Collections : [Wytheville Community College]

The Withers Family Papers chronicle the lives of several members of the Withers family and Kent family of Wythe County, Virginia, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Documents of Robert Enoch Withers, his son Robert Edwin Withers, and his wife Mary Cloyd Kent Withers and their children dominate this rich collection. Also included are documents of siblings of Robert Edwin Withers and his wife. Family life, education, the Episcopal Church, the Aluminum Company of America, diplomatic service in Hong Kong, Guatemala, and Russia are among subjects found in these Papers.

Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood evidently acquired this collection at an estate sale. This collection complements the Withers Family Papers (Mss. Collection 1997.1) donated by Gary and Ann Laing in 1997. This collection is distinguished from the Laing collection as Withers Papers (Chitwood Collection).

Issues include: 21 November 1938; 4 December 1939; June 1944, souvenir edition; 26 March 1945; 25 February 1946; 29 April 1946; 28 October 1946; 2 December 1946; 16 December 1946; 17 February 1946 (2 copies); 17 march 1946; 7 April 1946; May 1946.

The Papers consist of draft manuscripts, typed and handwritten, of several published and unpublished works by Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood. Included are drafts of the following publications: Death and marriage notices from the South-West Virginia Enterprise, April 17, 1870 to December 28, 1881, Tombstone inscriptions, East End Cemetery and St. Mary's Catholic Church Cemetery, Wytheville, Va., and "A Diary of Lucy S. Ruggles, New England teacher in the highlands of antebellum Virginia," published in the Wythe County Historical Review. Unpublished drafts include "Death register, 1874-1894, Wythe County, Va.,""Wythe County 1850 census," and "Wythe County 1860 census." Published editions of the draft manuscripts may be found in the Kegley Library.

The Republican Party of Wythe County generated these lists of eligible voters in 1905 in order to plan campaign strategy and target voters. The lists are typed on carbon paper and provide name of voter, age, political party affiliation, and occupation. Names are arranged alphabetically. While all of the lists only list white male voters, most also include names of black voters. Lists of black voters eppear at the of each list.

The Wythe County School Records consists of six registers used by teachers in various schools in the Wytheville School District from 1886 to 1903. Each volume, issued by the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Virginia, was used by teachers to record student names, attendance, subjects taught, and property and equipment in each school. Each volume contains two sections, the daily record and the term record. The daily record is a monthly listing of students, their age, and their attendance record. Some volumes list the grades received by students in various subjects. The term record is an annual compilation of statisticsl. This section also lists condition of the school building, property, and equipment.

The Wytheville Building and Land Fund Association Reocords (Association), found amongst the papers of attorney Thomas Walk of Wytheville, consist of three items including a bond between I. J. Miller and the Association for $150 and dated 10 September 1904.

This volume contains minutes from meetings of the Wytheville Development Company, a real estate development company, from 11 August 1900 to 22 May 1915. The bulk of minutes occur between 1900 and 1908. No entries exist for 1909-1912; the last three entries are for meetings in 1913 and 1915. Charter members of the Wytheville Development Company as revealed by the minute book included John H. Fulton, Robert Enoch Withers, J. C. Blair, H. L. Poge, W. S. Trinkle, Edmund Pendleton, and G. S. Sexton.