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This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Size | 27 items |
Abstract | Itinerant Methodist minister in northern Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, present-day West Virginia, and Baltimore, Md. Included are letters from Martin to his wife, Susan P. (Ruff) Martin, while he was away attending church conferences in the North, where the slave controversy was a major issue; letters from his father-in-law, John Ruff of Rockbridge County, Va., containing local news and political opinion; and letters, 1860-1861, from son J. Thomas R. Martin at Roanoke College, Salem, Va., describing college life. |
Creator | Martin, John S. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Suzanne Ruffing, August 1996
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
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The collection includes letters to and from John S. Martin, Methodist minister, and members of his family, including his wife Susan P. Ruff Martin; his father-in-law, John Ruff; and his son, J. Thomas R. Martin. There are six letters from John Martin to his wife, 1842-1861, four of which were written while he was in northern Virginia and in Baltimore. Three of these letters appear to have been written by Martin while he was attending Methodist Conference meetings at Cumberland, Indianapolis, and Buffalo; the dominant subject is the division of the Methodist Church over the issue of slavery. These letters give reports on activities at Conference meetings, his personal work, and the Conference's debates on slavery.
Other correspondence includes eight letters, 1840-1850, from John Ruff to Martin concerning family arrangements, neighborhood and church news, Ruff's complaints against the abolitionists, and his hope that Martin would not move to a free state; one letter, 1858, by John Ruff to his sister, possibly Susan, about the recent death of his wife; and seven letters, 1860-1861, written by J. Thomas R. Martin at Roanoke College, Salem, Va., which describe college life at Salem and mention political discussions, military companies, the Sons of Temperance, school work, measles and diphtheria, the election of 1860, the possibility of war, and other matters. Also included are one letter from Martin's daughter, Hattie, written from behind Union lines at Baltimore, 24 January 1862, and letters, 1860-1864, from Martin's Methodist brethren: E. F. Busey at Baltimore in 1860; J. E. Armstrong considering an offer to become principal of Staunton Institute, 1864; and draft of a letter from Martin to Rev. H. Slice, 1860.
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