Whitman Family Papers 1750-1951

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 Whitman Family Papers are arranged in six series. Series I, Correspondence (1835-1951) includes letters relating to Sarah Jane Ruff Sehorn of Lexington, Virginia from 1835 to 1842. As especially poignant letter written by her grieving husband describes her death in April 1843. Other letters recount everyday life of young women in Lexington and Staunton, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland.

Correspondence on genealogical research conducted by Caroline Heuser Whitman and John Alexander Whitman is also featured in this series. Both corresponded widely with relatives and genealogists concerning the Wallace family, Whitman family, Montgomery family, Anderson family, Gay family, Hale family, Sehorn family, and Burwell family. Addendum items added to the correspondence series include letters to and from John Alexander Whitman regarding Sons of the American Revolution, installation of a hot water furnace, and the Thomas family.

Series II, Financial and Legal Records (1820s-1860s) contains tax-in-king records from the Confederate Army given to Martin Kegley and Mary J. Gore. Also included are various receipts and account statements. Addendum items given in 2001 include Wythe County tax tickets.

Deeds and indentures comprise records found in Series III, Land Records (1750-1833). Most records date from the early 1800s and relate land transactions in Wythe County.

Commissions received by various Wythe Countians serving in the local regiment of the Virginia militia during the 1830s and the 1840s are documented in an order book found in Series IV, Military Records (1835-1848).

Series V, Genealogical Records, contains research notes compiled and collected by Caroline Heuser Whitman.

Compositions written by Carolina Heuser Whitman as a student and an adult comprise Series VI, Miscellaneous Records (1881-1897, undated).

Biographical / historical:

Items in the Whitman Family Papers primarily document the family history of Carrie Heuser Whitman. Her maternal great-grandfather was Jacob Ruff, a hatter who lived in Lexington, Virginia. Ruff and his wife, Martha Wallace Ruff, had five daughters; one daughter, Sarah Jane Ruff, married Massillon Sehorn in 1842.

Massillon Sehorn, a deputy sheriff of Rockbridge County, was descended from early Shenandoah Valley settler Nicholas Sehorn. Massillon and Sarah Jane Ruff had one daughter, Sarah Jane Lapsley Sehorn, born 9 April 1843. A few weeks after her daughter's birth, Sarah Jane Ruff Sehorn died 29 April 1843.

Sarah Jane Sehorn, nicknamed Jennie, lived with her aunt, Mrs. Henry Imboden, after her father died in 1844. She attended a Presbyterian Sunday School class taught by Anna Morrison Jackson, wife of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. She moved to Wytheville before the Civil War to live with her uncle, Marion Sehorn, a prominent hatter.

In 1865, Sarah Jane Sehorn married local merchant, Guido Alexander Heuser. Heuser, a native of Rodenberg, Germany and Sarah had four children. Their daughter, Caroline Friderike Heuser married John Alexander Whitman in 1899.

John Alexander Whitman edited the Southwest Virginia Enterprise from 1902 to 1944. Caroline "Carrie" and John Whitman had three children. One daughter, Dora Heuser Whitman, died in infancy in 1914 while another daughter, Marian Clay Whitman, married Dr. Rush Lambert. Their youngest child, Genevieve Sehorn Whitman, married Henry Peck Simmerman. Carrie Whitman died 20 September 1951 and is buried near her husband in East End Cemetery in Wytheville, Virginia.

Acquisition information:
Donated by Ruth Ann Chitwood in 1994; additional material donated in 2001; part of the W. R. Chitwood Collection.
Physical description:
25 folders..