Papers of the Tucker, Harrison and Smith Families 1790-1940

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
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968

Summary

Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The Tucker, Harrison, and Smith papers (accession numbers 2589, 3825, 3847, 3947-a through 3847-h, and 3847-j through 3847-l) consist of nineteen linear shelf feet (ca. 22,500 items) ranging in date from 1790 through 1940. The collection consists of the correspondence and papers of members of several families linked together by marriage and in many cases connected to the University of Virginia. In addition to the correspondence, which is the major portion of the collection, there are manuscripts, including poems by George Tucker and his unpublished novel A Century Hence or A Romance of 1941, diaries including one from the Civil War period, financial records, genealogical information, student notebooks, notebooks and papers of several University of Virginia professors, wills, and a few miscellaneous papers dealing with slaves.

The correspondence, primarily among relative of the Tucker, Harrison, Smith, Kent, Lewis, Hamilton, Stevens, and Carter families, spans the entire nineteenth century and includes the correspondence of four University of Virginia professors - George Tucker, Gessner Harrison, Francis Henry Smith, and Charles William Kent. The families were, for the most part, located in Charlottesville or other areas of Virginia, but there is some correspondence with relatives in Kentucky and Ohio. Some of the correspondence mentions political issues of the day, but most of the letters concern family and personal affairs, with University life a frequent topic. The family letters discuss French lessons, boarding school, church activities, weddings, illnesses and deaths. There are letters from Gessner and Edward Tiffin Harrison describing life at the University in the first years of its existence, letters describing activities surrounding William H. McGuffey (1800-1873), who became Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University in 1845 and who is best known for his school reader, and letters discussing life in Harrisonburg, Virginia from the 1790's through the 1890's. The letters of George Tucker and his daughter Mary Lelia Tucker in the late 1840's describe life in Philadelphia. George Tucker described his travels in the South in 1860 and 1861, and Gessner Harrison's sons wrote a number of letters during the Civil War describing their experiences. There are also several letters written in the 1820's by Lieutenant Lawrence Fielding Carter who was serving in the United States Army and was stationed in Florida and the Arkansas territory.

In addition to family correspondence, there are also a number of letters from other University of Virginia professors such as William B. Rogers, Charles S. Venable, John W. Mallet, John B. Minor and Maximilian Schele De Vere, among others, as well as the first president of the University, Edwin A. Alderman.

Other notable correspondents include John Singleton Mosby, Thomas Nelson Page, and Woodrow Wilson. There are approximately twenty-five letters from Mosby, primarily to Francis H. Smith, during the years 1880- 1916. Smith was Mosby's professor at the University in the early 1850's. There is a similar number of letters from Woodrow Wilson to Charles W. Kent during the period 1880-1916. Wilson attended the University from 1879 through 1881 where he became friends with Kent. He continued to be interested in University happenings and in an 1894 letter expressed his opposition to coeducation at the University. In another letter he explained his reasons for turning down the presidency of the University of Virginia. Kent also corresponded with Thomas Nelson Page, and a few of Page's letters express his views on Southern literature.

Biographical / historical:

Principal correspondents during the first half of the nineteenth century include Dr. Peachey Harrison (1777-1848) of Harrisonburg, Virginia, his wife Mary Stewart Harrison (1783-1857), and their children Edward Tiffin Harrison (1805-1828), Gessner Harrison (1807-1862), Mary Jane Harrison (1816-?), Margaret Frances (Harrison) Stevens (1819-1858), Caroline Elizabeth Harrison (1822-?), and Peachey Rush Harrison (1823-1852).

Gessner Harrison was a student during the first session of the University of Virginia, graduating in 1828 in medicine and ancient languages. In 1828 he received a temporary appointment to the professorship of ancient languages at the University, succeeding George Long, and in 1829 received a permanent appointment. He served as chairman of the faculty a number of times. In 1859 he left the University to found a school of the classics in Belmont, Virginia. He married Eliza Lewis Carter Tucker, the University's first professor of moral philosophy.

George Tucker (1775-1861) was born on Bermuda and at the age of twenty came to the College of William and Mary where his cousin St. George Tucker was a law professor and where he studied law. He was elected to the Virginia General Assembly in 1815 and served three terms in the House of Representatives, 1819-1825. He was appointed to the University of Virginia faculty in 1825, a position he resigned in 1845 in order to move to Philadelphia and devote his time to literature. While at the University he served as chairman of the faculty for several terms. Tucker wrote poetry and novels, a two-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson, and a statistical work Progress of the United States in Population and wealth in Fifty Yearsin 1843. This collection includes the unpublished manuscript of one of his novels: A Century Hence or A Romance of 1941. Tucker married three times. In 1797 he married Mary Byrd Farley who died in 1799. In 1802 he married Maria Ball Carter, the great niece of George Washington, who died in 1823. His third wife was Louisa Bowdoin Thompson whom he married in 1828. She died in 1859. All of his children were born during his second marriage.

Gassner Harrison's daughter Mary Stuart Harrison married Francis H. Smith, still another professor at the University. Smith (1829-1928) was a student at the University from 1849-1851. He was appointed assistant to the Professor of Mathematics for 1851-1853 and was Professor of Natural Philosophy 1853-1907. He was Emeritus Professor in residence from 1907 till his death in 1928.

Smith's daughter Eleanor married Charles W. Kent (1860-1917), Professor of German and French at University of Virginia from 1888-1893 and Professor of English literature from 1893-1917. He was the first literary editor of the sixteen volume Library of Southern Literature, as well as the first editor of the University of Virginia Alumni Bulletin. Charles Kent's papers include a number of letters from Woodrow Wilson and correspondence with Kent's brother Harry T. Kent, an attorney in St. Louis, Missouri. Kent's papers relate to a number of topics about the University including the Y.M.C.A., the founding of Madison Hall, and the possibility of coeducation at the University. There is a group of letters concerning Kent's running for the State Board of Education in 1906.

Acquisition information:

Several separately accessioned collections have been interfiled because the material is so closely related. The major portion of the papers was given to the University library by Mr. Edward W. Gamble, Jr., 1817 Fendall Avenue, Charlottesville, Virginia, on July 14, 1975. This portion includes accession numbers 3825, 3847, 3847-a through 3847-f, 3847-h, and 3847-j and was originally deposited at the library by Mrs. Edward W. Gamble, Jr., between the years 1951 and 1958. Mrs. Gamble was the daughter of University of Virginia professor Charles W. Kent and Eleanor Smith. In addition, accession number 2589 was given to the library by Mrs. Gamble on January 10, 1947, and accession number 3847-k was given to the library by Mrs. Gamble on January 13, 1965.

Accession number 3847-g consists of 123 letters written to Maria Carter (Harrison) Broadus during the years 1839-1857 and was given to the library by Dr. J. Hartwell Harrison, Harvard Medical School, Department of Surgery, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, 721 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, on July 29, 1975. These letters were originally deposited at the library on April 6, 1954 by Mrs. Carrington Harrison, Dr. Harrison's mother. Accession number 3847-1 was a gift of Mrs. C. W. Kent on March 2, 1975 and includes ca. 100 items for the period 1837-1900, consisting of papers of Lelia Tucker and of the Smith and Harrison families.

Arrangement:

The correspondence (boxes 1-45) has been arranged in chronological order. It is followed by manuscripts of poems and essays (boxes 45-46), diaries (boxes 46-47), genealogical material (box 47), business papers (boxes 47-50), wills (box 50), school notebooks and other papers dealing with the University of Virginia (boxes 51-54), and miscellaneous items (boxes 54-56).

Physical description:
This collection consists of ca. 22,500 items.