The Floyd County Historical Museum holds a collection of letters and papers from one of the county’s most significant figures, Dr. Calohill Stigleman, b.1833-d.1905. This collection dates from the late 1840’s, through his death in 1905. The majority of the collection are letters written during the late 1850’s, through the early years of the Civil War; providing wonderful glimpses into the difficulties and hard realities faced by the people of Floyd County as the Civil War descended upon the nation.
Calohill Stigleman loved Floyd County with a passion that transcended all but love of God and family. He dedicated his life to the County: as a physician, turning no person away from treatment, as the first Superintendent of Schools, as a leader in local politics, and as an active member of the Floyd Episcopal Church, South (now the Floyd United Methodist Church).
The collection of letters will walk readers through Stigleman’s youth, his lost love and lifelong love, through the rising tensions between Northern and Southern factions, through the secession crisis, how his father-in-law became one of his most trusted friends, through the birth of his daughter, and through health concerns for his son. Ultimately, through these personal letters, the political and social climate in Floyd County will be revealed.
The Stigleman letters provide valuable insight into the mechanisms and events that affected Floyd County’s reaction to the secession crisis and Civil War. In March of 1861, Calohill Stigleman stood in opposition to secession from the Union. On April 15, 1861, however, following the April 12th bombardment of Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion. Virginians took this announcement as a direct threat that the Army would be used to invade the state of Virginia. The secession convention in Richmond voted on April 17, 1861 to secede from the Union. Floyd’s representative, a staunch Unionist to that point, voted for secession. Floyd prepared for war. Dr. Calohill Stigleman organized the Floyd Rifleman; the first company out of the County. They mustered in as Company A of the 24th Virginia. Dr. Stigleman became Captain Stigleman. He served for one year until the lack of a doctor to serve Floyd, along with health concerns, drove him to resign his commission and return home.
First and foremost, Calohill Stigleman was a physician. His life was dedicated to the health of the citizens of this county. He did not turn any person away for any reason, whether it was ability to pay, race, or political affiliations. He served the County until his own failing health forced him to retire in the early 1890’s.
Stigleman loved the Union, and he loved the United States. It was this loyalty which drove him to heal the wounds of war until his death in 1905. He was a brilliant public speaker, calling on the nation to understand the forces and the love of home state which drove Confederate veterans to march to war. He spoke eloquently on several occasions about the patriotism that called northern men to war and mentioned how it was the same siren song to southern men.
In 1894, he reminded veterans and citizens that the war was long over, and that the nation had united. He talked about how the southerner was as loyal and willing to defend the nation as men and women from any other section of the country. In a speech delivered to war veterans in the 1880’s Stigleman spoke:
“All hail a reunited country! May the bonds of peace grow stronger as generations after generations shall go down into the tomb ere another fratricidal war shall dissolve the bonds of this Union. The government of the United States has no more courageous and loyal friends than the people of the South, who know no fear when their flag is in peril, and all we ask as true and law-abiding citizens is that the general government extend to us the equality of rights and general privileges that are accorded citizens in other portions of the Union.”1
The Floyd County Historical Society is excited to announce that the Letters and Papers of Dr. Calohill Stigleman are being prepared for publication. The entire collection, including speeches he delivered late in life, will soon be available in a book, complete with essays explaining the people and events referenced within the letters.
Dr. Stigleman’s love of Virginia and Floyd County is beautifully articulated in the poetic ending of this speech, delivered in the 1880’s.
“Let nothing come between you and your love of Virginia, and now, fellow-comrades, while I look in your eyes, perhaps for the last time, I know you will join with me in this tribute to Virginia. Virginia, thou art the land of love; land of my natal hours; every square-foot of your territory is dear to me; tis thine! tis mine! tis Virginia’s! Thy rivers, bays, sluggish creeks and little gurgling rills and distant mountains blue, where sparkling streams of limpid waters pure come dashing down the mountain side, and madly leap from crag to crag again, then round and round, in eddies turn, then off they pour in caverns deep, an eternal roar. Scenes of my childhood! I love thee still. Thy rocks on rocks in massive strata piled, all clad in moss and flowers wild. Thy forest grand of giant trees and waiving ferns of ever green. Thy towering peaks in laurels clad, and seem with leafy green to brush the blue vault of the skies over which their towering summit lies. I love them, too. The quiet hours out on the farm, the old cross roads and country store, with here and there a meeting house, where Gospel truth as freely falls as fall the forest leaves, ‘tis here the people love to congregate and grip each-others hand in friendship’s recognition, and in groups beneath the trees freely speak of things that have come to pass since last they met. There is something good in all of this, and all is old Virginia like, and if it pleases us who hath ought to say of our way of doing. The little humble country towns, as well as cities proud, I love them all. The old broom-sedge field, all gullied with red, the old log-cabin with its leaning, crumbling tiers tottering to its fall, and at the old house place all overgrown with catnip and cumphrey stands the old stone chimney, silent and alone like a sentinel over the dead, I love, I love, for the long, long ago!”2
Follow the Floyd County Historical Society Facebook page for updates on the progress of the book. We will be posting excerpts from the letters, background information, and videos pertaining to The Letters of Dr. Calohill Stigleman.
Floyd County Historical Society
217 North Locust Steeet • 540-745-3247
www.floydhistoricalsociety.com
[1] Calohill Stigleman Collection CG0004-122a, Floyd County Historical Society. Floyd County, Virginia.
[2] Ibid.