Charles and Elizabeth P. Stillman Letters
This collection consists primarily of two bound volumes of transcriptions of letters written between Charles and Elizabeth P. Stillman from 1849 to 1865. The volumes were compiled in 1936 and 1937. Six loose items found in the volumes (including photographs, articles from the 1940s, and a letter from 1959) have been moved to a folder at the end of the collection.
Dates
- 1849-1959
- Majority of material found within 1849-1865
Conditions Governing Access
Collections are stored offsite and must be requested in advance. See www.special.lib.utk.edu for detailed information. Collections must be requested through a registered Special Collections research account.
Conditions Governing Use
The UT Libraries claims only physical ownership of most material in the collections. Persons wishing to broadcast or publish this material must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants on www.special.lib.utk.edu for detailed information. Collections must be requested through a registered Special Collections research account.
Extent
0.3 Linear Feet
Abstract
This collection consists primarily of two bound volumes of transcriptions of letters written between Charles and Elizabeth P. Stillman from 1849 to 1865. The volumes were compiled in 1936 and 1937.
Biographical/Historical Note
Charles Stillman (1810-1875) developed a network of mercantile and industrial enterprises, including cotton brokerage and real estate firms, a shipping company, and an off-loading, warehousing, and transportation company. Charles established retailing outlets and co-founded one of the first textile factories at Monterrey. His mines produced more than $4 million in silver and lead during the 1850s, and he sold their stock on the New York Stock Exchange.
After the Mexican-American War, Charles purchased massive properties north of Matamoros from the children of José Narciso Cavazos and started a town company to sell lots for as much as $1,500 each. He named the place Brownsville, Texas. In 1850 he built a home there (now called the Stillman House and operated by the Brownsville Historical Association) with his wife Elizabeth Pamela Goodrich of Wethersfield, Connecticut, but moved permanently in 1866 to New York, where he died in December 1875.
Charles' son James Stillman (1850-1918) served as president of First National City Bank (Citibank), New York, N.Y., (1891-1909) and as chairman (1909--1918). He donated a hospital to Harvard University and established many scholarships in both the USA and in France. James, W. H. Harriman, Jacob Henry Schiff, and William Rockefeller controlled of most Texas railroads and owned a $200,000 share in George W. Brackenridge's San Antonio National Bank. Two of his daughters married William Rockefeller's sons. His son Charles Chauncey Stillman graduated from Harvard in 1898 and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the University, including the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship in 1925 and real estate valued at $125,000.
Dr. Leroy Graf (1915-1993) received his master's and PhD from Harvard University. He taught at Harvard, Radcliffe College, Tufts College, and the Ohio State University before coming to the University of Tennessee. Long considered one of the University's most distinguished professors, Dr. Graf was instrumental in the forming of the local Phi Beta Kappa Chapter on the University of Tennessee campus. Also, Dr. Graf was very well known for his editing of the Andrew Johnson Papers, a project he began in 1956. Dr. Graf was head of the History Department at the University of Tennessee from 1965 to 1980.
Arrangement
This collection consists of three folders.
Acquisition Note
This collection is property of Special Collections and formerly belonged to Dr. LeRoy Graf.
Repository Details
Part of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Repository