PBA Galleries

Large archive of letters, many with envelopes, of the family and descendants of William and Agnes McGrain. William McGrain was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1850, in 1872 he married Agnes Crane in Potosi, Missouri and in 1875 he relocated to Dallas, Texas where he served as City Secretary from 1888-1893. The archive includes letters from McGrain's grandmother in Ireland to his father in the 1840s and his reply, numerous letters from various relatives to William during the 1860s several with mention of the Civil War including a letter dated May 11, 1864 in which his brother describes the draft lottery in Louisville, Kentucky: "The Board of Enrollment...had some 3000 names in a machine something like a narrow drum and kept turning it around by a crank, and at every turn a blind man would put his hand in and take out a card, and hand it to Mr Hervey, the Commissioner of the Board, who would call out the name twice. They drafted both white men and niggers...There was a large crowd gathered in front to see the "modus Operandi" and to find out who the "lucky ones" were...I declare it is a bad enough disgrace to Old Ky to have had to have a draft at all but then to mix negroes and white men altogether is almost to much to stand." Other letters concern the usual family affairs, abolitionists, cock-fighting, etc. Letters from the early 1870s while still in Missouri, several letters from the 1880s and 90s on letterhead of the Dallas City Secretary. The 20th century letters are largely from Sam Weller to his sweetheart, and later, wife Louise McGrain (Weller). Also included are several family photos including CDVs, tin types and a half-plate daguerreotype (5½x4½") of the William and his bride Agnes, etc. A remarkable archive of family correspondence spanning over 100 years.