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Correspondence, 1817-1895 and undated 1.5 Linear Feet — 3 boxes
Correspondence consists chiefly of business letters by John Knight and his partners and friends. However, there are also many letters by Knight family members and their relatives and friends. The correspondence begins in 1817 with letters from Mary (McCleery) Knight in Indiana to her sister Frances (McCleery) Beall, William M. Beall's wife. There is also correspondence between Fanny Knight, John and Frances Knight's daughter, and Thomas McDannold during their courtship. Correspondence also includes letters from friends and relatives while the Knights were traveling abroad. Many letters also mention John Knight's attempts at various cures for ill health, including water cures, hot springs, and baths.
Between 1830 and 1864, Knight's business correspondence with Enoch Pratt, a Baltimore banker in charge of Knight's finances, William Beall, and others, predominates. Topics include: the U.S. political and economic climate: the conflict between Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson; the cotton market; banking and bank failures; investment in cotton land in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas; the purchase and sale of slaves, with some bought by William Beall and sent to Knight in Mississippi; the treatment and medical care of slaves; the operation of Knight's plantations; piracy on the Mississippi River, 1841; cholera and yellow fever epidemics in New York and New Orleans in 1832, 1833, 1837, and 1841; the economic panic of 1857; education at the Frederick Female Academy, Frederick, Maryland; financial conditions in the United States during the Civil War; the relations between the United States and England during the war; and the course of the Civil War, especially the Union invasion of Maryland. One early letter from Roger Brooke Taney to William Murdock Beall explains his refusal of the vice-presidency and discussing his interest in the U.S. presidency.
Other smaller groups of correspondence were written by Frances "Fanny" Knight McDannold, the daughter of John and Frances Knight, her children Knight and Alexandra, and husband Thomas McDannold, and that family's acquaintances.
The correspondence ends with a much smaller series of letters, which include items to Frances S.Z. Knight from her grandchildren, and other correspondence reflecting her financial and legal activities as she managed her husband's large estate and the guardianship of her grandchildren even as she approached old age.
Some additional correspondence can be found in the Legal and Financial Papers series.
Account Book, 1834-1836, 1834-1836 Volume (boards); 20x34 cm.; 122 pages
Scott's Creek, Haywood County, N.C. Contains a list of 16 "Rules of Shoal Creek Store," one of them being "Sell to all customers alike. Let not the price vary on any Article in order to do so keep the price of the goods marked on Each Article." Also contains customer accounts; billing accounts for leather, salt, and other goods; spending accounts for purchases in Augusta and Philadelphia.
Accounts, 1835-1839 Volume (boards); 20x38 cm.; 117 pages
Scott's Creek, Haywood County, N.C. Customer accounts and retail prices. Includes notes from purchases in Augusta and Philadelphia.
Transcription of entries from Charles Minor's personal diary from a trip from Charlottesville to New Orleans, mentioning General Jackson. The second half of the document is Minor's account of his early education in the classics, also detailing the circumstances surrounding Minor's first teaching position in Albemarle County and eventual move to Ridgway.
Personal diary of Anne Minor, youngest child of Charles Minor. The diary describes early childhood experiences during the Civil War, after the family moved from Brookhill to Lands End upon the death of Charles Minor. The ten-page record is unusual for its dramatic reconstruction of a child's perspective on events witnessed during the Civil War, as well as for its disturbing reflections on the particular insecurities suffered by young children in war-time (c. 1929).
Insurance policies, deeds of trust, and land plats pertaining to Bellevue property and W.R. Abbot's property elsewhere in Virginia and in Kansas City; legal papers of Ellen Abbot's pre-Civil War residence in Georgetown; records of W.R. Abbot's partnership with J.P. Holcombe and his assumption of Bellevue subsequent to Holcombe's death; affidavits of family members recording receipt of inheritance; and original deeds of trust recording land grants made in Virginia to John B. Minor from Sir Thomas Carr of Topping Castle.
Accession (2009-0183), 1800-2009 2 boxes
Addition (2009-0183) (900 items; 1.2 lin. ft.; dated 1960s-2000s) includes manuscripts of essays and short stories; drafts of plays and accompanying production materials; research files and correspondence from Bingham's investigations into her family's history (1980s); notebooks and journals; and other miscellaneous materials.
These account and ledger books seem to all originate from the Lawrenceville, Virginia area, and were generated by small mercantile businesses such as general stores. The owners of some of the ledgers have not been identified.
An account book from 1864 bears the names Hicks, Jones, and Mallory, and appears to be records of a tanyard.
One letter from November 13, 1840, recently added to the original collection, was written from John Paup, Spring Hill Plantation, Hempstead county, Arkansas, to Edward Brodnax Hicks, his partner in the plantation and resident of Brunswick County, Virginia. His thee-page letter refers to the economics of enslaved labor and buying enslaved persons; illness and the deaths of enslaved persons on the plantation; the cotton crop, insurance, and prices; and the survey of the border between Arkansas and the Republic of Texas.