(GEORGIA.) Papers of the Wiltberger family of Savannah, relating to slavery, the Civil...

(GEORGIA.) Papers of the Wiltberger family of Savannah, relating to slavery, the Civil War, Bonaventure Cemetery, and more. Approximately 70 items sleeved in one binder; some items worn or dampstained. Vp, 1822-77

Peter Wiltberger (circa 1792-1853) and his son Major William H. Wiltberger (1825-1872) were among the leading merchants of Savannah, GA, and owned the Pulaski Hotel. In 1846, Peter Wiltberger purchased the Bonaventure Plantation from the Tattnall family. In 1868, a 70-acre section was set off for use as the Evergreen Cemetery, which was operated privately by the family until being sold to the city of Savannah in 1907. Renamed the Bonaventure Cemetery, it found national fame as a setting for the 1994 book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (featured on its cover) and the 1997 film adaptation.
This collection includes 4 documents which relate directly to the cemetery: a fragment of a mortgage bond from Peter Wiltberger to Josiah Tatnall with a 25 June 1846 docketing date and a July 1847 receipt from Tatnall on verso * A short note from Tatnall to Wiltberger: "Be please to pay to the Mssrs Cummings of Savannah the interest due on the mortgage of Bonaventure," with closed tears and missing chips. Boston, 9 April 1848 * The first 2 pages of a legal opinion on the status of the cemetery ownership, probably circa 1868 (it speaks of William Wiltberger in the present tense) * and a 3-page schedule of Peter Wiltberger's estate including "70 acres land at Bonaventure known as the Evergreen Cemetery," circa 1853. The estate inventory also lists 30 slaves by first name. Also included are 6 other deeds and bills of sale for slaves owned by the Wiltbergers, 1840-55.
The remainder of the collection includes 11 receipts from the related firm of Petty & Greene, 1822-28 * 15 miscellaneous bills and legal documents, 1858-77 * and 30 letters from George M. Snowden (a cousin) to William H. Wiltberger (many accompanied by stamped and postmarked envelopes, as well as receipts), Philadelphia, 1853-67. Most of these letters relate to estate matters, but the 27 April 1861 letter (sent into the Confederacy, with its envelope postmarked in Philadelphia) alludes to the coming war, two weeks after Fort Sumter: "Recruits are marching about the streets every day . . . mustered into service almost as fast as they can be enrolled. . . . I am inclined to believe there will be no regular pitched battle, that the two armies will not come together in the field."