Correspondence

Correspondence, documents, writings, printed material, photographs and financial papers relating to the Cowdery, Gillum, and Starling families. The correspondence, which consists primarily of family news, includes letters written during the Civil War, with an account of the evacuation of Pensacola written by Lewis Cowdery, and a letter from a Union soldier named Henry (possibly Henry Gillum) on board ship to New Orleans in 1863. There are two letters written from Texas by Virginia and Henry Gillum, one referring to an accident on board a steamer, another referring to "interests" there, and one letter to Lewis Starling from Missouri in July, 1858, about land in Hannibal.

The collection includes several items that aren't obviously related to the Cowdery, Gillum, or Starling families. There is a Confederate account book kept by Lt. Commander Joseph B. Goodwin, Company F, 16th Virginia Regiment, used to track of purchases of clothing, with lists at the back of returned men reported as deserted, and men who have been discharged, died, and killed. There are also morning reports of Captain G. Alexander, Assistant Provost Marshal, Eastern District dated November-December 1863, listing men arrested, and including Julia Ann Cheek and C. Cheek, a "negro woman and infant." Also present is the machine room time book of the Thomas Clock Company in Thomaston, Conn., dated 1905-1911.