Finding Aid to the John Jay Terrell Recollections

JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VA 24501
(434) 846-0501
JOHN JAY TERRELL (1829-1922) RECOLLECTIONS
The recollections include a speech (original manuscript and typescript) given by
TERRELL about the Battle of Lynchburg (1864) and a typed copy of his recollections
about the Quaker Meeting House and the Quakers in the Lynchburg area (recorded 17
September 1922).
JOHN JAY TERRELL (1829-1922)
John Jay TERRELL, son of Christopher Johnson TERRELL and Susan KENNERLY,
was born 8 August 1829 in Patrick County, Virginia. A few years after the death of his
father in 1833, TERRELL moved to Campbell County, Virginia, to live with his aunt,
Judith TERRELL. He was educated in Campbell County and later at Emory and Henry
College and Richmond College. [Obituary, Lynchburg News, 8 November 1922, p. 8 col. 3; Celeste

Jane Terrell Barnhill, Richmond, William, and Timothy Terrell: Colonial Virginians (Greenfield, IN:
Mitchell Co., 1934), pp. 47-48.]

"While a student in Emory and Henry College he was a roommate of General J. E. B.
STUART. He ran away from college to join the United States Army in its fight with
Mexico but never got farther than Hampton, Virginia, for his aunt obtained his discharge
through the influence of Samuel MILLER, philanthropist of Lynchburg..." [Robert C. Glass

and Carter Glass, Jr., Virginia Democracy, Vol. II (N.p.: Democratic Historical Association, 1937), pp. 26.]

John J. TERRELL received his medical degree from the Jefferson Medical College in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1853. [Obituary, loc.cit.] "Following his graduation, he
wished to take postgraduate work but had spent all of his money, so he wrote to Samuel
MILLER, of Lynchburg, asking for a loan that he might continue his studies, promising
to repay as soon as he began earning. Mr. MILLER replied as follows: 'Dear John:
Enclosed find draft for money requested. If need more, write. Buy knowledge - cheapest
thing a young man can buy.'" [Glass, Virginia Democracy, p. 26.]
John J. TERRELL, of Campbell County, married 17 March 1857 Susan Helen
WADE, of Franklin County. [Lynchburg Daily Virginian, 24 March 1857, p. 3 col. 1.] She was
the daughter of Zachfield WADE and Mary BOONE. [Barnhill, loc.cit.]
During the Civil War, Dr. TERRELL was assigned to Lynchburg, Virginia, as
Assistant Surgeon of Hospital No. 1, Division No. 3, from August 1862 until 30 May
1865. Placed in charge of the smallpox hospital, he instituted several changes for the
benefit of the patients, including the addition of sand on the floor to control odor. The
idea for the sand, he stated, came from the story of Moses in the Bible. [" A Confederate
(Continued)
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JOHN JAY TERRELL (1829-1922) (Contd)
Surgeon's Story," Confederate Veteran, Vol. 30, No. 12 (Dec. 1931), pp. 457-459.] The death rate at

the smallpox hospital was reduced from twenty-five per cent to five percent while he was
in charge. "Records show him to have been one of the first to employ cleanliness in the
treatment and care of wounds." [Glass, Virginia Democracy, p. 29.]
After the war, TERRELL returned to his home where he continued his medical
practice. He served on the Campbell County board of health and represented Campbell
County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 8 December 1887 until 8 March 1888.
[Obituary, loc.cit.; Cynthia Miller Leonard, The General Assembly of Virginia, 1619–1978: A Bicentennial
Register of Members (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1978), p. 545.]

John J. TERRELL was "closely associated with the Society of Friends...and was the
last survivor of the Quakers of the South River meeting house." [Glass, Virginia Democracy,
p. 29.] He died at his home in Campbell County on 7 November 1922 and was buried in
Spring Hill Cemetery, Lynchburg. [Burial record, Diuguid Funeral Home, Lynchburg, VA, Book

19, p. 273, Microfilmed records, Jones Memorial Library, Lynchburg, VA.]

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