Papers of Franklin Fretwell, 1819-1886 (bulk 1850-1886).

ArchivalResource

Fretwell, Franklin. Papers of Franklin Fretwell, 1819-1886 (bulk 1850-1886).

Papers of Franklin Fretwell, 1819-1886 (bulk 1850-1886).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49499082

The collection consists chiefly of Fretwell's business papers including correspondence, accounts, customer orders, purchase orders, receipts and miscellaneous material. Most concern merchants in Richmond and Lynchburg, Va., and Baltimore, Md., but there is also correspondence from many Albemarle County locations including Afton, Brownsville, Howardsville, Mechums River, Scottsville, and Yancey's Mill. Letters from Fretwell's brothers Brightberry and Burlington, his friends James H. Jarman and William P. Jarman, and an Albemarle County lawyer John B. Spiece convey personal news. Topics include the sale of timothy and clover seed; illness and deaths among family, friends and slaves, particularly from measles; the whipping of a slave who consequently ran away; a chancery suit involving the land of Benjamin Wood of Albemarle County; a shooting in Brownsville, Albemarle County; and Fretwell's heavy drinking. Confederate fortifications on the Rappahannock in January 1863 are briefly mentioned by a member of the 52nd Virginia.

2900 (ca.) items.

University of Virginia. Library