Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Papers of the Magruder Family, Accession #2733-b, Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was donated to the Library on February 19, 1985, by: R. Gregory Magruder, Evalina Magruder, Allaville Magruder, and Elizabeth Henshaw , all of Charlottesville, Virginia; Frances Lummis Lloyd of Longmont, Colorado; Lt. Col. Mason M. Lummis of Alexandria, Virginia; and, Gen. Carter B. Magruder of Arlington, Virginia .

Biographical/Historical Information

Egbert Watson Magruder was born on October 25, 1868, in Albemarle County, Virginia, the son of Benjamin Henry Magruder and Anne Evalina (Norris) Magruder . After his early education in public and private schools, he entered Hampden-Sydney College in 1887, and received his B.A. degree in 1891. He completed courses in chemistry at the University of Virginia, and entered Johns Hopkins University in 1892, where he was assistant in the department of chemistry during his last two years. Afterwards, he received an appointment to the Mississippi College of Agriculture . For approximately fifteen years, until his resignation in 1915, Egbert Watson Magruder was the Chief Chemist and Pure Food Expert of the State Department of Agriculture . During part of this time, he was also director of the Virginia Test Farm at Saxe, Charlotte County . In 1915, he accepted an offer to become the Chief Chemist of the F. S. Royster Guano Company of Norfolk, Virginia, where his duties included taking charge of all chemical laboratories, and performing analytical and investigation work.

On Novermber 8, 1916, Egbert Watson Magruder married the former Frances Byrd Alvey of Richmond, Virginia . Egbert Watson Magruder was a member of the Board of Visitors of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia, the American Chemical Society, Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, Virginia Academy of Science, and American Society of Agronomy, as well as being a member of the following clubs: Virginia Chemists' Club, Hampton Roads Chemists' Club (as one of the organizers and first president of each), the Kiwanis Club, Norfolk Country Club, and the Norfolk Town Club . In addition, he wrote numerous articles on agricultural chemistry and agriculture, including such topics as the manufacture and use of commercial fertilizer, the cultivation of wheat and tobacco, and food and food adulterations. Egbert Watson Magruder owned a farm of ca. 100 acres at Dry Bridge, Chesterfield County; he remained with the F. S. Royster Guano Company until his death in 1945.

Horatio "Rashe" Erskine Magruder was born on September 8, 1846 in Albemarle County, the son of Benjamin Henry Magruder and Maria Louisa (Minor) Magruder . He was educated in private country neighborhood schools before entering the Confederate Army at age seventeen in 1864. He served in the Rockbridge Artillery of Stonewall Jackson's old Brigade, and took part in the battles of The Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse. He was captured, and imprisoned at Point Lookout, Maryland; after a lengthy illness in prison, he was exchanged, and returned to General Robert E. Lee 's army in 1865 after his recuperation. He was in the retreat of the Confederate Army to Appomattox .

After the war, Horatio Erskine Magruder attended the University of Virginia, studying Latin, Modern Languages, and Mathematics. He returned to "Glenmore," the family home, where he formed a partnership with his father, and eventually took over management of the plantation. He was one of the most prominent farmers in Albemarle County . Horatio Erskine Magruder married his cousin, Julia May Chewning, of "Island Home," Albemarle County, on December 12, 1894. He was a member of the vestry of Grace Episcopal Church in Cismont, the American Clan Gregor Society, and president of the Monticello Wine Company of Charlottesville and the Albemarle Mutual Fire Insurance Company . He died on January 19, 1924 at "Glenmore."

John Bowie Magruder was born on November 10, 1839, in Albemarle County, the eldest son of Benjamin Henry Magruder and Maria Louisa (Minor) Magruder . After graduating from the Albemarle Military Academy, he entered the University of Virginia, where he received his M.A. degree in 1860. In the spring of 1861, he took a special three-month military course at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, and raised a company in Albemarle County known as the Rivanna Guards . As captain, he took the company to Richmond in June 1861 where they were mustered in with the 57th Regiment under Lewis A. Armistead . He was promoted to Colonel after the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 22, 1862. He was wounded during Pickett's Charge in the battle of Gettysburg July 3, 1863, and carried to a hospital near the battlefield where he died on July 5th.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of ca. 2988 items (10 Hollinger boxes and oversize items), ca. 1787-1945, pertaining chiefly to the career of Egbert Watson Magruder as an agricultural chemist for the Department of Agriculture of Virginia and, later, for the F. S. Royster Guano Company of Norfolk, Virginia . Included are correspondence, reports, articles and speeches, laboratory data, architectural drawings and blueprints, printed material, and photographs. Egbert Watson Magruder collected material, 18981945, on various subjects related to the different aspects of his work, including agriculture, chemistry, chemists' associations, fertilizer, horticulture, livestock, and mineralogy. Also included are Magruder family papers, consisting of correspondence, legal and business papers, plats and surveys, and related papers. Topics or items of interest include several letters,1861-1863, from John Bowie Magruder during his service in the Confederate Army during the Civil War describing several battles, including Fredericksburg and Suffolk, and camp life at Fort Dillard, Fort Drury (near Fredericksburg), and on White Marsh Road near Suffolk; an 1861 account book kept by John Bowie Magruder for the Rivanna Guards; a letter, October 17, 1864, to Benjamin Henry Magruder from his son, Horatio Erskine Magruder while a prisoner at Point Lookout, Maryland, during the war; papers pertaining to the purchase of "Glenmore"; papers concerning various Virginia estates such as "Edgehill" and "Glenmore" in Albemarle County, "Blenheim" in Caroline County, "Union Mills" in Fluvanna County, and "River Bend" in Spotsylvania County; an account book from the Charlottesville Grange; and genealogical and biographical information for the Magruder family and allied families.

Arrangement

The collection is divided into six series: I. Correspondence; II. Family and Personal Papers; III. Egbert Watson Magruder Papers; IV. Miscellaneous; V. Bound Volumes; and Oversize. Folders are arranged alphabetically within each series. Oversize items are arranged chronologically. Included in the miscellaneous series are printed material and photographs.