Fields M. Young Papers

This collection contains the papers of Fields M. Young, a Grayson County, Virginia merchant and miller. The collection includes such materials as correspondence, financial records, and printed materials.

Young's correspondence has been divided into two categories: personal and store correspondence. While the personal correspondence includes many letters from friends and family members, much of it relates to Young's personal financial affairs and investments. A few letters also relate to Young's political interests, including a letter from Senator Claude Swanson. The personal correspondence contains a large number of letters from his son-in-law, Walter R. Hardin, and friend and Marion National Bank cashier, T. E. King. The store correspondence includes mostly letters from manufacturers and wholesalers regarding business proposals and accounts. It also contains a few letters from local customers regarding their accounts and orders for goods. Both the personal and store correspondence are arranged alphabetically by name of sender (either individual or company).

Complementing the store correspondence is a large group of advertising matter from various wholesalers and retailers. The collection includes flyers, catalogs, prices lists, complimentary ink blotters, seed samples, etc. The advertising matter is arranged alphabetically by company name.

Among Young's financial records are personal checks, receipts and account statements.

Young's service on the Grayson County School Board is represented in a small collection of correspondence and printed materials relating to teaching positions and school supplies.

The collection also includes a folder relating to Young's son-in-law, Walter R. Hardin, president of the Roanoke Notion Company, a wholesale business. Much of this material consists of letters addressed to Hardin in Sparta, North Carolina, regarding the company's daily transactions.

Among the printed materials are flyers and brochures for the 1922 senatorial campaigns of Westmoreland Davis and Claude A. Swanson. Also included are materials on public health issues.

A folder of general materials completes the collection and includes an unidentified tintype (possibly of Mary E. Waugh Young).