Checklist of documents in the Watts Collection at the
Historical Society of Western Virginia, Roanoke, Virginia. To consult these
documents, go to http://www.vahistorymuseum.org/ and move the cursor to
the “Virtual Museum” tile at the top. Then click “Virtual Collections” on the
menu that appears. The documents can be found by a keyword search, or by
catalog number using “Click and Search”. Some or all of the documents described
here may not yet be available online, but all may be consulted on site.
This is a relatively ill-assorted group of documents. They
range in date from 1850 to 1853, and cover many different topics. The largest
number (8) relate to various lawsuits in
which William Watts was a lawyer or adviser. A small group (5) concerns the
Exchange Bank of Virginia; William Watts had just taken the presidency of the
newly founded Salem branch. Several documents (4) concern land sales, but with
no relation to each other. Several (4) involve politics and public affairs. A
final group (3) is made up of account statements and receipts. And one letter
is a personal request for advice.
doc #
date
abstract
1998.26.476
December 24, 1850
Letter from John
Benjamin Irwin Logan, in Norfolk, Virginia, to William Watts, in Big Lick,
Roanoke County, Virginia, announcing his resignation as cashier of the new
Salem branch of the Exchange Bank of Virginia, which he has submitted to
William Willoughby Sharp
1998.26.477
December 26, 1850
Letter from John
Benjamin Irwin Logan, in Richmond, Virginia, to William Watts, in Big Lick,
Roanoke County, Virginia, withdrawing his tender of resignation as cashier of
the new Salem branch of the Exchange Bank of Virginia, and trying to arrange a
meeting with Watts in Lynchburg, where the letter was postmarked four days
after being written; an apparent postscript from the postmaster Armstead P.
Neal seems to request that the meeting be in Salem, Virginia
1998.26.478
December 27, 1850
Letter from John
Benjamin Irwin Logan, in Richmond, Virginia, to William Watts, in Big Lick,
Roanoke County, Virginia, trying to schedule a meeting with Watts either in
Lynchburg or in Richmond, Virginia
1998.26.479
December 31, 1850
Letter from John S.
Wilson, in Buchanan, Virginia, to William Watts, in Roanoke County, Virginia,
agreeing with Watts that the tolls are excessively high, given the condition of
the road, and asking Watts to support Mr Boyd in Richmond in trying to have
them reduced
1998.26.480
March 13, 1851
Letter from William
Wilson Corcoran, in Washington, DC, to Cary Breckinridge, in Fincastle,
Virginia, asking for a reply to his offer to purchase lots in Washington, DC
I have therefore to ask an answer by return
mail, and if the price I offer is not satisfactory, state the lowest figure,
& I will determine, at once, whether I will take them. Respectfully yrs, W.
W. Corcoran
See my
earlier post on James Breckinridge’s land holdings in Washington, DC.
1998.26.481
April 5, 1852
Letter from Henry
Scarsbrook Langhorne to William C. Langhorne, demanding that he produce a
letter from William Watts referred to in a deposition by Morton, and notifying
William that further depositions will be taken at the tavern house of William
Terry in Liberty (Bedford), Bedford County, Virginia
1998.26.482
April 7, 1852
Letter from William
C. Langhorne to William Watts, at Fincastle, Virginia, covering the return of
the letter requested in 1998.26.481, suggesting that John A. Langhorne also
give a deposition, reporting on his own ill health, noting that his brother
Henry Scarsbrook Langhorne has retained counsel, and touching on other aspects
of the lawsuit
1998.26.483
April 17, 1852
Letter from Gustavus
Adolphus Wingfield, in Liberty (Bedford), Virginia, to Alfred Terrell Dillard,
proposing a compromise with John M. Patton regarding a fee and percentages of a
recovery in the name of Dillard and Alexander Cabell
1998.26.484
May 26, 1851
Letter from Robert
Jamieson, in Alexandria, Virginia, to William Watts, in Richmond, Virginia,
asking if Watts’s bank can supply Jamieson’s with some banknotes, because they
are pressed for currency; also regrets a difficulty in Norfolk, and predicts
earnings of 5 percent for the past six months
We are at present so greatly pressed for
currency, that I shall feel much obliged, if your bank can furnish us with a
parcel of your notes in exchange for ours, and beg you will let me know if it
is in your power to aid us. If you have any notes in Richmond to fill up, I
will undertake to letter and number them as before, after your name is
inserted. Please let me hear from you at your earliest leisure and Oblige your
Obt Servt [Obedient Servant], Robt Jamieson
Robert
Jamieson was the son of a Scottish-born baker, who settled in Alexandria,
Virginia, and founded a large bakery business there. Robert took over the
direction of the business in 1821 and continued to run it after he became
president of the Alexandria branch of the Exchange Bank of Virginia around
1850. He was still president in 1861.
1998.26.485
June 24, 1851
Two separate but
related documents are classified under this number. Letter from William M. Cook
to William Watts, covering a copy of the record in a court case concerning a
slave named Daniel, and sending snippets of news. Letter from William H.
Richardson, secretary of the commonwealth of Virginia, to William M. Cook,
concerning the payment due to Cook from the auditor of public accounts in the
case concerning the slave named Daniel.
1998.26.486
July 24, 1851
Letter from Andrew
Dannon, in Covington, Virginia, to an unnamed addressee, presumably William
Watts, objecting to a plan to combine Alleghany and Craig Counties in an
electoral district for a delegate to the state legislature, and appealing to
the addressee to have the Constitutional Convention reconsider the matter
1998.26.487
August 25, 1850
Letter from William
Watts, at home at Oaklands, Roanoke County, Virginia, to William C. Langhorne,
at Cloverdale, Botetourt County, Virginia, giving his opinion that an effort by
Langhorne’s brother Henry Scarsbrook Langhorne to compel someone to go onto William’s land has no legal basis and
will not be supported by the courts in Bedford and Botetourt Counties
1998.26.488
August 25, 1851
Letter from John
Robin McDaniel, in Lynchburg, Virginia, to William Watts, in Big Lick
(Roanoke), Virginia, asking him to name a price for lots he owns in Lynchburg
1998.26.489
September 2, 1851
Letter from Charles
Scott Carrington, at Halifax Court House, Virginia, to William Watts, in Big
Lick (Roanoke), Virginia, asking whether Big Lick would be a suitable place for
his brother Paul Scott Carrington to practice medicine
Please remember me to my cousins, your lady
& the family at Oaklands. Shall we not have the pleasure of seeing all of
you in Halifax this fall? Very truly yours, Chas. S. Carrington
Charles Scott
Carrington
(1820-1891) lived at Mildendo in Halifax County, Virginia. He graduated from
Hampden-Sydney College in 1839 and practiced law. William Watts and his siblings were second cousins of
Charles Carrington, as follows: Charles Carrington was a son of William Allen
Carrington and Sara Embra Scott; Sara Embra Scott was a daughter of Charles
Tomkies Scott and Priscilla Read; Charles Tomkies Scott was a brother of Mary
(Scott) Watts, grandmother of William Watts.
1998.26.490
September 6, 1851
Letter from William
Ransom Johnson, in Petersburg, Virginia, to William Watts, in Big Lick, Roanoke
County, Virginia, asking Watts to take depositions from Yelverton Neal Oliver
for a case pending in the chancery court of Louisville, Kentucky
1998.26.491
November 17, 1851
Letter from Samuel
C. Robinson, in Lexington, Virginia, to William Watts, in Big Lick (Roanoke),
Virginia, asking him to send the power of attorney to vote the shares of his
father Edward Watts at a stockholders’ meeting of the James River and Kanawha
Canal Company to Dr Archibald Graham, whose presence in Richmond, Virginia,
would be more certain
Lexington 17th Nov 1851
Dear Watts, Please enclose to Dr Graham in
Richmond the letter of attorney (which you promised me), to act as your
father’s proxy in the meeting of the James River Company.
Samuel
C. Robinson (c. 1815-aft. 1870) owned iron furnaces in Botetourt County,
Virginia; by 1860, he had moved to Richmond, Virginia, where he was recorded in
the census as lumber merchant (1860) and a merchant in iron works (1870). He
married in 1849 in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Margaret A. Graham (c. 1825-aft.
1870); she was a daughter of Dr Archibald Graham (c. 1794-aft. 1860), who lived
in Lexington, Virginia.
According to Langhorne Gibson, Jr,
in Cabell’s Canal: The Story of the James
River and Kanawha (Richmond, Virginia: The Commodore Press, 2000), the
company formed to construct a canal linking the James River with the Kanawha
River was formed in 1785. It would have built and operated a waterway linking
the mid-Atlantic cities of Richmond and Norfolk with the Ohio River in the
Middle West. It was completed as far as Lynchburg in 1840, and was extended to
Buchanan in 1851. Improvements to the North (Maury) River were to link
Lexington to the network of waterways. The project had met constant financial
difficulties, however, and by 1851 many of the backers wanted to turn the
company over to the state. The development of railroads offered viable
competition, and recurrent floods made the canal system unreliable. It was
never completed west of Buchanan, and ceased to function in 1880.
1998.26.492
November 26, 1851
Letter from George Plater
Tayloe, at his home Buena Vista in Roanoke County, Virginia, to William Watts,
at his home Oaklands in Roanoke County, Virginia, discussing plans for Tayloe’s
electoral campaign for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates; mentions
several Whig allies—Dr John Hook Griffin, Henry E. Blair, and James Kyle—and
his Democratic opponent, Robert Craig, and several regions in Roanoke
County—Stoner’s Store (Bonsack), Salem, Big Lick (Roanoke City), Catawba,
Botetourt Springs (Hollins)
1998.26.493
July 24, 1852
Bill and receipt
from Adolphus E. Huff, signed by Thomas Baylor, to Edward Watts, by his agent
W. M. Burks, for $6.50 paid cash in full for 39 yards of laid linen
1998.26.494
August 14, 1852
Copy of a notice
from John M. Patton to Alfred T. Dillard, demanding a copy of an earlier letter
from the same to the same, regarding Dillard’s engaging Patton as his attorney
in the case of Cabell vs Dillard, which Patton wants produced as evidence in
the case Patton vs Dillard, pending in the Roanoke County Circuit Court
1998.26.495
March 25, 1852
Plat and survey by
John Snyder, surveyor of Roanoke County, Virginia, made for Charles Houts, of
114 acres of land, which Houts bought from Berryman Stoutmyer, part of the
tract of Gasper Stoutmyer deceased, located in Roanoke County adjacent to lands
of Edward Watts and Urias Powers, including a portion of Evans Spring Branch
(Lick Run), and bounded in part by Cove Road and the Turnpike (Orange Avenue)
Surveyed for Charles Houts 114 acres of Land
which he has bought of Berryman Stoutmyer, the S[ai]d 114 Acres is part of the
Tract of Gasper Stoutmyer Deceased & is lying in the County of Roanoke and
is bounded as followeth, Beginning on the East Side of Evans Spring Branch
opposite a white oak corner to the land of General Edward Watts and Urias
Powers at 1
Charles
Houtz (c. 1826-1857) was born in Salem, Virginia, and died in Johnson County,
Missouri. Berryman Stoutmyer (1822-1900) was born in Botetourt (now Roanoke)
County and died in Clinton County, Missouri. His father Gaspar Stoutmyer (1787-1822)
died in Botetourt (now Roanoke) County. These names, both first and last, are
spelled variously.
The
tracts belonging to Caspar Stoutamire and Uriah Powers are shown approximately
in this detail of a map of “Roanoke County Farms 1825 to 1875” by J. R.Hildebrand.
1998.26.496
September 1, 1852
Copy of a deed
between Berryman Stoutamier and Elizabeth (Pettit) Stoutamier his wife of the
one part, and Charles Houtz of the second part, for the sale to Houtz of a
tract of 114 acres of land in Roanoke County, Virginia, adjacent to lands of
Edward Watts and Urias Powers, including a portion of Evans Spring Branch (Lick
Run), and bounded in part by Cove Road and the Turnpike (Orange Avenue)
1998.26.497
October 18, 1852
Receipt signed by
Thomas G. Huff to Hugh M. Burks for payment a note on John Bushong, executor,
to Edward Watts
1998.26.498
March 24, 1852
Receipt signed by
William Moncure Woodson for $247.28 to Edward Watts in payment of all accounts,
with Woodson accepting responsibility for paying a bill to Dr Thomas Goode for
attending Hector
1998.26.499
January 7, 1853
Letter from Harris,
Turner & Hale, druggists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to William Watts,
in Big Lick (Roanoke), Virginia, asking Watts to send a draft or check for the
proceeds of their account against Dr John McChesney
1998.26.500
May 31, 1853
Receipt from John
Benjamin Irwin Logan, cashier of the Exchange Bank of Virginia, Salem, for two
thousand dollars in notes received from Wright Southgate, cashier of the
Exchange Bank of Virginia, Norfolk, by the hands of William Watts
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