Milner / Ravens Family Papers

Collection

Identifier: 0000-0084M

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Genealogical material and letters relating to the family, many by Richard (Dick) W. Milner from his home in Pike County, Georgia, to his future wife, Sallie, and to her parents. Most letters are incoming correspondence from siblings and in-laws. Dick's brother-in-law, Austin Harris, described his trip from Griffin, Georgia, to Mobile, Alabama, while he traveling onboard the St. Charles steamboat enroute from Montgomery to Mobile. Other letters reflect a concern for Christian living and the growth of the Baptist denomination; not only does Dick write to Sallie about this from Arkansas in 1859, but also Sallie's brother, Richard S. Ravens, comments on the same subject when describing his new community in Claiborn Parish, Louisiana, in 1860. The Civil War period letters among family members, especially the women, concern the difficult times, wounded acquaintances, and the location of Dick Milner's company in Virginia.

Dates

1854 - 1871 and n.d.
Majority of material found in 1854 - 1860

Creator

Milner family (Family)
Ravens family (Family)

Biographical / Historical

Dick Milner was the son of Baptist preacher John Holmes Ravens and his wife, Elizabeth Dabney Willis, of Wilkes Co., who eventually migrated across the state to Pike County, Georgia. In 1855 Richard married Sarah (Sallie) E. Ravens, daughter of David B. Ravens and either M. E. or Nancy Stewart, who was probably living in Monroe County, Georgia, when Dick grew up there. The year before, his sister, Martha Rowens (Row) Milner, had married Sallie's brother, Richard S. Ravens. In addition, his sister, Rebecca Amorretta (Nettie) Milner, married Austin D. Harris, who moved to Louisiana along with R. S. Ravens and other family members around 1860. Dick was killed in the Battle of Fredericksburg, and Sallie married J. H. Speer.