 1897; a 1844 description of a steam engine; an address about "Brampton", the Grinnan family home; various sketches written by Georgia Bryan Grinnan, many about family members and servants; examples of Japanese artwork; 1827 orders for Midshipman J. Randolph Bryan to report to the U.S.S. Delaware; an 1860 land grant warrant signed by James Buchanan transferring land in Council Bluffs, Iowa to Cornelia Grinnan; genealogical charts and other materials regarding Virginia families; a photograph of the grave of Lena Grinnan in Kobe, Japan; and a tintype of Dr. Charles C. Page and Judge Daniel Grinnan taken at Brighton Beach, Long Island, New York, in 1903.

Organization

The collection is divided into five series: I. Correspondence, II. Genealogical Material and Miscellaneous Writings, III. Miscellaneous Papers, IV. Bound Volumes, and V. Oversize Material. Items are arranged chronologically. Loose materials from the bound volumes have been foldered according to volume number.