Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: Elizabeth Frances Bartlett Boyd Notebook (Z/1966).
Creator/Collector: Elizabeth Frances Bartlett Boyd.
Date(s): 1864-1875.
Size: 0.30 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH staff, Michael Hennen and Betty Uzman, 1996; Allyson Hartling, 2023.
Provenance: Gift of Frances Bell McCool of New Orleans, LA, on July 17, 1991; Z/U/1991.041.
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: Elizabeth Frances Bartlett Boyd Notebook (Z/1966), Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Biography:

Elizabeth "Bettie" Frances Bartlett Boyd

Elizabeth "Bettie" Frances Bartlett was born in Philadelphia, Neshoba County, Mississippi, on June 6, 1850. She was the eldest of the five children of Elizabeth Septema Sitton/Seton and Joshua Bartlett. Elizabeth Seton (1827-1888) was born in South Carolina on April 20, 1927.  Joshua Bartlett (1820-1892) was born in Clark County, Kentucky On May 20, 1820; he was later a sheriff and a merchant in Neshoba County. Elizabeth Frances Bartlett was living in Philadelphia during the time of the Civil War, with her parents as well as her siblings. 

On October 12, 1869 in Lafayette County, Elizabeth Frances Bartlett married Christopher Cincinatus Boyd of Byhalia, Marshall County. Christopher C. Boyd, born on November 30, 1839, was a merchant and a miller. The Boyds made their home in Water Valley, Yalobusha County, where they had at least seven children: Louis Bartlett Boyd, Lyda F. Boyd Blount, Elizabeth Boyd Shipp, Christopher Cincinatus Boyd, Jr., James Gorden Boyd, Addison Brooks Boyd, and Mary Boyd Burns. Elizabeth Frances Bartlett Boyd died on October 19, 1900, her husband Christopher C. Boyd died on January 21, 1928, and both are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Water Valley.

 

Scope and Content Note:

The notebook appears to have been used for Elizabeth Frances Bartlett Boyd's school exercises at one time, and it was later used for personal religious meditations, poems, recipes, and inscriptions. Pages containing mathematical exercises appear twice in the notebook, at the beginning and near the end.  Boyd was close to her other siblings as their writing and their names appear throughout the journal. Most entries, if not all, were made prior to her marriage to her husband.  

Essays on Civil War figures and events appear near the beginning. Her essays on such topics as Fort Donelson, generals Robert E. Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and "Stonewall" Jackson do not relate first-hand experiences, but they do convey the patriotic sentiment so popular among Confederate sympathizers. The dates for these essays range from July 16, 1864, to August 20, 1864. The last essay, entitled "This War," contains an addendum by Boyd written on January 1, 1875. 

Boyd's religious musings and meditations appear in the middle and very near the end of the notebook. They, too, lack specific personal detail, but they express an intense spiritual life. Most of the meditations were written on Saturday evenings in 1868, as Boyd prepared for Sunday worship services.  Scattered throughout the book are poems that Boyd wrote herself or quotes that she heard or read. 

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Notebook. 1864-1875. 
Consists of one notebook with broken spine, containing 84 pages with writing by Elizabeth "Bettie" Frances Bartlett Boyd and others, from 1864 to 1875.

 
Box List:

Box 1
Folder 1: Notebook, 84 pages.