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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 7.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2500 items) |
| Abstract | Heiskell, McCampbell, Wilkes, and Steel families of Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Members of these families included newspaper editors, lawyers, missionaries, Methodist ministers, teachers, an artist, a librarian, and a history professor. Heiskell family members lived on the Fruit Hill plantation near Knoxville, Tenn. Ferdinand Lawrence Steel (1813-1873) spent much of his life as a farmer and itinerant Methodist preacher, especially in Mississippi. His son, Samuel Augustus Hankins Steel, served Methodist churches in Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Louisiana, and in towns throughout the South and Southwest. His son, Edward Marvin Steel, was a Methodist minister residing chiefly in Tennessee. Correspondence, writings, diaries, and other items pertaining to Heiskell, McCampbell, Wilkes, and Steel family members. Heiskell family material consists chiefly of correspondence of Hu Brown, his wife Mary Ann Susan Brown, their daughter Susan Rice Brown (1835-1882), and Hu Brown's brother-in-law Frederick Steidinger Heiskell (1786-1882). Letters pertain to daily life, local politics, and business and religious concerns in the area near Knoxville, Tenn., chiefly 1830-1860. Most McCampbell family items are letters exchanged by William McCampbell and Susan Heiskell (1834-1917) before and after their marriage in 1858, including love letters. These letters discuss travel, health, and the daily routine at Fruit Hill, the Heiskell plantation near Knoxville. Wilkes family material includes letters concerning civilian life in 1864 in Tennessee and South Carolina, love letters from the 1880s, and letters from Susan Heiskell Wilkes about her art studies in New York City in 1908. Steel family items include letters about their work from Methodist ministers in Tennessee and elsewhere in the South, 1850s-1870s, and in Virginia, 1907-1931. There also are letters from Miriam Steel, Methodist missionary to Brazil, 1910-1948, and from Edward Marvin Steel, Jr., (1918- ) prisoner of war in Germany in World War II. Also included are various diary volumes and writings of Methodist ministers Ferdinand Laurence Steel (1813-1873) and Samuel Augustus Hankins Steel, of Edward Marvin Steel, Jr., and of Mary Eliza Julia Steel Ramsey (1852-1910?). |
| Creator | Steel, Edward Marvin, collector. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Related Collections
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Biographical Information
This collection is composed of papers of four distinct family groups, all ancestors of Edward Marvin Steel, Jr. Members of these families included newspaper editors, lawyers, missionaries, Methodist ministers, teachers, an artist, a librarian, and a history professor.
The histories of these families, as documented in this collection, begin with the Heiskell family members who lived on the Fruit Hill plantation near Knoxville, Tenn. Frederick Stiedinger Heiskell (1786-1882) was co-owner and editor of the Knoxville Register with his brother-in-law Hu Brown. After Brown died, his daughter Susan Rice Brown moved in with the Heiskells at Fruit Hill and maintained a close relationship with her Heiskell "siblings" throughout her life. She was especially close to Susan Heiskell, who married William McCampbell, a young lawyer from Dandridge, Tenn., in 1858. After their marriage, William and Susan were separated periodically by business and eventually by war as William served in the Confederate army.
The McCampbells' daughter Annie married James Horace Wilkes, a Confederate veteran and grain merchant from Nashville, Tenn. Wilkes, a widower, had two children, Bessie and John Henry. He and Annie had two more children, Susan and Judith. Susan Heiskell Wilkes was the director of the Department of Medical Illustration at Vanderbilt University from 1925 to 1956. Her sister Judith, a weaver and librarian, married the Methodist minister, Edward Marvin Steel.
The Steel family nurtured three generations of Methodist ministers. Ferdinand Lawrence Steel (1813-1873) spent much of his life as a farmer and itinerant Methodist preacher, especially in Mississippi. His son, Samuel Augustus Hankins Steel, served Methodist churches in Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Louisiana, and in towns throughout the South and Southwest. Samuel was chaplain at the University of Virginia during the 1870s. His son, Edward Marvin Steel, was a Methodist minister residing chiefly in Tennessee. He married Judith Wilkes Steel.
Edward Marvin Steel, Jr., gathered this collection of his family's papers. A graduate of Harvard, Steel was a pilot and prisoner-of-war in Germany during World War II. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina in 1953 and became a history professor at Limestone College, Gaffney, S.C., and later at West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va.
Family histories provided with each series description provide additional information about individuals represented in this collection. Family charts are available at the repository.
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Scope and Content
This collection has been arranged according to the four major families who composed Edward Marvin Steel, Jr.'s maternal and paternal lineage: Heiskell, McCampbell, Wilkes, and Steel. Each of the families is represented by correspondence that includes love letters, details of domestic life, health and sickness, farming practices, religious life, education, travel, and the effects of war, from the Civil War to World War II. In addition to correspondence, which is consistently strong from the mid-1830s to about 1925, the collection contains a variety of other papers ranging from recipes, various kinds of writings, newspaper clippings, and school reports to deeds and wills, World War II ration books, and other materials.
Also included are a variety of volumes, especially diaries created at various stages in the life cycles of their authors from their teenage years through senior adulthood. For the most part, women in this collection are more completely represented in the correspondence than in the volumes. However, in the addition of August 1998, there are seven volumes belonging to Mary Eliza Julia Steel Ramsey (1852-1910?).
Seven volumes belonging to Mary Eliza Julia Steel (1852-1910?) and three other items. Julia Steel, daughter of Amanda Hankins (1827-1898) and Ferdinand Laurence Steel (1815-1873), married E. B. Ramsey in 1880. They had two children, Edward and Alma.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Heiskell Family, 1816-1892 and undated.
The Heiskell family series consists chiefly of correspondence among various family members, including the letters of Hu and Mary Ann Susan Brown and those of their daughter Susan Rice Brown. Hu Brown was the brother of Eliza Heiskell and co-owner and editor of the Knoxville Register with her husband, Frederick Stiedinger Heiskell. Hu and his wife died when their daughter was still a child, and Susan Rice Brown grew up in the Heiskell household. The Heiskell plantation, Fruit Hill, was just outside Knoxville, Tenn., where, as of 1990, it still stands as a historic house known as "States View," the name given it by its builder.
Eliza and Frederick Heiskell had ten children, including Carrick, Joseph, Ann [Baker], Margaret [Wallace], and Susan. Susan Jacobs Heiskell is a prominent figure in the collection. Her marriage to William McCampbell is well-documented in Series 2, where her extended correspondence with brothers, sisters, and other members of the Heiskell family appears.
When Eliza died, Frederick Heiskell married Alice Armstrong Fulkerson who brought her daughter Jennie to Fruit Hill. Some of Jennie Fulkerson's correspondence appears among other Heiskell family letters.
See also Volume 1.
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Subseries 1.1. Correspondence, 1816-1892 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological.
Chief correspondents in this series include Hu Brown, Mary Ann Susan Brown, Susan Rice Brown, Eliza Heiskell, and Frederick Stiedinger Heiskell. The bulk of these letters were written between 1830 and 1860, and contain information about daily life, business concerns, local politics in the area surrounding Knoxville, and religious concerns. Susan Rice Brown's correspondence is chiefly with her Heiskell "sisters." Eliza Heiskell's correspondents include her brother Hu, sister-in-law Mary Ann, daughters Ann Baker and Margaret Wallace, and sister Nancy Lincoln of Sparta, Tenn. Frederick Heiskell's correspondence includes a typed transcript of a love letter he wrote to Eliza Brown in 1816. Frederick Heiskell's correspondents also include his daughter Margaret, Susan Rice Brown, his son-in-law William McCampbell, and others.
Many of letters in this series are accompanied by typed notes made by the donor containing the dates and origins of postmarks, the addresses to which letters were sent, and salutations and closures. In addition to these brief notes, some letters are accompanied by longer typed notecards also created by the donor pointing out interesting or significant information contained in a particular letter.
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Subseries 1.2. Other Papers.
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Series 2. McCampbell Family, 1854-1866 and undated.
The McCampbell family series consists chiefly of the correspondence of William McCampbell and Susan Jacobs Heiskell. William, a lawyer in Dandridge, Tenn., and Susan Heiskell were married in 1858. They had two children, Fred and Annie. Also part of the McCampbell household was Susan Rice Brown, Susan Heiskell's cousin and a "sister" of sorts. Susan Rice Brown lived with the McCampbells after their marriage and later moved with them to Franklin, Tenn. William and Susan McCampbell were separated on and off by business throughout their married life and by William's military service for the Confederacy during the 1860s. Their correspondence reflects these separations.
See also Volumes 2-3.
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Subseries 2.1. Correspondence, 1854-1866 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological.
McCampbell family correspondence is composed chiefly of letters exchanged by William McCampbell and Susan Heiskell, before and after their marriage in 1858. This correspondence includes love letters, discussions of business or family-related travel, health, daily routine at Fruit Hill (the Heiskell family plantation near Knoxville), and religious concerns. Many of these letters are accompanied by the donor's typed transcriptions.
Also included is Susan Heiskell's correspondence with members of her family of origin, both before and after her marriage to William McCampbell. Susan Heiskell McCampbell's correspondence is among the most extensive in this collection, beginning during her childhood and continuing throughout her life. Included are letters from her Wilkes family grandchildren.
McCampbell family correspondence also includes letters to William McCampbell's brother John while he was a student at Union Theological Seminary, and letters exchanged between Susan Rice Brown and William McCampbell.
See also Subseries 4.2 for an edited copies of Heiskell-McCampbell correspondence.
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Subseries 2.2. Other Papers.
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Series 3. Wilkes Family, 1864-1969.
The Wilkes family series consists chiefly of the correspondence of James Horace Wilkes. The son of Richard Ambrose Lipscomb Wilkes, a planter of Culleoka, Tenn., James Horace Wilkes was a Confederate soldier who became a commission merchant in Nashville, Tenn., after the Civil War. He had two children, Bessie and John Henry, by his first wife, Sarah Elizabeth Wilson, whose father James Wilson was a Presbyterian missionary to India. When Sarah Elizabeth died, Annie McCampbell became James Horace Wilkes's second wife. They had two daughters, Susan Heiskell and Judith [Steel].
Susan Heiskell Wilkes studied art in New York in 1908 and was a member of the Art Students' League. From 1910 to 1923, she was a book illustrator for the Baptist Publishing House in Nashville. She studied medical illustration at Johns Hopkins for two years. In 1925, Susan returned to Nashville to organize the Department of Medical Illustration at Vanderbilt University. She served until 1949 as a member of the Board of Governors and chair of the membership committee for the newly formed Association of Medical Illustrators. From 1954 to 1955, Susan Wilkes was vice-president of the Association. In 1956, she retired as director of the Medical Illustration Department at Vanderbilt.
In addition to correspondence, this series contains the school reports for Bessie, Judith, and Susan Wilkes; James Horace Wilkes's will; writings of the Wilkes children; and other papers.
See also Volume 4.
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Subseries 3.1. Correspondence, 1864-1969.
Arrangement: chronological.
Sarah Elizabeth Wilson's letters from the 1860s contain information about her life during the Civil War and about father's missionary work in India. The correspondence of James Horace Wilkes and Annie McCampbell is chiefly from before their marriage in the late 1880s, and consists of love letters and negotiations surrounding their anticipated marriage. Also included is correspondence between Annie McCampbell and her family of origin, correspondence between Bessie Wilkes and her father about her career and travels, and correspondence of Susan Heiskell Wilkes while she was an art student in New York. In these latter, Susan wrote about such things as the differences between New York and Southern girls.
Wilkes family correspondence also contains many letters written to James Horace by John Henry and Bessie while they were young children.
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Subseries 3.2. Other Papers.
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Series 4. Steel Family, 1822-1978.
The Steel family series consists of correspondence, writings, legal and financial materials, and other papers spanning five generations. Ferdinand Lawrence Steel (1813-1873), the son of Samuel and Eliza Blake Steel, was born in Fayetteville, N.C. Steel spent most of his life as a farmer and itinerant Methodist preacher. Ferdinand married Amanda Hankins. From 1849 to 1850, her brother, Thomas Dennis Hankins, lived with them while he was apprenticed to a printer in Granada, Miss. Hankins's diary, which documents the young man's apprenticeship, is in Series 5. Thomas Hankins eventually moved to Natchez where he died, possibly of yellow fever.
In 1858, Ferdinand Steel settled his family on a rented farm near Memphis, Tenn. Two years later, he moved with his family to "Druidalia," in DeSoto County, Miss., where he died of yellow fever in 1873.
Samuel Augustus Hankins Steel, son of Ferdinand and Amanda Steel, was a Methodist minister like his father. He attended Emory and Henry College in Virginia. In the 1870s, he was chaplain at the University of Virginia. Samuel Steel served Methodist churches in Richmond, Va.; Columbia, S.C.; Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Louisville, Ky.; New Orleans, La.; and other places in the South and Southwest. He and his wife Mollie Sue Burns had four children: Edward Marvin, Mary Ethel [Creighton], Christine, and Miriam. Miriam was a missionary in Brazil.
Edward Marvin Steel, like his grandfather and father before him, was a Methodist minister, residing chiefly in Tennessee. He attended Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tenn., and Vanderbilt University, and married Judith Wilkes, the daughter of Annie McCampbell and James Horace Wilkes. Judith Wilkes served with her husband in the Tennessee towns of Lewisburg, Bell Buckle, Mt. Pleasant, Carthage, Gallatin, Cookeville, Spring Hill, and others. In 1946, they retired and returned to Lewisburg where Judith served as head of the Marshall County Free Library and taught weaving in church camps and seminars. Edward Marvin Steel died in Lewisburg in 1960.
Edward Marvin Steel, Jr., son of Edward Marvin and Judith Wilkes Steel, collected papers relating to his family history. A graduate of Harvard, Steel was a lieutenant in the Army Air Force and piloted a four-engine bomber during World War II. He was shot down over Europe in the fall of 1943 on his sixth mission and remained in German hands until released by the Russians two weeks before V-E Day. Edward Marvin Steel, Jr.'s prisoner-of-war diary appears in Series 5. Steel earned his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina in 1953 and became a history professor at Limestone College, Gaffney, S.C., in 1958. He later moved to West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.Va.
See also Volumes 5-30.
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Subseries 4.1. Correspondence, 1844-1978.
Arrangement: alphabetical by chief correspondent, then chronological.
Chief correspondents in this series include Ferdinand Steel, Amanda Hankins Steel, Samuel Augustus Hankins Steel, Edward Marvin Steel, Judith Wilkes Steel, Miriam Steel, and Edward Marvin Steel, Jr. In his letters, Ferdinand Steel wrote of life on the road as an itinerant minister and of his attempts at farming in the 1850s through the 1870s. Amanda Hankins Steel's letters in the 1870s are chiefly to her children. Samuel Augustus Steel's correspondence, also from the 1870s, documents his life as a student at Emory, and his career in the ministry, including his tenure at the University of Virginia. The letters exchanged between Samuel Augustus and his son Edward, starting around 1907 and continuing through 1931, contain fatherly advice from a seasoned minister to one just embarking on a career in the ministry. Miriam Steel's letters to various members of her family from 1910 to 1948 document her missionary work in Brazil. The 1944 letters of Edward Marvin Steel, Jr., include several written while he was a prisoner of war in Germany. Later letters of Edward Marvin Steel, Jr., document his early teaching career.
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Subseries 4.2. Writings, 1847-1978.
Arrangement: alphabetical by author.
Writings of the four major male figures in the Steel family series. Ferdinand Steel's writings are fragmentary, diary-like jottings, poetry, and notes on scripture. Edward Marvin Steel's writings are chiefly poetry scribbled on scraps of paper. The most prolific author in the family, however, seems to have been Samuel Augustus Hankins Steel, whose writings include sermons, poetry, papers about the Southern cause during and after the Civil War, and articles written for his Memphis newspaper column, "Creole Gumbo," which appeared weekly during the 1920s. Also included is a typed transcription of a book of Heiskell-McCampbell family letters, which was edited by Edward Marvin Steel, Jr.
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Subseries 4.3. Financial and Legal, 1822-1978.
Arrangement: chronological.
Papers relating to various Steel family land transactions, materials on a law suit filed by W. T. Logan against Edward M. Steel for defamation of character, the will of Alma Bowers (a cousin of Edward Marvin Steel, Jr.'s and collector of genealogical materials), and financial papers related to the death of Judith Wilkes Steel.
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Subseries 4.4. Printed Materials.
Newspaper clippings collected by Judith Wilkes Steel and other members of the Steel family about their activities. Also includes pamphlets about Methodist churches in Nashville, Tenn.; Mansfield, La.; and Columbia, S.C.
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Subseries 4.5. Other Papers.
Materials documenting Edward Marvin Steel, Jr.'s involvement in the Limestone College Publications Committee and his participation in the Cherokee, North Carolina, outdoor drama, Unto These Hills. Also included are newspaper clippings, guest lists, invitations, and other materials documenting the wedding of Edward Marvin Steel, Jr., and Barbara Manley. Genealogical materials consist chiefly of notes made by Alma Bowers, a cousin of Edward Marvin Steel, Jr. Judith Wilkes Steel's other papers include membership cards for various organizations and certificates. Finally, there are a few school reports for Edward Marvin Steel and Ann Burns Steel.
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Series 5. Volumes, 1820-1956 and undated.
Arrangement: by family, then alphabetical, and finally chronological.
Chiefly diaries documenting travel, religious contemplation, daily activities, or life in a World War II prison camp, the following volumes also include account books, scrapbooks, notes, and writings. Most of these volumes relate to the Steel family, although the Heiskell, McCampbell, and Wilkes families are also represented.
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Subseries 5.1. Heiskell Family Volumes.
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Subseries 5.2. McCampbell Family Volumes.
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Subseries 5.3. Wilkes Family Volumes.
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Subseries 5.4. Steel Family Volumes.
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Subseries 5.5. Other Volumes.
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Series 6. Pictures.
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Subseries 6.1. Steel Family.
| Image P-4504/1-39 |
Various members of the Steel family in snapshots, all of which appear to date from the early 1960s #04504, Subseries: "6.1. Steel Family." P-4504/1-39P-4504/1P-4504/2P-4504/3P-4504/4P-4504/5P-4504/6P-4504/7P-4504/8P-4504/9P-4504/10P-4504/11P-4504/12P-4504/13P-4504/14P-4504/15P-4504/16P-4504/17P-4504/18P-4504/19P-4504/20P-4504/21P-4504/22P-4504/23P-4504/24P-4504/25P-4504/26P-4504/27P-4504/28P-4504/29P-4504/30P-4504/31P-4504/32P-4504/33P-4504/34P-4504/35P-4504/36P-4504/37P-4504/38P-4504/39 |
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Subseries 6.2. Edward Marvin Steel, Jr., in World War II.
| Image P-4504/40-57 |
Various photographs of Edward Marvin Steel, Jr., and others during World War II. #04504, Subseries: "6.2. Edward Marvin Steel, Jr., in World War II." P-4504/40-57P-4504/40P-4504/41P-4504/42P-4504/43P-4504/44P-4504/45P-4504/46P-4504/47P-4504/48P-4504/49P-4504/50P-4504/51P-4504/52P-4504/53P-4504/54P-4504/55P-4504/56P-4504/57 |
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Subseries 6.3. Other Family Pictures
| Image P-4504/58-75 |
Chiefly unidentified persons in undated snapshots and more formal photographs, some of which appear to be from the nineteenth century. #04504, Subseries: "6.3. Other Family Pictures" P-4504/58-75P-4504/58P-4504/59P-4504/60P-4504/61P-4504/62P-4504/63P-4504/64P-4504/65P-4504/66P-4504/67P-4504/68P-4504/69P-4504/70P-4504/71P-4504/72P-4504/73P-4504/74P-4504/75 |
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Subseries 6.4. Places/Landscapes
| Image P-4504/76-82 |
Miscellaneous scenes, apparently from the 1960s, including a beach, a log cabin, and two views of Wesley's Chapel in London. #04504, Subseries: "6.4. Places/Landscapes" P-4504/76-82P-4504/76P-4504/77P-4504/78P-4504/79P-4504/80P-4504/81P-4504/82 |
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Series 7. Audio Tape
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Series 8. Microfilm.
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ADDITIONS AFTER DECEMBER 1994
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Addition of January 1995 (Acc. 95005)
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Addition of August 1998 (Acc.98179).
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Items Separated
Processed by: Lisa C. Tolbert, April 1990 with subsequent additions
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
A taped commentary on the contents of this collection was made by the donor in 1988. A typed transcription of the tape is available from the collection's control file upon request.
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