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From: DC0339s (Finding Aid)
Transcript
Davidson College, NC [1]
Dec 3rd, 1873 [2]
Dear Father and Mother, [3]
Since writing last, I have made a careful summing up of what it will take to put me through at Christmas. I have to count back from Christmas because I have not paid anything. I find I can get off with $150.00 at Christmas. $50.00 less than I expected.
Immediately after Christmas I will have to pay the treasurer for next term and buy some more books. Charlie says he will have to do the same. [4]
I think I had better come home Christmas. Cotton looks like it is not going to rise soon and you will have to sell soon or at least I can’t see how you will keep from it. [5] Don’t think I write this because I wish to come home, and write this as an excuse. For I would be glad I could graduate here and would gladly stay until I get through if you were able to keep me here without straining yourself to much. [6] I will not finish this till tomorrow.
I see cotton is missing by the latest papers. It is 14% @ 16 3/8 in New Orleans. [7] I also see what the Northern banks and manufacturers are resuming payment and begin using work again and money will be plentiful in the South in a few weeks. [8] I hope the report is true. If
You say so I will start home on the first of January or sooner. It would take about $200.00 to pay all I owe here and leave enough for me to go home on.
I don’t know what effect it will have on the price of cotton if war is declared against Spain. Some think it will have no effect at all. While others think it will lower it. [9]
Write as soon as possible and tell me what you want me to do. I can’t help being troubled a great deal when I can’t get any money or letters from you. Please write every week. You can’t concieve the anxiety I feel. It so weighs on my mind constantly. Charlie asked me to send him five dollars if I could possibly spare it to buy paper and oil with if I could send him any more. [10] I wrote that I would not have enough to pay all I owed and buy what I needed if I did not get any more than a hundred dollars. The weather is very cold and I am suffering with cold for want of thicker clothing. [11] I tried to borrow some but most of the students are out as well as myself. I almost
[Walter B. Leverett, unsigned] [12]
Original
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Annotations
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1 Davidson College is a liberal arts college in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina and is located twenty-three miles north of Charlotte. It was founded in 1837. More information about the college can be found in the Davidson Encyclopedia at https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/college/encyclopedia (DE).
2 Dec. 3rd, 1873 was near the end of Walter’s first term at Davidson College.. The term began September 25, 1873 and ended December 22, 1873. There was no college catalog from 1873-1874, but 1872-1873 figures are very similar. There were 113 students and 11 faculty members from 1872-1873 and the courses offered for sophomore include: the Bible, English, English Literature, French, Latin, Greek, and Mathematics. Walter attended Washington and Lee University as a freshman from 1872-1873, but transferred to Davidson College as a sophomore (Fac. Min. and DCC 1872-1873).
3 Walter’s father and mother were Marshall Duncan Leverett and Eliza Ann Patterson. Marshall was born in Georgia in 1815 and Eliza was born in North Carolina in 1826. They were married on September 29, 1851 in Rusk County, Texas. They had seven children: Walter, Charlie, Alice, Howard, Lebron, Caroline, and Alfred Henry. Both Alfred and Caroline died when they were two years old (Rodriguez).
4 All college dues for the next term were paid in advance at Davidson College. The ordinary college expenses for one year exclusive of clothing, traveling expenses, and pocket money is estimated to vary from $200-250 (expenses not exact because there was no catalogue for the 1873-1874 school year). The monetary amounts in 1873 would be worth much more today (DCC 1872-1873, DCC 1874-1875).
5 The Leverett family lived in Leverett’s Chapel, Texas where they had $4000 real estate and a $10,000 private estate with 13 slaves and 3 slave houses. Leverett’s Chapel was a cotton-farming agricultural community and became an effective plantation system. The Leveretts moved from Georgia with their slaves, cattle, and equipment to begin the family’s effective plantation system. While Walter was at school, his mind was still preoccupied with his parents’ plantation and cotton fields (Rodriguez).
6 Walter wanted to graduate from Davidson College, but only stayed for one term (Fall 1873). Walter had to go home to help his family and could not afford to stay at Davidson long term (Leverett Family).
7 New Orleans was the largest exporter of the nation’s cotton in 1873, so Walter referred to the price of cotton in December 1873 in New Orleans because it is the city that exports the cotton his parents grow. His family is invested in their cotton plantation and need to successfully sell their cotton in order to make money (Gitlin).
8 Money in the south had been suffering because of the Panic of 1873. Cotton prices fell 50% from July to December and farmer’s debts became more expensive because of steady deflation (Foner).
9 Although war was not declared against Spain in 1873, there was a diplomatic dispute called the Virginius Affair that occurred from October 1873 to February 1875 between the U.S., Great Britain and Spain. The prices of cotton did collapse during this time in the aftermath of the American Civil War (Virginius Affair).
10 Charlie was Walter’s older brother (2 years older) who was born in 1853 in Leverett’s Chapel, Rusk County, Texas. Charlie attended Washington and Lee University from 1872 to 1874 where he studied Greek, French, Mathematics, and Latin. Greta Munger, a professor who currently teaches at Davidson, is the great grand daughter of Howard Leverett, Walter and Charlie’s brother. Walter was unable to send his brother money because he had to save all his money for his expenses at Davidson (Leverett Family).
11 The mean temperature in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1873 was 42.9 degrees Fahrenheit. Fireplaces were the only method of heating in 1873, so Walter needed winter clothes to stay warm while at Davidson (NC Agricultural).
12 Walter B. Leverett was born in 1855 in Jamestown, Texas. He was born to Marshall Duncan Leverett and Eliza Ann Patterson. He was the second of seven children and lived with his family on a plantation in Leverett’s Chapel, Texas. He began college in 1872 at Washington and Lee University and transferred to Davidson College in 1873 before the fall of his sophomore year. While he was at Davidson, he belonged to the Philanthropic society and was conditioned in French. His classes for the fall of 1873 were Logic and Rhetoric, Greek, Latin, Modern Languages, Mathematics, On Composition, and Declamation. He left Davidson after his first semester. Walter remained a farmer but moved away from the family farm to San Saba, Texas with his wife Addie.
Works cited
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Bradford, Richard H., and Ron Soodalter. “Virginius Affair.”Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginius_Affair>.
Davidson College Catalog, 1872-1873. Davidson: Davidson College Office of Communications. [1982].
Davidson College Catalog, 1874-1875. Davidson: Davidson College Office of Communications. [1875].
“Davidson Encyclopedia.” Davidson Encyclopedia. Davidson College Archives, Aug. 2003. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. <https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/college/encyclopedia>.
DC0339s. Leverett Family Papers. Davidson College Archives, Davidson, N.C.
Faculty Minutes – 3 October 1873. RG 2/3. 2. President’s Office. Davidson College Archives, Davidson, N.C.
Foner, Eric, Hugh Lefler, and Albert Newsome. “History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Education and Research.” History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Education and Research. The University of Virginia, 2009. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. <http://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/308>.
Gitlin, Jay. “History of New Orleans.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_New_Orleans>.
Glasner, David, and Thomas F. Cooley. “Long Depression.”Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Apr. 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_depression>.
North Carolina Agricultural Experimental Center. Climatology of North Carolina, (from Records of 1820 to 1892) including the Fifth Annual Report of the North Carolina State Weather Service, for 1891. Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton, 1892.Google Books. 16 Jan. 2009. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. <http://books.google.com/books?id=zUTPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=Climatology+of+North+Carolina,+(from+Records+of+1820+to+1892)+including+the+Fifth+Annual+Report+of+the+North+Carolina+State+Weather+Service>.
Rodriguez, Donna McCreary. “Captain Marshall Duncan Leverett and Eliza Ann Patterson.” Gone to Texas. Millennia, 26 Mar. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. <http://gonetotexasgtt.com/f2102.htm#f234>.
Transcription and annotation author: Jenny Fritz.
Date: May 2014.
Cite as: Fritz, Jenny, annotator. 3 December 1873 Walter B. Leverett Letter to Father and Mother. DC0339s.
Available: https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/digital-collections/walter-b-leverett-letter-3-dec-1873.
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