Manuscripts Department
           Library of the University of North Carolina
                         at Chapel Hill

                 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

                             #3469-z
                      JOHN S. MARTIN PAPERS
                            Inventory

Abstract:      John S. Martin, itinerant Methodist minister in
           northern Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia,
           present-day West Virginia, and Baltimore, Md.
               Papers, 1840-1864, including letters from Martin
           to his wife, Susan P. Ruff Martin, while he was away
           attending church conferences in the North, where the
           slave controversy was a major issue; letters from his
           father-in-law, John Ruff of Rockbridge County, Va.,
           containing local news and political opinion; and
           letters, 1860-1861, from son J. Thomas R. Martin at
           Roanoke College, Salem, Va., describing college life.

Online Catalog Terms:
   College students--Virginia--Social life and customs.
   Martin family.
   Martin, J. Thomas R.
   Martin, John S.
   Methodist Church--Maryland--History--19th century.
   Methodist Church--Virginia--History--19th century.
   Roanoke College--Students--History--19th century.
   Rockbridge County (Va.)--Politics and government--19th
       century.
   Rockbridge County (Va.)--Social life and customs--19th
       century.
   Ruff, John.
   Sectionalism (United States).
   Slavery and the church--Methodist Church--History--19th
       century.
       
Size:  27 items (1 folder).

Provenance:    Purchased from Alvin Lohr of Hagerstown, Md., in
               March 1960.

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:
   Description

                           DESCRIPTION

   The collection includes letters to and from John S. Martin,
Methodist minister, and members of his family, including his wife
Susan P. Ruff Martin; his father-in-law, John Ruff; and his son,
J. Thomas R. Martin.  There are six letters from John Martin to
his wife, 1842-1861, four of which were written while he was in
northern Virginia and in Baltimore.   Three of these letters
appear to have been written by Martin while he was attending
Methodist Conference meetings at Cumberland, Indianapolis, and
Buffalo; the dominant subject is the division of the Methodist
Church over the issue of slavery.  These letters give reports on
activities at Conference meetings, his personal work, and the
Conference's debates on slavery.

   Other correspondence includes eight letters, 1840-1850, from
John Ruff to Martin concerning family arrangements, neighborhood
and church news, Ruff's complaints against the abolitionists, and
his hope that Martin would not move to a free state; one letter,
1858, by John Ruff to his sister, possibly Susan, about the
recent death of his wife; and seven letters, 1860-1861, written
by J. Thomas R. Martin at Roanoke College, Salem, Va., which
describe college life at Salem and mention political discussions,
military companies, the Sons of Temperance, school work, measles
and diphtheria, the election of 1860, the possibility of war, and
other matters.  Also included are one letter from Martin's
daughter, Hattie, written from behind Union lines at Baltimore,
24 January 1862, and letters, 1860-1864, from Martin's Methodist
brethren:  E. F. Busey at Baltimore in 1860; J. E. Armstrong
considering an offer to become principal of Staunton Institute,
1864; and draft of a letter from Martin to Rev. H. Slice, 1860.