Z 2001.000 Lambdin (Samuel Hopkins) Papers

Samuel Hopkins Lambdin, the son of James and Prudence Lambdin, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 15, 1811. He was educated in Pittsburgh, and at age fourteen he entered business as a commission-house clerk in Pittsburgh, working until 1829. Lambdin was then employed as a clerk on an Ohio River steamboat for four years, and he later commanded the steamboat, Ohioan, which operated between Louisville, St. Louis, and New Orleans. He arrived in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1835, where he also found employment as a clerk. Lambdin formed a partnership with E. R. Bennett and operated a plantation-supply store in 1837. Lambdin and Bennett announced the dissolution of their firm on October 6, 1841, and the firm of Edwin B. Baker and E. L. Moss succeeded them.

On January 5, 1842, Lambdin married Jane McClary Bisland, the daughter of William Bisland of Mount Repose plantation, located in the Pine Ridge area of Adams County, Mississippi. The Lambdins had at least six children, including Mary Prudence (b. June 20, 1843), William Bisland (b. October 19, 1845), Louisa Witherspoon (b. March 31, 1848), Elizabeth Bisland (b. April 25, 1851), James Harrison (b. October 3, 1853), and Samuel H., Jr. (b. May 27, 1861).

Lambdin served as president of the Planters Bank of Mississippi for one year before joining his father-in-law in the management of the family plantations. In the 1850s, Lambdin owned property valued at $79,000, and he was a member of the board of trustees of Jefferson College. The Lambdins were members of the Presbyterian church. When they decided to build a new home, Lambdin and his wife chose a large tract of land on the southeastern edge of Mount Repose plantation, seven miles north of Natchez. Thomas Rose, the designer and builder of Stanton Hall, was the contractor for Edgewood, and construction probably began in 1859. The Lambdin family was in residence at Edgewood by 1862. When Edgewood was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, it was said to be one of the best local examples of the Italianate architectural style, and it was one of the last mansions completed in the Natchez area before the Civil War. Lambdin served as justice of the peace for Adams County for at least twelve years after the completion of Edgewood. He also owned a plantation of fifteen hundred acres in Concordia Parish, Louisiana. Jane Lambdin died on March 18, 1894, and Samuel Lambdin died at Edgewood on March 15, 1902.

The papers of Samuel Hopkins Lambdin include a pocket diary written around 1873, miscellaneous family papers consisting of incoming business-related correspondence, and two printed items from 1851.

The pocket diary that was apparently kept by S. H. Lambdin was printed in 1873. There is a preprinted "Rates of Postage" page near the beginning of the diary. While the diary has daily entries printed for the whole year, the owner filled out only about half of the entries. Lambdin appears to have crossed out a number of dates, suggesting that not all of the entries were from 1873. The contents of the diary are mostly brief notations about the weather, such as "rain," "sleet," "H" [hot], or "cold," along with infrequent mentions of cotton and tomato crops. There are several pages of arithmetic, a few grocery lists, and one list of monthly sales by an unnamed company. On June 27, Lambdin notes that a cholera epidemic is worsening, resulting in twenty deaths, and he also mentions a tornado in one entry. Lambdin writes on August 5 that "Ma died."

Among the miscellaneous family papers is an April 11, 1867, telegram and accompanying envelope addressed to S. H. Lambdin, Natchez, Mississippi, from William A. Bisland, New Orleans, Louisiana, inviting Lambdin to visit New Orleans. There are two tax notices for Lambdin, including a December 12, 1866, Louisiana state notice and a January [?] 20, 1868, federal notice. There is a receipt from Richmond, Virginia, to Lambdins daughter, E. B. [Elizabeth Bisland] Lambdin, for her 1868 subscription to Boys and Girls Monthly. Two letters to Lambdin concerning financial matters consist of a June 12, 1868, letter from R. Burton [?] that was written on the back of an 1865 insurance company notice and a November 10, 1870, letter from the Britton and Koontz Bank of Natchez. There is also one undated newsclipping. The printed material consists of September and October 1851 issues of the Bulletin of the American Art Union that was published in New York.

1. Pocket Diary. ca. 1873. 1 folder.
2. Family Papers (Miscellaneous). 1866-1868; 1870; n.d. 2 folders.
3. Printed Material. 1851. 1 folder.