Z 1401.000 Power (J. L.) and Family Papers

Colonel J. L. Power was born in Ireland in 1834. In his sixteenth year he came to the United States. For four years he lived in the town of Lockport in Western New York. He then went to New Orleans, where he remained only a few months, moving finally to Jackson, Mississippi, in April, 1855. At the outbreak of the Civil War he entered the Confederate army in Company A, of Wither's regiment. In 1864 he was made superintendent of army records, with the rank of Colonel. After the war, he helped establish the Mississippi Standard, which was later merged into the Clarion (1866), and finally into the Clarion-Ledger (1888). Colonel Power was elected Secretary of State by the citizens of Mississippi in 1895, and was re-elected in 1899.

The collection contains the following material:

• personal correspondence mainly of J. L. Power, Secretary of State of the state of Mississippi, written to his wife and daughter, August 14, 1878–November 18, 1878
• letters written by Willie Power to his mother, September 19, 1878–October 24, 1878, dealing mainly with the yellow fever epidemic during the period
• a letter to J. W., Smylie from E. H. Luitwieler dated September 5, 1878
• a letter to Mary Clarke from her mother, November, 1864
• writings by J. L. Power entitled, "Jackson As I First Saw It," "Mississippi Secession Convention," Southern Home Journal, vol. III, no. 3, April, 1899, and "The Black and Tan Convention," reprinted from Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, vol. III
• a marriage record, Adams County, February 23, 1817
• indentures, May 27, 1839–October 14, 1847
• deed of mortgage by Levi Noble, Holmes County, to the Mississippi Union Bank, September 1, 1839
• a certificate of Naturalization for J. L. Power, Superior Court of Chancery of the state of Mississippi, June 9, 1856
• issues of Kate Power's Review, vol. I, no. 17, December 22, 1894 and vol. I, no. 35, May 4, 1895
• two letters from Jefferson Davis to J. L. Power, June 11, 1884 and October 13, 1887
• a description of meetings attended by J. L. Power, January 17, 1888–August 31, 1888
• an issue of The Chronicle, a publication of the First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, November 8, 1936, and material related to the building of a new Presbyterian Church, n.d., February 11, 1879–April 1, 1897
• issues of the Clarion Extra, August 24, 1878–October 25, 1878, and clippings
• a writing entitled "The Old Sharon Cemetery," by Anabel Power
• data pertaining to the old Power home from Anabel Power to Laura Ellis Little, April 5, 1958
• chapter VIII of the demonstrations of the enemy in the Yazoo—operations of Sanderson's Battery
• an account settlement, Adams County, to William Wells, jailer, August 6, 1800
• various miscellaneous material
• a diary of J. L. Power, May 15, 1862–July 25, 1863, and included within the diary is a muster roll, 1863, and discharges, 1863