Dwellings -- Maintenance and repair; Dressmaking; Families; Travel;
Letter from G.I.G. (probably Georgiana Irene) to sister (probably Mary) concerning minor family occurances and her hopes that Jeremiah will visit Mary so that Georgiana may accompany him.
Families; Travel; Crops; Fathers and sons; Names, Personal;
Matthew Gage discussing Jeremiah's return trip to Oxford, which leads to a discussion of the bad road and rail conditions; his cotton crop; rising land values and naming conventions for children.
Cobb, Thomas Read Rootes, 1823-1862; Honeymoons; Travel;
Roxana writes to her sister about her honeymoon trip; their arrival back in Athens, GA; all the greetings from her step-children and servants; and her first meeting with T.R.R. Cobb
Slavery; Slaves; Child rearing; Southern States -- Identity; Plantation life; Gerdine, Thomas Cobb;
Roxana writes of her baby Tom Cobb Gerdine; Tom's nurse (slave) and the differences between ""northern"" and ""southern"" children; their sister Lucy Chapin (who came to teach at the Lucy Cobb Institute in January 1859; William L.C. Gerdine's...
Roxana writes that Mr. Gerdine has gone for two months to a plantation possibly in Texas. It is unclear from this letter whether Roxana has moved to the West Point, MS area or is still in Athens, GA
This letter was written after Roxana visited her family in Chicopee, MA. She writes to let Emily know that the piano has been delivered; how excited her children are waiting for the ""box"" of goodies from the north to arrive
Roxana writes of her recent trip north to Chicopee, MA; her husband's favorable impression of the north, especially ladies who work; return home; visiting Waverly, MS; complains of their sister Lucy Chapin not helping with household work enough;...
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...
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...
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;...
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 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
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...
