Washburne Family, Papers, 1825-1900 (C4047)

.6 linear feet

INTRODUCTION

The papers of the Washburne family consist of personal and business correspondence concerning their wool business in Lockhart, Texas, advertisements, receipts, and account information. The correspondence deals extensively with family affairs, slavery, the Civil War, and politics. The collection also includes several slave bills of sale.

DONOR INFORMATION

The Washburne family papers were donated to the State Historical Society of Missouri by Mary Lou Boswell, on 12 July 1993 (Accession No. 2971).

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Lucius Washburne was born on 18 October 1819 in Randolph, Vermont. Cornelia Booton was born on 2 November 1820 in Madison County, Virginia.

Around 1845, Lucius moved to Saline County, Missouri, the same time Cornelia's family moved from Virginia to Lafayette County, Missouri, where Lucius and Cornelia met.

Lucius took a teaching position in Mississippi from 1848 to 1849, but returned to Missouri. He and Cornelia were married in December 1849. They settled in Texas in March 1860, where Lucius created a successful business raising sheep and selling wool.

In August 1879, Lucius died and Cornelia brought her brother, John Booton, to Texas to run the business. Cornelia also hired Joseph Bishop as an apprentice at the ranch and later made him an heir to her estate. Cornelia then moved into a house in Luling, Texas, after leaving the business to her brother. She died in 1903.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Washburne Family papers consist of personal and business correspondence and business records. The papers are arranged into two series: Correspondence and Business.

Correspondence
Business

The Correspondence series consists of letters arranged chronologically. Included are personal letters from Cornelia and Lucius' family and friends. They mainly contain news of family matters and the events occurring at the time in both Texas and Missouri, including discussions of politics, slavery, and the Civil War. There is also a scrapbook containing letters, poems, and newspaper clippings that was given to Cornelia from her family and friends.

The business correspondence mainly consists of letters to Lucius concerning his business, lawsuits, and Lucius' conscription and exemption from service in the Civil War. The correspondence series may be of interest to those studying events and aspects of daily life during the 19th century. Most letters in the correspondence series have typed transcripts that are placed either before or after the original letters.

Slave bills of sale are included in this series since they were not separated from the correspondence in the typescripts.

The Business series consists of receipts, sales transactions, and account information that are mainly from their wool business, arranged chronologically. It also includes Civil War tax records, newspaper articles, and advertisements arranged chronologically. This series might be of interest to those interested in the economy of the 19th century.

FOLDER LIST

Correspondence Series

f. 1-13	Correspondence
f. 1	1825-1847 July 6
f. 2	1847 July 10-1850
f. 3	1851-1856 March
f. 4	1856 June-1860 February 13
f. 5	1860 February 16-1861
f. 6	1862-1866
f. 7	1867-1868 January 17
f. 8	1868 January 25-1868 December
f. 9	1869-1870 November
f. 10	1870 December-1872
f. 11	1873-1879 October
f. 12	c. 1879-1892
f. 13	1893-1900
f. 14	Scrapbook, 1844

Business Series

f. 15	1833-1874
f. 16	1875-1884
f. 17	Civil War tax claims and receipts, 1864-1865

INDEX TERMS

These index terms are the subjects, people, places, etc. under which this collection is listed in all available indexes at The State Historical Society of Missouri-Columbia. If you are interested in a specific index term, please contact the reference staff

Agriculture	f. 3-12, 15
Baylor College, Belton, Texas	f. 13
Booton, John	f. 4-6, 8-12
Booton, Pearla	f. 13
Booton, R.C. "Dick"	f. 3, 6-9, 12
Booton, Sallie	f. 3, 8, 9, 11-13
Booton, Sallie Wood	f. 2-4, 6, 8-10, 12, 13
Chandler, Turner and Carleton, Austin, Texas	f. 8
Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio	f. 9
Civil War--Battle of Lexington, 1861	f. 5
Civil War--Missouri	f. 5, 6
Civil War--Texas	f. 5, 6
Elections, 1840s-1860s	f. 1, 2, 5, 7
Estes, E.C.	f. 9, 10
Freemasons	f. 4
Gold rush--California	f. 2
Hallowell and Co., New York, New York	f. 7, 8
Heyck and Helferich, Lavaca, Texas	f. 9
Hunter, Evans and Co., East St. Louis, Illinois	f. 12
J. H. Brower and Co., New York, New York	f. 6-11, 15
James Buchan and Co., New York, New York	f. 9
Koopmanschap and Co., San Francisco, California	f. 9
Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865)	f. 5, 6, 8
Makeigh and Haggar, Galveston, Texas	f. 7
Merchants	f. 7, 9, 15
Mexican War, 1846-1848	f. 2
Miller and Chamberlin, Belton, Texas	f. 8
Missouri, Columbia	f. 3, 4
Missouri, Dover	f. 1, 2
Missouri, Lexington	f. 1, 5
Missouri, Liberty	f. 6
Missouri, St. Louis	f. 1, 3
Nix and Storey, Lockhart, Texas	f. 12
Politics, 19th century	f. 1-3, 5, 7-9
Porter and Thayer, New York, New York	f. 8
R.M. Forbes and Co., Lavaca, Texas	f. 7, 9, 15
Reconstruction (1865-1876)	f. 7, 8
S.P. Kindred, Galveston, Texas	f. 12
Scrapbooks, 1844	f. 14
Sheep industry--Texas	f. 4, 5, 7-13
Slave bills of sale	f. 3-5
Slavery--Attitudes toward	f. 2-4
Stuart and Mair, Houston, Texas	f. 8
Tax assessments--Texas, 1864-1865	f. 17
The Signal, Luling, Texas	f. 11
University of Missouri, 1850s	f. 3
University of Texas, Austin	f. 12
Virginia, Randolph	f. 8
Warren, Talbort and Co., St. Louis, Missouri	f. 7, 15
Washburn, Asa Ransom	f. 1, 4-7, 9
Washburn, Cornelia Jane Booton (1820-1903)	f. 1-13, 14
Washburn, Lucius (1819-1879)	f. 1-11, 15-17
Wool industry--Texas	f. 6-11, 13, 15