Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of the Bouldin Family, Accession #8308-a, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The collection was a gift to the library from Mr. and Mrs. Ernest B. Harper, 1871 Wayside Place, Charlottesville, Virginia, on 4 March 1977.

Scope and Content Information

The Breckinridge-Bouldin Collection consists of a .3 shelf feet (45 items) of letters, papers, bound volumes, and newspaper clippings, 1751 (1832-1907) pertaining to Robert Breckinridge of Augusta County and the Bouldin family of Charlotte County, and Danville, Virginia. The earliest dated item in this accession is a list of tax delinquents in Augusta County, Virginia, for the year 1750 compiled by Robert Breckinridge in November 1751. Breckinridge was a justice and later sheriff in Augusta, served on the frontier from 1759-1761, and was one of the first trustees of Staunton. He was married, first, to Mary Poague, and second, to Lettice Preston, and died in Botetourt County in 1772. The rest of the collection pertains to the Bouldin family of Charlotte County, and Danville, Virginia. A bound volume containing letters, 1823-1853, written by James Wood Bouldin to his wife, his brother Louis C. Bouldin, Esquire (Bouldin) appended this title to his name), his sister Francinia Bouldin, his sons Louis C., Robert, and Powhatan Bouldin, and his daughter Alice L. McCargo, bears a dedication from Powhatan Bouldin to his son. Born in Charlotte County, Virginia, in 1792, James Wood Bouldin was the son of Major Wood Bouldin and Joanna Tyler Bouldin. He practiced law, was elected as a Jacksonian Democrat to succeed Thomas T. Bouldin in the twenty-third Congress, and was re-elected to two succeeding terms, serving from March 1834 to March 1839. Resuming the practice of law and farming after he left Congress, Bouldin died at "Forest Hill," his home in Charlotte County, on March 30, 1854. In a series of letters, 1823-1837, to his brother Louis C. Bouldin, Esquire, James discusses family and business affairs, and to a lesser extent national politics. He offers his brother advice and encouragement, and speaks of his own personal misfortune, including the death of two wives. In a number of letters written in 1843 and 1844 to his wife (apparently his third; her name is unknown) his sister Francinia Bouldin, and his sons Robert and Powhatan, Bouldin describes his travels and business in New Orleans and various towns in Mississippi. He comments on the scenery, the climate, the populace, the progress of his business, his physical and spiritual health, and various religious services that he had attended. A final group of letters, in 1848 and 1849, are from Bouldin to his sons, Louis, at the University of Virginia, and Powhatan, at Virginia Military Institute. Bouldin urges his sons to study hard, discourses at length on the benefits of an education, and offers general fatherly advice. He also discusses family matters, slavery, and politics. In a letter of March 11, 1853, Bouldin writes to his daughter Alice L. McCargo, informing her of the death of her brother Robert in California. In addition to the letters, the volume contains extracts of essays by Macaulay and others. There are also loosely bound copies of extracts of several of Bouldin's letters for 1849. Completing the collection is a bound volume, 1874-1907, of newspaper clippings from the Danville Times , principally for the year 1894, kept by Powhatan Bouldin, editor of that paper. The topics of the clippings, largely of local interest, are political, racial, practical, and humorous in nature. A few loose newspaper clippings and recipes have been placed in a folder.

Arrangement

The folders have been arranged chronologically, followed by the two bound volumes.