Beschreibung:

Lot of approximately 60+ letters relating to two "Smith" families of Virginia, including Civil War-date letters and letters from the Texas frontier. Collection also includes documents related to the legal practice of prominent Williamsburg attorney Sydney Smith (1821-1884). Sidney Smith was the oldest son of Henry Smith (1798-1866) and Martha Presson Smith (1802-1850) of York County, VA. After graduating from William and Mary College with a Bachelor of Laws in 1846, he married Virginia Constance Bucktrout (ca 1826-1878) and they had seven children. In the years leading up to the Civil War Sydney Smith practiced law in Williamsburg and throughout York and Warwick counties, and served as a commonwealth attorney. Forty year-old Smith enlisted at Williamsburg as a private on June 24, 1861, and mustered into "W" Co. VA 3rd Cavalry. After the war he returned home and resumed his practice. In 1874-75 and 1878-79 Sydney Smith served as a member of the House of Delegates from York County. In his day, he was considered an influential and distinguished citizen. This collection includes approximately 21 letters written to Smith (bulk ca 1868-1880), most of which are brief with subject matter of a predominantly business nature. The exceptions are two letters from an E. E. Cogbill of Portsmouth, VA. On July 11, 1865, Cogbill writes to Sydney Smith, in part: "…Give me the news of the old city, every thing concerning it is interesting to me. Have the inhabitants returned generally? Did Mr. Blair settle with you? I hope not as the money like the rest of my funds will be useless. I deposited in R. and all is lost-lost. Our poor Confederacy gone and all gone with it. I would rather have lost my poor worthless life-to have had a different state of things-shall we ever recover from it, no never during my brief stay on earth nor for a long, long period thereafter I fear…E. E. C." Accompanying the Sydney Smith letters are approximately 40 miscellaneous documents including business records, receipts, and legal and bank documents spanning approximately 1831-1942 (majority 1860s-1880s). Notable are an 1848 indenture between a Robert Wilson and William Martin of York County as well as a land lease made on behalf of the US Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Henry Armistead, of Churchland, VA, dated 20 November 1942, for a parcel of land adjacent to the Nansemond Ordnance Depot Military Reservation. The second Smith family represented in the collection hails from Mathews County, VA. Included are approximately 39 letters with the majority (29) addressed to a Miss Elizabeth Susan Smith (1836-1917), affectionately known to all as "Lizzie." Lizzie Smith was the first of twelve children born to Thomas Sands Smith (1805-1880) and Nancy Foster Brooks (1819-1886). She lived her entire life in Virginia, and seems to have been the touchstone for many family members whose lives took them out of Mathews County or out of the South entirely. Lizzie's father was one of nine children, and it is to her many siblings, cousins, and aunts that Lizzie is a favorite correspondent. The letters of the Smiths of Mathews County were predominantly written in the late 1850s-early 1870s, with the earliest dated letter being from 1846. Corresponding with Lizzie most frequently is her cousin, Laura Jane Smith (1836-1915). Laura was born in Mathews County in the same year as Lizzie and spent the war years in Virginia. Her letters present the difficulty of living in a war zone while also demonstrating that little things, such as clothing and fashion, remained of interest to southern ladies. Writing from Richmond, [Va.], Oct. 25, [n.d., probably 1863], Lizzie shares, in small part: "…Richmond has been as much excited and there have been many vague rumors here, but I have not yet heard that the place would be evacuated. I hope that they will not be forced to give it up, if so, I think that our cause is desperate indeed. …Cousin Sue & Miss. Margaret have just returned, says that they can ge