The bulk of the collection is composed of correspondence between F.D. Love and his wife Mellie (Lockett)Love, written between 1903 and 1910. The majority of these letters describe F.D. Love’s experiences as a Texas legislator, including his work on specific committees, the ad valorum tax, and the passage of the City Depository Bill, which he authored and proposed. These letters provide a candid look at many Texas politicians, such as Governor Lanham, Judge Glasscock, Senator Bailey, and J. T. Canales. Of particular note are two letters describing celebrity visitors to the Texas Capitol, including Sarah Bernhardt (1906) and Theodore Roosevelt (1905).

The later correspondence between F.D. and Mellie (1921-1928) deals primarily with the divorce between Albert Shipp Pegues and Pearl Lockett Pegues, as well as his service as city attorney and county judge.

Other items in the collection include stock certificates; a portfolio of important papers such as subpoenas, stock and tax information; a handwritten book of poetry composed by Love (1887); and a letter copy book, which contains typewritten copies of letters he wrote as a private attorney in Georgetown (1905-1906).

Accessions processed July 2006:

The bulk of this group of documents, 1 document case, consists of Franklin Love’s Taylor/Love family genealogy research correspondence. The remaining documents are a mixture of legal work from the Love law practice, legal documents relating to the Franklin Love family, some personal correspondence and a small group of financial documents. These were found circa 2004 among Mood-Heritage Museum items stored in the university warehouse.

Among the non-genealogy correspondence are copies of letters to former Tennessee classmates, miscellaneous family correspondence as well as two letters from the Civil War period written by Gen. A. E. Jackson to “Landon” regarding the Confederate States Alien Enemy Act. The legal documents and correspondence contain information regarding subjects such as: a petition for pardon, a guardianship dispute, a group of papers relating to a suit for seduction, insurance suits and collection letters.

A small group of booklets pertaining to Bell and Scottish Alexander family members, data on the Love family, booklets with alphabetic lists of correspondents were retained with the collection. Periodicals from the East Tennessee Historical Society and Haywood County Centennial, a “Let’s Go Back to Tennessee” Homecoming brochure, booklets pertaining to North Carolina were donated to the Haywood County Library and other Tennessee institutions.

The remaining materials, a letter copy book (1904-1905) and a ledger book with account payment information from the Love law practice, are boxed with the folder of “Valuable Papers” from the original accession of Love papers. The book, Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Andrew Johnson, was pulled from the collection and cataloged in Special Collections.