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Robert E. Hardaway, Jr. Collection

 File
Identifier: MC 256

Scope and Contents

This collection spans a century and a half and four generations of the Hardaway and Loflin families. The ante-bellum period is represented by cotton plantation records and detailed diaries of various Hardaways of eastern Alabama and western Georgia. The Civil War is seen through the battle field diaries of Robert A. Hardaway, and his voluminous autobiographical writings. The post-bellum period is represented by the business, family and academic records of Robert A. Hardaway and his son, Robert Early Hardaway, whose business activities are broadly represented in textual and photographic media. The lives of his son, Robert E. Hardaway and his daughter, Jane Hardaway Loflin, are well documented in the 20th century portion of the papers. Additionally the personal, social and business activities of the latter two are augmented with letters, genealogical materials, photographs, correspondence, scrapbooks and publications from Jane H. Loflin's husband, Robert L. Loflin and his brother, William F. Loflin, Jr., accountants and businessmen in Columbus,Georgia in the mid-twentieth century.

Dates

  • Creation: 1852-2007

Biographical / Historical

Robert Archelaus Hardaway was born on February 2, 1829 in Morgan County, Georgia and raised in Alabama. He attended St. Joseph's College in Alabama, and Emory College in Atlanta, Georgia. He was married to Rebecca Elizabeth Hurt (1837-1887). He served with the United States Army in Mexico. After the Mexican-American War, he became an Alabama planter and was the superintendent of the Mobile and Girard Railroad. During the Civil War, he served as a Confederate artillery officer in Virginia. After the war he was the superintendent of the East Alabama & Cincinnati Railroad. He was an engineering professor at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (later Auburn University), 1873-1881, and later at the University of Alabama, 1882-1897. Between his teaching positions, he was an engineer for the Central Railroad in Mexico, 1881- 1882. He died April 27, 1899. Robert Early Hardaway, Sr., the son of Robert A. Hardaway and Rebecca Elizabeth Hurt, was born April 26, 1858 in Columbus, Georgia. He married Mathilda Ustick Dainwood (1868-1935) of Livingston, Alabama on November 27, 1889 and died September 14, 1938 in El Paso, Texas. Benjamin Hurt Hardaway, Sr., the brother of REH, Sr., was the founder of the Hardaway Contracting Company which built roads, dams and bridges across the South and Southeast of the United States. REH had mining and real estate interests in various states.

Robert Early Hardaway, Jr. was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on September 1, 1890. He was originally named Robert Dainwood Hardaway, but his name was changed when he was 6 years old. He married Martha Rebecca McCoy (1890-1966) of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina on February 3, 1920 and died in Columbus, Georgia on January 5, 1992. REH, Jr. assumed control of the Robert E. Hardaway, Sr. family businesses after his father's death, and managed his estate through the 1960s.

William Franklin Loflin, Sr. was born April 30, 1894 in Salisbury, North Carolina and died July 14, 1969 in Columbus, Georgia. He was a teacher for a short time but spent most of his career as a CPA, founding his own accounting firm, William F. Loflin and Co. in Columbus. He was active in Georgia CPA organizations and held state offices in several of these organizations. He married Dolores Watkins Agee (b. August 2, 1895 in Mobile, Alabama) and they had two children. William Franklin Loflin, Jr. was born 20 November, 1919 in Tennessee and died November 4, 2003 in Columbus, Georgia. He worked on and off as an accountant in his father firm, but eventually purchased and worked at a full service gas station. He was active in property investments with his brother, Robert Lawrence Loflin (1920-1984), who worked full time in their father's firm. Robert was married to Rebecca Jane Hardaway Loflin on April 11, 1948. She was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on February 25, 1922. Their daughter Elizabeth Loflin was born on June 19, 1949. Her married name is Vech.

Extent

9 Linear Feet (13 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Custodial History

This collection was bequeathed to the Columbus State University Archives by Robert E. Hardaway, Jr. the father of Jane Hardaway Loflin, who arranged the transfer of the bulk of the materials in 2008, with additions to the collection in 2009 and 2011.

Related Materials

The Columbus Museum publication for a March, 2007 exhibition, A Life in Letters: Lt. Col. Robert A. Hardaway in the Civil War and the New South (PDF) offers a unique first-hand perspective of the experiences of one of the Chattahoochee Valley's most accomplished military and educational leaders.

Other Collections at CSU:

Hardaway Family Papers, MC 203

Columbus Museum Collection, MC 9, (Box 5, Folders 4 and 5)

Oglethorpe Chapter, DAR Collection, MC 40

Sons of the American Revolution Records, MC 312

Status
Completed
Date
February 2012
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Columbus State University Archives and Special Collections Repository

Contact:
4225 University Ave
Columbus Georgia 31907 United States