Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Audrey Spence Notebooks, Mss. Collection 2006.6, Kegley Library, Wytheville Community College, Wytheville, VA

Acquisition Information

Donated by Ruth Ann Chitwood in 2006 as part of the W. R. Chitwood Collection.

Biographical Information

Audrey Kemper Spence, the daughter of Arthur Lee Kemper and Laura Bell Hooke, was born in Wytheville, Virginia on 15 August 1888. She married Phillip Andrew Spence on 23 September 1914. Spence was interested in family and local genealogy and collected and wrote on these topics. She died on 2 April 1969.

Scope and Content

In these five notebooks, Audrey Kemper Spence transcribed material from Wythe County order books, newspapers, WPA historical inventories written by Regina Coughlan, and other historical sources.

Notebook 1 contains transcriptions from WPA historical inventories written by Regina Coughlan, a teacher in Wythe County in the 1930s. Copies of these historical inventories have been placed in the Kegley Library vertical files (from the collection of Frederick B. Kegley who served as WPA Historical Inventory district supervisor.) Notebook 2 continues the transcription of these documents.

Notebook 3 also continues the transcription of WPA historical inventories and focuses on Stone Mill Plantation (home to Kettering Mill, Walters Mill, and Browning Mill). This notebook also contains a transcription of Bible records from G. W. Grubb of Cripple Creek, Virginia.

Notebook 4 contains transcriptions from the Wythe County minute or order book while Notebook 5 contains transcriptions from the Southwest Virginia Enterprise issue dated 16 June 1944. This issue contained reprints from the Wytheville Times issues of 3 December 1859 and 10 December 1859 with information on the Wythe Rifle Guards and the Wythe Silver Grays, local militia companies.