Back to TopDescriptive Summary
- Repository
-
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
- Creator
-
Hairston family.
Wilson family.
- Title
- Hairston and Wilson Family Papers, 1800-1906
- Call Number
- 3149
- Language of Materials
- Materials in
English
- Extent
-
- Items: About 500
- Linear Feet: 1.5
Abstract
The family of George Hairston (1750-1827) of Beaver Creek Plantation, near Martinsville, Henry County, Va., and Elizabeth
Perkins Letcher (died 1818) included their children Harden (1786-1862); John Adams (born 1799), who married and moved to Yalabusha
County, Miss.; and Marshall (1802- 1882), who married his cousin, Ann Hairston. Marshall and Ann lived at Beaver Creek with
their four children: John A., who was killed at Williamsburg, Va., in 1862; Elizabeth (Bettie) Perkins, who married J. T. W. Hairston, son of Harden and Sallie (Staples) Hairston; Marshall, who never married; and Ruth
Stoval, who married Robert Wilson of Danville, Va.
The collection includes letters to Elizabeth (
"Bettie") Perkins (Hairston) Hairston from her mother, who wrote chiefly from Beaver Creek, the family plantation, 1850s-1890s; her
sister, Ruth Stoval (Hairston) Wilson, who wrote from Danville, Va.; her brother, John A. Hairston, who wrote from school
in Staunton, Va., 1855-1857; and her cousin, Jeb Stuart (1833- 1875), who wrote from West Point, 1853-1854, and while fighting
against the Comanches in Texas, 1855. During the Civil War, Bettie lived with relatives in Yalabusha County, Miss., where
she received letters from her family about life on the home front. There are also letters to Bettie, written after her marriage
in 1873, from her husband, J. T. W. Hairston in Lowndes County, Miss., where he was trying to run a cotton plantation without
slave labor. Other significant family correspondence documents the westward movement of various Hairston family members and
includes some papers of George Hairston of Halifax County, Va., circa 1800-1820. In addition to correspondence, several account
books document family life, including the involvement of family members in at least two stores in Henry County and Danville,
Va., 1800-1829. A household account book, 1831-1869, gives detailed information about weaving, livestock raising, gardening,
and other household production. There are also other financial and legal materials, including scattered bills, receipts, depositions,
slave lists and other slave records, and labor contracts with freedmen.
Back to TopAdministrative Information
- Restrictions to Access
- No restrictions.
- Alternate Form of Material
- All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of
ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.
- Acquisitions Information
- Received from Mrs. James E. Covington, daughter of Ann M. Wilson and R. A. James of Richmond and Martinsville, Va., in June
1955.
- Processing Information
- Processed by: Lisa Tolbert, January 1992
- Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
- Preferred Citation
- [Identification of item], in the Hairston and Wilson Family Papers #3149, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Copyright Notice
- Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Back to TopOnline Catalog Headings
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
- Beaver Creek Plantation (Henry County, Va.)
- Cotton growing--Mississippi--History--19th century.
- Danville (Va.)--Social life and customs.
- Family--Virginia--Social life and customs.
- Freedmen--Virginia.
- Hairston family.
- Hairston, Ann Hairston.
- Hairston, Ann Marshall.
- Hairston, Elizabeth Perkins Hairston.
- Hairston, Elizabeth Perkins Letcher, d. 1818.
- Hairston, George, 1750-1827.
- Hairston, John A., d. 1862.
- Hairston, Marshall, 1802-1882.
- Halifax County (Va.)--Economic conditions.
- Henry County (Va.)--Social life and customs.
- Lowndes County (Miss.)--Social life and customs.
- Martinsville (Va.)--Social life and customs.
- Plantations--Virginia--Henry County.
- Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--Mississippi.
- Slavery--Virginia.
- Stuart, Jeb, 1833-1864.
- Wilson family.
- Wilson, Ruth Stoval Hairston.
- Women--Virginia--Social conditions.
- Yalobusha County (Miss.)--Social life and customs.
Back to TopRelated Collections
Elizabeth Hairston Papers(#1518);
George Hairston Papers(#4477);
Peter Wilson Hairston Papers(#299);
Robert Hairston Papers(#1148z).
Back to TopBiographical/Historical Note
Colonel George Hairston (1750-1827) built Beaver Creek Plantation in 1776 just outside Martinsville, Henry County, Va. In
1781, he married Elizabeth Perkins Letcher (died 1818), widow of William Letcher. They had twelve children: Robert (1783-1852),
George (1784-1863), Harden (1786 1862), Samuel (born 1788), Nicholas Perkins (born 1791), Henry (born 1793), Peter (1796-1810),
Constantine (born 1797), John Adams (born 1799), America (born 1801), Marshall (1802-1882), and Ruth Stovall (1804-1838).
Elizabeth also had a daughter by her first husband. This daughter, Bethenia Letcher, married David Pannill and was the maternal
grandmother of Jeb Stuart (1833-1864).
Marshall Hairston, eleventh child of George and Elizabeth, married his cousin, Ann Hairston, and they lived at Beaver Creek
with their four children: John A., who was killed at Williamsburg in 1862; Elizabeth (Bettie) Perkins, who married J. T. W.
Hairston, son of Harden and Sallie Staples Hairston, of Crawfordsville, Lowndes County, Miss.; Ann Marshall, who never married;
and Ruth Stovall, who married Robert Wilson of Danville, Va. Robert Wilson was the son of Robert and Catherine Pannill Wilson.
Beaver Creek descended to the children and grandchildren of Ruth Hairston Wilson.
Marshall's brother, John Adams Hairston, married Malinda Corn and lived with their five children in Yalabusha County, Miss.
Bettie Perkins Hairston Hairston visited them often there.
J. T. W. Hairston was the seventh son of Harden and Sallie Staples Hairston. He was a graduate of Virginia Military Institute,
a major in the Confederate Army, and a planter in Lowndes County, Miss. In 1873, he married his cousin Bettie. They had two
children: Marshall, who died in infancy, and Watt H. Hairston (1876-1916), who never married.
Back to TopCollection Overview
The bulk of the collection consists of letters to Elizabeth (Bettie) Perkins Hairston Hairston; thus there is more information
about her correspondents' lives than her own. These correspondents include her mother, Ann Hairston Hairston, who wrote chiefly
from the family plantations near Martinsville, Va.; her sister, Ruth Stovall Wilson, who wrote from Danville, Va., where she
lived with her husband, Robert Wilson; her brother, John A. Hairston, who wrote from school in Staunton, Va.; her cousin,
Jeb Stuart, who wrote to her from West Point and Texas. After 1873, there are also letters from her husband, J. T. W. Hairston,
who wrote to her often from Crawfordsville, Lowndes County, Miss.
Other significant family correspondence documents the westward movement of various Hairston family members and includes some
papers of Colonel George Hairston, who established the family plantations in Virginia. Scattered papers of Robert Wilson contain
information about his business interests.
In addition to correspondence, several account books document Hairston family involvement in at least two stores in Virginia
from 1800 to 1829; and a household account book, 1831-1869, gives detailed information about weaving, livestock raising, gardening,
and other household production. Other financial and legal materials include scattered bills, receipts, depositions, slave
lists, and labor contracts between Robert Wilson and various freedmen. These materials chiefly document family business in
Virginia.
Back to TopArrangement of Collection
Series 1. Correspondence
Subseries 1.1. 1806-1846
Subseries 1.2. 1847-1873
Subseries 1.3. 1874-1906
Subseries 1.4. Undated
Series 2. Financial and Legal Materials
Subseries 2.1. Papers
Subseries 2.2. Account Books
Back to TopItems Separated
Series 2.2. Volumes S-5 and S-6
Detailed Description of the Collection
1. Correspondence, 1806-1906 and undated.
About 400 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Chiefly letters to Elizabeth (Bettie) Perkins Hairston Hairston from her mother, Ann Hairston Hairston; her sister, Ruth Stovall
Wilson; her husband, J. T. W. Hairston; and various other family members, including her cousin, Jeb Stuart. There are very
few letters written by Bettie herself. Early letters include those of Bettie's grandfather, Colonel George Hairston, and later
letters include those of her son, Watt H. Hairston.
Back to Top
1.1. 1806-1846.
About 20 items.
Correspondence of Colonel George Hairston with various business associates and family members, and correspondence of Marshall
and Ann Hairston at Beaver Creek near Martinsville, Henry County, Va. Subjects are chiefly land and slaves, problems of farming,
kinds of crops raised, and the westward migration of various family members.
Folder
1
Colonel George Hairston correspondence
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1.2. 1847-1873.
About 150 items.
Chiefly letters to Elizabeth (Bettie) Perkins Hairston Hairston. These include an 1853 letter offering motherly advice from
Ann Hairston Hairston at Sassafras Grove, near Martinsville, Va., while Bettie attended school in Salem, N.C.; affectionate
and descriptive letters from her cousin Jeb Stuart at West Point, 1853-1854, and fighting Comanches in Texas, 1855; news from
her brother, Jack A. Hairston, at Eastwood School near Staunton, Va., 1855-1857; and letters, 1866, from Danville, Va., where
her sister, Ruth Stovall Wilson lived with husband, Robert Wilson.
After 1854, Bettie spent much time at her Uncle John Adams Hairston's in Yalabusha County, Miss. There she received letters
from a few family members fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War, but most correspondence concerns civilian issues--family
news, war hopes and fears, accounts of contacts with troops, and problems of refugees--especially in Virginia and Mississippi.
Letters after the war were written chiefly by Ann Hairston Hairston and Ruth Stovall Wilson, focusing on labor issues and
adjustments to new political and economic realities with the end of slavery. Letters indicate that Ann apparently worked closely
with a man named Townes to operate the Virginia plantations. Bettie continued to live alternately with family in Yalabusha
County, Miss., and in Martinsville, Va. There are no courtship letters from J. T. W. Hairston, whom Bettie married in 1873.
Folder
2
1847-1848
Folder
3
1852
Folder
4
1853 January-March
Folder
5
1853 April-December
Folder
6
1854-1855
Folder
7
1856-1857
Folder
8
1858-1859
Folder
9
1860-1862
Folder
10
1863-1865
Folder
11
1866-1868
Folder
12
1869
Folder
13
1870-1873
Back to Top
1.3. 1874-1906.
About 200 items.
The marriage of Bettie and J. T. W. Hairston marks a definite shift in correspondence. Thereafter, letters are chiefly from
J. T. W. Hairston, of Crawfordville, Miss., to Bettie (usually in Martinsville, Va.) and their son, Watt. Hairston typically
wrote about local events around Crawfordville and the Lowndes County seat, Columbus, Miss. He was preoccupied with farming
and the problems of raising cotton without slaves. Letters suggest that he supplemented the family income by working as a
land agent renting out property. His letters continue through 1906. Also of note are 1885 letters from Ann Hairston Hairston
at the World's Fair in New Orleans and from Europe. Although most of the letters from Europe are undated, Ann seems to have
spent an extended period there, perhaps from about 1888 to about 1898.
Folder
14
1874
Folder
15
1875
Folder
16
1876
Folder
17
1877
Folder
18
1879
Folder
19
1882-1884
Folder
20
1885-1886
Folder
21
1887-1888
Folder
22
1889 January-March
Folder
23
1889 April-December
Folder
24
1893
Folder
25
1894-1898
Folder
26
1904-1906
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1.4. Undated
About 30 items.
Letters from J. T. W. Hairston in Hairston, Miss., to his wife, and letters of other family members spanning the various generations
represented throughout this collection.
Folder
27-28
J. T. W. Hairston
Folder
29
Other family members
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2. Financial and Legal Materials, 1800-1895 and undated.
About 70 items.
Arrangement: chronological by type of document.
Back to Top
2.1 Loose Papers
About 60 items.
Slave lists, bills, receipts, agreements, depositions, and other documents. Of note are Robert Wilson's labor contracts with
freedmen on his plantations, Danshill and Sandy River, 1865-1871.
Folder
30
1810-1849
Folder
31
1851-1864
Folder
32
1865-1871
Folder
33
1872-1895 and undated
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2.2. Account Books, 1800-1869.
6 items.
Folder
34
Volume 1. 1800-1804. Accounts with individuals for liquor, merchandise, and labor, perhaps at Beaver Creek. The volume was
also used as a scrapbook, and many pages have been pasted over with newspaper clippings and poems.
Folder
35
Volume 2. 1803-1807. Accounts with individuals showing labor performed and miscellaneous purchases. Also included is a "Cash account Halifax County," 1804-1805, and an "Inventory of the plantation utensils, household and kitchen furniture, and Stock of all kind delivd. to Washington Rowland
by Parrish Green at Booker's ferry on the 19th day December 1804."
Folder
36
Volume 3. 1804-1807. Halifax County. Accounts with individuals for liquor, merchandise, and labor.
Folder
37
Volume 4. 1804-1816. "G. H. Ledger, Halifax." Entries made by George Hairston and Henry Hairston. In addition to ledger accounts with individuals with few itemized charges,
the volume also contains "A statement of weights Tobo. made by James Elder at Bookers ferry in the year 1806" and "A Statement of Crop Tobo. made by Daniel Perkins in the year 1806."
Folder
38
Volume S-5. 1811-1829. Account, 1811-1812, for Caswell County showing merchandize purchased and labor performed and daily
accounts, 1818-1829, for the Goblen Town Store, Danville, Va.
Folder
39
Volume S-6. 1831-1869. Household accounts for Beaver Creek and other plantations, possibly kept by Ann Hairston Hairston.
A wide variety of entries document spinning and weaving, sewing, care of livestock, vegetable gardening, recipes, candle and
butter making, and miscellaneous items purchased for the household. There is much information about slaves on the two plantations,
including work performed, birth records, and clothing distributed. Many entries describe provisions lent or bartered to neighbors.
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