Correspondence, documents, writings, printed material, photographs and financial papers relating to the Cowdery, Gillum, and Starling families. The correspondence, which consists primarily of family news, includes letters written during the Civil War, with an account of the evacuation of Pensacola written by Lewis Cowdery, and a letter from a Union soldier named Henry (possibly Henry Gillum) on board ship to New Orleans in 1863. There are two letters written from Texas by Virginia and Henry Gillum, one referring to an accident on board a steamer, another referring to "interests" there, and one letter to Lewis Starling from Missouri in July, 1858, about land in Hannibal. and The collection includes several items that aren't obviously related to the Cowdery, Gillum, or Starling families. There is a Confederate account book kept by Lt. Commander Joseph B. Goodwin, Company F, 16th Virginia Regiment, used to track of purchases of clothing, with lists at the back of returned men reported as deserted, and men who have been discharged, died, and killed. There are also morning reports of Captain G. Alexander, Assistant Provost Marshal, Eastern District dated November-December 1863, listing men arrested, and including Julia Ann Cheek and C. Cheek, a "negro woman and infant." Also present is the machine room time book of the Thomas Clock Company in Thomaston, Conn., dated 1905-1911.
Description:
The Cowdery family of Columbus, Mississippi and Lakeland, Florida included the siblings Mattie J., Sally, Dolly, Lewis, Lester, Walter, and Almarine Cowdery Slade. Lester and Lewis Cowdery worked in the business started by their father, the L.L. Cowdery & Co., importers of china, foreign glassware and fancy goods. Kate Light Barlow, who seems to be their sister, was a friend of Henry and Virginia A. Gillum., The Starling family lived in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and included siblings Lewis, George, and Fielding. Fielding died in 1863, and George was a Confederate soldier at Ft. Hudson, Louisiana in 1862. Mary Starling Payne was Virginia's sister-in-law., and Virginia Anne Duffield (often referred to as Jennie) inherited property from George Anthony Nixon, who accumulated a substantial amount of land while acting as land commissioner for the Joseph Vehlein, Lorenzo de Zavala, and David G. Burnet empresario grants in Texas. Virginia's first husband, Lewis Starling, worked as a merchant in Pensacola, Florida during the Civil War, and died of consumption in 1862. They had two children: Kate, who died in 1862, and Willie, who attended the Virginia Military Academy and died while still a young man. Virginia's second husband was Col. Henry Gillum, who researched Nixon's estate in Texas on behalf of his wife.
Subject (Geographic):
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives
Subject (Name):
Cowdery family, Gillum family, and Starling family