Creator: Spears and Hicks family papers, 1852-191 [manuscript].
Collection number: 4622
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Abstract: Three generations of the Spears and Hicks families of Virginia and North Carolina, including Sallie Gray Spears Lewis (b. 1833), her daughter Sallie Moore Spears Hicks (b. 1860), and her grandson Charles Spears Hicks (b. 1886), a North Carolina banker. Primarily personal letters, 1852-1917, detailing the family, social, and financial affairs of members of the Spears and Hicks and related Gray, Warren, Glasgow, and Lewis families of Fincastle and Botetourt County, Va.; Malden and Charleston, W.Va.; Wilmington and Dunn, N.C.; Paris, Tex.; Saline County, Mo.; and other locations. Subjects include military life and social conditions during the Civil War; farming in various locations; student life at the Augusta Female Seminary (later Mary Baldwin College) in Staunton, Va., 1875-1881; conditions among slaves, including an 1861 slave list; women’s lives and business dealings; banking in North Carolina, 1908-1917, including mention of a Chinese banker in Wilmington; engineering of heating and cooling systems, 1908-1917; experiences of an elderly woman living with her daughter’s family; and social aspects of tuberculosis. There are also many letters from Virginia lawyers William A. Glasgow and his son Frank T. Glasgow.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Topics discussed include slavery in Virginia in the correspondence between 1852-1861 (Folders 1 & 2). An letter dated 14 June 1880 also discuss race relations in England (Folder 13); and white relations with African American servants in West Virginia throughout 1908-1917 (Folders 18-27). The collection also contains a slave list from 1861 (Folder 10).