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Business records and correspondence of Henry Brown and Samuel P. Clayton. After the death of his brother Daniel in 1818, Brown entered into a partnership with Clayton, his son-in-law. Brown survived Clayton, who died in 1832; this box also includes papers from 1833 to 1839 made out to Henry Brown, surviving partner of Brown and Clayton Company. The accounts of Henry Brown with Hancock and Brown, Lynchburg, 1824-1833, are retained as one group. Also retained as a separate group are the papers relating to the court suits of Brown and Pleasant Murphy. All notes of the period carried a 100 percent penalty clause. This resulted in many law suits being brought to establish what would now be considered exorbitant claims. In one case (see entry for March 10, 1823) for a debt of $42.05, the debtor surrendered 1 sound filly, 2 cows, a calf, 2 feather beds, all household and kitchen furniture, all plantation utensils, and 6 hogs! 159 items.

Correspondence primarily of the two surviving children of John and Francis Bland Tucker Coalter: Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan and St. George Tucker Coalter, and their respective spouses, John Randolph Bryan and Judith H. Tomlin Coalter. Includes genealogical material on the Tomlin family, and correspondence of Judith H. Tomlin before her marriage to St. George Tucker Coalter. Her letters form an important part of the collection from this time until her death in 1859. The last letters from their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. St. George Tucker, are preserved, as well as letters to their uncles Henry and Beverley Tucker and John Randolph of Roanoke. Of special note is a letter of October 1831 in which St. George Tucker Coalter writes fully of Randolph during a visit to Roanoke. After his death in 1833, Randolph's will caused great difficulty and misunderstanding in the family, and appears to cast a slur on his step-father St. George Tucker. The letters of St. George Tucker Coalter to his wife and sister, especially those written from the springs which he visits each year, form the largest single group. In these letters an interesting picture of nineteenth century social life is to be found.

Correspondence while Brown established himself in Clarksburg, and while representing Harrison County in the General Assembly. The material in this box covers the period 1825 to 1829, when John Thompson Brown was resident of Clarksburg, Harrison County, Virginia (later West Virginia). In this period John Thompson Brown wrote some of the "Letters to the Editor," printed in the Clarksburg Enquirer, contained in the scrap book noted above in Box 14. A draft of a part of the letter concerning the poverty of Mr. Jefferson is to be found in this box (1825). In July 1826, John Thompson Brown wrote to his brother Henry Brown, Jr. of his aim to run for the U.S. Congress. In 1827 he was elected to the House of Delegates; he was re-elected in 1828 and 1829. This box also contains various printed and manuscript material touching upon his career in the General Assembly. By the end of 1829, John Thompson Brown had established himself in Clarksburg, built a house, and planned to buy into a partnership in a store to advance his financial position. In a letter of March 23, 1829 he mentions his desire to run in the next election for the U.S. Congress.

Correspondence of the immediate family of Captain Henry Brown. Also includes personal correspondence of Henry Brown with his brothers, Samuel and Daniel, and his children. The correspondence between Henry Brown and his son, John Thompson Brown, is found in Boxes 14-19. Also, letters from the sons and daughters of Samuel, brother of Henry Brown. In a separate group are collected letters written by Edward J. Steptoe, grandson of Henry Brown, from West Point Military Academy and from the Indian Wars in Florida, where he served after he was commissioned.

Children of John Coalter: Elizabeth Tucker Coalter and St. George Tucker Coalter; their spouses; children and other extended family

Household, family and personal bills preserved by Henry Brown, an interesting collection of a family illustrating the activities of eight children in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, 1819-1841.

The series spans genealogical material, introductory material, poems, autographical material and John Coalter's correspondence until the death of his first wife, Maria Rind. The record of the gift of the collection, genealogical charts of the Tucker, Coalter, Tomlin and Brown families, and sundry genealogical notes which form a preface to the collection, are placed at the beginning of this box. The collection begins with 54 poems, the first of which is signed by St. George Tucker. Two signed poems by William Munford are included. The largest group of poems are those exchanged by John Coalter and Maria Rind, his first wife. Others were collected in the family papers until the middle or the latter part of the nineteenth century. The bulk of the material in Box 1 concerns John Coalter: an autobiographical sketch written by him on his 18th birthday, and letters covering the period of his early life from 1787, when he went to live with the St. George Tucker family, until the death of his first wife in 1793. Interesting letters from John Munford, a classmate of Coalter, are included, several of which concern the College of William and Mary and Harvard College. 221 items.

Children of Captain Henry Brown: letters of Henry Brown, Jr., oldest son of Captain Henry Brown; Samuel Thompson Brown, youngest son; and other members of the immediate family. Henry Brown, Jr., who suffered a grave illness in 1822 as a result of which he almost lost his eyesight, went into the partnership of his father with Amman Hancock. In 1835-1836, he opened his own store in Lynchburg, but died in May 1836, while on a buying trip to New York. Interesting items in this part of the collection include a 44 page book of mineral and chemical notes (31 July 1826), a 56 page diary kept by Henry Brown, Jr. on his trip abroad (24 July 1831), drafts of letters by Henry Brown, Jr. to newspapers regarding horses, and instructions for horse care, and the like (13 April 1835-March 1836). The will of Henry Brown, Jr. (May-December 1830), and his deathbed statement dictated to his wife (May 1836), are also included. The papers of Samuel Thompson Brown include the card which announced the opening of his law office in Bedford (8 May 1838), records of his marriage in Alabama (27 April 1840), and the death of his wife within the year (3 April 1841). A letter of 22 January 1842, mentions the business failures taking place in Richmond and Lynchburg, and one of 27 August of the same year comments on the national political situation which is "sadly out of joint." In a letter of 20 September [1845], there is a report of "the thefts which were perpetrated by Thomas H. Benton whilst a student at Chapel Hill." 128 items.

Captain Henry Brown had many interests in his long life apart from the purely commercial activities upon which his considerable fortune was built. Included in this box are the papers relating to his other interests: Papers of Captain Henry Brown as Sheriff of Bedford County, Treasurer of the New London Academy Meeting House and of the New London Agricultural Society, and as executor of the estates of his brother, Daniel Brown, and father-in-law, John Thompson.