Historic Book Comes Home

Historic Book Comes Home Paxton Family Book Taken During Hunter’s Raid

A book taken from the Paxton House by Union forces during Hunter’s Raid during the Civil War has now been returned to the home after 160 years.

Gerald L. Maatman Jr., a 1978 graduate of Washington and Lee University and an attorney with offices in New York City and Chicago, Ill., has been working on a biography of Elisha F. Paxton for 10 years. Paxton was a brigadier general in the Stonewall Brigade and the son of Elisha Paxton, whose home was the stately brick dwelling that bears his name in what is now Glen Maury Park in Buena Vista.

Maatman had people looking for sources that might be valuable to his research. A rare antique book dealer in Ohio acquired a book thought to have belonged to Elisha Paxton. It is signed in three places by Paxton; one signature is dated 1827, a year before the construction of the Paxton House. Maatman bought the book at an auction. He calls it “an extraordinary find.”

The book, titled “Brooks’ Universal Gazetteer,” is a lengthy volume with a total of 1,500 pages. The type is small and divided into two columns on each page. A book like this would have functioned as a condensed encyclopedia.

“I suspect it was one of the first books [E.F. Paxton] read in his father’s library,” Maatman said.

Maatman also conjectures that reading the Constitution, the text of which is contained in the book, may have inspired E.F. Paxton’s pursuit of a career in law.

Aside from the information one would expect from a general information reference book, the book contained several interesting objects pressed between its pages, including a flower that may have been used as a bookmark, a drawing of an unidentified woman and a letter dated Aug. 6, 1867, written by

ABOVE LEFT, a copy of Brooks’ Universal Gazetteer that belonged to Elisha Paxton was recently purchased at auction and returned to the Paxton House. It was stolen by Union troops during Hunter’s Raid in June 1864. ABOVE RIGHT, Gerald L. Maatman Jr. signs the deed of gift legally conveying the book to the Paxton House as Lisa Wood, a Paxton House board member, looks on. Maatman has been working on a biography about Elisha F. Paxton for 10 years. (Joann Ware photo) Samuel Shipman of the West Virginia Cavalry. In this letter, Shipman states that the book “was taken for the use of, was used by, and became the property of the United States.”

In June 1864, Union troops under the command of Gen. David Hunter occupied Lexington. Virginia Military Institute, with its valuable cache of weapons, was considered a viable military target and Hunter ordered the burning of the barracks, to which the cadets who fought at the Battle of New Market had just returned a month before.

There was a rumor that VMI’s store of ammunition had been ferried to the southern parts of the county, prompting Union troops to conduct door-to-door searches of homes in Buena Vista, Glasgow and Natural Bridge. It is thought that in one of these canvassings that the book was taken from the Paxton House by Union cavalrymen. At the time, the senior Elisha Paxton, his daughter Rachel and her two children were living at the house. E.F. Paxton had died at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863.

Believing that the book rightfully belonged to the Paxton House, Maatman contacted Lori Wood, a Paxton House board member. He was going to be in town for the alumni weekend at W&L in early May and wished to donate the book to the Paxton House collections.

The donation took place in the Special Collections department of Leyburn Library on Thursday, May 2, almost 161 years after the death of E.F. Paxton. Present for the donation was Matthew Paxton IV, great-great-grandson of E.F. Paxton and current owner and publisher of The News-Gazette. E.F. Paxton’s son, Matthew White Paxton, was the founder and publisher of The Rockbridge County News, which merged with The Lexington Gazette and became The News-Gazette. -In addition to his law career, Maatman has always been a book collector and investor in Civil War related objects. His interest in E.F. Paxton began when he was on the golf team at W&L and he became familiar with the Thorn Hill Estate historical marker near the Lexington Golf & Country Club. E.F. Paxton briefly lived at Thorn Hill.

In 1977, Maatman first met E.F. Paxton’s grandson Matt Paxton, a 1915 graduate of W&L.

“We had in common the fact that we were both captains of the W&L golf team,” Maatman said. “I remained in contact with him throughout the remainder of his life until his passing in 1987. He gave me access to family papers that helped me start the early research on my book.”

Maatman says that his book on E.F. Paxton is now “99 percent done.” While here in May, Maatman was doing final research on Paxton in the W&L archives. He will be making reference to the purloined book and the Shipman letter in his biography of E.F. Paxton.

He is certain that Elisha Paxton’s book is now where it should be.

“It truly belongs in the living room where it once resided,” said Maatman.