Painter Family Papers 1876-1899

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 Painter Family Papers consists of seven folders of correspondence, financial records, tax tickets, and deeds.

Biographical / historical:

James Drayton Painter, the son of land baron Abraham Painter (1804-1886) and Emily Ewing Painter (1822-1889), was born on 26 November 1844. He grew up in the Cripple Creek and Ivanhoe areas of Wythe County, Virginia. The Painter family owned extensive property in this area of the county and in 1872 purchased the Brown Hill Furnace. They sold the furnace in 1880 to the Lobdell Car Wheel Company.

Painter enlisted in Co. D (known as the Wythe Minute Men) of the 45th Virginia Infantry Regiment, C. S. A> on 27 February 1862 at Red Sulphur Springs. Captured by Federal forces at the Battle of Piedmont on 5 June 1864, he was incarcerated in Camp Morgan in Indianapolis, Indiana. With thousands of other Confederate soldiers, in March 1865 he was exchanged and returned home to Virginia.

He married Martha Lou Hatcher (born on 24 August 1849) on 28 October 1869; their daughter, Myra Parks Painter, was born in November 1870. Painter owned and managed J. D. Painter & Brothers General Mercantile Store and also was a banker. He was an active member of the Methodist Church in Ivanhoe

Myra Painter married lawyer and judge Henry Massillon Heuser and moved to Wytheville, Virginia. Martha Lou Hatcher Painter died on 27 May 1900 and is buried in Forest United Methodist Church cemetery. James Drayton Painter died at the home of his daughter and son-in-law in Wytheville on 13 March 1932 and was buried beside his wife.

Acquisition information:
Donated by Ruth Ann Chitwood in 2001 as part of the W. R. Chitwood Collection.
Physical description:
7 folders.