Z 2145.000 Wharton-Hastings Family Scrapbooks

Z 2145.000 S
WHARTON-HASTINGS FAMILY SCRAPBOOKS

Dr. Richard Goode Wharton (1815-1896) of Cartersville, Virginia, married Mary Catherine Cronly (1827-1867) in Port Gibson, Claiborne County, Mississippi, on October 7, 1845. Dr. Wharton was a practicing physician in Port Gibson with twelve hundred dollars in real estate by 1850. The Whartons had at least six children: Austin Cronly, Charles D., Harriet Louisa (1848-1922), Charlotte (1852-1929), Kate (1858-1940), and Lucy (1860-1885). Dr. Wharton had accumulated twelve thousand dollars in real and personal assets by 1860.

Austin Cronly Wharton was born in June of 1850. He was living in Port Gibson in 1900, with his sister, Harriet L. Wharton Hastings, and her family, including nephew Richard Granbery Hastings. Wharton wrote articles for the Port Gibson Reveille around this time. He was still single and living in neighboring Jefferson County with his sister, Kate Wharton Grafton, and her husband, Cornelius W. Grafton, in 1910. Wharton died in New Orleans on August 3, 1917, and he was buried in the Wintergreen Cemetery in Port Gibson.

Richard Granbery Hastings was born in Claiborne County, Mississippi, on October 21, 1875. He was the son of Robert M. Hastings (1842-1879) and Harriet Louisa Wharton Hastings (1848-1922), both of Claiborne County. Richard Granbery Hastings attended Chamberlain-Hunt Academy in Port Gibson in 1890. He was working as a printer in Port Gibson in 1900. Hastings married Mary Alice Bagnell (b. ca. 1882), the daughter of Alice E. Bagnell of Mississippi. They had at least five children: Kathleen, Louise, Mary Alice, Richard Granbery, Jr., and Robert M. The Hastings family belonged to the Presbyterian church in Port Gibson. Richard Granbery Hastings, Sr., was bookkeeper and cashier of the Port Gibson Bank for almost thirty years. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Port Gibson Bank and local school board president for several years. Hastings died on November 15, 1931, and he was buried in the Wintergreen Cemetery in Port Gibson.

This collection consists of three bound scrapbooks created by Austin Cronly Wharton and his nephew, Richard Granbery Hastings. The scrapbooks were used as source material for Katy McCaleb Headleys Claiborne County, Mississippi: The Promised Land.

The first scrapbook belonged to Richard Granbery Hastings, and it contains newsclippings dating from 1830 to 1894 that concern Claiborne County news, politics, religion, and weather. Austin Cronly Wharton wrote several of the articles and editorials. Some of the newsclippings of interest include a population chart of Mississippi counties covering most of the nineteenth century, a chart of cotton production in Mississippi from 1859 to 1889, and a large number of obituaries primarily from Claiborne County. Another scrapbook, probably owned by Wharton, is paginated and contains newsclippings dating from 1868 to 1876 concerning politics and racial issues in Port Gibson. The inside front cover of the last scrapbook is inscribed "Richard G. Hastings, Port Gibson, Miss." It contains newsclippings and poetry dating from 1875 to 1931.

1. Scrapbooks. 1830-1931; n.d. 3 items.

   Box 1 (1830-1894; n.d.; 1875-1931; n.d.)
   Box 2 (1868-1876; n.d.)