Abbot Family papers, 1733-1999 and undated, bulk 1860-1910

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Summary

Creator:
Abbot family
Abstract:
The papers of the Abbot family consist mainly of correspondence, but also include financial and legal papers, diaries, a letter-book, clippings, printed material, speeches and photographs (including cartes-de-visite, and some cyanotypes and tintypes). The materials date from 1733 to 1999, the bulk ranging from 1860-1910. A significant portion of the correspondence comprises of personal letters exchanged during the Civil War between William Richardson Abbot, headmaster of Bellevue High School, and his wife, Lucy Minor Abbot. Abbot's letters mention battles and political events of the Civil War, including his experience as an officer in the First Regiment of the Engineers Troops (Army of Virginia). Other correspondence includes exchanges between W.R. Abbot and his immediate family, both during and after the Civil War, as well as numerous letters to Abbot from parents of boys attending Bellevue High School. The collection also includes materials from the lives of the children and grandchildren of William and Lucy Abbot. Letters from the Abbot children consist of personal exchanges, accounts of travel in turn-of-the-century Europe, as well as experiences in the German university system. Also included is a brief memoir by Ann Minor, Lucy's sister, documenting childhood experiences in Virginia during the Civil War. There are also papers belonging to the Minors of Charlottesville (Va.), such as correspondence of Charles and John Minor.
Extent:
19 Linear Feet (10 boxes)
Language:
English.
Collection ID:
RL.00006

Background

Scope and content:

The papers of the Abbot family consist mainly of correspondence, but also include financial and legal papers, diaries, a letter-book, clippings, printed material, speeches and photographs (including cartes-de-visite, and some cyanotypes and tintypes). The materials date from 1733 to 1999, the bulk ranging from 1860-1910. A significant portion of the correspondence comprises of personal letters exchanged during the Civil War between William Richardson Abbot, headmaster of Bellevue High School, and his wife, Lucy Minor Abbot. Abbot's letters mention battles and political events of the Civil War, including his experience as an officer in the First Regiment of the Engineers Troops (Army of Virginia). Other correspondence includes exchanges between W.R. Abbot and his immediate family, both during and after the Civil War, as well as numerous letters to Abbot from parents of boys attending Bellevue High School. The collection also includes materials from the lives of the children and grandchildren of William and Lucy Abbot. Letters from the Abbot children consist of personal exchanges, accounts of travel in turn-of-the-century Europe, as well as experiences in the German university system. Also included is a brief memoir by Ann Minor, Lucy's sister, documenting childhood experiences in Virginia during the Civil War. There are also papers belonging to the Minors of Charlottesville (Va.), such as correspondence of Charles and John Minor.

While the bulk of the collection is made up of correspondence, the papers also include Abbot's addresses to schools and the Virginia Educational Society; printed bulletins detailing courses of study and formal statements of the teaching philosophy at Bellevue; and an official letter-book, receipts, financial and legal documents relating to the purchase, expansion and daily administration of the school. Other materials relating to the children of the William and Lucy Abbot include educational addresses by their son, Charles Minor Abbot, who administered Bellevue until it closed (1901-1909), as well as biographical material on Virginia Henderson's authoritative influence on professional nursing.

The Abbot Family papers provide the researcher with numerous vantage points onto public, professional and private life in nineteenth-century Virginia, most particularly through personalized accounts of men and women of the time. While the papers follow the families' colonial past from the early eighteenth century into the mid-twentieth century, the collection is noteworthy for its emphasis on military and private life in the Confederacy and in the Reconstruction South. The collection illuminates the experience of the Civil War through numerous windows onto the private lives of individuals; the professionalization of secondary education during the Reconstruction; the social and epistolary conventions of nineteenth century courtship; and the construction of an inter-generational identity, based on extended familial affections and ties to the institutions of Bellevue and the University of Virginia.

Biographical / historical:
William Richardson Abbot
Date Event
1839 January 1
Born in Hagerstown, Md.
1855-1857
University of Virginia, distinction in the Study of Law
1857
Teacher at Mr. Halliwell's School, Alexandria, Va.
1858-1860
Teacher at Dr. Charles Minor's Brookhill School, outside Charlottesville, Va.
1860-1861
Tutor to family of Dr.Arthur Taylor, Opelouses, St. Landry Parish, La., until outbreak of Civil War
1861
Clerk at General Post Office Department, Auditor's Office to the Treasury of the Southern Confederacy, Richmond, Va.
1862
Clerk at First Auditor's Office to the War Department, Richmond Va.
1863-1865
Enlistment in the First Regiment of Engineers Troops, Army of Virginia; served in the field as Second Lieutenant; was present with Robert E. Lee at Appomattox.
1863
Marriage to Lucy Ridgway Minor, daughter of Dr. Charles Minor of Brookhill School, Charlottesville, Va.
1866-1870
Opened school for boys in Charlottesville
1870-1873
Teacher of Classics and English; Associate Headmaster with founder James P. Holcombe at Bellevue High School, Va.
1873-1901
Headmaster of Bellevue on the death of J.P. Holcombe
1882
Purchased Bellevue
1902-1909
Bellevue administered chiefly by W.R. Abbot's son, Associate Principal Charles Minor Abbot
1909
Closed and converted Bellevue to personal residence; continued to reside at Bellevue with his family
1916, October 5
Died at Bellevue, Va.
Ellen Harris Abbot
Date Event
1815 December 9
Born; given name Ellen Jane
1831
Married William R. Abbot, founder of Georgetown Classical and Mathematical Academy, Georgetown.
1852
Widowed with five children
1861
Closed her boarding house in Georgetown with the outbreak of the Civil War
1902, December 3
Died
Jane (Jeannie) Oliver Abbot
Date Event
1834, August 14
Born to William and Ellen Abbot
1898, October 28
Died
Francis (Frank) Harris Abbot
Date Event
1841
Born to William and Ellen Abbot
1861-1862
Served as Lieutenant in 17th Regiment of the Alexandria Riflemen, Army of the Southern Confederacy
1862
Died in combat
Ellen Harris Abbot
Date Event
1847, June 1
Born to William and Ellen Abbot; given name Ellen Harris
1901, November 17
Died in Washington D.C.
Lucy Ridgway Minor Abbot
Date Event
1838
Born to Dr. Charles and Lucy Minor of "Brookhill," Charlottesville, Va.; given name Lucy Ridgway
1861
Moved to "Lands End" (Va.) on death of Dr. Charles Minor and the subsequent sale of Brookhill School
Tutored and taught music with outbreak of the Civil War
1863
Married William R. Abbot
1870
Moved to Bellevue with W.R. Abbot
1921
Died
Charles M. Abbot
Date Event
1875, September 10
Born in Charlottesville to William and Lucy Abbot; given name Charles Minor
Educated at Bellevue, Bedford County (Va.)
1896
Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts, University of Virginia
1897-1901
Taught at Bellevue High School
1901-1902
Moved to Norfolk, Va.
1902-1909
Returned to Bellevue to teach; administered Bellevue in the capacity of Associate Headmaster until its closure
1909-1925
Taught in Campbell and Bedford counties, (Va.)
1925-1946
Taught History and Government at Glass High School,(Va.)
1940 [1941?]
Played central role in re-establishment of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Forest, Va.; continued to serve as vestryman
1946
Retired from faculty at Glass High
1949
Died
Francis (Frank) H. Abbot
Date Event
1877, November 3
Early education at Bellevue and other private schools in Va.
Born to William and Lucy Abbot
1895-1899
Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees, University of Virginia
1899
Doctoral student of Modern Languages at universities of Goettingen and Leipzig, Germany
1902
Returned to United States; taught English at Marion Military Institute, Alabama
Ph.D from University of Leipzig
1904-1919
Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg (Va.)
Instructor of French, University of Chicago
Instructor of French, Johns Hopkins University
1919
Adjunct Professor of French, University of Virginia
1926
Full Professor of French, University of Virginia
1933
Died at the University of Virginia
Virginia Henderson
Date Event
1897, November 30
Born in Kansas City Mo. to Daniel Brosius Henderson and Lucy Minor Abbot
1900
Moved to Bellevue High School (Va.), where the Hendersons established their residence, "Trivium"
1921
Certified as Registered Nurse in N.Y. and Va.
Completed schooling in nursing with highest mark on examination, U.S. Army School of Nursing, Walter Reed Hospital, Washington D.C.
1921-1929
Public health visiting nurse in New York City and Washington D.C.
Nurse educator at the Protestant Hospital School of Nursing, Norfolk, Va.
1929
Enrolled in Teacher's College, Columbia University
1932
Bachelor of Sciences, Teacher's College, Columbia University
1934
Master of Arts, Teacher's College, Columbia University
1934-1948
Associate Professor of Nursing Education, Teacher's College, Columbia University
1948-1953
Engaged in extensive revisions of 5th ed. of Textbook of Principles and Practice of Nursing by Bertha Harmer
1959-1971
Research Associate at Yale University
1971
Retired from faculty of Yale University
1964
Publication of Nursing Research: Survey and Assessment, coauthored with Leo Simmons
1966
Publication of Basic Principles of Nursing
1972
Completed Nursing Studies Index
1982
Received honorary degree from Yale University
1985
Received highest nursing honor, the Christiane Reimann prize, from the International Council
1996
Died in Branford, Ct.
Dr. Charles Minor
Date Event
1810, Nov. 4
Born in Louisa county (Va.)
1827
Moved to Virginia, teaching at the Forks of the Rivanna, after graduating in medicine at the University of Virginia and attending Philadelphia Medical Clinics
1835
Traveled to New Orleans to decide whether to settle there; returned to Virginia to reside in Ridgway
1836
Married Lucy Walker Ridgway
Early-1850's
Established Brookhill School, six miles north of Charlottesville (Va.)
1861
Died
John Barbee Minor
Date Event
1813, June 2
Born in Louisa county (Va.)
1828-1829
Attended Kenyon College, Ohio
1831-1834
Attended University of Virginia
1834
Awarded Bachelor of Law; practiced Law in Botetourt county, (Va.)
1840
Moved to Charlottesville
1840-1843
Partnership with his brother Lucian Minor in Charlottesville
1845
Appointed Professor of Law at the University of Virginia
1856
Appointed Professor of Common and Statute Law, University of Virginia
1875-1878
Published four volumes of Common and Statute Law
1895, July 29
Died at his home at the University of Virginia
Acquisition information:
The Abbot Family papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase in 2000.
Processing information:

Processed by Tania Roy

Completed December 13, 2000

Encoded by Ruth E. Bryan

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

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The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Abbot Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University