Bagby-Rogers-Wood-Fishback family papers
Abstract
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Bagby-Rogers-Wood-Fishback family papers
- Date
- 1805-1910 (inclusive)
- Bulk, 1840-1880 (bulk)
- Extent
- 0.75 Cubic Feet
- Subjects
- Business records--Kentucky--Barren County
- Families--Kentucky--History--19th century.
- Frontier and pioneer life--California
- Frontier and pioneer life--Illinois
- Frontier and pioneer life--Missouri.
- Frontier and pioneer life--Texas.
- Legal documents.
- Letters.
- Mormons--Illinois--History--19th century
- Arrangement
- Collection is arranged into series by correspondent name. Names are listed chronologically from earliest to latest family member.
- Preferred Citation
- 1997ms266: [identification of item], Bagby-Rogers-Wood-Fishback family papers, 1805-1910, bulk 1840-1880, University of Kentucky Special Collections.
- Repository
- University of Kentucky
Collection Overview
- Biography / History
- The following are incomplete family genealogies, focusing on the people represented in the collection.
- John Bagby (5/1762-11/17/1834) married Matilda. They lived in Barren County, Ky., and had seven children, of which four are represented in this collection: Their son, Roderick H. Bagby (1778?-1852?) married Virginia Wood (1805-1892). Another son, Walter Bagby (1801-1846) married Eliza (d. 1836) and emigrated to Illinois. A third son, Charles D. Bagby emigrated to Illinois and possibly Missouri. Their daughter, Nancy Elizabeth Bagby Rogers (1806-1889) married William Byrd Rogers (1804-1884).
- John and Matilda Bagby's daughter, Nancy E. Bagby Rogers, and son-in-law, William Byrd Rogers, had seven children, of which six are represented in this collection: Their sons John Byrd Rogers (1835-1864?) and George Walter Rogers (1842-1863) were unmarried and were either missing in action or killed during the Civil War. Both were members of the Orphan's Brigade. Their son Charles Bagby Rogers (1840-1919) married Sara Puss Moss Forbis Rogers and served in Morgan's Calvary during the Civil War. Their youngest son Henry Landon (1847-1923) married Phobe Caldwell. Their youngest daughter Margaret Annie Byrd Rogers (b. 1844) married Sid Parrish. Their daughter Mary Mollie H.M. Rogers Wood (1836-1914) married twice, first to John B. Wood and then to his brother, Robert Robin F. Wood. John B. Wood and Robert F. Wood were brothers of Mary H.M. Rogers Wood's aunt, Virginia Wood Bagby.
- John and Matilda Bagby's daughter-in-law Virginia Wood Bagby was the daughter of William J. (Buck) Wood and Nancy Field of Barren County, Ky., who had nine children, of which five are represented in the collection: Daughter Virginia Wood Bagby married Roderick Bagby. Son John Barrick Wood was the first husband of Mary H.M. Rogers Wood, Virginia's niece. Son Robert Robin Field Wood (1812-1896) was Mollie Rogers Wood's second husband. Daughter Anne Eliza Wood Forbis married Felix Forbis and had two children. Anne and Felix Forbis' daughter, Sara Puss Moss Forbis Rogers married Charles Bagby Rogers, a son of Nancy Bagby Rogers and William Byrd Rogers. Thus, two of William Byrd Rogers and Nancy Bagby Rogers' children married into the Wood-Forbis family.
- Robin F. Wood's first wife was Mildred Field Wood (1817-1865), a niece and daughter of Robin's brother and sister-in-law, Jessie Wood and Sally Grayson Wood. Robin and Mildred Wood had eight children, of which one is represented in this collection: Jane Field Wood Fishback married James Fishback.
- It is from Mollie and Robin Wood that this collection's donor is descended.
- Source: 2013ms0105: William Chambliss, Jr., collection on the Baby-Rogers-Wood-Fishback family papers, 1978-1989, University of Kentucky Special Collections. Please consult this collection for additional family genealogy information.
- Scope and Content
- The Babgy-Rogers-Wood-Fishback family papers (dated 1805-1910, bulk 1840-1880; 0.75 cubic feet) consist of correspondence, financial papers, and two tintypes of the John and Matilda Bagby family and their children and children-in-law (Wood, Rogers, and Fishback families). Other family names represented in the collection include Baird, Field, Forbis, and Yancy. The extended family was originally from Barren County, Kentucky, in the communities of Blue Spring Grove (Goosehorn or Hiseville), Rich Grove (south of later Goodnight), and Coral Hill. Various family members moved west to Missouri, Illinois, California, and Texas during the mid-nineteenth century, and the majority of the letters in this collection document that movement. The writers alternately express their joy in and their dislike of their new surroundings and encourage their Barren County relatives to send them news of the rest of the family. The writers' health concerns, social lives, religious participation, political opinions, financial and farm dealings, and wartime observations take place within the context of being immigrants in newly-created western states.
- Specific topics in the letters include on-the-scene accounts from the Christian perspective of events leading up to the lynching of Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders in Illinois in 1844 (Walter Bagby, folder 5); personal observations on, attitudes about, and effects of the Civil War on a slave-owning family which lost three of its sons to the conflict (Rogers family, folders 6-10); comments on Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay, and Andrew Jackson (Charles D. Bagby, Nancy E. Rogers and William B. Rogers letters, folders 3-4, 6-8); criticism of the mail (William G. Ferguson to William B. Rogers, folders 6-7); and detailed accounts of a trip to California and a Southern migrant's reflections on the diverse ethnic makeup of the state, gender roles, and geography (Thomas G. Yancey letters to friend and cousin Mollie Wood, folder 11).
- The business and legal documents in the collection include personal IOUs, labor contracts, receipts, wills, and itemized merchants' accounts that document commodities prices and crop conditions in various localities, including slave farming and owning before the Civil War and legal and financial relationships during and after the war (especially in John and Matilda Bagby, William B. Rogers, and Robert F. Wood letters, folders 6-7, 16). There is a particularly large group of these in the letters of William G. Ferguson, written to his friend and agent, William B. Rogers (folders 6-7). There is also a certificate, dated Feb. 2, 1848, for a widow's pension for Matilda Bagby whose husband, John, served in the Revolutionary War.
Restrictions on Access and Use
- Conditions Governing Access
- Collection is open to researchers by appointment.
- Use Restrictions
- Property rights reside with the University of Kentucky. The University of Kentucky holds the copyright for materials created in the course of business by University of Kentucky employees. Copyright for all other materials has not been assigned to the University of Kentucky. For information about permission to reproduce or publish, please contact Special Collections.
Contents of the Collection
John (1762-1834) and Matilda Bagby, 1805-1855 and undated
Charles Bagby Rogers (1840-1919), 1875
H.M. Rogers, 1839
Handpainted tintypes: John Byrd Rogers and Henry Landon Rogers, 1860s
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Table of Contents
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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.
