On February 14, 1861, John Parker of Warrenton, Virginia married Charlotte Augusta Graham of Selma, Virginia. Their second daughter (the first, Gussie, would die in 1868 at the age of six), Cecilia Alfaretta Parker was born on January 23, 1864. From her youth, Cecilia preferred to be known as "Cecil," as reflected in the hundreds of letters written to her. Cecil's sister, Annie Mae Parker was born in August of 1866, and a brother, Edwin Pendleton Parker was born in 1868. Though the family lived in Alexandria, Virginia while Cecil was a girl, in the 1870s, the family had moved to Warrenton, Virginia to be closer to both families' relations. By 1890, many of those family members had died, and the family moved to 1219 K Street in Northwest, Washington D.C. Having grown up in a close religious Protestant family, Cecil's main interests as a young woman were in religious activities related to her church.
In 1890, Cecil met Walter Nelson Woodson, purported to be a descendent of seventeenth-century Jamestown Colony settler John Woodson, a surgeon. Nineteen years her senior, Walter had served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Their correspondence reflects their courtship, as Walter was a traveling salesman, selling tobacco initially, then newspaper ads--the work meant a good deal of travel and communication by correspondence. Married on August 5, 1891, the two settled in Lynchburg, Virginia. The couple had a total of five children: Pendleton Nelson (b. July 5, 1892), Albert Parker (b. September 23, 1893), Charlotte Virginia (b. December 15, 1895), Elmer Gaines (b. June, 1897), and Frances Alfaretta (b. October 30, 1904). With Walter traveling for work, life was difficult for Cecil at home with their young brood. Friendships with her cousin Ella Thurman and with Mary "Mayme" Burrows (later Montavon) eased the difficulty of raising several children alone while Walter traveled and earned money to support the family, though Cecil's mother moved to Lynchburg to help her daughter raise the children when Charlotte was six months old. The family remained for the most part in Lynchburg until they could no longer pay rent on their home and moved to Washington, D.C. to live with her mother, Charlotte Parker and her brother Pendleton by 1900.
So it was that the family came to settle in the Northeast section of what was in 1900 an undeveloped section of Washington D.C. known as Brookland, just next to the newly established Catholic University of America. They lived in a house on 708 Milwaukee St. (later Monroe St.) and would remain there for decades. Walter continued to travel for work, suffering from bouts of illness related to his eyesight and stomach. Nonetheless, the family's social and economic life began to stabilize at the turn of the century.
Cecilia's dear friend Mary "Mayme" Burrows had married William Montavon, an educator, U.S. Commercial attaché, and later, director of the Legal Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. The Montavons had traveled to the Philippines where William served as the Superintendent of Schools until 1915. When William was offered a post as U.S. commercial attaché to Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Chile in 1916, the two asked Cecilia and Walter if their daughter Charlotte, then 21 years of age, would like to accompany them on the two year assignment. Charlotte, with her parents' approval, enthusiastically agreed to the trip. The bulk of the correspondence, indeed the collection itself, is comprised of letters written to Cecilia by her daughter Charlotte while she was in South America. The letters offer a colorful window into diplomatic culture and women's participation in such culture in South America in the early twentieth century. During the time Charlotte lived with the Montavons ("Aunt Mayme" and "Uncle Will") she socialized with individuals of the diplomatic class, among them Lucille Foster McMillin, former first lady of Tennessee, political activist, and wife of Benton McMillin, who himself was Minister to Peru during the administration of President Woodrow Wilson.
While in Peru, Charlotte met a young diplomat who worked as an attaché to the American Legation in Lima, Victor Louis Tyree. "Mr. Tyree," as Charlotte refers to him in most of her letters, often hand-delivered mail to Charlotte and the Montavons, making him especially attractive to Charlotte, who craved letters from home. Soon, however, Charlotte was engaged in a courtship with Victor, who taught her to dance, showered her with gifts, and escorted her to a variety of social and recreational events. After a period of courtship, Victor proposed to Charlotte in June, 1917, and the two were married in a civil ceremony in Lima on October 31, 1917, with the social celebration taking place the next day at the local Episcopal Church.
In January of 1918, Charlotte wrote her mother that she was pregnant, and that Victor was resigning his position at the consulate and taking a job with Danniston and Co., a banking house in La Paz, Bolivia. The new post meant that Charlotte would not be able to return home to Washington, D.C. for two more years, and that she and Victor would be moving to La Paz, a city a little over 1,500 miles south of Lima in the Andes Mountains. At nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, the couple were somewhat worried about Charlotte's pregnancy, but Charlotte was more concerned that she would have to leave her companions of two years, William and Mayme Montavon. Victor and Charlotte left the Montavon house in Miraflores, outside of Lima on April 2, 1918 for La Paz by ship. Charlotte was ill for most of the trip, as she would be for much of her pregnancy. On July 23, 1918, Charlotte gave birth to a daughter, Merle Virginia Tyree. Soon after the birth, however, she began showing symptoms of illness-cramps, a rash, and delirium. On July 28, 1918, she died. On August 5, 1918, Merle Virginia died as well, apparently afflicted with the same illness as her mother. The collection, especially rich for its voluminous correspondence from Charlotte to her mother, ends quite abruptly after her death.
The Cecilia Parker Woodson Collection is comprised of materials collected by Cecilia Woodson Parker as related to the Parker-Woodson family. The bulk of the collection is primarily two sets of correspondence. First, letters written by Walter Woodson, Cecilia's spouse, to her while they were courting and in early marriage, primarily in the years 1891-1902. Secondly, the bulk of the correspondence is letters written to Cecilia by her daughter, Charlotte Virginia Woodson, while the latter lived in Peru with family friends, Mary and William Montavon, from 1916 until Charlotte's death in July, 1918. Letters and memorabilia from other family members and friends are interspersed intermittently in the correspondence, including letters to Cecilia from Mary Montavon, William Montavon, Louise Woodson, and Victor Tyree. Photographs of many of the Parker and Woodson families are also in the collection, though the collection lacks any images of Cecilia Parker Woodson herself.
The Cecilia Parker Woodson Collection consists of 3 Series:
There are no restrictions on this collection.
Special Collections of the University Libraries at The Catholic University of America:
This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
Donated in 2018 by Tierney O'Neil via Robert Andrews.
Processing completed in March 2019 by Maria Mazzenga. EAD markup completed in March 2019 by Maria Mazzenga.
The bulk of the collection is correspondence, comprising the first 15 folders and mostly from Walter Woodson and Charlotte Woodson to Cecilia Woodson, though the correspondence is interspersed with letters from her friends Mary "Mayme" and William Montavon, and other family members. The total correspondence spans the years 1891-1935.
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Also includes two letters of congratulations on birth of child to Cecilia Parker Woodson, July 1892, one letter from Louise Woodson to Walter Nelson Woodson dated January 16, 1895, one letter from J.R. Parrot to Cecilia Parker Woodson dated July 27, 1898.
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Includes occasional receipts and telegrams.
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Includes one letter from Roberta Woodson to Cecil Parker Woodson dated February 9, 1910, and occasional receipts.
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Includes two letters from Mary "Mayme" Montavon to Cecilia Parker Woodson dated April 11, 1916 and March 3, 1916.
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Also contains letters from Mary "Mayme" Montavon to Cecilia Parker Woodson dated May, 1916, May 30, 1916, June 14, 1916 and one undated letter.
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Also contains letters from Mary "Mayme" and William Montavon to Cecilia Parker Woodson and Frances Woodson dated November 15, 1916, December 2 and 7, 1916, December 31, 1916; Charlotte Woodson to Frances Woodson, December 31, 1916.
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Also contains letters from Mary "Mayme" Montavon to Cecilia Parker Woodson dated January 3, 1917, February 7, 1917, March 7, 1917, March 9, 1917. Additionally, a letter from Louise Woodson to Charlotte Woodson dated February 21, 1917, and a letter from Charlotte Woodson to Frances Woodson dated March 20, 1917.
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Also contains letters from Charlotte Woodson to Walter Woodson, undated; Charlotte Woodson to Albert Woodson, July 18, 1917, and Victor Tyree to Walter and Cecil Woodson, August 21, 1917.
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Also contains letters from Mary "Mayme" Montavon, September 18, 1917 and Victor Tyree to Cecilia Parker Woodson, October 17, 1917, November 22, 1917.
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Also contains letter from Victor Tyree to Cecilia Woodson, undated, letter from Louise Woodson to Cecilia Woodson, March 18, 1917 and the wedding announcement of Charlotte Woodson and Victor Tyree.
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Also contains letter from Charlotte Woodson to Walter Woodson, March 20, 1918, Victor Tyree to Cecilia Parker Woodson, June 28, 1918. August 2, 1918, and Louise Woodson to Cecilia Parker Woodson.
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Friends and family related correspondence, mostly related to the death of Ceclia's daughter, Charlotte Virginia Woodson Tyree.
Publications, printed material, and memorabilia contains miscellaneous materials. Some of these materials are related to the Parker and Woodson families, some not. Ranging from an 1800 issue of the Ulster County Gazette to family-related clippings from Washington, D.C. newspapers dated 1900-1920, the series is particularly notable for pamphlets outlining the Woodson family genealogy, and a ca. 1910 notebook of Charlotte Woodson's filled with handwritten recipes.
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Photographs and postcards. Photographs relate mostly to the Parker and Woodson families, including images of Cecilia Parker Woodson's parents, as well as images of the Cecilia and Walter Woodson's immediate family, particularly of their daughter, Charlotte Virginia Woodson, who sent more than a dozen images recording her life in Peru. Additionally, Mary "Mayme" Montavon sent postcards and images from her time spent in the Philippines with her spouse, William.
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