Caro Louise Buffington, Two Scrapbooks and Photographs
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 3628
Two scrapbooks, photographic portraits, and loose photographs kept by Caro Louise Buffington of Huntington, West Virginia. The Buffingtons were a prominent family in the history of Huntington. One scrapbook contains photographs and the other contains paper records, dating from 1913-1918. The photo scrapbook (7 in. x 9 in. x 2 in., 90 pages) contains snapshots dating from 1913-1917; locations of image content include Huntington, Parkersburg, and Charleston (Lick Branch Swimming Hole), West Virginia; and Athens, Atlanta, and Tallulah Falls, Georgia. Photograph subjects include friends (many identified), social and recreational events, automobiles, train stations or depots, and street scenes. Many photographs record friends and events in connection with the Lucy Cobb Institute (of Athens, Georgia), a prestigious women's secondary school which Caro attended (including photos of two students costumed for a Cobb Institute dress ball as Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin, movie stars of the era). The scrapbook of ephemera (10 in. x 13 in. x 2 in.), dating from 1915-1918, contains clippings, telegrams (many loose in the scrapbook), programs, and dance cards relating to the activities and social life of Caro Buffington in West Virginia, Georgia, and at the Lucy Cobb Institute (including many programs of Institute piano recitals). There are three photographic portraits of Caro and one of Peter Clyne Buffington, III at age 15, among other portraits (in two folders). There are also loose snapshots of family and friends dating from ca. 1915-1940 (3/4 in. in four enclosures).
English
No special access restriction applies.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Buffington Family:
The first settlers to the Huntington area came as a result of land granted to Captain John Savage and 59 other men by King George III for their service in the French and Indian War. None of the sixty men settled in the Huntington -- Guyandotte area. William Buffington, however, purchased a lot within the land grant in 1785; his son Thomas Buffington settled on it with his wife Anna Cline, at the point overlooking the Ohio River. The family ran a ferry and later a wharf after construction of a suspension bridge at Third Street. Descendants of Thomas Buffington sold much of their property to Collis P. Huntington, retaining their property in Guyandotte. Peter Cline Buffington, grandson of Thomas, became the first mayor of Huntington when elected in 1871, and served until 1874.
Caro Louise Buffington:
Caro Louise Buffington lived on Third Avenue, Huntington, West Virginia. According to a note in one of her scrapbooks, she entered school in September 1905, and left school on 28 May 1917. She attended the Lucy Cobb Institute. Caro's father, P.C. Buffington, was a Sheriff in Huntington. He delivered five men to military authorities arrested during the raid on the offices of the publication "The Socialist and Labor Star" on 9 May 1913.
Lucy Cobb Institute:
The Lucy Cobb Institute was a seconday school for young women in Athens, Georgia. Founded by Thomas R.R. Cobb in 1859, its students came from wealthy and well-established families, and its curriculum emphasized subjects that would enhance gentility, such as art, music, and French. Its curriculum became more academically rigorous, however, under the leadership of Mildred Lewis Rutherford (Thomas Cobb's niece) and her sister Mary Ann Lipscomb, eventually preparing students to attend the University of Georgia after 1919, when it began accepting women students. It struggled financially in the 1920s due to an agricultural depression in Georgia, finally closing its doors in 1931.
0.5 Linear Feet (Summary: 6 in. (2 flat storage boxes))
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository