The materials from Washington and Lee University Special Collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used should be fully credited with the source.
Gift of Mrs. Richard France in 1983 and 1984.
[Identification of item], Julia Miller Junkin Fishburn Letters to Lizzie Webster (WLU Coll. 0435), Special Collections and Archives, James G. Leyburn Library, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.
This collection contains letters written by Julia Miller Junkin Fishburn while she lived in Lexington, Va. in her father's house. Her father, George Junkin, was President of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) at the time. The letters were written to Fishburn's friend, Lizzie Webster who lived in Maryland. Subjects of the letters include Margaret Junkin Preston (sister), General Stonewall Jackson (brother-in-law), her upcoming marriage to Junius M. Fishburn, a Latin professor at Washington College, and the deaths of her husband and her mother. She describes the days leading up to her mother's passing. With both deaths, she expresses her grief but also her faith in God. A fifth letter, dated approximately 30 years later, gives advice to her friend on publishing a book of poetry and was written from New Jersey.
The collection is open for research use.
Julia Miller Junkin Fishburn was born on June 13, 1835 in Pennsylvania to George Junkin and Julia Rush Miller Junkin. She married Junius Fishburn in 1856. She died on September 2, 1915 in Philadelphia. She was originally buried there along with her father. Both were reinterred in the family plot in Lexington, Va. in 1925.