Mary Brown Cassell Diary 1928-1931

Access and use

Location of collection:
Wytheville Community College
F.B. Kegley Library
Wytheville Community College
Smyth Hall, Room 103
1000 East Main Street
Wytheville, VA 24382
Contact for questions and access:
POC: William A. “Bill” Veselik
Phone: (276) 223-4876
POC: George Mattis
Phone: (276) 223-4744
Fax: (276) 223-4745

Summary

Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The diary has a five year format with four lines per page for each year. It is bound in black, embossed leather with a locking clasp.

Mary Brown Cassell recorded brief accounts of her daily activities from 1 January 1928 to 6 July 1931. Entries between January 1928 and January 1931 concern her studies, church activities, and social life while living in Luray and Page County, Virginia. Cassell started teaching at the Konnarock School for Girls on 5 January 1931 and subsequent entries focus on her professional and personal life in Grayson County.

Also included in this collection is a letter found in the diary from Midge [unknown], Monieri, Sotik, Kenya to Cassell dated 3 November 1933. The author discusses her concern at finding a job, the uncertainty of her relationship with "Tito" and an Armistice Day dance. Enclosed in the letter is an newspaper clipping announcing the wedding of Virginia Strickler to Charles T. Chapman of Luray, Virginia.

Biographical / historical:

Mary Brown Cassell was born on 12 October 1908 to Rev. Charles Willis Cassell and Helen Roberta Buchanan Cassell. Raised in Frederick County, Augusta County, and Page County, Virginia, she subsequently moved with her family to the small community of Konnarock in Grayson County where her father pastored a Lutheran congregation.

Cassell taught at the Konnarock Training School for Girls as well as public schools in Rural Retreat and Wytheville, Virginia. She never married and died 13 August 1979. Cassell is buried in Kimberlin Lutheran Church Cemetery in Wythe County.

Cassell

Acquisition information:
Diary was purchased for the Kegley Library in September 2000.
Physical description:
1 volume, 1 letter..