Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: Archer Family Papers (Z/0027).
Creator/Collector: Archer family members.
Date(s): 1866-1891.
Size: 0.10 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH staff, January 27, 1959.
Provenance: Gift of unknown donor.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Rights and Access:

Access restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to the MDAH. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to Reference Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the MDAH as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.

Copyright notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: Archer Family Papers (Z/0027), Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Related MDAH Collection:

Archer Family Papers, Accretion (Z/0027.001).

 

Biography:

Archer Family

Abram “Abe” Barnes Archer was born on September 29, 1836, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Richard Thompson Archer (April 7, 1797 - October 30, 1867) of Amelia County, Virginia, who emigrated to Claiborne County, Mississippi in 1824, and accumulated several plantations and hundreds of enslaved persons in Holmes and Claiborne counties. Abe’s mother was Ann Maria Barnes (August 11, 1818 - February 11, 1892). Shortly after his birth, the family settled at Anchuca Plantation near Port Gibson, Claiborne County. Before the Civil War, the Archers were one of the richest planter families in the South. Richard and Anne Archer had seventeen children, of whom only nine survived childhood. Abe’s siblings were Mary Chastain Archer (1838-1900), Ann Maria Archer (1840-1901), Jane Robertson Archer (1842-1892), Lizzie Barnes Archer (1843-1909), Stephen Cocke Archer (1845-1862), Richard Thompson Archer, Jr. (1848-1908), Esther B. Archer (1854-1923), and Branch Tanner Archer (1856-1908)

He attended the University of Virginia from 1854-1856. Abe initially worked for the firm of J.J. Person and Company of New Orleans for a few years but decided to follow in his father’s footsteps as a farmer and planter. When the Civil War began, he enlisted in the Confederate Army and served in various cavalry regiments from Mississippi, including Magruder’s Partisan Rangers, the Claiborne Guard, and Colonel Hughes’ cavalry. After the war, he continued to manage the family plantations in Holmes County.

On February 10, 1864, Abe married Anna E. Marye (1843-1912), a relative of his mother. The couple had the following children: Florence Vane Archer (1866-1915), Mary Archer (1868-1962), Edward S. Archer (1870-1938), Anna “Annie” E. Archer (1874-1958), Jane “Jennie” R. Archer (1877-1935), James Marye Archer (1879-1897), Madie Archer (1881-1964), and Abram Barnes Archer (1884-1946).

Abram “Abe” Barnes Archer died on July 24, 1913, in Cruger, Holmes County. Both Abe and Anna were buried in Wintergreen Cemetery in Port Gibson, Mississippi.

Abe's sister, Jane “Jennie” Robertson Archer was born on May 11, 1842, the daughter of Ann Maria Barnes (1818-1892) and Richard Thompson Archer (1797-1867). She was a faithful communicant of St. James Parish, having been baptized in 1862. In 1866, Jennie was one of several women managing the Masonic Ball that February 22 at which young men and women were expected to dance and celebrate. She was the organist of St. James Catholic Church, and active in its programs and growth in the community. Jane Robertson Archer died on January 7, 1892, at the age of 49, and was buried in the Archer Cemetery at Anchuca Plantation at Port Gibson, Claiborne County, Mississippi, just a month before her mother.

 

Scope and Content Note:

Personal correspondence (August 27, 1866 - March 18, 1891) between members of the Archer family of Port Gibson. Included in a letter dated April 19, 1869, is a detailed description of a meeting of the Jeffersonian Society of the University of Virginia.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Correspondence. 1866-1891.

Box 1, Folder 1