Wade Hall Collection of American Letters: Carruth family letters
Abstract
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Wade Hall Collection of American Letters: Carruth family letters
- Date
- 1900-1961 (inclusive)
- 1900-1947 (bulk)
- Extent
- 3.68 Cubic Feet
- Subjects
- Artists.
- Correspondence.
- Economic conditions
- Entrepreneurship -- United States
- Family.
- Homosexuality
- Letters.
- World War, 1914-1918.
- World War, 1939-1945.
- Arrangement
- Collection is arranged chronologically. The Wade Hall Collection of American Letters has been processed into discrete collections based on provenance.
- Preferred Citation
- 2009ms132.0119: [identification of item], Wade Hall Collection of American Letters: Carruth family letters, 1900-1961, bulk 1900-1947 University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.
- Repository
- University of Kentucky
Collection Overview
- Biography / History
- Virginia M. Cornick (1844-1916) was born in Missouri to attorney Tully R. Cornick (1817-1892) and Sophia Kennedy Boyd (b. 1823). On August 18, 1866, she married her first husband, Dr. William S. Hutt (1842-1880). Together they had six children: Elizabeth (1867-1960), Valeria (1868-1929), Sophia (b. 1871), Tully (1872-1872), Thomas (1873-1928), and Bertie (1879-1879). William Hutt passed away unexpectedly in 1880, and in 1888, Virginia married her second husband, John P. Johnson (1817-1898), a banker of Highland, Kansas. Upon his passing in 1898, Virginia inherited multiple farms and speculative properties in Florida, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri, along with interest in a mine in Montana.
- Virginia's eldest daughter, Elizabeth, attended Vassar College where she met her future husband, Clarence Carruth (1866-1946) while he was a student at Columbia. They married in 1900, and initially lived in Buffalo, but later moved to New York City, and eventually to Scarsdale, New York. Carruth worked as an attorney. Together the couple had three children: Clarence Jr. (1901-1992), Virginia (1904-1993), and Lucy (1906-1992).
- Valeria married Horatio Thomas Bruce (1854-1928), a businessman and political figure in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1890. He owned H.T. Bruce & Co where he was a wholesaler of mules and horses, and later became chief of police and vice mayor. Together they had three children: John (1892-1960), Jennievene (1901-1940), and Valerie (1906-1987).
- Sophia followed in her sister, Elizabeth's, footsteps and attended Vassar College. She taught music at Webb College for a year and later at Highland University before marrying a minister, Richard Tuttle Bell (b. 1866), in 1905. The couple initially lived in Highland, Kansas, but moved to Omaha, Nebraska; Idaho Springs, Colorado; Arcadia, Florida; and Washington D.C. They had one son together – Richard Jr. (1910-1982).
- Virginia's only surviving son, Thomas, married Mabel Melita Elling (1877-1964), of Montana, in 1899. Thomas was the president of a bank, and he moved his family from Kansas to Missouri before finally settling in California. The couple had three children together: Thomas Jr. (1901-1950), Melita (b. 1903), and Virginia (b. 1908).
- American Letters collector Wade Hall (1934-2015) was a native of Union Springs, Alabama. Starting in 1962, he lived in Louisville, where he taught English and chaired the English and Humanities/Arts programs at Kentucky Southern College and Bellarmine University. He also taught at the University of Illinois and the University of Florida. He held degrees from Troy State University (B.S.), the University of Alabama (M.A.), and the University of Illinois (Ph.D.). He served for two years in the U.S. Army in the mid-fifties. Dr. Hall was the author of books, monographs, articles, plays, and reviews relating to Kentucky, Alabama, and Southern history and literature. His most recent books include A Visit with Harlan Hubbard; High Upon a Hill: A History of Bellarmine College; A Song in Native Pastures: Randy Atcher's Life in Country Music; and Waters of Life from Conecuh Ridge.
- Scope and Content
- The Carruth family letters (dated 1900-1961; 3.68 cubic feet; 11 boxes) comprise letters that document the family relationships between the Carruth, Hutt, and Bruce families in the first half of the twentieth century. The letters provide insight into the lives of upper middle-class to wealthy families in America through multiple generations. The letters discuss national and international events, such as the assassination of President McKinley, the Boxer Rebellion, the San Francisco earthquake, Highland, Kansas getting electricity, and both World War I and II. There are letters that discuss the economic difficulties experienced by Sophia (Hutt) Bell sent to her sisters Elizabeth and Valeria who had both married well and were not the main breadwinners of the family. Prior to Virginia's death, she wrote about her attempts at being an entrepreneur. She writes about conditions, crops, livestock, and her future plans for her properties. She also describes in many letters how unscrupulous men took advantage of her at first because she was a woman, and secondly because she was an absentee owner. Additionally, as the grandchildren of Virginia grow up they begin to write their own letters to each other and their relatives. These letters discuss relatives, gossip, birth and death news, the weather, and business news. Clarence Jr writes often to his parents while working overseas in Europe to set up offices for a law firm that he worked for in the 1920s. Some letters between Sophia and Elizabeth, from 1929 to 1931, document her concern over her son, Dick, and his activities with a young man named Donald. The pastor at Dick's church in Washington feared it was a romantic relationship and Dick had to assure Sophia that it was just a passing phase for some young men. The last few years of the collection, 1960-1961, are mainly letters between Virginia Carruth and Lucy Carruth expressing condolences on the death of their mother, Elizabeth.
- The Carruth family letters are part of the Wade Hall Collection of American letters, which includes correspondence and diaries from all over North America covering the time period of the Civil to Korean Wars. The materials were collected by Wade Hall and document everyday men and women.
Restrictions on Access and Use
- Conditions Governing Access
- The collection is open to researchers by appointment.
- Use Restrictions
- The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.
Contents of the Collection
Letters, 1900
Letters, 1901
Letters, 1902
Letters, 1903
Letters, 1904
Letters, 1905
Letters, 1906
Letters, 1907
Letters, 1908
Letters, 1909
Letters, 1910
Letters, 1911
Letters, 1914-1916
Letters, 1921-1922
Letters, 1923
Letters, 1924
Letters, 1925
Letters, 1926
Letters, 1927
Letters, 1928
Letters, 1929
Letters, 1930
Letters, 1931
Letters, 1932-1935
Letters, 1938-1940
Letters, 1943-1944
Letters, 1945
Letters, 1947
Letters, 1959-1960
Letters, 1961
Letters, undated
Empty envelopes, advertisements, and scrap notes, undated
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Questions? Contact SCRC via our Contact Form.
Table of Contents
You may come across language in UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center collections and online resources that you find harmful or offensive. SCRC collects materials from different cultures and time periods to preserve and make available the historical record. These materials document the time period when they were created and the view of their creator. As a result, some may demonstrate racist and offensive views that do not reflect the values of UK Libraries.
If you find description with problematic language that you think SCRC should review, please contact us at SCRC@uky.edu.
UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center is open Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm. Appointments are encouraged but not required. Schedule an appointment here.
Researchers must have an SCRC Researcher Account to request materials. View account set-up and use instructions here.
Questions? Contact SCRC via our Contact Form.
Requests
No items have been requested.
You may come across language in UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center collections and online resources that you find harmful or offensive. SCRC collects materials from different cultures and time periods to preserve and make available the historical record. These materials document the time period when they were created and the view of their creator. As a result, some may demonstrate racist and offensive views that do not reflect the values of UK Libraries.
If you find description with problematic language that you think SCRC should review, please contact us at SCRC@uky.edu.
