Z 1870.000 Lobdell Family Papers

Llewellyn T., Jonathan Conger, and John Venable Lobdell, sons of John and Mary Conger Lobdell, spent their youth on their fathers plantation on the Big Black River near Vicksburg, Mississippi. As young adults, John Venable and his brother, Jonathan, were induced by their elder brother, Llewellyn, to move to Bolivar County in the Mississippi Delta in 1845. There they acquired from their brother a valuable plantation on Egypt Ridge near the present-day town of Benoit. Collectively, the Lobdell brothers were planting cotton on a large scale prior to the Civil War, and they owned many slaves.

John Venable Lobdell married Minerva Lee Coffee, daughter of General Thomas Coffee, of Brandon, Mississippi. John Venable Lobdell died shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War, and he was survived by his wife; a son, John Venable, born on October 25, 1859; and two daughters, Bettie and Florence. Minerva Lee Coffee Lobdell later married Confederate soldier, lawyer, and planter George T. Lightfoot.

The young John Venable Lobdell was privately educated in Memphis, Tennessee, and he also attended a junior college. Lobdell married Coralie Guibert Nugent on June 1, 1887. They had eight children: Anne Nugent, Coralie Guibert, Ethel Elizabeth, Hugh Lewis, John Venable, Jr., Lillian Hardeman, Mildred Lee, and Richard Nugent. John Venable Lobdell was engaged in planting in Bolivar County. He was elected to the board of supervisors of Bolivar County in 1890 and as treasurer of Bolivar County in 1895. Lobdell also owned an insurance agency in Rosedale, Mississippi. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the Democratic Party, and the Masonic Order.

This collection contains correspondence, financial and legal records, printed material, photographs and negatives, postcards, artwork, clippings, notebooks, scrapbooks, albums, diplomas, and broadsides pertaining to the Lobdell family of Bolivar County, Mississippi, from the 1820s to the1960s. There are also papers and records pertaining to the allied Coffee, Nugent, and Coppedge families.

Jonathan Conger and John Venable Lobdells correspondence documents the management of the Bolivar County plantation that they jointly acquired from their brother, Llewellyn. Of particular interest are lists of slaves belonging to Jonathan Conger and John Venable Lobdell and financial and legal records pertaining to the Lobdell brothers and their plantation on Egypt Ridge. There are also bills of sale for slaves purchased by John Venable Lobdell. Of additional interest are financial and legal records pertaining to the probated estates of Jonathan Conger and John Venable Lobdell.

Minerva Lee Coffee Lobdell Lightfoots correspondence includes letters from her first husband, planter John Venable Lobdell, and her second husband, lawyer and planter George T. Lightfoot; son John Venable Lobdell and daughter-in-law Coralie Guibert Nugent Lobdell; and daughters Bettie and Florence Lobdell. There are also references to Bethlehem Academy in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in the correspondence of Florence Lobdell who attended this academy. Of special interest are letters from friends and prominent Bolivar County residents Louisa McGehee Burrus and Kate M. Burrus of Hollywood plantation, near Benoit, and Walter and Florence Warfield Sillers of Rosedale. There are also a number of letters from Virginia Robb of Arkansas City, Arkansas. The correspondence of Minerva Lee Coffee Lobdell Lightfoot describes the life and experiences of a Bolivar County plantation mistress during the ante-bellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction periods. Scattered financial records are also present.

Additional papers of George T. Lightfoot include business and personal correspondence and financial and legal records. They detail the management of his Bolivar County properties and those of his wife, Minerva, during Reconstruction. Lightfoots papers also detail various aspects of his law practice. Of special interest is a letter to Lightfoot from Louisa McGehee Burrus of Hollywood plantation in Bolivar County.

John Venable Lobdell, Sr.s correspondence relates his early education at Stewarts Collegiate Institute (later Protestant Collegiate Institute) of Memphis, Tennessee; his relationships with his wife, Coralie Guibert Nugent Lobdell, and their eight children; his involvement in various Bolivar County mercantile and planting enterprises; his participation in Bolivar County politics; and his successful insurance agency in Rosedale. Of particular interest are letters to Lobdell from Dennis Murphree, W. L. Nugent, and Walter Sillers. There are also copies of letters to Dennis Murphree and Robert Somerville from Lobdell.

Coralie Guibert Nugent Lobdells correspondence reveals her relationships with her husband, John Venable Lobdell, Sr., her eight children, various Lobdell and Nugent relatives, and friends. Her letters also reveal her involvement in various organizations, including the Daughters of the American Revolution, of which she was statewide conservation chairman, and the Kings Daughters Hospital of Rosedale, Mississippi, of which she was finance chairman. Of interest are letters from Fannye A. Cook, Major General James E. Edmonds, A. O. Hardenstein, M.D., Lucy Somerville Howorth, Richard J. Nugent, William L. Nugent, and Nellie Nugent Somerville. Of additional interest are a copy of a letter from Nellie Nugent Somerville to Florence Sillers Ogden and a copy of Somervilles essay "Republic, Democracy and Poll Tax," ca. 1942. There are also copies of letters from Alfred Hume and Alexander L. Bondurant to Lucy Somerville Howorth.

Richard Nugent Lobdells correspondence with various family members, especially Coralie Guibert Nugent Lobdell, concerns his education at Jefferson Military College, Washington, Mississippi, Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College, Starkville, and Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; his World War I military service in the United States Army Sanitary Corps at Camp Pike, Arkansas; and his career as an entomologist at the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College and the University of Florida.

John Venable Lobdell, Jr.s correspondence with various family members, especially Coralie Guibert Nugent Lobdell, regards his education at the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College, his military service in the aviation section of the United States Army Signal Corps, Camp MacArthur, Texas, during World War I; and his artistic career with Lobdell Scenic Studios.

Hugh Lewis Lobdells correspondence with various family members, especially Coralie Guibert Nugent Lobdell, discusses his education at the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College, and the law school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; his legal career in Charlotte, North Carolina; and his military service in Italy in the Ninth Replacement Battalion, United States Army, during World War II. Of interest is a letter from Hugh Lewis Lobdell, Sorrento, Italy, to Coralie Nugent Lobdell written during World War II.

The correspondence of Llewellyn Jackson Coppedge, M.D., and his wife, Coralie Guibert Lobdell Coppedge, with various family members, especially Coralie Guibert Nugent Lobdell, describes the couples experiences as medical missionaries for the Southern Presbyterian Church in the Belgian Congo, Africa, and in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Their letters richly detail their medical missionary work and the challenges of raising a family in Africa and Mexico.

Anne Nugent, Ethel Elizabeth, Lillian Hardeman, and Mildred Lee Lobdells correspondence with various family members, especially Coralie Guibert Nugent Lobdell, details their education, careers, family life, and travels.

Miscellaneous Lobdell family papers include funeral notices for Caleb Stowers (August 9, 1860); Colonel G. C. Coffee (April 29, 1861); and Robert Weakley McLemore (July, 23, 1899); a memorial (on mourning stationery) of John A. McCall, president, New York Life, regarding the death of President William McKinley; minutes of the Kappa Alpha Order Lee Guard Alumni Association annual convention in Jackson, Mississippi, on August 13, 1928; 1934 photographic postcards of The Elms and Lansdowne in Natchez, Mississippi; and a 1935 University of Mississippi commencement program.

The Lobdell family photographs include images of James E. Edmonds IV; Mr. and Mrs. James H. Lobdell and their grandchildren; John Venable Lobdell, Sr., and John Venable Lobdell, Jr.; and Ernest Eugene McLemore, Sr., and Ernest Eugene McLemore, Jr. Also of interest are images of grades nine through eleven of the 1923-1924 Rosedale High School class; the college graduation ceremony of Anne Nugent Lobdell; and the subtropical vegetation of south Florida.

Postcard images include the 1913 Mississippi River flood in the Bolivar County, Mississippi, area; the Bolivar County Courthouse, Rosedale; the Belgian Congo, Africa; Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico; Sewanee, Tennessee; and the University of Mississippi campus.

Original artwork includes pen-and-ink and pencil sketches, watercolors, etc., by John Venable Lobdell, Jr. There are also pen-and-ink and pencil sketches by Howard Robb, including one of Minerva Lee Coffee Lobdell Lightfoot.

One folder of clippings pertains to the activities of various members of the Lobdell and allied families. Miscellaneous clippings of general interest are also present.

There are bound volumes, including a notebook kept by Charles D. Bonsall while he was a student at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1849. He was a relative of Julia Anna Bonsall Lightfoot, the first wife of Confederate soldier George T. Lightfoot. The notebook contains a brief journal kept by Julia Bonsall Lightfoot between 1858 and 1863, Bonsall and Lightfoot family records, clippings, poetry, home remedies, and recipes. The notebook also contains references to George T. Lightfoot who served in the First Regiment, Mississippi Cavalry. There are also class notes kept by Anne Nugent, Hugh Lewis, and Mildred Lee Lobdell, a small scrapbook, and a published album of panoramic views of Paris, France.

Oversize items include a May 14, 1841, parchment diploma of John Venable Lobdell from the Franklin Institute of Bacon College that was founded on July 4, 1838, and two undated broadsides advertising the Dolbear Commercial College, New Orleans, Louisiana, which was founded in 1832.

The papers of Brandon, Mississippi, lawyer Thomas Jefferson Coffee, father of Minerva Lee Coffee Lobdell Lightfoot, consist of business, legal, and personal correspondence, financial records, and legal records, including an interrogatory concerning the Mississippi Superior Court of Chancery case, Daniel W. Wright, et al. v. W. H. Shelton, et al., n.d. Also included are a May 1, 1852, letter from W. Yerger to Coffee mentioning Mississippi governor Hiram G. Runnels and a letter from Coffee to his son-in-law, John Venable Lobdell.

The correspondence of Confederate soldier Holland T. Coffee, cousin of Minerva Lee Coffee Lobdell Lightfoot, concerns his military service in the First Battalion, Louisiana Infantry; Second Battalion, Mississippi Infantry; and Forty-eighth Regiment, Mississippi Infantry. The majority of Coffees letters were written to his cousin, Minerva, from such locations as Clarke Mountain, Fredericksburg, Richmond, Williamsburg, Winchester, and Yorktown, Virginia. These letters detail Coffees military service in Virginia. Other letters, written to his cousin, Minerva, concern Coffees post-war experiences as a cotton factor and commission merchant in New Orleans.

Additional Coffee family papers include the correspondence from Aaron Coffee, son of Thomas Jefferson Coffee, of Eastland, Collin County, Texas, to his niece, Florence Lobdell, and correspondence and a court decree regarding the estate of Ambrose Coffee, Brazoria County, Texas.

1. Correspondence, etc. 1828-1961; n.d. 126 folders.
   • Box 1: 1828-1899
   • Box 2: 1900-1919
   • Box 3: 1920-1939
   • Box 4: 1940-1961; n.d.
2. Photographs. 1867; 1903-1904; 1923-1924; 1937; 1940; n.d. 5 folders.
3. Negatives. n.d. 1 folder.
4. Postcards. 1913; 1917; 1934; n.d. 1 folder.
5. Artwork. n.d. 1 folder.
6. Clippings. 1885; 1892; 1904-1905; 1928-1929; 1937; 1957; n.d. 1 folder.
   • Box 4
7. Notebooks, Scrapbooks, and Albums. ca. 1840s-1860s; ca. 1914; ca. 1928; n.d. 4 folders.
   • Box 5
8. Diplomas and Broadsides. 1841; n.d. 1 folder (oversize)
   • Box 6