The papers of J C Collier are extensive. He was a prolific letter writer in both his business and personal life. In an effort to piece together his family’s genealogy, J C Collier wrote letters to Colliers and other suspected kin. Many of the people he wrote to were unknown to him. He was especially interested in tracking down the Efford Cobb Collier branch that located to Texas in the 1850s.
For genealogical research, he mailed out letters accompanied by a standard form which he asked to be filled out and returned. His stenographers typed the letters and kept copies on onion-skin paper. They also transcribed some of the return letters. This link will connect you over to 900 letters from J C Collier’s papers, most of which were written and returned in this manner.
In addition to Collier, some surnames you will find are Wilson, Green, Greene, Jackson, McCoy, Powell, Mills, and Corbin. Files are named according to the following convention:
“year“_”month“_”day” “type” “from” to “to”
Enjoy your reading and feel free to download whatever copies you want!
Glen, thanks for scanning and posting all of these letters. I don’t recall which one it was, but one of J C Collier’s letters that you had with you at the Isaac Collier Family Reunion at Goldthwaite had an error in it. The letter stated that Fannie (Martha Francis Collier) married Hardy Collier. Fannie married Hardy Ransom Jackson. Hardy Ransom Collier was Fannie’s nephew.
Bobby Carter
Bosque County, Texas
Glen, I have scanned through all of the posted letters and failed to find the one I referenced earlier. I might have over looked that part of an email, or it might have been missed when scanning.
I found one other error in a letter from J. C. Collier on Sep 16, 1925 to Mrs. Mary Green Wilson of Douglassville, Tx, in which J.C. Collier states that Efford’s daughter who was a McCoy had died. Again, Fannie married Major Hardy Ransom Jackson, not a McCoy.
Bobby Carter
Bosque County, Texas
Hardy Collier wrote to J.C. Collier on Jan 20, 1924 that he would send him the names, and dates of birth and death of Efford Cobb Collier’s family as recorded in Efford’s Family Bible, but this list is not attached to his Jan 20th letter (which is listed in the first 500 letters posted). However, the listed is included in the second posting as the first undated posting following the posted letter of 2000_10_29.
Glen complied an index that is listed on the second grouping, in Word and PDF format. If you are only interested in specific letters this list can help narrow down your search.
In looking at this incredible collection, I discovered that my Great Grandmother, Mollie Collier, wife of Efford Cuthbert Collier, wrote many letters to Jena Collier, and included some pictures. Would it be possible for me to obtain high resolution scans of the pictures in TIFF or JPG format? I would love to be able to reproduce them.
I have one picture of Mollie that I am attaching.
Attachment
Charles,
I’m happy you discovered us! I will gladly provide the photos you want in high resolution if you can point them out to me and if I still have them. The files were so extensive they couldn’t all be retained and so many were sent to Georgia Historical Society where they are being archived.
By the way, a recent post of additional letters may have other documents of interest to you.
Glen
Glen,
I am very happy to have discovered this site as well!
There are pictures with these letters:
unknown_Ltr with pic Mollie Collier to JCC (2).pdf
unknown_Ltr with pic Mollie Collier to JCC.pdf
And these pictures were from my grandmother, Marian Hall Collier, who was married to Charles Alvin Collier, son of Mollie and Efford Cuthbert Collier. The boy is my father, Charles Thomas Collier, and yes, they called him Junior, even though he wasn’t.
unknown pictures Mrs Chas A Collier.pdf
As you stated, the files are very extensive! I haven’t perused all of them yet, so perhaps there will be more pictures that I am interested in. I greatly appreciate all of your work on this and your willingness to assist me.
Sincerely,
Tom
This picture was framed like the picture of Efford C. Collier (see “Searching for the Family of Efford Cobb Collier”, Dec. 2015). I have not been able to identify it – even took it to the family reunion in Goldthwaite, Texas last year. Perhaps you can shed some light on it.
The Efford C. Collier picture was loaned to JC Collier by a Texas relative and had a copy made.
Glen
Attachment
Glen,
I am sorry to say that I cannot identify the gentleman in the photo. Perhaps one of the Collier brothers?
Good luck,
Tom