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Reconstruction (Archives): Manuscript Collections

Manuscript Collections A through L

Account Books. Includes the records of an Adams County, Mississippi lumber company dating from 1852-1872 (1 box).

Jennie and Lucia Adams Collection. Papers of the Adams family of Cedar Mound Plantation south of Clarksdale, Mississippi dating 1845-1915. Box 1 includes financial documents and correspondence from the Reconstruction period (13 boxes). 

Samuel Agnew Diary Photocopies. 1851-1902. An Associate Reformed Presbyterian minister, teacher, and farmer who lived in Mississippi, Samuel Agnew wrote journal entries during Reconstruction (23 boxes).

Aldrich Collection. Papers of a North Mississippi family dating from 1740 to 1972. Includes several boxes of correspondence and other material from the Reconstruction period (25 boxes). The first six boxes of the collection are available as a digital collection.

Adelbert Ames Speech. Photocopy of a published speech on the Vicksburg race riots entitled Message of Gov. Adelbert Ames to the Legislature of Mississippi, in Extra Session Assembled, Thursday, December 17, 1874. Location: Small Manuscripts 2003-1 (1 folder).

[John M. Anderson] Pocket Diary. Account book and personal journal belonging to John M. Anderson, a planter who made salt for the Confederate government in Texas during the Civil War. Entries date from 1854 to 1868. Location: Small Manuscripts 96-1 (4 folders).

William Atwood Collection. Official documents and one handwritten letter dated 1869 by William Atwood, Acting Assistant General of Headquarters 4th Military District (Department of Mississippi), regarding the registration of voters for an upcoming election. Location: Small Manuscripts 92-1 (1 folder).

Audubon Mississippi/Strawberry Plains Finley Collection. Collection of several Marshall County, Mississippi families spanning 1830 to 1980. Includes correspondence, financial records, and a presidential pardon from the Reconstruction era (29 boxes).

Reverend N.G. Augustus Papers. Notes on the Methodist Church in Mississippi between 1832 and 1945. Location: Small Manuscripts 76-1 (10 folders).

Avent & Lyes Ledgers. Records of an Oxford, Mississippi bank between 1866-1879 (1 box).

G.W. Bachman Journal. Photocopies of a journal kept by a young Methodist minister, G.W. Bachman, who served as a circuit rider throughout central and northern Mississippi. Location: Small Manuscripts 76-1 (5 folders).

F.A.P. Barnard Collection. F.A.P. Barnard served as chancellor of the University of Mississippi between 1858 and 1861 before returning to the North. Box 1 includes several letters from the Reconstruction period, including a few to his Mississippi friend E.W. Hilgard. Box 1 contains photocopies of originals held by Columbia University and permission from that institution is required for copies. Box 2 holds an assortment of Barnard-related items including publications (2 boxes).

Lionel Baxter Collection. Books, prints, and manuscripts about American history and the Civil War in particular, amassed by collector Lionel Baxter. Box 1 includes an 1867 letter from General E.O.C. Ord, military commander of the 4th district (Mississippi) with two attached 1867 telegrams to Ord from U.S. Grant and President Andrew Johnson. (9 boxes).

Beckwith/Yerger Collection. Dating from 1869 through 1930, this collection includes several Reconstruction-era letters and financial documents from the Beckwith family in both Ohio and California, as well as a few pieces from the Yerger family in the Mississippi Delta (7 boxes).

Dr. Frederick Robert Bernard Collection. 1855-1892. Born in Providence, Louisiana, Bernard attended the University of Mississippi in 1873 and received a medical degree from Tulane University. He returned home to Lake Providence to practice medicine. The collection contains correspondence from the Reconstruction era including Bernard's letters while a student in Oxford (1 box). This collection has been digitized and is available online.

Emma Faser Birchett Collection. 1874-1988. Various materials including programs and invitations of Emma Faser Birchett, a resident of Vicksburg, Mississippi (2 boxes).

Blanton-Smith Collection. Personal correspondence and transcripts dating from 1812-1927 of the family of Dr. Orville Martin Blanton who resided on a plantation near Greenville, Mississippi. Includes several Reconstruction era letters and documents. Finding aid available in Special Collections (2 boxes and 2 binders).

Sherwood Bonner/McAlexander Collection. Research files compiled by Dr. Hubert McAlexander in preparing his book The Prodigal Daughter: A Biography of Sherwood Bonner (1981). Mississippi author Sherwood Bonner published several books and numerous stories during the Reconstruction period (12 boxes).

M.W. Boyd Collection. 1861-1886. Civil War and Reconstruction materials related to M.W. Boyd a surgeon who served in the 20th Regiment Company F (Lay's Cavalry) of the Confederate Army (1 box). Civil War material available as a digital collection in the Civil War Archive.

Broadside "General Order No. 1." Military order dating 18 June 1865 stating that Col. G.M.L. Johnson of the 13th Indiana Cavalry will assume command of sub-district of North East Mississippi. Location: Small Manuscripts 88-2 (1 folder).

Andrew Brown and Son/R.F. Learned Lumber Company. Contain business correspondence and financial records of the Andrew Brown and Son Lumber Company from 1831 to 1869 when it became the R.F. Learned Lumber Company and the records continue through 1958. In addition to lumber, the company also contains records for the Natchez Ice Company, the Natchez Department Store, and the Learned Plantations (117 boxes and 150 ledgers).

Juanita Brown Collection. Papers of several generations of an Attala County, Mississippi family. Reconstruction era material is scattered throughout the collection (7 boxes).

Burton-Butler Papers. Photocopied correspondence of J.F. Butler, a surgeon in the Army of Tennessee, to Mal Butler in Holly Springs, Mississippi between 1853-1865. Includes an 1865 Loyalty Oath signed by Butler. Location: Small Manuscripts 76-2 (1 folder). 

Roane Fleming Byrnes Collection. Papers dating from 1840 to 1970 donated by Roane Fleming Byrnes of Natchez, Mississippi. Boxes 1 through 3 hold correspondence and other material dating from the Reconstruction period (46 boxes).

Ida Campbell Collection. Includes an 1873 University of Mississippi commencement program. Location: Small Manuscripts 78-1 (1 folder).

J.W. Clapp Collection. A lawyer and politician, J.W. Clapp resided in North Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee. The collection covers the time span 1834-1892 and consists of a scrapbook of published speeches by Clapp as well as a travel memorandum containing accounts of trips taken by Clapp during his lifetime. Location: Small Manuscripts 78-5 (2 folders).

David Cohn Collection. Box 21 contains two folders of manuscripts on Reconstruction in the South by Mississippi author David Cohn (21 boxes).

Coit Collection. 1856-1939. Includes several reconstruction-era documents related to Helen Harry Coit of Jasper County, Mississippi (1 box).

Courier Broadside. An "Extra" broadside from this Enterprise, Mississippi newspaper dated 21 March 1876 condemns G.M. Massingale, Clarke County's representative in the state legislature, for his support in removing the county's courthouse to another location. Location: Oversized Small Manuscripts Broadsheets & Broadsides (1 folder).

Craft-Fort Papers. Photocopies of correspondence between Henry Craft and Robert W. Fort of Holly Springs, Mississippi dating between 1820 and 1878. Location: Small Manuscripts 76-2 (1 folder).

Jefferson Davis Letter. Photocopy of 6 December 1869 letter from former Confederate President Jefferson Davis to Captain William Delaney with comments upon the recent election. Location: Small Manuscripts 2001-2 (1 folder).

Jefferson Davis Letters. Photocopies of letters and documents concerning the trial of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The originals are in the possession of the University of Chicago Library, and permission from that institution is required to make photocopies. Location: Small Manuscripts 78-5 (1 folder).

Jefferson Davis Material. Photocopies of correspondence by Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina Davis between 1863 and 1905. Location: Small Manuscripts 2005-1 (1 folder).

Joseph Davis Collection. Joseph E. Davis was the brother of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The collection also contains the papers of Benjamin Montgomery, a former Davis slave and overseer of his master's Hurricane and Brierfield plantations near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The papers document the efforts of both Montgomery and Davis to work with the reconstruction government and the Freedmen's Bureau. Box 2 holds material related to Davis's endeavors to regain his land after government seizure (2 boxes).

Charles Dean Collection. Dating from 1837 to 1982, the collection holds the papers of several related families from Holly Springs, Mississippi. It includes correspondence and a scrapbook from the Reconstruction era. Finding aid available in Special Collections (32 boxes). 

Deupree Scrapbook. Scrapbook of J.G. Deupree containing newspaper clippings dating from 1865 to 1873 on Mississippi and Noxubee County topics. Location: Small Manuscripts 78-1 (1 folder). The scrapbook has been digitized and is available online in the Civil Rights Archive.

Samuel Dewoody. Loyalty Oath dated 1 June 1865 for Samuel N. Dewoody of Tishomingo County, Mississippi signed at Fort Delaware prison. Location: Small Manuscripts 78-6 (1 folder).

Edmondson/Bray/Williams/Stidham Collection. Dating from 1840 to 1980s, this collection chronicles the interwoven histories of several families from North Mississippi and Tennessee, but it primarily concerns the life of Confederate spy Belle Edmondson (1840-1873) from Marshall County, Mississippi (43 boxes).

Frank E. Everett Collection. 1962-1996. Frank E. Everett was a lawyer in Vicksburg, Mississippi and author of several works on history (2 boxes).

Kinloch/Falconer Collection. Falconer served as Adjutant General for the Army of Tennessee during the Civil War and became Mississippi Secretary of State in 1878. The collection includes six post-war letters from Joseph E. Johnston to Falconer (2 boxes). Box 1 of this collection has been digitized as part of the Civil War Archive.

Winfield Scott Featherston Collection. Papers of politician and Civil War brigadier general W.S. Featherston of Holly Springs, Mississippi. The collection holds law firm records, correspondence, speeches, and political material from the Reconstruction period (16 boxes).

Eugene B. Ferris Collection. Box 1 includes correspondence from this Mississippi family dating from the Reconstruction period.  (4 boxes).

Charles C. Flint Jr. Diary. Flint served in the 13th Michigan Infantry Regiment, Co. K. After recuperating from an injury, he toured Washington, Dc, New York, and visited Mississippi as documented in this journal dating from 1865. Location: Small Manuscripts 94-2 (1 folder).

Ford Family Collection. Includes a composite photograph of the 1873 Mississippi House of Representatives. Location: Small Manuscripts 93-2 (3 folders).

Framed Items. Item #116 is an 1866 amnesty declaration for J. E. Davis signed by President Andrew Johnson. Note: This item is stored in an off-site facility. Inform Special Collections two business days in advance to arrange transfer of item to Special Collections Reading Room.

Ray Fulton/Kemper County [Mississippi] Collection. Among the material related to Kemper County history are contemporary newspaper accounts of 1877 political assassinations in the county. Location: Small Manuscripts 78-2 (6 folders). 

Gage Family Letters. Correspondence and other material related to this Holmes County, Mississippi family. Includes several letters from the Reconstruction era (4 boxes). 

Roxana Chapin Gerdine Collection. Gerdine grew up in Massachusetts, but married a planter from West Point, Mississippi in 1858. After the Civil War, she established a successful school for girls. The collection consists primarily of Gerdine's correspondence with her sister and includes several letters from the Reconstruction period (2 boxes). Digital collection available

Dr. Ann Gowdy/Sherwood Bonner Collection. Contains Gowdy's research files on Mississippi author Sherwood Bonner, including copies of many of Bonner's published articles from the Reconstruction era (3 boxes).

Graduating Senior Theses Collection. Papers written by senior students at the University of Mississippi from 1858 through 1938 (8 boxes). 

E.W. Hilgard Collection. Eugene Hilgard was a professor of chemistry at the University of Mississippi after the Civil War. The collection contains photocopies of Hilgard's correspondence between 1856 and 1872. The Bancroft Library at the University of California possesses the original documents, and that institution's permission is required to make photocopies (1 box).

Daniel Holland Ledger. The latter portion of this ledger dates from 1865 and represents financial records of a Madison County plantation store containing freedmen's accounts (1 box).

Holly Springs Female Academy Records. Photocopies of original and amended acts of incorporation and a nearly complete set of board minutes for this educational institution in Holly Springs, Mississippi from 1836 to 1901. Originals held by the Holly Springs Historical Society. Location: Small Manuscripts 76-5 (2 folders).

Holly Springs Ledger. This financial ledger from Holly Springs, Mississippi spans 1837 to 1904 (1 box).

E.E. Holman Letter. In this 1871 letter by E.E. Holman of Holly Springs, Mississippi to J.W. Denver in Washington, DC, Holman writes about war claims of Union men for losses incurred during the Civil War. Location: Small Manuscripts 80-1 (1 folder).

Howry Family Collection. Includes a typed transcription of an 8 February 1868 letter from Jefferson Davis to J.M. Howry as well as an original 18 January 1877 letter from Mrs. James K. Polk to J.M. Howry (Box 2) (6 boxes).

John F. Johnson Collection. John Forsyth Johnson was a farmer, tax assessor and postmaster in Greensboro, Webster County, Mississippi. Collection spans 1849 to 1920 and includes financial records, correspondence, and copies of diary entries (1857-1912) (5 boxes).

John Wesley Johnson Collection. Dating from 1853 to 1930, the collection includes correspondence, diaries, clippings, and biographical sketches of University of Mississippi alumni kept by John Wesley Johnson, a professor of Physics (6 boxes).

James T. Jones Collection. Jones was a member of the 12th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, Sardis Blues during the Civil War. Includes several letters from the Reconstruction period (1 box). The collection has been digitized and made available through the Civil War Archive.

Cuthbert M. Lagrone Radio Announcement. Mid-twentieth century manuscript regarding C.M. Lagrone's radio talk on "Reconstruction of Tragic Era -- that period from 1865 to 1877 a period which has had a lasting effect upon the Democratic party, especially in the South." Location: Small Manuscripts 95-1 (1 folder).

L.Q.C. Lamar Collection. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar represented Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1857 to 1860 and again from 1873 to 1877. He sat in the U.S. Senate from 1877 until 1885, when he became U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1885-1888) and then Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court (1888-1893). The collection consists of photocopies of letters, mostly from Lamar to Oxford resident and former law partner E.D. Clark. Location: Small Manuscripts 76-6 (1 box).

Longstreet-Hinton Collection. Papers related to author and University of Mississippi chancellor Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, who was L.Q.C. Lamar's father-in-law. Contains one letter and several financial documents from the Reconstruction period (3 boxes).

Augustus Baldwyn Longstreet Letter. Photocopy of a 9 August 1865 letter from Longstreet to President Andrew Johnson requesting a pardon for his Confederate activities. Location: Small Manuscripts 2001-2 (1 folder).

W.J.B. Lonsdale Letter. Circa 1875 letter from W.J.B. Lonsdale, Assistant Commissioner of Immigration in West Tennessee to E.G. Wall, Commissioner of Immigration in Mississippi, regarding their shared professional interest. Location: Small Manuscripts 79-3 (1 folder).

Manuscript Collections M through Z

Map Collection. Contains several reconstruction-era maps of Mississippi.

McAlexander/Marshall County Collection Accretion. Folders 3.3 and 21.7 holds Hubert McAlexander's notes and research on Reconstruction in Marshall County, Mississippi (23 boxes).

Andrew McCrery Ledger. Spanning 1813 to 1865, the second portion of this ledger tracks cotton production of freedmen on a plantation.

Reverend A.C. McDonald Sermon. Photocopy of a published sermon entitled Mississippi and Its Future: A Sermon for the Times, Delivered on the Deay of General Thanksgiving in the Hall of Representatives April 21, 1870 by Rev. A.C. McDonald, A.M., which offers a Radical Republican perspective on the war's outcome and the state's future. Location: Small Manuscripts 2003-1 (1 folder).

Reverend Thaddeus McRae Collection. Photocopied articles and autobiography dating by McRae who spent his childhood in Mississippi but was in Texas during the outbreak of the Civil War. Location: Small Manuscripts 76-5 (2 folders).

W.P. Meriwether Pardon. Photocopy of an 1865 presidential pardon for former Confederate W.P. Meriwether of Monroe County, Mississippi. Location: Small Manuscripts 79-3 (1 folder).

Miscellaneous Nineteenth-Century Broadsides. Includes a broadside entitled To the Conservative Republicans of Iowa which proposes the establishment of a National Union Party to counter the dominance of radicals in the Republican Party after the Civil War. Location: Oversized Small Manuscripts Broadsheets & Broadsides (1 folder).

Mississippi Authors Small Manuscripts. Includes material related to Katherine S. Bonner McDowell (1849-1883), a Holly Springs, Mississippi author who wrote under the pseudonym "Sherwood Bonner." Contains biographical information, documents, and letters, most of which are photocopies (9 boxes).

Mississippi Constitutional Convention Document. Publication dated 1869 and entitled Constitutional Convention. Report of Committee on County Boundaries. Number 46. calling for the creation of four new counties: Crawford, Columbia, Culpepper, and Clay. Location: Small Manuscripts 95-5 (1 folder).

Mississippi State Penitentiary Lease. Dated 5 November 1868, this handwritten, witnessed, and stamped indenture leased the state prison to Edmund Richardson of Jackson, Mississippi. Location: Small Manuscripts 92-1 (1 folder).

Mitchell Family Marshall County Collection. 1812-1984. Includes material related to the war claims of the Glover Family of Marshall County, Mississippi and oath of allegiances from those living in Marshall and Tippah counties in Mississippi (7 boxes).

General Charles G. Nelms Collection. Folder 10 includes the photocopied 1865 loyalty oath of Mrs. A. McCorkle. Location: Small Manuscripts 76-7.

Newspapers (Bound). Volumes 1 & 2 hold 1866-1868 of Hernando People's Press and 1869-1873 Hernando Press. Volume 7 contains 1874-1875 issues of Jackson Daily Mississippi Pilot. Volume 11 holds 1872-1877 issues of Jackson Weekly Clarion. Volume 12 contains 1872-1876 issues of Jackson Weekly Mississippi Pilot. Volume 92 includes 1874-1876 issues of The Brandon Republican (178 volumes).

Newspapers (Boxed). Box 8 includes November 1865 issues of Jackson Daily Clarion. Box 11 holds a 1 May 1875 issue of Valley Sentinel of LeFlore and Sunflower counties. Box 12 contains a 28 October 1871 issue of Holly Springs North Mississippian and a 30 June 1871 of Holly Springs Reporter. Box 36 includes a 22 March 1876 issue of Oxford Random Shot, a 14 July 1874 Oxford Weekly Ricochet, and 11 February 1876 Oxford Eagle. Box 65 includes a 11 April 1868 West Point Herald. Box 66 holds two October 1871 issues of Vicksburg Daily Herald (75 boxes).

Owens & Archibald Ledger. Accounts spanning 1872-1873 for a dry goods store in Oxford, Mississippi (1 box).

Presidential Pardon. Signed 1865 presidential pardon for [A.]L. Sharkey. Location: Small Manuscripts 2000-2 (1 folder).

R.E. Price Collection. Includes handwritten manuscript by Susan P. Gaston dating from the 1870s as well as an 1868 letter from Dr. James Marcus Taylor to his wife (Box 3, Folder 14). Finding aid available in Special Collections (3 boxes).

James R. Redden Collection. Includes receipts of Catherine Counseille from Ripley, Mississippi during the Reconstruction era (1 box).

John C. Rietti Scrapbook. A Mississippi newspaperman, Rietti created this scrapbook of Reconstruction-era clippings which reflect his professional interests as well as a fascination with fire companies. Among the clippings is a description of a meeting between citizens of Hinds and adjoining counties with Governor Adelbert Ames on the militia (1 box).

Mrs. A.B. Robinson Plantation Ledger. Records spanning 1871-1876 for Albin Place Plantation in Tallahatchie, Mississippi (1 box).

David G. Sansing Collection. Contains research and source material relating to Sansing's book The University of Mississippi: A Sesquicentennial History (1999), including folders on the reconstruction era.

Scrapbook of Miscellaneous Political Greenback Statistics. Spanning 1874-1876, this scrapbook contains newspaper clippings from an assortment of national newspapers on a variety of topics, particularly agriculture, the economy, politics, and the currency debate. According to the label on the cover, Edward N. Fuller of Salt Lake, Utah created the album (1 box).

Sheet Music (Miscellaneous) Collection. 1846-1974. Includes 1866 "Protect the Freedman" (1 box).

Calvin R. Simmons Collection. Documents several generations of the Simmons family of Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Boxes 1, 5, and 8 contain several miscellaneous items from the Reconstruction era (24 boxes).

Darwin A. Smalley Letterbook. A former Union officer, Smalley settled in Meridian, Mississippi after the Civil War. In 1867, he received an appointment to serve on Lauderdale County's three-member Board of Registration which enrolled qualified voters. The letterbook contains official material related to his public service and dates from 1860 to 1870 (1 box).

Eagleton M. Smith Class Notebooks. Circa 1874. A resident of Holly Springs, Mississippi, Smith graduated from UM with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1874 (1 box).

Southern Bank of Oxford Ledgers. Three volumes of financial transactions spanning 1876-1888 (3 boxes).

Alfred H. Stone Collection. Chairman of the State Tax Commission (1932-1955), Stone was also an historian who served as president of the Mississippi Historical Society (1912-1913). He authored a book on the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the U.S. constitution and wrote several articles on race. The collection consists mostly of material related to this latter topic and includes items on the Reconstruction era (4 boxes).

Alfred H. Stone Papers. Typed manuscripts on a variety of historical topics, including "The Political Affects of the [Civil] War" (Folder 11). Location: Small Manuscripts 76-7 (13 folders). This collection has been digitized and is available in the Civil Rights Archive.

Belle Strickland Papers. Photocopy of a diary maintained by Belle Strickland of Holly Springs, Mississippi from 1864 to 1877. Typescripts available at the Marshall County Historical Museum in Holly Springs, Mississippi and the Mississippi Department of Archives & History in Jackson. Location: Small Manuscripts 76-8 (1 folder).

Harriet Blanton Theobald Collection. Documents and maps dating from 1833 to 1886 relating to Theobald's donation of land to the city of Greenville, Mississippi, including a manuscript on the early history of the city. Location: Small Manuscripts 91-3 and Maps 188 through 191.

Jacob Thompson Collection. Photocopies of material from 1846 to 1879 acquired by Dr. John Crews on Mississippi politician and Oxford resident Jacob Thompson. Location: Small Manuscripts 2002-1 (18 folders).

Union Female College Collection. Commencement programs, musical programs, R.A.H. Society programs, and catalogues from this Oxford, Mississippi woman's college spanning 1873-1882. Location: Small Manuscripts 78-2 (1 folder).

Union Republican State Executive Committee Records. Handwritten minutes of the Union Republican State Executive Committee in Vicksburg, Mississippi dated from 18 September 1867 to 3 October 1867. Location: Small Manuscripts 2003-1 (1 folder).

               

Departmental Information

Archives and Special Collections
PO Box 1848
University, MS 38677
3rd floor of the J.D. Williams Library
Email: archivesdept@olemiss.edu 

Open Monday through Friday 8am - 5pm (except holidays)
 

Librarian Contact

Jennifer Ford
Senior Curator of Manuscripts
Email: jwford@olemiss.edu