Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Papers of the Palmore Family, Accession #38-149,-a, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The original group of the Palmore family papers (#38-149) was lent to the Library by Miss Kate White and Mr. H. P. White of New Canton, Virginia on February 15, 1934. These papers, together with a second lot (#39-149, -a), were given to the Library by Miss Kate White on January 23, 1985.

Biographical/Historical Information

Joseph S. Palmore (1805-1846) and Lucy Ann Allen (1807-1881) were married in 1826 and resided in Cumberland County. They had two sons, William James (1829-1861) and Charles Benjamin (1832-1896). William James Palmore married Suaan A. Price (1839-?), daughter of Thomas Price, in 1859 and had one daughter, Amanda W. J. Palmore (1861-?) before his death of typhoid fever at Yorktown, Virginia in 1861. Susan Palmore married a Mr. Hale sometime prior to 1870. Charles Benjamin Palmore married Martha James Phillips (1839-1909), daughter of Richard J. (1814-1871) and Eliza W. Phillips (1818-1885) in 1862. They had the following children: 1) Lucy Ann Palmore (1863-?) m. 1906 Richard E. Anderson 2) Richard Joseph Palmore (1867-?) 3) Elizabeth Allen Palmore (1869-1910) m. 1890 Mr. W. H. White 4) Sarah B. Palmore (1872-?) 5) James Watson Palmore (1876-1955) 6) William Wharey Palmore (1879-1907) m. 1903 Pearl Barrow 7) Charles Benjamin Palmore, Jr. (1883-1957)

Lucy A. Palmore was remarried ca. 1859 to Josiah Bauldin and moved from Virginia to Salina County, Missouri.

Scope and Content

The Palmore Family Papers contain 2,200 items (4 Hollinger boxes, 1.5 linear feet), 1781-1958, chiefly the business papers, legal papers, and correspondence of members of the Palmore family of Cumberland County, Virginia, and their relations. Most of the correspondence is that of Joseph S. Palmore (1805-1846) and his wife, Lucy Ann (Allen) Palmore Gauldin (1807-1881), who married Josiah Gauldin in 1859. Individuals represented in the business papers include: James D. Allen (1788-1836), Sarah Palmore (d. 1834), Lucy A. Palmore Gauldin, the four brothers William J., Charles, Joseph S. and John R. Palmore, and the two sons of Joseph Palmore, William James (1829-1861) and Charles Benjamin (1832-1896).

Other materials found in the collection include: records of the 17th Regiment of Infantry in the Virginia Militia; records of Joseph S. Palmore as Deputy Sheriff and Sheriff of Cumberland County; Palmore family Bible records; a few papers concerning the service of C. B. Palmore in Company A, 53rd Regiment, of the Confederate Army; and papers pertaining to the estate of C. B. Palmore, Jr.

Particular items of interest in the business papers include payments to C. B. Palmore as overseer (1859), and "account of hiring Negroes" with a letter regarding the whipping of Cornelia, a slave (1860), the estate of Sarah Palmore (1834), a slave slae receipt (1830) and slave hiring record (1834). Some of the papers pertaining to Joseph Palmore's work as Deputy Sheriff and Sheriff of Cumberland County are also located in the business and legal folders for the years 1840-1846.

The following list of the correspondence found in the Palmore family papers includes the dates of their letters: Thomas Adams (Jun and Oct 1864); Bettie Allen (Apr 1857); James D. Allen (Feb 1830; Jan, Oct and Nov 1835); Henry Anderson (Sep 1842); the Armistead family (Aug 1842; Jul 1844; Feb and Mar 1845); Thomas S. Boccok (Nov 1845); Clabourn Bouls (Mar 1840); Henry E. Bousman (Apr 1846); Mollie Catlin (Nov 1868); Rebecca (Allen) Catlin (Mar 1848; Jun 1852; Oct 1854; Jun and Jul 1858; Mar 1878; N.D.); Henry Chenault (Dec 1844); Thomas W. Crowder (Jun and Aug 1842); John Daniels (Nov 1845); Fanny A. Flippin (Jan 1847); Bettie Garrett (Mar and Oct 1860; Jul 1875; N.D.); James Garrett (De 1845; Aug 1846); Jonas G[auldin] (Apr 1868); Josiah Gauldin (Aug 1855; May 1868; n.d.); Lucy Ann (Palmore) Gauldin (Apr 1851; Feb 1856; Apr, Jul, and Oct 1866; Mar 1870; Aug 1872; Dec 1873; n.d.); Jinnie Gavy (Jan and Mar 1868); Virginia Gilliam (Jun 1852); [Kate Phillips Glover] (Dec 1879); L. V. Grenant (Feb 1878); Susan A. (Palmore) Hale (Dec 1859; Nov 1860; Mar 1861; Feb and Mar 1869; Jun 1870; Nov 1872); John E. hendrick (Jun and Dec 1864; Jan 1865); John Huddleston (Dec 1834 and Jun 1835); Jeter family (Oct 1838; Mar and Dec 1840; Oct 1857; May 1858; July 1868; Mar 1869); C. H. N. Johnson (Feb and Dec 1844); William M. Jones (Aug 1839); S. T. Lambeth (Oct 1868); F. S. S. Lang (Jun 1844); Marice Langhorne (Apr 1828); Ligon family (Jan and Feb 1848; Aug 1864; Jan 1865; and n.d.); L. A. Mann (Jan 1858); George H. Matthews (Sep 1842 and Dec 1845); E. A. A. Mitchell (Jul 1860); Joseph T. Morton (Feb and Apr 1851); Amanda Palmore (Dec 1868; May 1874; Mar 1878; Feb 1879); Charles Benjamin Palmore (Sep 1841); C. B. Palmore (Feb, Mar, May, Oct, and Nov 1860; Jan and May 1861; Sep 1865; and n.d.); C. R. Palmore (Oct 1854); John R. Palmore (Jun and Dec 1842; Jun and Oct 1845; Aug 1846); Joseph S. Palmore (Jun 1829; Nov 1835); Joseph W. Palmore Lucy Ann Palmore (Jan 1881); Martha J. (Phillips) Palmore (Sep 1865; Feb 1867; Nov 1868; Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jul, and Aug 1869; Jun, Aug, Sep, and Dec 1870; Sep and Oct 1871; Jun and Jul 1873; May 1875; Oct 1878; Jan, Sep and Dec 1879; Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Aug and Oct 1880; Jan 1881, and n.d.); Sarah ("Sally") Palmore (Jun 1828); William James Palmore (Jan 1860; Jan and Mar 1861); Valentine Parrish (Sep 1846); Perkins family (May 1904 and n.d.); Bettie Phillips (Apr 1869); [Mary J. Phillips] (Sep 1856); J. M. Poindeter (Feb 1850); Thomas W. Price (Dec 1871); Ann A. Rives (Mar 1861); W. C. Scott (Jan and Mar 1846); Martha Seay (Feb 1878); E. Shepperson (Aug 1840); John Thompson (Nov 1842); Trent family (n.d. and Jul 1866); Maria T. Waldron (Nov 1850); Lurline Walker (Dec 1858); Watkins family (Apr and Aug 1830; Jul 1833; Jan 1840; Apr 1843); and White family (Feb 1891; Nov 1915; and n.d.)

Topics of interest in the letters include: slavery or slaves (April 1 and July 14, 1833; May 15, 1842 and May 11, 1860), including a letter from a slave "Lewis" to Lucy Ann (Palmore) Gauldin requesting that he be allowed to live the remainder of his life with Mrs. James Dowdy who owns his wife (October 28, 1860); crops, quality of agricultural land and crop prices (February 14, 1830; August 30, 1833; January 5, 1835; May 10, 1869; March 5, 1870; and February 29, 1880); religious attitudes (June 1844); the unfavorable effect of the Mexican War upon banking and business (March 26, 1846); preprarations to travel to Harper's Ferry (December 4, 1859); references to the involvement of C. B. Palmore in the Cumberland troop prior to the Civil War (July 21, 1860; January 31, 1861; May 31, 1861); attitudes toward the presidential election of 1860 (November 7, 1860); letters from Confederate prisoners of war (June 15 and 23, Augst 10, October 19, December 17 and 29, 1864; January 9, 16, and 28, 1865); life during Reconstruction in Virginia and Arkansas (September 25, 1865, August 24, 1870, April 20, 1869, October 17, 1871, October 2, 1868, and n.d.); Democratic mass meeting at Fairview (April 14, 1868); price of hiring freedmen in the fields and at home (January 21, 1869; and December 30, 1870); the black vote in Cumberland County in the gubernatorial race between Henry Horatio Wells and Bilbert Carlton Walker (July 10, 1869); the Readjuster and Funder's political parties (December 25, 1879) and family life on the farm (January 15, 1879).

Arrangement

The Palmore Family Papers are arranged chronologically within three series: 1) Business and Legal, 2) Correspondence, 3) Miscellaneous papers. They include two separate but complementary accessions that have been interfiled and described together.