Hendricks and Hamilton families papers
Abstract
The Hendricks, Hamilton, Carter, and Wheeler families were longtime residents of the state of Maryland, particularly the Baltimore area. The Hendricks and Hamilton Families papers date from 1845 to 1961, with the bulk of the material from 1861 to 1920. The collection consists of financial documents, calling cards, ledgers, correspondence, ephemera, documents pertaining to family events, a Methodist hymnal, photographs, daguerreotypes, and other various memorabilia items. These items cover subjects such as family events (visits, marriages, deaths); the financial life of the family; day-to-day events during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; friendships; and religious life of the mid-nineteenth century.
Important Information for Users of the Collection
This collection is open for research.
Hendricks and Hamilton families papers, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries.
Photocopies of original materials may be provided for a fee and at the discretion of the curator. Please see our Duplication of Materials policy for more information. Queries regarding publication rights and copyright status of materials within this collection should be directed to the appropriate curator.
This collection is PROCESSED.
Historical Note
The Hendricks, Hamilton, Carter, and Wheeler families, all forbears of donor Virginia Wheeler Harrold (1910-?), are longtime residents of the state of Maryland. Virginia Harrold grew up in Baltimore with her mother and lived for a time in Silver Spring. The Hamilton and Wheeler families are paternal relations, the Carter and Hendricks families her maternal relations.
Virginia Harrold's parents were Anna (Annie) Maria Carter Wheeler (1888-1962) and James Robert Wheeler. Anna Maria Carter Wheeler had an older brother, Thomas Carter (1880-?), and two older sisters, Sallie Viola Carter Wilhelm (1882-1955) and Mollie Gertrude Carter. Mollie Carter died less than a year after her birth in1886.
Anna Maria Carter Wheeler's mother was Mary Rebecca Hendricks Carter (1847-1939). She married Thomas Carter in 1878 in Baltimore. The family resided in Baltimore City for the next several decades; Mary Carter continued to reside in there after her husband died, first alone and then with the family of her eldest daughter Sallie Carter Wilhelm. Mary Rebecca Carter had several siblings documented through items and photographs in the collection: two sisters, Emma Frances Hendricks (b. 1842) and Hester Ann Hendricks, and three brothers, John Wesley Hendricks, William (Will) Hendricks, and Jacob Franklin (Frank) Hendricks. Mary Carter and Emma Hendricks were both professional seamstresses. In September 1912, Emma, Hester, and Frank were murdered on their family farm in Maryland Line, Maryland, presumably by a hired hand who took his own life. The identity of the murderer was never definitively established however, as there were no witnesses to the murders or the suicide. Mary Rebecca Carter's nephew Herbert C. Hendricks (b. 1872), a banker in nearby New Freedom, Pennsylvania, wrote her about this tragic event.
One of the earliest known branches of Virginia Harrold's family is the Wheelers. Reverend Thomas Wheeler (1816-1866) was born in Annapolis, the son of Thomas Wheeler, Senior and Nancy Hutton Wheeler. Reverend Wheeler began preaching at age eighteen. He married twice; he and his second wife Maria Louise Rives (d.1912) raised their three children in Baltimore and Laurel, Maryland.
Virginia Harrold's paternal great-grandparents, Oliver (b. 1818) and Susan (b. 1825) Hamilton, lived in Petersburg, Virginia during the Civil War. Oliver was born in Maryland, the son of two immigrants from England. Susan Hamilton took out a life insurance policy on her husband from New York Life Insurance in 1857. During the Civil War, the Hamiltons had business dealings with the Confederate States of America. Between 1865 and 1870, Oliver Hamilton moved to Baltimore while his wife remained in Petersburg with their three children Mary Kate Hamilton (1857-1928), William Hamilton (b. 1860), and Anna Hamilton (b. 1865). By 1880, the entire family was reunited in Baltimore. Mary Kate Hamilton married Thomas Rives Wheeler, and their son James Wheeler was the husband of Anna Maria Carter Wheeler. Late in her life, Mary Kate Hamilton Wheeler moved in with her daughter-in-law Anna Maria Carter Wheeler and young granddaughter Virginia Wheeler (Harrold).
Scope and Contents of the Collection
The Hendricks and Hamilton families papers date from 1845 to 1961, with the bulk of the material from 1861 to 1920. The collection consists of financial documents, calling cards, ledgers, correspondence, ephemera, documents pertaining to family events, a Methodist hymnal, photographs, daguerreotypes, and various memorabilia items. The collection documents subjects such as family events (visits, marriages, deaths); the financial life of the family; day-to-day events during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century; friendships; and religious life of the mid-nineteenth century.
The majority of the collection concerns the Hendricks and Hamilton families. There is some material related to the Carter family and very little associated with the Wheelers.
Custodial History and Acquisition Information
Virginia Wheeler Harrold donated the materials in May 1962 to the University of Maryland Libraries.
Processing Information
Originally processed in April 1973; reprocessed in January 2011 by Allison C. Heinbaugh.
This collection was originally named the Virginia Harrold Collection. A detailed inventory was created by the donor at the time of donation and was kept with the inventory created by the original arranger of the collection. Neither the donor's inventory nor the listing created in 1973 accurately described the contents of the collection in 2011. Memorabilia and photographs were separated from the paper materials of the collection. Memorabilia were transferred to the Archives and Manuscripts Department's memorabilia collection. Photographs were placed in paper sleeves and placed in a separate box, and daguerreotypes were also placed in a separate box. Textual materials were separated into seven folders labeled as follows: Calling Cards, Confederate Vouchers, Correspondence, Dress Ledgers, Ledgers/Notebook, Miscellaneous, and Religious Verse.
During the reprocessing of the collection in 2011, photographs were removed from the paper sleeves and housed in Mylar sleeves. A new inventory of materials was done based on the donor's notes and original arranger's work. Items were regrouped into three series based on format; textual materials arranged in subject categories and placed in acid-free folders. Acid-free paper was placed between some materials within folders. A detailed finding aid was then created for the collection.
Members of the Hendricks family appear to have spelled their last name interchangeably between Hendricks and Hendrix as both spellings appear in family documents. However, the family name is consistently spelled 'Hendricks' in the finding aid.
EAD markup created using EAD database in Microsoft Access. Markup completed by Allison C. Heinbaugh.
Arrangement of Collection
The Hendricks and Hamilton families papers has been organized into 3 series
Detailed Description of the Collection
Series 1: Family Papers, 1845-1961 and undated (111 items)
This series consists of documents and items pertaining to the Hendricks, Hamilton, Carter, and Wheeler families' history. The series includes late nineteenth-century calling cards, correspondence between various family members and friends, vouchers to the Hamilton family and others for certain amounts of wood in Confederate Virginia during the late years of the American Civil War, accounting ledgers, a late nineteenth-century marriage certificate, a Methodist hymnal, and other ephemera. Three of the Confederate vouchers in the collection are made out to either Oliver or Susan Hamilton for specific amounts of wood given by the Hamiltons to the Confederacy for promise of later payment.
Materials are arranged in alphabetically by folder title. Within folders, materials are arranged chronologically.
| Description | Series | Box / Reel | Folder / Frame | Item | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calling Cards, 1877-1890 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 1 | ||
| Correspondence, 1871-1912 and undated | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | ||
| Unknown to daughters, undated | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 1 | |
| Lucinda K[l]ing to sister [Maria Cromer Hendricks] and family, February 8 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 2 | |
| Oliver Hamilton to Mary Keatts (Kate) Hamilton Wheeler, October 10, 1871 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 3 | |
| Oliver Hamilton to Mary Keatts (Kate) Hamilton Wheeler, October 21, 1871 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 4 | |
| Oliver Hamilton to Mary Keatts (Kate) Hamilton Wheeler, December 3, 1871 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 5 | |
| E.A. Erending to Cousin, May 5, 1877 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 6 | |
| Mattie R. World to Emma, October 8, 1877 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 7 | |
| Mattie R. World to Emma, June 12, 1880 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 8 | |
| unknown to daughters, February 22, 1886 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 9 | |
| unknown to daughters, December 18, 1888 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 10 | |
| [G?]ellie? [K?]ellie to Sallie, October 7, 1903 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 11 | |
| Frank [Jacob Franklin Hendricks] to Sister [Mary Rebecca Hendricks Carter], July 18, 1912 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 12 | |
| Herbert C. Hendrix to Mary Carter, September 28, 1912 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 13 | |
| H.C. Hendrix to Mary Carter, September 28, 1912 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 2 | item 14 | |
| Ephemera, 1879-1922 and undated | series 1 | box 1 | folder 3 | ||
| Financial Documents, 1864-1961 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 4 | ||
| Ledgers, 1868-1907 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 5 | ||
| Lock of Hair, undated | series 1 | box 1 | folder 6 | ||
| Marriages and Death, 1874-1925 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 7 | ||
| Recipe, undated | series 1 | box 1 | folder 8 | ||
| Religious Verse, 1845-1865 | series 1 | box 1 | folder 9 | ||
Series 2: Photographs, circa 1860s to 1920s (124 items)
This series consists of photographs and daguerreotypes of various people presumed to be connected to the Hendricks, Hamilton, Carter, and Wheeler families. Most photographs are unlabeled. Labels that exist appear to have been written by the donor's mother Anna Carter Wheeler, as they contain notes such as ''Uncle John, Mama and Uncle Will,'' referring to Anna's mother, Mary, and her brothers, John and William Hendricks. There are several photographs of Emma Hendricks (''Aunt Emm''), Hester Hendricks (''Aunt Het'') and Jacob Hendricks, who were all murdered in 1912. Photographs are generally arranged in order of size and type.
The box inventory for this series is not currently available online. Please refer to the series description above for a broad description of the materials or contact the department for more information.
| Description | Series | Box / Reel | Folder / Frame | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photographs, circa 1860-circa 1920 | series 2 | box 1 | folder 1 | |
| Photographs, undated | series 2 | box 2 | folder 1 | |
Series 3: Memorabilia, circa 1860s to 1920s (9 items)
This series consists of memorabilia items that presumably once belonged to various members of the Hendricks, Hamilton, Carter, and Wheeler families. The two pairs of eyeglasses belonged to Mary Rebecca Hendricks Carter, Virginia Harrold's grandmother who lived in Baltimore and worked as a seamstress. The gold watch belonged to Sallie Viola Carter Wilhelm, Virginia Harrold's maternal aunt. It is uncertain to whom the remaining items belonged or how they came to be acquired by Virginia Harrold. Numbers refer to item numbers within the Archives and Manuscripts Memorabilia Collection.
| Description | Series | Box / Reel | Folder / Frame | Item | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memorabilia, circa 1860-circa 1920 | series 3 | box 1 | folder 1 | ||
| Shaving razor labeled ''The Genuine Hamburg Bantam Razor'', undated | series 3 | box 1 | folder 1 | item 34 | |
| Blue ribbon labeled ''D.A. 41 K of L Artisans' Day Sept. Sixth, 1886.'', 1886 | series 3 | box 1 | folder 1 | item 36 | |
| compass in a small metal case labeled ''J&B Trade Mark'', undated | series 3 | box 1 | folder 1 | item 37 | |
| Eyeglasses, undated | series 3 | box 1 | folder 1 | item 38 | |
| Eyeglasses, undated | series 3 | box 1 | folder 1 | item 39 | |
| Confederate States of America five dollar bill number 43821, 1864 | series 3 | box 1 | folder 1 | item 40 | |
| State of North Carolina five cent bill number 381, 1863 | series 3 | box 1 | folder 1 | item 41 | |
| State of North Carolina twenty-five cent bill number 1476, 1863 | series 3 | box 1 | folder 1 | item 42 | |
| Ladies' gold watch initialed ''SVC.'' Waltham watch 6553682, undated | series 3 | box 1 | folder 1 | item 43 | |
Related Material
For other related archival and manuscript collections, please see the following subject guides.
Selected Search Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the University of Maryland Libraries' Catalog. Researchers desiring related materials about these topics, names, or places may search the Catalog using these headings.
Subjects
- Dressmaking -- History
- Dressmaking -- History
- Methodist Church -- Hymns
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Economic aspects
- Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Social aspects