The collection is open for research.
Permission to publish material from Joseph G. Dill Letter to Daniel C. E. Brady must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Joseph G. Dill Letter to Daniel C. E. Brady, Ms2017-044, Special Collections, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The Joseph G. Dill Letter to Daniel C. E. Brady was purchased by Special Collections in August 2017.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Joseph G. Dill Letter to Daniel C. E. Brady was completed in October 2017.
Joseph G. Dill was born about 1828 in Virginia. Dill owned a Vigrinia-based tobacco company first founded in 1848. It continued operation through the war and was eventually incorporated into U. S. Tobacco. He never married, though census records in the 1880s suggest he was the head of the family, as several of his siblings and their families lived with him. Dill died in 1886.
Daniel C(harles). E(lliott). Brady was born in Pennsylvania March 9, 1821. By 1860, he and his family were living with his uncle, William Weaver, in Rockbridge County, Virginia. Brady was managing the iron manufacturing works, Buffalo Forge, and a farm, both of which he would inherit from his uncle in 1863. The forge and farm had its own post office and in March of 1966, Brady was named a postmaster, a position he likely held until his death. Brady and his wife Emma had five children. He died in Glasgow, Rockbridge County, Virginia, on May 27, 1878.
The collection consists of a letter from Joseph G. Dill to Daniel C. E. Brady, written from Richmond, Virginia, on May 30, 1862. Dill writes Brady on a variety of topics including recent war news, the challenges of sending mail through conflict zones, stock purchases, a recent fishing party, the weather, and the price of goods, including alcohol, noting: "Juleps $2 for brandy 1.50 for whiskey, every body seems to drink them however[.]"