Creator: Sutherlin, William Thomas, 1822-1893.
Collection number: 3327
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Abstract: Farmer, leaf tobacco dealer, and tobacco manufacturer of Danville, Va., 1846-1861; mayor, 1855-1861; president of the Danville Bank; delegate to the Virginia secession convention; and Confederate major and quartermaster at Danville. After the Civil War, Sutherlin owned and operated several farms near Danville; was in the state legislature, 1872- 1874; president of the State Board of Agriculture and member of agricultural societies, railroad director, bank director and president, Methodist, Mason, and speaker and writer upon economic and agricultural topics. Business correspondence, deeds, bills, notes, voting returns, sales records and balance sheets, circular letters, shipping manifests, lists of current wholesale prices, accounts, telegrams, bankruptcy papers, payrolls and timetables, and contracts with agents, managers, and other business firms. The volumes, 1853-1892, are accounts and memoranda. The correspondence and other papers relate to the varied business affairs of Sutherlin as tobacco manufacturer and distributor throughout the southeast; Confederate major and quartermaster at Danville; builder and operator of railroad lines in the vicinity of Danville; farmer, banker, capitalist; and holder of miscellaneous positions of trust in the community and state. The papers are concerned also with legislation affecting banking and railroads, current politics in relation to economic conditions, requests for political and economic patronage, loans, and other aid.The Civil War papers include letters from soldiers in Virginia, state legislators, and Confederate congressmen and businessmen, as well as papers relating to Sutherlin’s work in procuring provisions for the Confederate Army, locating scarce items for commercial and industrial use, and his own tobacco business. Included are letters, 1860-1866, from traveling salesmen and crop-buying agents covering the southeast on tobacco business.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection