Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of the McCutchan Family, Accession #3334, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

These items were loaned to the University of Virginia Library by Mrs. John Sproul, Middlebrook, Augusta County, Virginia, on November 16, 1949.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of the papers of the McCutchan family, ca. 1769-1895, and undated, 110 items, including correspondence, financial and legal papers, poetry, and genealogical notes.

The first McCutchan on record in this collection is William McCutchan of Augusta County, Virginia, born November 27, 1758 and died June 29, 1848, who married Jane Finley, born February 4, 1770 and died June 18, 1852. The couple had nine children, including John, born February 10, 1794; Samuel, born April 17, 1795; Robert, born January 29, 1797; [Marthy], born December 6, 1800; William Jr., born September 8, 1802; James, born July 12, 1804; Elizabeth, born December 18, 1806; Sarah, born October 22, 1808 and Mary, born December 22, 1810. The children of John were William and John, and the child of James was Isabelle Finley McCutchan, who married Stuart S. Brown, the Confederate soldier whose letters are in this collection.

Correspondence
Letters in this collection deal primarily with family, living conditions and matters relating to daily life. There are several of particular interest during the period of the Civil War to and from Stuart S. Brown, (husband of Isabelle Finley McCutchan), a Confederate soldier reportedly captured February 6, 1864 at Waterford, Morton's Ford, Va., and sent to Old Capitol Prison, Washington D.C. Brown died on February 12, 1865 at Fort Delaware, where he had been transferred. On February 10, 1864, Brown writes Isabelle about his capture and his transfer to the prison. He lists names of others taken with him and mentions that he is being treated kindly.

On March 17, 1864, he writes his wife that he has been ill but now is better. On March 24, 1864, Brown tells his brother that he hears talk that he might be exchanged--that he has received no mail since his arrival at prison, and that he has heard preaching only twice. A cousin, James P. Harris, writes Brown on July 28, 1864, that he is doing everything he can to have him released. Brown receives a letter dated November 24, 1864 from his sister Ann Brown, Bloomington, Ill., in which she tells of the hardships at home.

Ann Brown receives a letter from her brother dated December 1, 1864, in which he describes being ill for two weeks in the hospital and requests that she send clothing. Brown writes his sister on February 1, 1865, that he is back in the hospital with bronchitis. A letter dated September 15, 1866, to Mrs. Brown from H. E. Brockman, a friend, consoles her on the loss of her husband.

Financial and Legal Papers
This folder includes some tax receipts for William McCutchan from 1791--1825; the will (Oct. 5, 1848) of Jane McCutchan, William's wife; a widow's pension certificate dated 1850 for [Jean] McCutchan, wife of William, a private in the Revolutionary War, and settlements, bills, payments and receipts from 1826 through 1830's.

Miscellaneous Papers
Several poems, a list of books for sale by a dealer in Philadelphia, a recipe for curing the "poison," and a periodical circular of the American Temperance Society, November, 1832 (transferred to Rare Books), are highlights of this folder.