Collection is open to research.
There are no restrictions.
Repass Family Papers, Mss. Collection 1992.1, Kegley Library, Wytheville Community College, Wytheville, VA
Margaret Moore donated the Repass Family Papers in June 1992.
John Repass, son of the Rev. Jacob Repass, was born on 14 September 1771 and died circa 1838. He married Catherine (Kate) Harkrader who was born circa 1774. They lived at the stone house known locally in Wythe County as Greystone on Route 21/52 North, now within the boundaries of Wytheville, Virginia. Traditionally the date of the house is 1812, but in 1815, the tax assessment for Repass' real estate showed that the house on the farm measured 30 feet by 20 feet, and other buildings included a barn, still house, smoke house, and storage building.
John and Catherine had the following children: Mary Repass Brown (1793-1867), William Repass (1794-1868), Elizabeth Repass Neff (1798-1871), Jesse Repass (1802-1849), Mary Catherine Repass (1803-1854), Rufus Repass (1805-1878), Christina Repass Palmer (b. 1809), Jacob Repass (1811-1835), Sally Repass Fisher (b. 1811), and Anna Repass Fisher (1816-1854).
Upon his death in 1838, John Repass had amassed an estate worth $17,072. An inventory taken on 29 March 1838 shows stills, tubs, still caps, cooling tubs, barrels, hops and other materials indicating a vast whiskey and cider manufacturing business. Other items included vinegar, tools, animals, crops, kitchen and household utensils, sausage stuffer, beehive, loom, and spinning wheels.
Rufus Repass, son of John Repass and Catherine Harkrader Repass, was born 8 May 1805 and died 31 July 1878. He inherited the Greystone house. He married Salome Brown, daughter of Christopher Brown Jr. and Anna Maria Rader Brown on 3 September 1827. They had several children including Rev. John Christopher Repass, Eliza Ann Repass (b. 1830, married Michael Cassell 1850), Elizabeth Mary Repass (b. 1831, married Stephen Gose Peery 1854), James Andrew Repass (1834-1857), Rev. Stephen Albion Repass (b. 1838, married Frances E. Hancock 1870), Maria Theresa Repass (b. 1836, married Rueben Sharitz), Sarah Henrietta Repass (b. 1849, married Thomas Peery 1865), and Elenora Repass (married Jacob Fisher).
The collection consists of four account books kept by John Repass, heirs of John Repass, his son Rufus Repass, and Lewis Washington, a black resident of Wythe County. Mary B. Kegley wrote a report on this collection which is excerpted below in the Contents List.
John Repass' book of accounts measures 12" x 7 1/2" with a leather spine, with a few pages cut out. There are 110 pages, with many not numbered, with debit and credit side for each page, making a total of 220 pages. In addition there are numerous blank pages.
A small pocketbook-type book measuring 3 1/2" by 5 1/2" x 1/4" with eight written pages in ink. The book records information and accounts on the heirs of Rufus Repass.
This account book measures 12" x 7 1/2" x 1/2" with a leather spine, index and written in ink. Dates continue through the 1860s and pencil entries over the index show the book was being used in 1876, and as late as 1879. Most pages are double entries for debit and credit sides of the accounts. Approximately 50 names occur in the accounts. The accounts show that Henry Umbarger was the blacksmith, John Palmer did some butchering, others cradle oats, split rails, made fences, made shoes, made shingles, thrashed crops, and that whiskey, brandy, vinegar, medicine, potatoes, salt, veal, sugar, and beef were items used in trade for service.
Lewis Washington, a black resident of Wythe County, was possibly a neighbor of the Repass family. The book measures 4" x 6" x 1/8" and has a paper sewn binding which is torn. Pages are written in pencil with 8 written pages and the rest blank.