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Biography/History:
Dr. James Gill Kirkpatrick was born in Greene County, Alabama, in 1831. He was the son of James Hill Kirkpatrick (b. ca. 1805) and Martha Gaston Kirkpatrick. After graduating from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, he opened a dental practice in Canton, Madison County, Mississippi, in 1856. Dr. Kirkpatrick’s office was located in a building known as the Stone House. He later moved his dental practice to a Greek Revival-style building located on Peace Street in Canton.
Dr. Kirkpatrick married Juliette Caroline Stebbins (b. 1834) of Louisville, Mississippi, in 1858. Stebbins had attended Canton Female Academy in Canton, Mississippi, and Ward’s Seminary in McMinnville, Tennessee. The Kirkpatricks had three children: Walter Gill, Mattie Gaston, and James C. (b. ca. 1862). Dr. Kirkpatrick owned twelve thousand dollars of real property and four thousand dollars of personal property in 1860.
On April 28, 1862, Dr. Kirkpatrick enlisted in the Confederate army as a private in Company B of Captain Richards’ Mississippi Light Artillery. He served primarily in Virginia, especially near Fredericksburg, Petersburg, Richmond, and Spotsylvania. Dr. Kirkpatrick was killed at the battle of Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864.
After Dr. Kirkpatrick’s death, Juliette Stebbins Kirkpatrick managed his dental practice and leather tannery in Canton. She owned over six thousand dollars of real property and four hundred dollars of personal property in 1870. Kirkpatrick and her children later lived on State Street in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi.
Walter Gill Kirkpatrick was born in Canton, Mississippi, on September 6, 1859. He attended the University of Mississippi between 1877 and 1878, but he transferred to Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, where he majored in civil engineering and eventually graduated with four academic degrees. Kirkpatrick married Willie Jones of Canton, but they had no children. For several years, he worked as a civil engineer in Tennessee. Kirkpatrick later worked for the United States government as an assistant engineer, surveying the Cumberland River in order to build a series of locks and dams. He also worked on several civil engineering projects in Mississippi and other states before becoming the first municipal engineer of Jackson in 1898. Kirkpatrick planned many improvements, including a sewer system, a Capitol Street bridge, and some of the first concrete sidewalks in Mississippi. He was a consulting engineer for several cities in the South, including Birmingham, Alabama, and Monroe, Louisiana. Kirkpatrick was also a professor of municipal engineering at the University of Mississippi. He and his wife died when the steamboat, Norman, sank in the Mississippi River, sixteen miles south of Memphis, Tennessee, on May 8, 1925. They are buried in the Canton Cemetery.
Mattie Gaston Kirkpatrick was born in Canton, Mississippi, around 1861. She received a master’s degree from Ward’s Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. Kirkpatrick later took classes at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and at several other universities. She wrote for several magazines and newspapers, taught expression and music, and was involved in numerous charities and clubs in Jackson, Mississippi, and elsewhere. Kirkpatrick also lived in Asheville, North Carolina, for some time.
Scope and Content:
This collection includes correspondence, photographs, financial records, social papers, a power-of-attorney, printed material, and two academic medals of various members of the Kirkpatrick and Stebbins families.
The correspondence of Dr. James Gill Kirkpatrick and his wife, Juliette Caroline Stebbins Kirkpatrick, spans the years of their courtship and married life until the death of Dr. Kirkpatrick in 1864. Many of the courtship letters were exchanged while Dr. Kirkpatrick was establishing a dental practice in Canton, Mississippi, and while Stebbins was a student at Ward’s Seminary, McMinnville, Tennessee. These letters provide a portrait of academic and social life in Mississippi and Tennessee during the late 1850s.
Roughly two-thirds of the letters in the collection date from the Civil War. The correspondence of Dr. Kirkpatrick offers a particularly complete account of his Confederate military service. The majority of Dr. Kirkpatrick’s letters to his wife were written from various locations in Virginia, including Fredericksburg, Petersburg, Richmond, and Spotsylvania. The letters discuss enlistment details, camp life, rations, troop movements, battles, and prisoners-of-war. They also note his views on several political issues. One letter to his wife includes an undated set of plans and diagrams for a horse-and-buggy shelter and stalls.
Juliette Stebbins Kirkpatrick’s letters to her husband discuss life in Canton, Mississippi, and the difficulties of managing business and domestic matters. Some of her business difficulties included managing Dr. Kirkpatrick’s dental practice and leather tannery. Several of her letters also describe details of the Vicksburg campaign.
There are a few letters from Dr. James Gill Kirkpatrick to other correspondents, including a letter to General G. W. Smith in which he applies for furlough in September of 1862. There are also several letters to Dr. Kirkpatrick from other correspondents, including several letters from a friend named L. Bosworth, who wrote from Canton regarding such personal matters as the case of cholera Juliette Stebbins Kirkpatrick was suffering from in June of 1863. Dr. Kirkpatrick also received several letters from his children, especially Walter Gill Kirkpatrick. Juliette Stebbins Kirkpatrick also wrote several letters for her children when they were too young to write to their father.
Juliette Stebbins Kirkpatrick also received letters from correspondents other than her husband. George E. Purvis of "Poverty Hall" and D. C. Spurlock wrote a number of courtship letters. Confederate general Ambrose Powell Hill wrote a June 5, 1864, letter informing Kirkpatrick of the death of her husband. Mary A. Bigalow wrote of social events in September of 1865. Andrew White also wrote several times from Granly, Mississippi, in 1865. V. T. Elliot wrote several times from Memphis, Tennessee, concerning merchandise that was for sale in 1866. T. W. Kirkpatrick wrote from Memphis regarding several bank notes in 1866. James C. Kirkpatrick was an infrequent correspondent.
Among the family photographs are images of Dr. James Gill Kirkpatrick, Juliette Stebbins Kirkpatrick, Walter Gill Kirkpatrick, Mattie Gaston Kirkpatrick, James C. Kirkpatrick, Nettie Kirkpatrick, and an image of the Kirkpatrick home on State Street in Jackson, Mississippi, circa 1910. The person who annotated all of the family photographs is unknown.
The financial records include a certificate for two shares of stock in the Virginia Volunteer Navy Company that is dated December 7, 1863. There is a Confederate bond of James Gill Kirkpatrick that is dated March 21, 1864. There is one receipt for Roraback’s Improved Soap Mixture that is dated May 21, 1859, and two miscellaneous receipts that are dated January 1, 1861, and March 19, 1864.
The social papers include three invitations to parties. One invitation is to a party given by the Odd Fellows of Canton, Mississippi, on February 1, 1859. The other two undated invitations are to a party at the home of Mrs. A. P. Hughes and a commencement party honoring the graduating class of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee. There are a number of calling cards from various people; several are dated 1858, but the rest are undated.
In a legal document, Juliette Stebbins Kirkpatrick granted to Dr. T. T. Dismukes a limited power-of-attorney over the estate of her deceased husband, Dr. Kirkpatrick, on February 11, 1865. Dr. Dismukes was authorized to settle unpaid accounts of Dr. Kirkpatrick in Richmond, Virginia.
The printed materials include a flier entitled "Citizen Extra" that is dated May 4, 1864. There is a work of poetry and prose entitled "The Seasons" that was written by Walter Gill Kirkpatrick on December 18, 1877, and there is an undated newsclipping of a poem entitled "The Bow of Love." A photocopied newsclipping is apparently from an unidentified newspaper of December 1928; it is entitled "Dr. Hume’s Tribute to Walter Gill Kirkpatrick." There are three documents that provide historical information on Closeburn Castle, a Kirkpatrick family stronghold in Dumfrieshire, Scotland. These documents also discuss the assassination of John Comyn by Sir Roger Kirkpatrick on February 10, 1306.
The two medals were apparently awarded to Mattie Gaston Kirkpatrick. One medal is a "Prize of Honor" from Ward’s Seminary in 1879, and the other is an undated geometry medal from Canton Female Academy.
Series Identification:
Box 1
Box 2
Box 1
Box 2
Box 2
Box 1
Box 2