McCue Family Papers, ca. 1767-1944

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
170 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Special Collections Public Services & Reference Staff
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968

Summary

Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection consists of the papers of the McCue family, ca. 1767-1944, ca.10,000 items including correspondence, legal and business papers, legal case notes, genealogical material, school notebooks and bound volumes, and Confederate Army commissary records. The collection pertains chiefly to the Reverend John McCue (1758-1818), of Augusta County, Virginia, and his descendants, including: his son, John McCue, his grandson, Judge John Howard McCue (1824-1890), lawyer of Lovingston, Nelson County, and of Staunton, Virginia, and Confederate officer of the "Floyd Brigade," Fifty-first Regiment, Virginia troops; and William T. McCue, lawyer and prominent Democrat, of Staunton, Virginia, son of John Howard McCue. The bulk of the collection concerns the family and career of Judge John Howard McCue. The Civil War records are the fairly complete files of quartermaster activity in the 51st Regiment, Virginia Volunteers, kept by John Howard McCue, including sales to officers, boards of survey, issues to the troops, invoices, abstracts, and the routes of campaign in Southwest Virginia. The 51st organized at Wytheville two months following the first battle of Bull Run, with men from Wythe, Wise, Grayson, Tazewell, Nelson, Amherst, Bland, and Patrick counties. While McCue was associated with the Regiment, it was involved chiefly in the Kanawha Valley and Fort Donelson region. The correspondence is largely concerned with the legal practice and the personal and business affairs of Judge John Howard McCue, but also includes other subjects of interest, which are listed on pages four through nine of this guide with the name of the correspondent and the date of the letter in which they occur.

Biographical / historical:

Most of the following notes come from the book The McCues of the Old Dominion (1912) by John N. McCue. There is a copy in the collection in box 17 and another copy in the Rare Books Division (CS 71 .M 132 1912) of Special Collections. The Reverend John McCue (1753-1818), of Augusta County, Virginia, married Elizabeth Allen (1761-1831), the daughter of James Allen and Margaret Anderson. John N. McCue graduated from Liberty Hall Academy (later became Washington and Lee University) in 1785, after studying theology with Dr. James Waddell. He had received his ministerial license at a meeting of the Hanover Presbytery in May 1782 at Timber Ridge, Rockbridge County.

Their children were: 1) James Andrew McCue (1783-1853) m. Margaret Trimble; 2) Mary McCue (1785-1853) m. Andrew Barry; 3) Dr. William McCue (1787-1818) m. Ann Isabella Barry; 4) Cyrus McCue (1789-1813); 5) John McCue of "Long Meadows"(1793-1862) m. (1st) Hannah Winters Moffett and (2nd) Eleanor Douglass; 6) Colonel Franklin McCue (1795-1874) m. (1st) Jane Crawford and (2nd) Nancy Crawford; 7) Washington McCue (1797-1798); 8) Eliza (Betsy) McCue (1798-1819) m. John Porterfield; 9) Margaret McCue (1802-1880) m. George Miller; 10) Nancy McCue (1804-1856) m. Jacob Matthews; and 11) Sallie McCue (1805-1885) m. General Joseph Jefferson McDowell.

Their son, John McCue of "Long Meadows"(1793-1862) who married Hannah Winters Moffett (d. 1845), and served in the Virginia General Assembly, had the following children by Hannah Winters Moffett: 1) Elizabeth McCue m. Colonel Davis S. Bell; 2) Judge John Howard McCue (1824-1890), who married in 1845, Signora C.E. Willis (d. 1907) of Nelson County; 3) Sarah McCue m. Dr. Cyrus Alexander; 4) Margaret Catharine McCue (d.1853) m. William B. Dorman; 5) James Moffett McCue (1827-1894) m. Elizabeth Josephine Gooch; 6) Evolina (Lina) McCue; 7) Captain William Andrew McCue (1836-1884) m. Mary Frances Miller; 8) Hannah Winters McCue (d. 1904); and 9) Martha Rachel McCue (1841-1911) m. Decator Hedges.

Judge John Howard McCue was a graduate of Washington College (1842) and the University of Virginia and practiced law in Nelson County, where he married Signora C.E. Willis, the niece of William E. Peters, of the University of Virginia. McCue became a judge in 1870 and also served as counsel for the Western Lunatic Asylum. Their children were: 1) John Willis McCue (1846-1911) m. (1st) Elizabeth I. Collins and (2nd) Lavinia Smith; 2) Don Howard McCue (1848-1893); 3) Betty Winters McCue (1851- 1852); 4) Signora Otelia McCue (1853-1884) m. Gabriel Santini; 5) Lina Linn McCue (1855-1886) m. Walter Sampson Sublett; 6) William Turner McCue (1857-?), unmarried, an attorney of Staunton, member of City Council, chairman of the county and City Democratic Central Committe, banker, and postmaster of Staunton (1893-1897); 7) James McDowell McCue (1861-?); 8) Eliabeth Winter McCue (1864-?) m. John Martin Perry; 9) Aurelia Peters McCue (1867-?) m. Colonel Benjamin Rush Norvell; and 10) Anna Janet (Birdie) McCue (1870--?) m. Percy Herring Wiess.

Acquisition information:

The papers were loaned to the University of Virginia Library on August 4, 1953 by Elizabeth Perry, of Staunton, Va.

The papers were made a gift to the University of Virginia Library on May 28, 2009 by Margaret Custis Archer Clark of Princeton, N.J., John Martin Perry Archer of Houston, Tex., and F. Mather Archer of Portsmouth, Va.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in two series: Series I: McCue Family Papers (Boxes 1-18), including: Civil War Records (Box 1); Correspondence, arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent and names included in the folder listing (Boxes 2-9); Financial and Legal Papers, arranged chronologically (Boxes 9-17); Genealogy (Box 17); Legal Case Notes, Marriage Licenses, Miscellaneous, Photographs, and Political Papers (Box 18)

Series II: McCue Family Notebooks and Bound Volumes (Boxes 19-28), including: School Notebooks, etc. of C. Purcell McCue, Jr. (Boxes 19-24); Bound Volumes and Notebooks (Boxes 24-28)

Physical description:
The collection consists of 28 Hollinger boxes, ca. 11 linear feet ca. 10,000 items