Creator: Douglas, William Kirtland, 1830-1898.
Collection number: 1918
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Abstract: Native of Connecticut, Episcopal minister in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and educator. Personal and family papers of Douglas and of his wife, Sarah (Tucker) Douglas, of Natchez, Miss., before and after their marriage in 1857. Correspondents were members of both families, scattered over a wide geographical range, including Connecticut, New Jersey, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and Illinois, and attending several schools and colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in the 1840s and the College of William and Mary in the 1850s. There are papers relating to the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Louisiana, Tennessee, and especially in Dry Grove, Hinds County, Miss., where Douglas served as minister, 1871-1881, operated the Bishop Green Training School and Associate Mission, and edited the diocesan monthly. Correspondents include Bishop William Mercer Green, Oscar Kibbe, Leonidas Polk, and David Ker. Volumes include pocket diaries, 1855 and 1857, of Douglas in Connecticut and Waterproof, La., respectively; an album about student life at the University of Mississippi, ca. 1860; and notes made on ocean crossings to and from Europe in 1897, including comments on the weather, social activities, and fellow passengers.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: A letter from S. J. Gilmore in Salina, KS, advising against transporting poor people, white or black, to Kansas or other new territories (10 December 1877).