This collection consists of typescript copies of letters of the Samuel and Amanda Dougherty Worthington family of Washington County, Mississippi, which date from the 1820s to the 1870s. Some of the earliest letters were written by Amanda Worthington’s father, Thomas Dougherty, who was clerk of the United States House of Representatives. There are letters to and from Albert D. Worthington, who was a student at the University of Virginia during the 1850s. There are also letters to and from Albert D. and William Mason Worthington, who were both members of Company H, First Regiment, Mississippi Cavalry, during the Civil War. Albert D. Worthington was killed in 1864.

There is also a typescript copy of a two-volume diary kept by Amanda Worthington between January 1, 1862, and October 21, 1865. Included with the diary are typescript copies of Worthington family letters and a copy of a paper that Sam Worthington read at a meeting of the Washington County Historical Society on January 2, 1911.

The typescripts were prepared by Eunice J. Stockwell, who worked for the Mississippi Historical Records Survey of the Works Progress Administration.