A Guide to the Papers of the Magruder Family Magruder Family, Papers 2733-b

A Guide to the Papers of the Magruder Family

A Collection in the
Special Collections Department
Accession number 2733-b


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Processed by: Special Collections Staff

Repository
Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Collection Number
2733-b
Title
Papers of the Magruder Family
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

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.

Contents List

Series I. Correspondence
  • Box 1
    Correspondence
    1906-1945
    (3 folders)
Series II. Family and Personal Papers
  • Box 1
    Caroline Bennett Alvey Estate
    1934-1944
  • Box 1
    American Clan McGregor Society
    1909-1939, n.d.
  • Box 1
    DeJarnette Family
    1934-1945
  • Box 1
    Joseph E. Dickerson
    1926-1947
  • Box 1
    Dower Land, Fluvanna County; John W. Chewning and James M. Strange Estates
    1856-1896
  • Box 1
    Edge Hill, Albemarle County; Cary Ruffin Randolph
    1885-1914
  • Box 1
    Empire Consolidated Mining Company
    1932-1935
  • Box 2
    First Presbyterian Church
    1934-1945
  • Box 2
    First Presbyterian Church Brotherhood Bible Class
    1924-1940
  • Box 2
    Fluvanna County Land Tracts
    1868-1915
  • Box 2
    Glenmore Farm, Albemarle County
    1885-1897, 1935, n.d.
  • Box 2
    Hampden-Sydney College
    1906-1934
  • Box 2
    Hammocks Gap Road Three Chopt Road C & O Railroad Relocation of Public Road
    1856-1924, n. d.
  • Box 2
    Legal Papers
    1787-1927, n. d.
  • Box 2
    Benjamin Henry Magruder
    1850-1874
  • Box 2
    Egbert Watson Magruder
    1891-1945, n. d.
  • Box 2
    Henry Minor Magruder
    1871-1896
  • Box 2
    Herbert Thomas Magruder
    1921-1938
  • Box 2
    Horatio Erskine "Rashe" Magruder
    1864-1929, n.d.
  • Box 3
    John Bowie Magruder Letters, chiefly during the Civil War
    1859-1865, 1900
  • Box 3
    Magruder Family Genealogy
    1914-1935,n.d.
  • Box 3
    Magruder Family Letters, chiefly during the Civil War, 1856-1864
    n. d
    (typescripts)
  • Box 3
    Norfolk Community Fund Campaign
    1930-1945
  • Box 3
    Norfolk National Bank of Commerce and Trusts
    n. d.
  • Box 3
    Plats and Surveys of Virginia Land owned by the Magruder and other Families
    1800-1897, n.d.
    (2 folders)
  • Box 3
    River Bend, Spotsylvania County John Tyler Estate
    1883-1906
  • Box 3
    South Plains Church, and other papers re Keswick
    1871, 1879,1926, n.d.
  • Box 3
    William D. Tompkins and Brother
    1873-1892
  • Box 3
    Tyler Family
    1874-1890
  • Box 3
    Union Mills, Fluvanna County
    1863-1883, 1905
  • Box 3
    Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Blacksburg
    1888-1889
III. Egbert Watson Magruder Papers
  • Box 4
    Agriculture/Horticulture
    1898-1943, n.d.
  • Box 4
    Agronomy;Crops and Soil
    1915-1942, n.d.
  • Box 4
    Almanack
    1914, 1926, n.d.
  • Box 4
    American Chemical Society
    1926-1945
  • Box 4
    American Chemical Society Printed Material
    1915-1944
  • Box 4
    Analysis
    1916-1939
  • Box 4
    Association of Official Aricultural Chemists
    1902-1943
  • Box 5
    Buildings and Drawings
    n.d.
  • Box 5
    Climate
    1904-1941
  • Box 5
    Colloidal Chemistry
    1926-1936
  • Box 5
    Cotton
    1915-1933, n.d.
  • Box 5
    Cyanamid
    1924-1928
  • Box 5
    Department of Agriculture and Immigration of Virginia
    1908-1921
  • Box 5
    Department of Agriculture: Laboratory Expenses
    1903-1910
  • Box 5
    Diseases and Insects
    1923-1943, n.d.
  • Box 5
    Facts
    1907-1936
  • Box 5
    Fertilizer
    1902-1943, n.d.
    (2 folders)
  • Box 6
    Fertilizer Printed Material
    1912-1942, n.d.
  • Box 6
    Fruit
    1907-1936
  • Box 6
    Fuel
    1914-1928, n.d.
  • Box 6
    Hampton Roads Chemists' Club
    1922-1937
  • Box 6
    Inventories
    n.d.
  • Box 6
    Labels
    n.d.
  • Box 6
    Lime and Limestone
    1910-1943, n.d., 1905-1942, n.d.
  • Box 7
    Livestock Feeding
    1908-1943, n.d.
  • Box 7
    Magnesia
    1931-1938, n.d.
  • Box 7
    Metals
    1917-1940
  • Box 7
    Metric System
    1922-1929
  • Box 7
    Minerals
    1917, n.d.
  • Box 7
    Naval Fuel Testing Laboratory Lists of Books
    1922, n.d.
  • Box 7
    Nitrogen Compounds
    1916-1941, n.d.
  • Box 7
    Oyster Investigation
    1913-1915, 1933, n.d.
  • Box 7
    Paints
    1926-1929, n.d.
  • Box 7
    Pasture
    1919, 1941, n.d.
  • Box 7
    Patents
    1901-1936
  • Box 7
    Pecans
    1908-1927, n.d.
  • Box 7
    pH Measurements
    1930-1935, n.d.
  • Box 8
    Phosphates
    1917-1942, n.d.
  • Box 8
    Potash
    1901-1934, n.d.
  • Box 8
    Potatoes
    1916-1935, n.d.
  • Box 8
    Potomac River Water Investigation
    1912-1913, n.d.
  • Box 8
    Poultry
    1919-1945
  • Box 8
    Preservation
    1902-1903, n.d.,1941
  • Box 8
    Progressive Farmer Series: "$500 More a Year for the Average Southern Farmer"
    1916
  • Box 8
    F. S. Royster Guano Company
    1915-1945
  • Box 8
    Seeds
    1910, 1936-1938
  • Box 8
    Speeches by E. W. Magruder
    1900-1932, n.d.
  • Box 8
    Standardization
    1905-1939, n.d.
  • Box 8
    Sulphur
    1906-1924
  • Box 8
    Surface Binders
    1929-1930, n.d.
  • Box 9
    Sweet Potatoes
    1924-1940, n.d.
  • Box 9
    Sweets
    1907, 1941, n.d.
  • Box 9
    Test Farm, Saxe, Charlotte County
    1901-1910, n.d.
  • Box 9
    Tobacco
    1915-1942
  • Box 9
    Trees
    1929-1941
  • Box 9
    Vegetables
    1906-1944, n.d.
  • Box 9
    Virginia Chemists' Club
    l907-1938, n.d.
  • Box 9
    Water
    1916-1938, n.d.
  • Box 9
    Weeds
    1909-1913, 1941
  • Box 9
    George Wilkinson Company, Inc.
    1917-1945
  • Box 9
    Wines
    1941, n.d.
IV . Miscellaneous
  • Box 10
    Miscellaneous
    1880-1926, n.d.
  • Box 10
    Miscellaneous Printed
    1898-1945, n.d.
  • Box 10
    Photographs of Cattle and Sheep on the Test Farm
    1907-1909
  • Box 10
    Photographs of Corn on the Test Farm and Bremo Estate, and Monticello
    1908-1909
  • Box 10
    Photographs of Hogs on the Test Farm
    1907-1908
  • Box 10
    Photographs of Members of the Magruder Family
    1911, n. d.
  • Box 10
    Photographs of Plowing and Harvesting, including various tractors, and blacks picking cotton
    n. d.
  • Box 10
    Photographs of Scientists
    n. d.
  • Box 10
    Photographs of the Test Farm, Saxe, Charlotte County
    1908-1910
  • Box 10
    Photographs of Tobacco on the Test Farm
    1906, n.d.
V. Bound Volumes
  • Box 10
    Account Book of Egbert W. Magruder
    1912-1928
  • Box 10
    Account Books of Henry Minor Magruder
    1865-1915
  • Box 10
    Farm Account Book kept by Egbert W. Magruder
    1910-1919
VI. Oversize
  • Deed of sale for tract of land in Albemarle County, Commonwealth of Virginia to John Henderson, signed by Lieutenant Governor Beverley Randolph
    1787 Aug 10
  • Survey of Benjamin Henry Magruder's land, by William E. Haden
    1863 Nov 28
  • Surveys done by Horatio Erskine Magruder for tracts of land in Albemarle County owned by 1) Daniel Carter, 2) Philip Edwards, 3) John Jones, and 4) Sally Jones
    1880 Jun 20
  • Bound volume kept by Egbert Watson Magruder containing "Miscellaneous Collections from Chemistry, Physics, and Mineralogy"
    1891 Feb 18
  • Photograph of the 41st Annual Convention of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists. Egbert Watson Magruder is standing second from the left
    1925 Oct
  • Unidentified plat
    n.d.