Manuscripts
Correspondence of Martha D. Stone and her extended family. Martha D. Stone's correspondence contains letters and documents on family history, including those from 1908 to 1909. Besides the family members, the correspondents include Greenlee D. Letcher, Lawrence Washington (1836-1926) and Frank P. Flint. Also included are four letters, 1916 to 1918, from Jordan M. Stone describing his life in Banning and Pasadena, California, and photographs of Jordan M. and William Welch Stone at Hollister Ranch, California. Jonathan C. Gibson's correspondence includes two letters to his wife written while away from home; the letter of October 18, 1817, contains a vivid description of the flood of emigrants headed to "Mizura;" the letters to his daughter written between 1840 and 1846 discuss family and local news of Culpeper County and details of some cases that he argued. Also included is a letter, 1821, January, from his kinsman and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Fayette Ball (1791-1836), describing bills under consideration. Letters that Frances Ann Gibson Welch Burt and J. Mallory Welch exchanged in the summer of 1844, during her visit to Virginia. In the letter of August 10, 1844, written on pro-Clay pictorial stationery, she described a "Whig festival" in Dandridge, attended by some "thousand persons;" and on August 26, 1844, she gives an account of a Methodist camp meeting in "Prince William Springs." Also included are letters from her friends and relatives. The letter, January 1, 1847, of her friend Mary V. Moore describes her stay at the Olympian Springs, Kentucky, her wedding to a young man she met there, and the busy social life of a newlywed in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. There are also the journal and letters of Mary Emma (Mamie) Cathell Grace (1861-1937), a native of Philadelphia who attended New Orleans High School. The first portion of the diary covers the school year of 1878, the entries describe school studies, including lessons taught by Susan Blanchard Elder (1835-1923) and Mary Humphrey Stamps (1835-); the Mardi Gras festivities, particularly the parade staged by the Knights of Momus, the outbreak of yellow fever, etc. The second portion of the diary gives an account of her trip to Philadelphia to meet her father and siblings. In 1885, Mamie married Dr. Jesse Edward Grace (1852-1895) and moved to Weimar, Texas. The collection also includes photographs, newspaper clippings from The Asheville Citizen, and ephemera.
