This is Roxana's last surviving letter to Emily before her stroke in April 1891. She writes mostly about family matters, especially of her sons Chapin and Lynn and stepchildren Mary, Joe and Jane White
Roxana writes of the Christmas holidays and presents; she notes the general financial panic and the talk of several fore-closings; her step-son Joe Gerdine is closing his affairs in West Point and people are paying their notes with mules. She also...
Roxana writes about a Ku Klux Klan incident and lynching at Macon, GA which involved her step-grand-daughter Ella. She describes the repercussions felt from this incident in West Point, MS. She talks about how white men view southern white women in...
Roxana describes the unusually rainy winter they have had; gathering rents from the plantation and estate matters; her children's health and smallpox scares in Mississippi; their half-brother Edward's financial difficulties, and Emily's fellowship...
Roxana writes about her school; financial affairs; high rate of taxes; the cotton crop; the financial problems of their half-brother Edward and she advises him to sell Aunt Roxey's place
Most likely written by Tom Gerdine, Roxana and W.L.C. Gerdine's first born son, while she was on vacation up north visiting family. Tom mentions town events, and talks about his father's grave and Greenwood Cemetery
Crops; Pregnancy; Death; Sykes, Robert Emmett; Cholera;
Roxana is possibly pregnant with her fourth child, Lynn Van Horn Gerdine (b. 1873). She writes about the death of her step-daughter Lizzie Gerdine Sykes' son Emmett and she notes her son Chapin's reaction to the death. She writes of cholera...
Roxana writes of the business surrounding her school. The letter is after 1870 because she mentions her niece (Emily's daughter) Carra Chapin, who was born that year. Roxana also writes in detail about several suicides of neighbors in the area
Birth; Gerdine, Chapin McKinstry; Sykes, Robert Emmett;
Roxana writes of the birth of Chapin McKinstry Gerdine (August 7, 1870); also writes of the birth of Robert Emmett Sykes, son of Roxana's step-daughter Lizzie Gerdine Sykes
Roxana mentions that she is not so enthusiastic about travel as she gets older; they have rented out the plantation to freedmen; mentions the trend of plantation owners to rent out their plantations to freedmen; they pay with cotton for their rent;...
Roxana writes in detail about what is happening in post-Civil-War Mississippi; freedmen; death of (daughter-in-law) Maddie (married to Joe Gerdine) and their baby; death of a freewoman's baby that morning; the sending of a former slave ""Aunt...
Homefront; Crops; Legislation; Selma (Ala.); Confederate States of America. Army -- Social conditions;
Roxana writes about the ""Fall of Selma, [AL]"" [April 2, 1865]; talks of sons in service; describes how it was almost impossible to send mail through the lines now; her tiredness in feeding so many Confederate soldiers; a law passed by the...
Roxana writes about her worries over what to do with the remains of their sister Lucy who died on March 21, 1862 of tuberculosis and is then buried at the Gerdine plantation. Lucy's remains would not be returned to Chicopee, MA until after the...
Southern States -- Identity; Homefront; Confederate States of America; Hanging; Executions and executioners; Travel;
Roxana writes about the differences between northern and southern newspapers; explains what her family is doing on behalf of the Confederacy; the possibility of making Mr. Gerdine a Colonel; departure of Miss Eaton for Ohio; the dangers of travel,...
Homefront; Communication; Gossip; Man-woman relationships; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Social aspects;
In this letter Lucy writes about her desire to know more of Chicopee, MA gossip; explains the lack of eligible men in the area due to the outbreak of the Civil War; and the effects of the Civil War in general upon Mississippi
Health; Secession; Homefront; Gerdine, Thomas Cobb; Cobb, Thomas Read Rootes, 1823-1862; Newspapers; Communication;
Roxana writes of the improvement in Lucy's health since her coming to Mississippi; talk of secession in surrounding areas; calling her son Tom Cobb ""a little black Republican"" the secession of Mississippi; her desire to read northern newspapers;...
Secession; Homefront; Cobb, Thomas Read Rootes, 1823-1862; Gerdine, Thomas Cobb; Southern States -- Identity; Railroads; Communication;
Roxana writes of talk of secession; their step-mother Sarah Chapin; T.R.R. Cobb; Tom Cobb Gerdine; the feelings of southerners via the north; her desire to obtain reliable northern news; talks of the new railroad through West Point; and writes of...
