A Guide to the William Daniel Cabell and the Cabell and Ellet families papers
A Collection in the
Special Collections Department
Accession number MSS 276, 276-a, 283, 1154, 1210,
1744
Small Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections LibraryUniversity of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
USA
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Reference Request Form: https://small.lib.virginia.edu/reference-request/
URL: http://small.library.virginia.edu/
© 2003 By the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. All rights reserved.
Processed by: Special Collections Staff
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions.
Use Restrictions
See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.
Preferred Citation
Papers of William Daniel Cabell and the Cabell and Ellet families, Accession #276, 276-a, 283, 1154, 1210, 1744, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
Acquisition Information
This collection was a gift of Margaret Cabell and Elvira Daniel Cabell, 1938-1943.
Scope and Content
Papers of the Cabell and Ellet family contain family correspondence, financial and legal papers, genealogical and biographical material and bound volumes, chiefly journals, of family members particularly William D. Cabell and Mary Virginia Ellet Cabell.
Major topics are antebellum plantation life at Norwood in Nelson County, Va.; enslavement; the Civil War and Reconstruction; the Nelson County Home Guard; the University of Virginia Alumni Association; the Daughters of the American Revolution; the Norwood School; Nelson County, Va.; and the Norwood Institute, Washington, D.C.
Subjects in the correspondence include genealogical and biographical information on the Cabell and Ellet families; European travel, 1855; the Crimean War; collecting of supplies for the Confederate Army; anti-Southern sentiment after the war; the engineering and naval career of Charles Ellet, Jr., especially the design of the Niagara River suspension bridge, war service on the steam ramship he designed, and his death in the naval battle for Memphis.
Additional subjects include the settlement of William Cabell's estate and other Nelson County land transactions. Launcelot M. Blackford and John Hartwell Cocke are mentioned in the correspondence.
Topics of interest in single letters include reaction in Staunton, Va., to John Brown's raid; the Washington Peace Conference, 1861; pro-Confederate sentiments of Lynchburg, Va., women and enslaved laborers; the South's response to Lincoln's call for troops; families divided by war; armed enslaved laborers fighting for the Confederacy; 1st Bull Run; Confederate troop movements April 1862; and Union occupation of Winchester, Va., May 1862.
Also Antietam; opposition to the Confederacy in western Virginia; an 1865 appeal by Robert E. Lee to Virginia farmers regarding provisions; the U.S. War Department's refusal to compensate the Ursuline sisters of Columbia, S.C. for Sherman's destruction of their convent; and the U.S. Navy investigation of Charles Rivers Ellet.
Also cotton speculation by Union general Samuel R. Curtis; reunion of northern and southern Episcopal churches; the National Union Convention, August 1866; labor conscription of freedmen; baseball in Philadelphia, 1866; proposed merger of the University of Virginia medical school and Richmond Medical College; a Virginia flood, 1870; legal property rights of women, 1870; and a Gridiron Club dinner, 1896.
Also diaries, journals, and commonplace books, 1853-1925, of Mary Virginia Ellet Cabell, with comments on the fugitive enslaved laborer law and secession; drawings, poetry, and genealogical notes about the Cabell family, the Ellet and related Israel families; speeches on behalf of the D.A.R.; and translations of French articles.
Also journals, memoranda books and scrapbooks of William D. Cabell, catalogs, account books, student autograph books and other printed material of the Norwood Institute, and minutes, 1888-1894, of its Literary Society; a daybook and University of Virginia autograph book of Joseph C. Cabell; pamphlets, 1837-1862, by Charles Ellet about canals, railroads and bridges; and an incomplete essay on the Civil War in 1861 by Edward A. Pollard.
The collection also contains "Cabellana, "1851, 1872, by Nathaniel Francis Cabell, a series of essays on the history of the Cabell family used as the basis of The Cabells and their kin. The volume also contains diary entries, 1871 January-March, of N. F. Cabell, with a catalog of the Norwood School, 1870-1871, and copies of some correspondence, business and legal documents interpersed, including testimony regarding an incident that led to William C. Cabell's expulsion from Norwood School.
Of interest are a letter from Thomas Jefferson to Robert Skipwith, 1771 August 3, giving advice on choice of books, and defending fiction; a statement of Joseph C. Cabell's debts 1837 January 19; and three letters from Robert Skipwith to William Daniel Cabell regarding Cabell's purchase of the 1771 Jefferson letter to Skipwith's ancestor.
Organization
The papers have been grouped into four general series: Correspondence, Financial and Legal Papers, Genealogical and Biographical Material, and Bound Volumes. The correspondence and business papers have been organized chronologically, while the genealogical and biographical records have been separated by subject. Within these subsets, the original order of the documents has been preserved. The seventy bound volumes included in the collection are stored in the final five boxes, and have been organized according to author or subject and category (journal, scrapbook, etc.). A complete box listing, including all bound volumes, follows.
Container List
- Box 1
Correspondence1806-1865(8 folders)
- Box 2
Correspondence1866-1873(7 folders)
- Box 3
Correspondence1874-1895(7 folders)
- Box 4
Correspondence1896-1900(7 folders)
- Box 5
Correspondence1901-1906(6 folders)
- Box 6
Correspondence1907-1915(6 folders)
- Box 7
Correspondence1916-1934, n.d.(5 folders)
- Box 7
Financial and Legal Papers1807-1862(2 folders)
- Box 8
Financial and Legal Papers1863-1938, n.d.(5 folders)
- Box 8
Financial and Legal Papers: Civil War Records1861-1872, n.d.(1 folder)
- Box 8
Financial and Legal Papers: Enslavement Records1856-1868(1 folder)
- Box 8
Genealogical and Biographical Material: Cabell Family1797-1955, n.d.(2 folders)
- Box 9
Genealogical and Biographical Material: William D. Cabellca. 1870-1910(1 folder)
- Box 9
Genealogical and Biographical Material: Ellet Familyca. 1850-1930(1 folder)
- Box 9
Genealogical and Biographical Material: Charles Ellet, Jr.ca. 1880-1930(2 folders)
- Box 9
Genealogical and Biographical Material: Mary Virginia Ellet Cabellca. 1930(2 folders)
- Box 10
Genealogical and Biographical Material: Mary Virginia Ellet Cabellca. 1930(2 folders)
- Box 10
Genealogical and Biographical Material: Printer's Cut Photographsn.d.(3 folders)
- Ellet Family:
- Box 11
Hannah Israel, Commonplace Bookca. 1825
- Box 11
Anna Plumstead, Commonplace Bookca. 1827
- Box 11
Nina Ellet, Commonplace Bookca. 1864
- Box 11
- Mary Virginia Ellet Cabell:
- Box 11
Drawing Album/Poetry Bookca. 1853
- Box 11
Commonplace Bookca. 1855-1859
- Box 11
Diaryca. 1855
- Box 11
Lesson Bookca. 1848-1850
- Box 11
Commonplace Bookca. 1855-1871
- Box 11
Account of Correspondenceca. 1867
- Box 11
Notebook (Daughters of the American Revolution and Norwood Institute material)ca. 1890-1895
- Box 11
Journalca. 1899-1925
- Box 11
Journalca. 1904-1923
- Box 12
Journalca. 1906
- Box 12
Scrapbookca. 1926
- Box 12
"Token Album" Poetry Bookn.d.
- Box 11
- Joseph C. Cabell:
- Box 12
University of Virginia Autograph Bookca. 1852-1855
- Box 12
Daybookca. 1855-1861
- Box 12
- Norwood School/Institute:
- Box 12
Catalogues1865-1881
- Box 12
Catalogues1868-1882
- Box 12
Scrapbookca. 1892-1896
- Box 12
Accounts and School Recordsca. 1882-1888
- Box 12
Accounts and School Recordsca. 1888-1895
- Box 12
Student Autograph Book (Norwood Institute)ca. 1881-1897
- Box 13
Norwood Institute Literary Society Minutesca. 1888-1894
- Box 13
Student Autograph Book (Norwood School)ca. 1868-1878
- Box 12
- William D. Cabell:
- Box 13
University of Virginia Autograph Bookca. 1854-1855
- Box 13
Journalca. 1854
- Box 13
Journalca. 1854-1855
- Box 13
Journalca. 1855
- Box 13
Journalca. 1856
- Box 13
Journalca. 1857
- Box 13
Journal1857 Jan-July
- Box 13
Journal1857 July-1858 Apr
- Box 13
Journal1858 Apr-1859 Jan
- Box 13
Journal1859 Jan-Sept
- Box 13
Journal1859 Sept-1860 May
- Box 13
Journal1860 May-1861 Jan
- Box 13
Journal1861 Jan-Nov
- Box 14
Journalca. 1862
- Box 14
Journal1863 May-1864 Feb
- Box 14
Journal1864 Feb-1865 Feb
- Box 14
Journal1867-1873 Mar
- Box 14
Journal1875-1877 Jan
- Box 14
Journalca. 1877
- Box 14
Journalca. 1878
- Box 14
Journal1896 Jan-June
- Box 14
Journalca. 1896-1897
- Box 14
Journal1897 Apr
- Box 14
Journal and University of Virginia Alumni Addressesca. 1897-1898
- Box 14
Journal1901 Jan-Sept
- Box 15
Journal1901 Sept-1902 May
- Box 15
Journal1902 May-1903 Jan
- Box 15
Journal1903 Jan-Nov
- Box 15
Memorandaca. 1853-1854
- Box 15
Memorandaca. 1854-1855
- Box 15
Memoranda and Accounts Held with enslaved laborersca. 1856-1860
- Box 15
Memorandaca. 1857
- Box 15
Memoranda1857 Jane-1858 Feb
- Box 15
Memoranda1858 Mar-July
- Box 15
Memorandaca. 1858
- Box 15
Memorandaca. 1858-1864
- Box 15
Memorandaca. 1864-1865
- Box 15
Memorandaca. 1869
- Box 15
Memorandaca. 1882-1884
- Box 15
Memoranda1893 June-1900 Sept
- Box 15
Memorandaca. 1896-1897
- Box 15
Scrapbook (University of Virginia Alumni Association)ca. 1873
- Box 15
Scrapbookca. 188-1890
- Box 13
- Miscellaneous:
- Box 15
N. Cabell, Wallet and Stylus1798
- Box 15
"The First Year of the War, "by Edward A. Pollard1862
-
"Cabellana "by N. F. CabellPhysical Location: Following Box 15 1851, 1872
- Box 15