Papers of Lewis Preston Summers 1814-1947

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968

Summary

Abstract:
The Papers of Lewis Preston Summers contain correspondence concerning genealogy, Virginia history, and politics; financial and legal records; book notes and manuscripts; photographs; a Ku Klux Klan file; voter lists, diaries, and speeches.
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection consists of the papers of Lewis Preston Summers (1868-1943), a lawyer, genealogist, member of the Republican Party, and author of Abingdon, Virginia, containing correspondence concerning genealogy, the history of Southwest Virginia, and politics, especially local politics of the ninth Virginia district, Congressman Campbell Bascom Slemp, and applicants for political positions (1870-1943); financial and legal records for the newspaper The Virginia Republican, owned and edited by Summers; genealogical and historical research notes; and setting copies, galleys, page proofs, and drafts, of manuscripts for his books, Annals of Southwest Virginiaand History of Southwest Virginia, and the unpublished Southwest Virginia in the World War.

Other materials include photographs; news clippings and printed; World War I History Commission papers, kept by Summers, who was the chairman of the Washington County Virginia War History Commission, including correspondence, military service records of men serving from Southwest Virginia, arranged alphabetically, photographs of soldiers and scenes, and related material; bound volumes, especially several pertaining to the Preston family of Walnut Grove, Washington County; a file on the Ku Klux Klan (Box 22); lists of voters; memorabilia; speeches by Lewis Preston Summers; invitations; the original and typescript copy of the journal of Hugh Johnston (Box 25); land plots; and papers concerning the Walnut Grove Cemetery Association, for the preservation of the historic Walnut Grove Presbyterian Church Cemetery, four miles east of Bristol, Washington County, Virginia (Box 32).

Photographs of men who appear as illustrations in History of Southwest Virginia(see Box 26, Photographs of Distinguished Men of Washington County & Southwest Virginia) include: Charles W. Alderson; David F. Bailey; Charles S. Bekem; Henry Bowen; Rees T. Bowen; B.F. Buchanan; John A. Buchanan; Joseph M. Butt; Joseph T. Campbell; David B. Clark; C.H. Clung; Charles B. Coale; the Rev. Lewis F. Cosby; Judge David C. Cummings; Joseph Draper; David C. Dunn; Samuel P. Edmondson; Benjamin Estill; John B. Floyd; Isaac Chapman Fowler; Colonel Abram Fulkerson; Judge F.V. Fulkerson; Andrew S. Fulton; George Graham; Robert E. Grant; James S. Greever; A.J. Huff; Francis B. Hutton; Charles H. Jennings; John W. Johnston; General William E. Jones; Judge John A. Kelly; E.S. Kendrick; Selden Longley; J.W. Mort; Fayette McMullen; John W. Price; Andrew F. Rambo; James B. Richmond; E.L. Roberts; John Roberts; John P. Sheffey; Campbell Slemp; Alexander Smyth; L.H. Snodgrass; Charles W. Steele; John C. Summers; William Terry; W.H. Tomney; Connally F. Trigg; James A. Walker; George W. Ward, Jr.

Biographical / historical:

Lewis Preston Summers (1868-1943) was the son of John Calhoun and Nannie Montgomery (Preston) Summers. John C. Summers was a captain of the "Monroe Invincibles", Company A, 3rd Virginia Regiment, and major and lieutenant colonel, of the 60th Virginia Infantry. His mother was the daughter of John F. Preston, of Locust Glen, Washington County. Summers graduated from the Wytheville Male Academy (1886), the University of Virginia (1890-1893) in common and statute law, studying with Professor John B. Minor, and Tulane (1894-1895) civil law. He married Annie Katherine Barbee of Giles County, in 1897, and they had Gay White, Jane Douglas, Lewis Preston, Katharine Barbee, John Grant, Andrew Rowan, and Olivia Wirt.

Summers served as a railway postal clerk, on the route between Lynchburg, Virginia, and Bristol, Tennessee, and as the Abingdon postmaster, 1890-1894. He began his legal practice in Abingdon in 1895, was commonwealth attorney for Washington County (1904-1905), collector of internal revenue, Western district of Virginia (1905-1913), and appointed U.S. district attorney, by President Harding, in 1922, and member of the Virginia State Bar Association and Presbyterian Church. He was a member of the Republican district committee from the ninth Virginia district from 1894-1904 and elected a member of the Republican State executive committee on March 1904. Summers was also the chairman of the Walnut Grove Cemetery Association, Washington County, Virginia. The land upon which this historic cemetery was located was originally owned by Robert Preston, Sr. of Walnut Grove, whose wife, Margaret Rhea Preston, and mother, Eleanor Fairman Preston, established the cemetery. Several bound volumes pertaining to Walnut Grove and the Preston family are present in this collection.

Acquisition information:
These papers were purchased from Andrew R. Summers, New York City, by the University of Virginia Library on March 15, 1965.
Arrangement:

This collection is arranged in seven series:

Series I: Manuscripts of Books by Lewis Preston Summers (Boxes 1-10)
Series II: Correspondence re Genealogy (Boxes 11- 14)
Series III: Papers re The Virginia RepublicanNewspaper (Boxes 15-16)
Series IV: Political Correspondence & Related Papers (Boxes 16-25)
Series V: Research Notes & Miscellaneous Files (Boxes 25- 32)
Series VI: World War I History Commission Papers (Boxes 32-36)
Series VII: Bound Ledgers, Scrapbooks & Other Volumes (Boxes 37-50, including Ledgers & Oversize Boxes S-49 & M-18)

Physical description:
ca. 20,500 items (50 Hollinger boxes and thirty-three 2M Ledgers, ca. 25 linear shelf feet)