Collections : [Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University]

This collection contains the papers of the family of Martha L. Robinson Johnson, nineteenth-century matriarch of a Carroll County, Virginia family. The collection consists largely of correspondence to Johnson from various family members and friends, providing a chronicle of the life of a Southwest Virginia family during the mid-nineteenth century, mostly from a feminine perspective. The letters focus on childbirth, death, illness, folk medicine, fashion, sewing, knitting, quilting, gardening, food, spirituality and the Civil War. The letters were mailed from various locales--mostly in Virginia--including Hillsville, Copper Mines, Orange Court House, Lynchburg, Texas House, Chatham Hill, Coal Hill, Warm Springs, Red Sulphur Springs, Spring Valley, Grayson County, Cove and Hickory Grove. Though the majority of the correspondence is addressed to Martha Johnson, the collection also contains correspondence to and from her husband, Robert C. Johnson, a Carroll County tavern keeper, postmaster and commissioner of revenue.