Croy Family Papers

Access and use

Location of collection:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Special Collections, University Libraries (0434)
Newman Library
Virginia Tech
P.O. Box 90001
560 Drillfield Drive
Blacksburg, VA 24062-9001
Contact for questions and access:
Phone: (540) 231-6308
Fax: (540) 231-3694
Restrictions:

The collection is open to research.

Terms of access:

The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials.

Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction. Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.

Preferred citation:

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Croy Family Papers, Ms2001-018, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Summary

Extent:
0.5 Cubic Feet 2 boxes
Creator:
Croy family (Blacksburg, Va.)
Abstract:
The papers of the Croy and related families (especially the Dawson and Pepper families) of Montgomery County, Virginia, include correspondence, financial records, diaries, artifacts and photographs.
Language:
The materials in the collection are in English.
Preferred citation:

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Croy Family Papers, Ms2001-018, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains the papers of the Croy family of Blacksburg, Virginia, together with materials from other related families in Montgomery County--particularly the Dawson and Pepper families.

The collection includes a small selection of correspondence and greeting cards, largely addressed to either Ella Dawson Croy or her daughter Georgia, together with a few of the family's financial records (tax receipts, account statements, etc.).

The collection also contains six diaries kept by Mary Croy Pepper from 1900 to 1904. The diary entries concern day-to-day activities in Roanoke, weather conditions, family and friends, and accounts of extended trips to Washington D.C. and the Virginia coast.

Among the small set of period artifacts in the collection are a pair of spectacles, a straight razor, baby shoes and a cigar box.

Perhaps most significantly, the collection holds more than one hundred family photographs--mostly unidentified--dating from the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries and including a number of tintypes and cartes-de-visite. Represented in the photographs are works by a number of Southwest Virginia studio photographers, including C. A. Pugh (Blacksburg); Jewell (Christiansburg); G. N. Wertz (Abingdon); and Carbon, W. E. Eutsler, Kidd, H. V. Lineback, and W. C. Woolwine (Roanoke). Among the photos of scenery are images of Lovers' Lane on the Virginia Tech campus, P. Metzger's harness shop (in Blacksburg?) and Balanced Rock at Garden of the Gods, Colorado.

The collection also contains such disparate general materials as a handwritten poem entitled "Farewell," genealogical notes on the Dawson and Croy families, an IOOF membership certificate for Harvey Black, and a small oil painting (believed to portray the house at the corner of Roanoke and Wharton streets and possibly painted by Robert M. Dawson).

Biographical / historical:

Wilbur Alexander Croy, son of Andrew Jackson Croy, worked as a carpenter and house painter in the Blacksburg area. In 1901, Croy married Ellen Pauline (Ella) Dawson (1863-1938), the daughter of William and Rose Ann (Roseanna) Croy Dawson. The couple lived on the corner of Blacksburg's Roanoke and Wharton streets and had one child, Georgia (1902-2000). Ella's sister, Mary Dawson, married John Pepper, of Elliston, Virginia, in 1879.

For more on the Croy and related families, see the following:

1889 Diary of Rosanna Croy Dawson, Blacksburg, Va. (F234.B5 D25 1972 Spec/Genealogy);

1890 Diary (F234.B5 D26 1979 Spec/Large);

The Year of 1893 in the Life of Rosanna Croy Dawson of Blacksburg, Virginia (F234.B5 D28 1980 Spec/Large); and

Blacksburg in 1898(F234.B5 D3 Spec/Large).

Acquisition information:
The collection was acquired by Special Collections and University Archives in or prior to 2003.
Processing information:

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Croy Family Papers was completed in or prior to 2003.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged by material type.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard