Records of ante-bellum southern plantations - LexisNexis

Virginia; Richard Randolph at Washington, D.C.; Philip H. Jones at Louisa Court House, Virginia;
James A. Seddon at Richmond, Virginia; and Arthur A. Morson of Morson & Seddon, Richmond
attorneys; and William L. King at New York, New York.
For 1849, there are several letters from Richard Randolph about the Dabney land claim, with
comments about the spoils system and corruption in government. Among business
correspondents were Thomas P. Shields, David Anderson, Jr., Lewis Webb, Philip H. Jones, and
Frank Ballinger of Kentucky. They mentioned various aspects of plantation business and
merchandising. In February 1849, Robert Lewis Dabney and Lavinia Dabney at Fisherville Post
Office, Augusta County, Virginia, announced the birth of a son. In May 1849, Charles William
Dabney wrote to other family members about a scandal involving his sister Ann’s husband.
Items for the years 1850 to 1855 are mostly papers of Charles William Dabney at Hanover
County, Virginia, and Robert Lewis Dabney at Augusta County, Virginia, including family
correspondence; there are chiefly letters from Charles William Dabney to Robert Lewis Dabney,
and also business letters to Charles William Dabney and other letters to Robert Lewis Dabney. A
claim against the U.S. Government for pay due Charles Dabney from the Revolutionary War was
settled. Mention is made of attempts to locate the heirs of Thomas Meriwether. Another child was
born to Robert Lewis Dabney and Lavinia (Morrison) Dabney. There are a few letters from the
Morrison family to Robert Lewis Dabney; also from Lavinia (Morrison) Dabney to him. These
letters mention mostly personal and family matters. There are letters from James M. Winston,
Thomas P. Shields, Richard Randolph, Philip H. Jones, and others, to the Dabneys, mostly about
business matters.
In 1851, there are letters Charles William Dabney wrote to Robert Lewis Dabney about
politics and his position in the sectional struggle. There are letters from Richard Randolph about
the claim of James Meriwether’s heirs. A letter dated 14 March 1851, from Charles William
Dabney to Robert Lewis Dabney mentions a current Presbyterian church controversy (this is also
mentioned in other letters) and also the Central Railroad’s plans for his neighborhood.
Subsequent letters discussed the advisability and possibility of publishing a pamphlet about
relations between the North and the South. In a letter, dated 11 September 1851, James
Morrison wrote to Robert Lewis Dabney about business of the Presbytery; he also wrote about
family matters. There is a small broadside about the election in Hanover County, Virginia, of May
1852, with Charles William Dabney listed as the commonwealth’s attorney. In a letter dated 14
November 1852, Charles William Dabney wrote to Robert Lewis Dabney, justifying slavery.
For 1854, there are letters to Robert Lewis Dabney at Hampden Sydney from Benjamin
Mosby Smith, mostly at Philadelphia, about Presbyterian matters, and from James Morrison at
“Bellevue,” Rockbridge County, Virginia, about religious, personal, and family matters. In a letter
dated 16 January 1855, John Samuels Caskie (1821–1869), U.S. House of Representatives,
gave information about Texas land and about the state of politics.
In a letter, dated 26 February 1855, William L. King wrote to Charles William Dabney about
family and personal affairs. Charles William Dabney commented, in a letter dated 1 April 1855, on
the tendency of the age towards socialistic schemes for internal improvement. There are letters
from James Morrison to Robert Lewis Dabney about church, family, and political matters,
including his negative sentiments about Catholicism. A letter dated 25 June 1855 is the first of a
series of California letters that continued intermittently to 1875, from Billy Thomas Pate, formerly
of Hanover County, Virginia, at Rabbit Creek, Sierra County, California, described his voyage
from New York; several weeks spent in San Francisco; the economic situation; his venture into
the mining business, building a hotel and a seed store; his life and work in California; the climate;
hazards; the Chinese, Indians, tax-collectors, and other matters. In a note of June 1855, there is
mention of the birth of Charles William Dabney (1855–1945) to Robert Lewis Dabney and Lavinia
(Morrison) Dabney; from November 1855, there is news of the death of Robert and Lavinia’s son,
James Dabney. In a letter dated 17 November 1855, Charles H. Shield described the terrible
losses in Norfolk, Virginia, after three months of a yellow fever epidemic.
Papers from 1856 are primarily letters and business items of Robert Lewis Dabney and
Lavinia (Morrison) Dabney and of Charles William Dabney, dealing chiefly with personal, family,
religious, and business matters. There are letters dated March and April 1856 from John S.
Reese at Baltimore, mostly about a new fertilizer he was experimenting with and selling. In a
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