The Thomas Clowes Account Book, 1857-1869, 1922

Access and use

Location of collection:
Fairfax County Public Library
Fairfax County Public Library
City of Fairfax Regional Library
Virginia Room
10360 North Street
Fairfax, VA 22030-2514
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Chris Barbuschak
Phone: (703) 293-2142
Phone: (703) 293-6227 ext. 6 (Virginia Room)
Fax: (703) 293-2155

Summary

Extent:
.25 linear feet
Creator:
Clowes, Thomas (1818-1868)
Abstract:
The Thomas Clowes Account Book, 1857-1869, consists of a small leather-bound account book which documents Clowes’ transactions at the Exchange Bank of Virginia at Alexandria, Virginia including bills, cash transactions, and payments to individuals.
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The Thomas Clowes Account Book, 1857-1869, consists of a small leather-bound account book which documents Clowes’ transactions at the Exchange Bank of Virginia at Alexandria, Virginia including bills, cash transactions, and payments to individuals. The account book continued to be maintained after his death from 1868-1869 presumably by his wife, Henrietta Fitzhugh Swann Clowes, as it mentions transactions and sale of goods between her two sisters Amanda Gooding and Fannie Hutchison. Daniel Ridgway, another Alexandria native, is also listed in the account book. Inside the account book was an unrelated 1922 letter from Katie Gibson of Atlanta, Georgia to Berta M. Berry of Union City, Tennessee which concerns the death of a mutual friend named “Mrs. Holt” and Gibson’s upcoming surgery.

Biographical / historical:

Thomas Clowes was born on April 14, 1818 in Loudoun County, Virginia to Mary and Joseph Clowes III. He married Martha McCormick on September 3, 1839 in Alexandria, Virginia and the couple had seven children together.

Clowes operated a grocery store in Alexandria at the corner of King and Saint Asaph Streets in the 1850s. He dealt in groceries, liquors, produce, poultry, butter, pork and both foreign and domestic products. In the 1860s, he was a general freight and ticket agent in the Alexandria offices of the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad.

His wife, Martha, died on August 2, 1862. He married Henrietta Fitzhugh Swann, daughter of Mordecai Cook Fitzhugh, on December 12, 1865 at the Second Presbyterian Church. Clowes died suddenly on April 22, 1868 at his Alexandria home on Columbia Street. He was buried at the Trinity United Methodist Church Cemetery.

Acquisition information:
Unknown