Creator: Southall and Bowen family.
Collection number: 4135
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Abstract: Family correspondence and other papers of four generations of the Southall, Bowen, Wheeler, Moore, and Peebles families of Lowndes County, Miss.; Northampton and Hertford counties, N.C.; Denver, Colo.; Norfolk, Va.; Wayne County, Mich.; Ramsey County, Minn.; and Bulloch County, Ga. Included are mostly brief and routine family letters, 1846-1860; affectionate letters during the Civil War between sisters in Columbus, Miss., and Hertford County, N.C., about family and community affairs and their teaching careers; letters from Confederate soldiers in many places, especially Wilmington, N.C., 1863-1864; and letters from Thomas L. Moore, officer on the C.S.S. “Florida”. Also included are letters written by family members about their lives and careers, including the work of William Cornelius (Neil) Bowen (d. 1912), lawyer of Jackson, N.C., and Denver, Colo.; Episcopal Church affairs; community matters; and family activities and household management. Among the later papers are letters, 1890s, from students at St. Mary’s School in Raleigh, N.C. There are also diaries of Sarah Clifton Southall of Columbus, Miss., 1859-1860; of Emily Bland Southall of Jackson, N.C., 1862, including a detailed description of the federal invasion of North Carolina; and of Julia M. Southall, 1862- 1876, written while she was teaching in Columbus, Miss., at Wesleyan Female College in Murfreesboro, N.C., and in West Point, N.Y., and including her reflections on teaching.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Folder 2 contains a February 1853 letter from “MMS” in Nashville writes to James Southall describing the death of three enslaved individuals while slaughtering hogs. Also, there is a 23 October 1898 letter from Julia Southall, writing about relations with her African American servants and fears of racial unrest during the upcoming election (Folder 44-45).