John Thomas Wheat was a native of Washington, D.C., and a Protestant Episcopal minister, teacher, and professor in Maryland, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee. The papers, chiefly 1850-1880, include Wheat's family correspondence, sermons, reminiscences (in verse), commonplace books, diary, 1837, and record books of Christ Church and school, Nashville, Tenn., 1840-1846, and St. Lazarus's Church, Memphis, Tenn., 1867-1868. Correspondence and other papers pertain to his children: J. T. Wheat Junior (1830-1862), Louisiana lawyer and Confederate Army officer, including a diary while studying law at Wheeling, Va. [now W. Va.], 1849; Chatham Roberdeau Wheat (1825-1862), soldier of fortune during the Mexican War and in Cuba, Nicaragua, Italy, and in the Confederate Army (a small amount); Leonidas Polk Wheat (1841-1915), who studied music in Europe; Selina (Wheat) Seay of Alabama; and Josephine May (Wheat) Shober and her husband, Francis Edwin Shober (1831-1896), lawyer, legislator, and member of Congress from Rowan County, N.C., including letters written while he was a member of the North Carolina legislature during the Civil War and a United States representative, 1869-1873. Also included are albums, estate accounts, general merchandise accounts, 1814-1815, accounts for day labor and blacksmith and carpentry work, in Rowan County, 1851-1858, poems and dramas written by members of the family, and other items.
