Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use

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Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], T. B. Heck & A. D. Elliott Broadside, 1865, Ms2022-085, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Source of Acquisition

This collection was purchased by Special Collections and University Archives in 2017.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the T. B. Heck & A. D. Elliott Broadside was completed in December 2022.

Historical Note

During the Civil War, many young men from Lexington, Virginia, both permanent residents and students of Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and Washington College, enlisted in the Confederate military by 1862. In June 1864, General David Hunter marched Union troops through the Shenandoah Valley and targeted Lexington. The Union Army fired artillery into the town, looted homes and businesses, and burned the VMI barracks, as well as Governor John Letcher's home. More broadly across the former Confederacy, the destruction of infrastructure and the natural environment, along with the end of an enslavement-based agrarian economy, rising inflation, and failure to keep pace with the Union's evolving economic system, left much of the South with great financial setbacks after the Civil War.

This local and national economic crisis left many southerners unable to pay for goods with currency. This led to the use of bartering for goods as an alternative economy.

Sources:

"Lexington and the Burning of the Virginia Military Institute," Cedar Creek & Bell Grove National Historical Park, National Park Service. Accessed December 6, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/cebe/learn/historyculture/lexington-and-the-burning-of-the-virginia-military-institute.htm .

"Lexington during the Civil War," Encyclopedia Virginia. Accessed December 6, 2022. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/lexington-during-the-civil-war. Benjamin T. Arrington, "Industry and Economy during the Civil War," National Park Service. Accessed December 6, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/articles/industry-and-economy-during-the-civil-war.htm .

Paul F. Paskoff, "Measures of War: A Quantitative Examination of the Civil War's Destructiveness in the Confederacy," Civil War History 54, no. 1 (March 2008): 35-62. https://doi.org/10.1353/cwh.2008.0007 .

Biographical Note - T. B. Heck

Tilford Barclay Heck was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1823. In 1850, he married Estellina M. Boyd in Arbemarle County, Virginia. The pair had seven children. Heck worked as a carpenter from early adulthood. In 1861, Heck enlisted in the Confederate army in Rockbridge County. After the Civil War, Heck returned to Lexington and continued to work as a carpenter. He died in 1890 and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Lexington, Virginia.

Sources: United States Censuses for 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880

Virginia Compiled Marriages, 1740-1850. Ancestry Database.

"Heck, Tilford B." National Park Service Soldiers and Sailors Database. Accessed December 6, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm?soldierId=714112A7-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A .

"Tilford Barclay Heck." Find A Grave. Accessed December 6, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120746201/tilford-barclay-heck .

"Telford B. Heck" [sic], Dodd, Jordan R., Et Al.; Early American Marriages: Virginia to 1850; Publication Place: Bountiful, UT, USA; Publisher: Precision Indexing Publishers. In Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/136049:3723 .

Biographical Note - A. D. Elliott

Andrew D. Elliott was born in 1832 in Rockbridge County, Virginia. Elliott married Georgia Anna Liggan in Rockbridge County in 1853. He worked as a cabinet maker from early adulthood until his death in c. 1870.

Sources:

United States Censuses for 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880

"Andrew D. Elliott", Dodd, Jordan, Liahona Research, comp. Virginia Marriages, 1851-1900. In Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/13776:4498 .

Scope and Content

This collection includes a broadside from the Lexington (Virginia) Gazette in 1865, advertising T. B. Heck & A. D. Elliott, "Cabinet Making and Undertaking." The broadside informs readers that Heck and Elliott had recently opened a cabinet shop in Lexington, which also sold coffins. The broadside also contains offers for barters, stating "COUNTRY PRODUCE, LUMBER, &c. will be taken, at the market price in exchange for work."

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Civil War
• Lexington, Virginia
• Local/Regional History and Appalachian South
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865

Rights Statement for Archival Description

The guide to the T. B. Heck & A. D. Elliott Broadside by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).