John W. Lockhart papers

The John W. Lockhart Papers include correspondence between Lockhart and family members, correspondence with his business partners, and other printed documents including muster rolls for Civil War Texas Volunteers, accounts of family travel, and receipts, titles, and deeds for  the purchases and sales of enslaved African-Americans. An Alabaman by birth, Lockhart came via Houston to Washington-on-the- Brazos, where he lived on the plantation owned by his father for several years beginning in 1839. When the Texas government was moved to Washington in 1842, young Lockhart found work as a clerk in the Post Office and State Departments. He went on to study of medicine in New Orleans in 1843 and received an M.D. from the University of Louisville in 1847. Lockhart then returned to practice medicine and operate a drug business in Washington-on-the-Brazos until, in 1849, he married Elmina C. Wallis and moved to Chappell Hill, Texas, where he combined the practice of medicine with farming. Married twice, he became a Lieutenant and later Assistant Surgeon in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and participated in the Battle of Galveston. Following the ending of slavery, Dr. Lockhart worked successfully to regain the prosperity his plantation had enjoyed under the old system. In his later years, Dr. Lockhart and his wife spent much time with their children in Galveston. They were there during the Storm of 1900, after which they made their way back to Chappell Hill, where Lockhart died about a month later. 

This collection has been only partially digitized. For more information about this collection, please contact the Galveston & Texas History Center.