Southern Family Archive - Emory College Student

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/31/2006

Georgia and South Carolina archive pertaining to Andrew Kolb Park (b. 1857). Orphaned in his teens, Park's care was overseen by his siblings in Greenville and LaGrange, GA. He attended Emory College, Class of 1877. The archive of circa (235) items documents Park's courtship and marriage to cousin, Lella P. Gibbs of Greenville, South Carolina; student life; and post-education cotton farming and later, furniture dealing with father-in-law, Samuel S. Gibbs. The bulk of the material dates 1874 to 1880, with a small number earlier and later. The vast correspondence, approximately (160) letters, 600+ pp. total, is comprised of about two-thirds courtship and early marriage letters between Andrew and Lella, 1877-1880. A sampling of these letters (in addition to love content) showed a fair number with content on local calamities; politics; cotton; and the hiring of negro help. Park's Emory College papers (a few dozen pieces) consists of correspondence from classmates; manuscript compositions (one titled, "The Battle-Grounds of Georgia); report cards; two printed programs, Junior Day and Commencement Day; Few Society speeches; and autograph receipt and letter signed by President Atticus G. Haygood. In addition to educational pursuits, Park appears to have had an active extra-curricular love life and left a string of broken hearts, including a daughter of the Rev. John W. Yarbrough. The bulk of the remaining material is comprised of family and miscellaneous correspondence; billheads; invitations; and financial papers. Items of interest include: 1878 negro hire contract, signed "Phillis Park" (her x mark), which reads in part, "I agree to do any kind of farm work, for which I am to receive forty dollars…I agree to go to work at sunrise and work diligently until sundown…"; small account book, 1878, 30pp. used, with a dozen pages pertaining to expenses of negro hire (including above Phillis Park); 1873 Greenville Female College [SC], part-printed certificate for Lella P. Gibbs, with engraved college illustration; The Weekly Constitution, Aug. 22, 1882 issue, with two full pages and front page engraved portrait, death of Georgia senator, Benjamin Harvey Hill; November 1886, Boomer, NC, letter with earthquake content; and 1882-1884 day book, 4" x 6.5", appx. 150pp used, pertaining to Park's Greenville, SC furniture business. A small portion of noted letter content: ALS, "Z. P. Jackson" (sister), n.p. (prob. Greenville, GA), Nov. 10, 1874 - "The negroes refused to vote last Tuesday, both here and in LaGrange. I am afraid that they were instigated to do so with some secret policy against the whites. I think they will urge a plea that they were not allowed a chance at the polls."; ALS, "Almira P." (sister Almira Park), ca. 1875, "I guess you have heard about the storm. It passed near Hamilton, killed a number of people, blew down houses…Nine killed at the time but some have died since. Mr. Webster's houses were blown down. Several negros killed. All of Captain Kennon's family were killed. He escaped…On some plantations all the corn fodder and every thing was carried off by the wind…"; ALS, "Lundy Harris" (Emory classmate, Rev. Lundy Harris. Married to writer, Corra Mae White Harris. Rev. Harris committed suicide in 1910), Aug. 2, 1877 - "I'm hot as a pancake and lazy as an Italian and as unemployed as a 'striker'…Oxford has been extremely dull ever since Commencement. The very wings of 'ennui' overshadow this devoted place. That peculiar bird to whose wings I have just alluded has a peculiar domination over me just at present. I am all the time writing and yet it does seem to me that it will sit on my soul like Poe's Raven to depart 'Never More'."; ALS, "W. A. Candler" (future Emory president, and bishop, Warren Akin Candler (1857-1941). Brother of Asa Candler.), Villa Rica, Georgia, Dec. 12, 1876 - "I had a most delightful time at the conference. I met a little woman at Cartersville that completely carried me away. She is just what can remove the dilapidated linen off the infant shrubbery." "I would like to take a peep at Oxford this morning. I presume you know by this time that the little Covington preacher was sent to you. You got a good man so pay him well and you can keep him."; ALS, Andrew Park, Greenville, GA, April 3, 1879 - "I spoke in my last, 'The Country is the same Yesterday, today and forever' except when some politician wants an office, then he awakens the slumbering country people with some pathetic speech imploring help for himself & family", "In your letter you spoke of the Alston Cox affray. It is indeed a very sad affair that a good man like Alston should be so brutally murdered. I have known of him for several years past and have always known him as a gentleman."; ALS, Lella P. Gibbs, Greenville, SC, Jan. 9, 1879 - "Last Friday morning before four o'clock we were all awaken[ed] by the cry of 'fire'! When we looked low and behold it was near us. It was Uncle Cline's large store house just in front of his dwelling. Two houses were burned. He had four fires since the War…it is not known how the fire originated. It must have been set on fire." Condition: Scattered flaws, but overall VG+. Vast majority of letters with stamp-intact envelopes.

Click on a thumbnail above to display a larger image below
Hold down the mouse button and slide side to side to see more thumbnails(if available).