Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#1113-z
WILLIAM H. HOLCOMBE DIARY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Inventory
Abstract: William H. Holcombe (1825-1893) was a homeopathic
physician in Natchez, Miss.
Autobiography and diary of William Henry Holcombe.
The autobiography, written in 1892, covers Holcombe's
ancestry and his childhood in Lynchburg, Va., to 1836.
Besides family incidents, topics include slavery,
abolition, and religion, particularly Methodism. The
diary, 1855, covers daily family life in Natchez,
Miss., including thoughts about homeopathic medicine
and its practice, incidents concerning slaves and
freedmen, and Swedenborgianism. The diary volume also
contains essays on various subjects, including
slavery, women, cotton, and sectional antagonism.
Also available, on microfilm, are notes on the
Holcombe family by Ada H. Aiken, William H. Holcombe's
daughter, and three professional pamphlets by
Holcombe, one about the New Orleans yellow fever
epidemic in 1867.
Online Catalog Terms:
Children--Virginia--Social life and customs--19th century.
Diaries--Mississippi--History--19th century.
Family--Mississippi--Social life and customs--19th century.
Holcombe family.
Holcombe, William H. (William Henry), 1825-1893.
Homeopathic physicians--United States--Biography.
Methodists--Virginia--History--19th century.
Natchez (Miss.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
New Orleans (La.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
Physicians--Mississippi--History--19th century.
Sectionalism (United States).
Slavery--Mississippi.
Slavery--Virginia.
Swedenborgians--Mississippi--History--19th century.
Virginia--Biography.
Virginia--Social life and customs--19th century.
Yellow fever--Louisiana--New Orleans.
Size: 3 items (3 folders).
Provenance: Received from and lent for filming by Edith Aiken
of New Orleans, La., May 1946.
Access: No restrictions.
Processing Note: This collection was processed with support
from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers,
or their descendants, as stipulated by United
States copyright law.
Table of Contents:
Biographical Note
Series Descriptions
Series 1. Volumes
Series 2. Microfilm
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
William Henry Holcombe (1825-1893), homeopathic physician, was
born in Lynchburg, Va., son of William James Holcombe, also a
physician, and Ann Eliza Clopton Holcombe of Lynchburg. The
Holcombes were descendants of a Scotch family that settled in
Virginia and the Carolinas. William James Holcombe studied
medicine at the University of Pennsylvania under Nathaniel
Chapman and, after his marriage in 1819, settled in Lynchburg to
practice medicine. Later, he became a Methodist preacher in
addition to his medical practice and, with strong feelings
against the institution of slavery, freed his slaves and helped
them settle in Ohio and Liberia. Fearing that his sons--James
P., Thomas B., William Henry, John Warwick, Anderson Lawrence,
and Samuel Brown--would be affected adversely growing up in a
slave-owning community, William James Holcombe moved his family
to Indiana, where he purchased a farm in 1842. The boys worked
on this farm until they went to William and Mary College and the
University of Virginia. After their sons left home, the
Holcombes returned to Amelia County, Va.
William Henry Holcombe first practiced medicine in Cincinnati,
where he met and married Rebecca Palmer in 1852. Shortly
afterwards, they moved to Natchez where Holcombe went into
practice with a Dr. Davis. Holcombe encountered an epidemic of
yellow fever shortly after his arrival there. He and his wife
had four children, only one of whom survived past childhood.
Their son Alexander was born 8 February 1855 in Natchez. William
Henry Holcombe's younger brothers, Sammy and Johnny, and Johnny's
wife Harriet and child, Walker, lived with William and Rebecca in
Natchez for awhile. Johnny died 5 April 1855 and his wife and
son returned to Indiana. The Holcombes moved to New Orleans soon
after. William remained there for the rest of his life,
practicing homeopathic medicine and holding office for a time in
several homeopathic medical societies.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1. Volumes
1825-1836 and 1855. 2 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 1 Volume 1: 1825-1836, 67 pp. Autobiography of William
Henry Holcombe, with detailed accounts of the
characters and lives of his his family and
connections, including his five brothers. Among
incidents mentioned in his family history are events
in Scotland, the Revolutionary War, and the War of
1812. He also discussed life in Virginia and
emigration to Tennessee, and told an anecdote about
General Stonewall Jackson. There is a great deal
about slavery and the abolitionist attitude of his
father, about the Methodist Church and the effect of
religion on his family's daily life, and about the
Holcombe's own conviction of the truth and virtue of
the "New (Jerusalem) Church," as taught by Emmanuel
Swedenborg, of whom he became aware later in life.
Holcombe also mentions a meteoric shower in 1833, the
celebration of Texas independence, and the Nat Turner
insurrection, 1832.
Folder 2 Volume 2: 17 January-29 June 1855, 180 pp. Diary of
Holcombe in Natchez, Miss., and covering the daily
happenings in the Holcombe household, incidents
connected with his medical practice, and his thoughts,
particularly with regard to homeopathic medicine and
Swedenborgianism. He also mentioned slavery, freemen,
and his attitude towards both. There are constant
references to the Mississippi River, which he crossed
frequently on ferry boats and once on a skiff to visit
patients on the Louisiana side. Holcombe described a
trip, 13 March, to New Orleans and another with his
entire family, 18 June, to Indiana. After the diary
entries end on 29 June, there are a series of
notations or essays on various subjects, including
slavery and its abolition, women, cotton, the Dred
Scott decision, the territorial question, fugitive
slave laws, types of governments, and comparisons
between people of the North and South and comments on
their antagonism towards each other.
Series 2. Microfilm
1823-1855 and undated. 2 items.
M-1113/1 Copy of both the autobiography and diary of
William Holcombe.
M-1113/2 Notes, apparently written by Holcombe's daughter,
Ada H. Aiken, and copies of some of the material
in the volumes. The notes are primarily related
to William Henry Holcombe's parents and brothers.
There is also a description of a school in
Lynchburg, Va., that the Holcombe boys attended
before their move to Indiana. John Cary, who
conducted the school, was considered an
outstanding scholar, but was so cruel in the
punishment of his pupils that one of the brothers
defended his younger brother by attacking Cary
with a pen knife and wounding him badly. There
are also copies of three pamphlets, written by
Holcombe: Diphtheria, New Orleans, 1891; Report
of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1867, New Orleans,
1869; and Elements of Professional Success, 1874.