![[logo]](https://alexandria.libnet.info/images/tile/alexandria/alexandria-logo.png){kind=logo}
Local History and Special Collections Branch, Alexandria Library
717 Queen StreetGregory Pierce
Copyright has not been assigned to the Alexandria Library. Portions of materials may retain implied copyright and others may be fair use due to age. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Alexandria Library. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Alexandria Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.
[Item identification], Chapman-Southerland Collection, MS409, Alexandria Library, Local History and Special Collections, Alexandria, Virginia.
Gift of Charles and Trish Blanton, 2018
Arthur Leigh Southerland (1872-1950) was the son of a newspaper printer in La Plata, Maryland, who became a railroad telegrapher during the turn of the 20th century. Helen Mary Chapman (1870- ) was born in Virginia and grew up on George Mason's Gunston land near Hallowing Point, VA, raised by farmers Thomas Foster Chapman and Virginia Alexander of the Alexandria founder's family. The two married in 1900, had two sons, Arthur Leigh Southerland, Jr. (1906-1950) and Thomas Chapman Southerland (1901-1967) and lived in Arlington, Virginia within the bounds of Alexandria County.
Helen Pearson Chapman (1876-1951) was the daughter of Maryland Democratic congressman Andrew Grant Chapman and the granddaughter of Whig congressman John Grant Chapman. She grew up, like Arthur Southerland, in La Platt, Maryland but seems to have spent time at the Washington Home for Incurables, either as a patient or worker. Helen Pearson Chapman was first cousins with Helen Mary Chapman, and also corresponded with Arthur, prior to his relationship with her cousin.
Research discovered two Helen Pearson Chapmans living in the same area. The daughter of Andrew Grant Chapman married William J. Conlyn and died in 1951. The other married Frederick Steven Wynn and died in 1922. The conclusion that Helen Pearson Chapman Conlyn was the person referred to in the letters was based on other letters by family members mentioned.
This Collection contains roughly 55 letters. It includes letters written by or to Helen Mary Chapman, Helen Pearson Chapman, Arthur Leigh Southerland, and Robert Mitchell Weir along with other family and business letters.
The letters are arranged by correspondents among the folders. Folder 1 holds letters written between Helen Mary Chapman and Robert Mitchell Weir. Folder 2 contains the letters between Arthur Leigh Southerland and Helen Pearson Chapman. Folder 3 contains the letters between Arthur and Helen Mary Chapman. Folder 4 contains miscellaneous letters between various family members. Folder 5 contains assorted letters, mostly to Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Southerland, from various outside sources. Within each folder, the letters are arranged chronologically.
This folder contains 10 letters written between Robert (Bob) Mitchel Weir and his 2nd cousin Helen Mary Chapman, later Southerland. Robert's maternal grandfather, Robert Alexander, was the brother of Helen's paternal grandmother, Sigismunda Mary Francis Alexander Chapman. The contents of the letters appear to be messages during a courtship while Robert lived in Noblesville, Virginia and Washington, and Helen lived in Gunston which is now Arlington, Virginia.
This folder contains 5 letters written by Arthur L. Southerland to Helen P. Chapman, cousin of his future wife, Helen Mary Chapman. The letters were written to Helen while she either lived or worked at the Washington Home for Incurables in Georgetown, and appear to indicate a friendship or courtship between the two.
This folder contains 10 letters written between future spouses Arthur L. Southerland and Helen M. Chapman. The letters are marked by courtship and span up until their marriage in the summer of 1900.
This folder contains 8 letters from various Chapman or Southerland family members to others in the family. Authors include Webb Southerland, brother of Arthur L. Southerland, Leigh M. Southerland, father of Arthur, Cecelia W. Chapman and Leola E. Chapman, both sisters of Helen Pearson Chapman (all daughters of Maryland congressman Andrew Grant Chapman), Nannie Thomas, a cousin of Arthur, and Thomas Chapman Southerland, younger son of Arthur and Helen May Chapman Southerland.
This folder contains 15 miscellaneous letters mostly sent to either Helen M. Chapman Southerland or her husband Arthur L. Southerland. Authors include various banks such as the Home Savings Bank, Clarendon Trust Company, and Industrial Savings and Loan, V. Marcinkowski along with Arthur's labor union the Order of Railroad Telegraphers, lawyer C. W. Ford, a letter containing a note from John E. Wade along with a second letter from George J. Mueller to B. Matthews, Thomas Somerville, and sons, W. A. Smoot, and the International Bible-Study Association and Watch Tower Society.