Willis, Bettie Hiter Papers, 1864-1942

Repository:

Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University

Creator:

Hiter Willis, Bettie

Title:

Bettie Hiter Willis Papers

Collection No.:

SC 0224

Date:

1864-1942

Extent:

41 digital files

Extent:

.48 Gigabytes

Language of the Material:

English

Abstract:

The Bettie Hiter Willis Papers, 1864-1942, is comprised of digitized diary entries and letters from Willis, including documents created during the Civil War.

This collection contains digital images of the correspondence and diaries of Bettie Hiter Willis, including journals from 1864-1865 and 1878-1879. She writes about her experiences with the Civil War as well as personal relations. She lived in the Culpepper, VA, and for a short period in the Shenandoah Valley, and wrote about local deaths in the War as well as her own personal take on Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The collection begins at age 13, in 1864, and continues with her children's correspondence until 1942.

The Bettie Hiter Willis Papers, 1864-1942 consist of 41 digital files that were created by Special Collections from thirty-eight letters, three journal segments, and one poem. The bulk of the letters were written to family members in Virginia. Several letters and diary entries written by Bettie Hiter Willis as a young girl describe local events from the Civil War.

The material is arranged into two series:

Series 1: Journals, 1864-1874, undated, is comprised of scanned excerpts of journals written by Bettie Hiter Willis, and further arranged by date. The scanned documents are accessible as 3 pdfs.

Series 2: Correspondence, 1867-1942, undated, is comprised of scanned letters, a postcard and a poem, and further arranged by date. The scanned documents are accessible as 39 pdfs.