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Biography/History:
William Aristides Alcorn, the first cousin of Mississippi governor James Lusk Alcorn, was born in Livingston County, Kentucky, on August 15, 1841. He was the eighth child of Randolph Woodford and Harriet Coffield Alcorn. His parents moved to Coahoma County, Mississippi, when he was a child. W. A. Alcorn was educated at Pine Log Academy in Jonestown, Mississippi. During the Civil War, he served in Blythe’s Battalion, Forty-fourth Regiment, Mississippi Infantry, and in Company H (Bolivar Troop), First Regiment, Mississippi Cavalry. He and his family returned to farming after the war.
In 1870, W. A. Alcorn was appointed sheriff of Tallahatchie County. He married Annie Alvis Lee on December 15, 1870. She was the daughter of Robert Elmore Lee of Charleston, Mississippi. The Alcorns had six children: Benjamin A., Clara Lee, David Forte, Jayne B., Robert Elmore, and Thomas Turner. After completing his term as sheriff of Tallahatchie County, W. A. Alcorn returned to Coahoma County where he was associated with the Friars Point mercantile firm, Alcorn and Wortham, until 1880. W. A. Alcorn later leased his Coahoma County plantation, Lone Oak, and he moved to Clarksdale where he served as sheriff a second time between 1882 and 1883. Thereafter, he served as United States postmaster in Clarksdale for several years.
W. A. Alcorn died on August 4, 1921, and his wife died on January 17, 1924. They are both buried in the Grange Cemetery in Clarksdale.
Scope and Content:
This collection contains a variety of family papers, including church records, correspondence, financial records, genealogical notes, legal records, military history notes, and photographs of the Alcorn, Lee, and allied families, who lived in Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and in Coahoma and Tallahatchie counties in Mississippi.
Series Identification:
This series contains both incoming and outgoing correspondence of the Alcorn, Lee, and allied families. A February 28, 1874, letter from M. J. Vaiden of Batesville, Mississippi, concerns the Lee family’s claim against the federal government for property expropriated by the Union army during the Civil War. An October 8, 1876, letter from Annie Alvis Lee Alcorn describes her trip to New York and the centennial in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An April 4, 1897, letter from former Confederate lieutenant colonel F. A. Montgomery concerns W. A. Alcorn’s service in the First Regiment, Mississippi Cavalry. A May 8, 1898, letter from Frank C. Armstrong, Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, United States Department of the Interior, comments on the Spanish-American War. A November 29, 1904, letter from W. A. Alcorn describes economic progress in the Mississippi Delta, especially in Charleston, Clarksdale, Friars Point, Jonestown, and Marks. A November 22, 1907, letter from Irenaeus Trout of Clarksdale concerns metaphysics, theology, and the tenets of Christian Science.
Box 1
This series contains invoices, receipts, and other records documenting the mercantile and planting interests of the Alcorn, Lee, and allied families of Coahoma and Tallahatchie counties in Mississippi.
Boxes 2-3
This series contains genealogical information on the Alcorn, Lee, and allied families, including many birth, marriage, and death dates. There is a list of slaves and slave children belonging to Robert Elmore Lee. There is also a memoir describing the Confederate military service of W. A. Alcorn.
Box 1
This series contains legal documents relating to various members of the Alcorn, Lee, and allied families. There are contracts, deeds, wills, and other records from Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee. There is also a printed labor contract between planter James A. Dogan and former slave Lydia Pinchbuck, who was employed as a cook, house servant, and farming assistant in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi.
Boxes 2-3
This series contains notes describing the Confederate military service of W. A. Alcorn in Company H (Bolivar Troop), First Regiment, Mississippi Cavalry. There are also rosters of the Bolivar Troop, a list of battles fought, a United Confederate Veterans certificate, and accompanying correspondence.
Box 1
This series contains church-membership letters for various Alcorn family members and for several of their slaves. Named in the letters are the Baptist Church of Christ, Goodhope, Mississippi; Baptist Church of Christ, Sunflower, Sunflower County, Mississippi; Elim United Baptist Church of Christ, Mashulaville, Noxubee County, Mississippi; and Goodhope Church, Coahoma, Coahoma County, Mississippi. Also included is the baptismal record of Clara Lee Alcorn from All Saints’ Church, Grenada, Grenada County, Mississippi.
Box 1
This series contains two unidentified carte-de-visite photographs and four tintypes.
Box 2
This series consists of a pocket diary and notebook of Robert Elmore Lee, a Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, planter, and the father of Annie Alvis Lee Alcorn. In it Lee records daily accounts, expenses, and tasks related to various business activities between Memphis and New Orleans. He also mentions exchanging various currencies and his oversight of several probate cases. Lee includes a chart of cotton weights and lists of clothing allotments for several named slaves.
Box 1
This series includes a variety of materials documenting the active political interests of the Alcorn family. There is a July 8, 1848, Whig Party-related letter regarding the Smithland, Kentucky, district vote for that year’s election. Another item is an August 25, 1856, handwritten announcement setting the time and place for the formation of a "Fillmore and Donaldson" political club. An October 1880 broadside lists scheduled public addresses of Robert J. Alcorn on current political issues.
Boxes 1-3
This series consists of a manuscript map of a proposed landscaping project in an unidentified area. The map is sketched on letterhead stationery of J. J. McGovern, a civil engineer and surveyor of Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Box 1
This series consists of a typewritten copy of a poem entitled "Teach Me to Love," which was copied from a religious publication.
This series contains an invitation to the Calico Ball at Dickerson Hall on April 12, 1881, which was hosted by the Friars Point Social Club; a volume entitled The Marvellous Repository; a collection of anecdotes, folklore, strange tales, and verse; and a broadside explaining the "Re-Rating of Invalid Pensions" that was issued by Washington, D.C., attorney William W. Dudley.
Box 1
This series contains an undated article by James A. Rector entitled "Fraud Tells Story" from an unidentified Arkansas newspaper, which concerns a woman who had impersonated the deceased mother of Mrs. E. W. Rector. There is a May 8, 1920, issue of the Friars Point Coahomian, Friars Point, Mississippi, with an obituary for Mrs. C. C. Chambers. A December 26, 1929, article from the Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee, is a tribute to Confederate general Robert E. Lee. There is also a 1952 obituary for Mrs. R. J. Moseley of Hollandale, Mississippi.
Box 1
This series contains a pocketknife, a piece of rope, and two sewing kits. The pocketknife is engraved "W. A. Alcorn 1st Miss Cav 1862."
Box 4 (restricted)