Administrative Information

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Restricted.

Preferred Citation

Gaines Family Papers, Accession #10716, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Gaines family papers were given to the Library by Mrs. John C. Allan of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, on April 7, 1987, in memory of Harriet Purdy Blackwell.

Biographical/Historical Information

The children of Mary Ann Camm (1799-1871) & Richard Gaines were: 1) Marcus Junius (1821- ?) m. (1854) Maggie Dickson (1831- ?) 2) Mary E. (ca. 1823?- ?) m. Francis A. Robertson 3) Susan E. (1824? -?) 4) Dr. Thomas J. (1825?- 1857) 5) Sallie (1828-1892) m. James Taylor Sutton 6) Henry (1832?- ?) 7) Lucius Gaines (1833-1863) 8) Richard (1835- ?)

Scope and Content

The Gaines family papers consist of sixty-nine items, 1841-[1890?], chiefly the correspondence of Marcus Junius Gaines (1821-? ), Maggie Dickson Gaines (1831-? ), and other members of the Gaines family of Dinwiddie County, Virginia, and include typed transcripts for most of the letters. Marcus Gaines was the United States Consul to Tripoli from 1849-186[8?], where he met and married his English wife, Maggie Dickson, in 1854.

The correspondence of the Gaines family includes the following topics: Marcus and Sally Gaines' recent profession of faith (November 30, 1841); Sally to Tom Gaines concerning his recent conversation (December 3, 1850); letters of sympathy regarding the death of Lucius Gaines, killed at Moscow, Tennessee (December 23, 1863, and January 4 & 8, 1864); letters concerning how to contact absent sons, Richard and Marcus (January 2 & February 6, 1864); a Josiah Moore letter concerning the death of Mary Ann Camm Gaines, the mother of Marcus Gaines, (April 22, 1871); and an eulogy or obituary for Mary Ann Camm Gaines (April 7, 1871).

The letters of Marcus and Maggie Gaines from Tripoli, 1849-1868, and Duxbury, Massachusetts, 1869-1878, include the following subjects: Marcus describes his departure from Hampton Roads; his stopover in Genoa, with his visits to a palace on Strada Nuova, and churches; the paintings of the masters; and an attempted revolution by the people and the establishment of a Republic that lasted only three days (March 7 & April 16, 1849); he reveals his craving for a meal of Virginia ham, buttermilk, and ash-cake, his preferences regarding women, favoring Virginians over foreign countries, and his social life in Tripoli (1849 ?); he also discusses pointer and setter dogs, speaks of how favorably America compares to the rest of the world, describes his weekly soirees, gives a long discourse on the absence of drunkenness in European or Tripolian society and its prevalence in America, and urges his brother to join the Sons of Temperance, describes his recreational activities, such as shooting game and horseback riding, the hospitality of the Arabs of Tripoli, and the carved Phoenician stones that he is sending home (April 30, 1850); and Marcus shares his intentions of publishing a series of articles in The Southern Literary Messenger tentatively entitled, "Tramps and Travels" and describes antelope hunting and his garden (May 17, 1851).

Maggie Gaines wrote her new mother-in-law two months after her marriage to Marcus Junius Gaines (February 11, 1855) and Marcus wrote of his marriage to Maggie and her reforms in the household economy shortly thereafter (February 20, 1855). Other letters from the couple include the following: Maggie mentions the Muslim fast "Ramadan," the Arab shops, the feast that follows "Ramadan," and Arab entertainments (June 13, 1855); Marcus thanks his mother for her letter to his new wife (June 20 [1855]); they informed Mary Gaines of the impending birth of their child in March and the arrival of a new Turkish Pasha, Othman Pasha, 1855- 1857, (October 23, 1855); Maggie speaks of her brother, Dr. E. D. Dickson, and his position as physician to the English Embassy at Constantinople [February 10, 1857]; Marcus laments the death of his brother Tom and a friend, Ned (August 13, 1857); she mentions Dickson, their seven month old son, a visit to the apartments of the wife of the Pasha, her brother Charles' appointment as Consul of a town on the Black Sea, and her concern about Marcus's possible recall [February 23, [1858]); and the last several letters from Tripoli generally discuss their children and recreational activities (November 23, 1858; [January 1859]; March 1860; [1862]. Their last letter from Tripoli speaks of Gaines' orders to leave Tripoli for America and his new job for the Telegraph Company in New York [December 24, 1868].

The remaining letters from Marcus and Maggie Gaines concerns his work with the laying of the transatlantic cable between France and America, the Societe du Cable Transatlantique Francais, and his reunion with his mother after twenty years (May 12, 1869 & July 30, 1870); they also speak of Maggie's illness (January 27 & March 6, 1878).

Another group of correspondence consists of electrostatic copies of letters, 1849-1857, from the National Archives concerning the service of Marcus Junius Gaines as Consul in Tripoli and typed transcripts of each letter. These include: a recommendation for his recall from Tripoli because of unfavorable comments that he made concerning President Taylor before his election (August 14, 1849); petitions on Gaines' behalf from twenty-seven Whig citizens of Petersburg, Virginia, and citizens of Dinwiddie County, Virginia (December 12, 1849, & April 11, [1850]); and letters from Gaines, his mother, Mary Ann Camm Gaines, and R.K. Meade, with whom he practiced law before his appointment as Consul to Tripoli by President Polk, all requesting that Gaines be allowed to retain his post in spite of changing administrations because of his financial hardship and his superior capabilities (April 15, 1850; March 11, 1853; and May 27, & July 29, 1857).

Present in this collection are photographs of the children of Marcus and Maggie Gaines, Charles Gaines (1871-?), Dickson Gaines (1857-?), and Elizabeth Gaines (1862-? ); and three of Marcus Gaines' sisters and brothers, Lucius Gaines (1833-1863), Richard Gaines (1835?- ?), and Sallie Gaines Sutton (1828-1892).

The genealogical material contains census records for members of the Gaines family in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, (1850), Duxbury, Massachusetts, (1880), and Saline County, Missouri, (1860), as well as Who Was Who entries, two pages from History of Saline County , and copies of newspaper clippings about Lucius and Marcus Gaines.