Special Collections, Kegley Library, Wytheville Community College
Special Collections© 2011 By Wytheville Community College. All rights reserved.
Processed by: Cathy Carlson Reynolds
Collection is open to research.
There are no restrictions.
Garnett Perkins Papers, Mss. Collection 2001.25, Kegley Library, Wytheville Community College, Wytheville, VA
Donated by Ruth Ann Chitwood in 2001 as part of the W. R. Chitwood Collection.
John Ellis Perkins, born 5 November 1843, married Sarah Rebecca Greever in the 1870s. Perkins worked as a railroad agent for Norfolk & Western Railroad and retired in 1908. He and his wife had seven children including Rachel Perkins Leeder (1875-1946), Holmes Gleaves Perkins (1876-1955), Frederick Carlisle Perkins (1878-1906), Annie Eliza Perkins (18880-1958), Landon Ellis Perkins (1885-1947), Dorothy M. Perkins (B. 1888) and Garnett R. Perkins (1890-1946). The Perkins boys all ventured into the hotel business. When their father died in 1916, Landon Perkins and Garnett Perkins managed the St. Charles Hotel in Norton, Virginia. They both also served in World War I.
The collection consists of five letters written to Garnett Perkins from 1908 to 1918.
Re: murder of James W. Spoon by [unknown] Pendleton; Holmes Gleaves Perkins; Landon Ellis Perkins, Annie Eliza Perkins; price of sugar.
Re: Howard Bourne; new hotel in Wytheville, Hotel Lindsey; "good looking daughter of old man Lindsey. "
Re: advice to sell business.
Fourth Avenue Hotel, Wytheville stationery. Re: his desire to find new hotel job.
Re: memories of fellow trainees, Hornet Vicars, and life in the trenches. "I have been at the front for three months. Its sure a great life if you don't mind the shells & you either have to like them or do K. P. behind the lines somewhere. "