University of Virginia Library

4. THOMAS BEVERLEY HOLCOMBE (1823–1872)
Librarian 1857–1861

The fourth Librarian, Thomas Beverley Holcombe, was
like the third, William Henry Brockenbrough, closely
related to a prominent member of the teaching and administrative

staff of the University of Virginia. In the case of
the Brockenbroughs it was a father and son relationship. In
the case of the Holcombes it was the relationship of brothers.
The two Holcombes (there were six brothers altogether)
came from a Lynchburg, Virginia, family which had a
distinguished ancestry. The brothers' great grandfather had
aided in the founding of Hampden-Sydney College, their
grandfather had been a Major in the Revolutionary War
and a Lieutenant Colonel in the War of 1812, and their
father was successful both as a physician and as an ordained
minister—the two professions being actively pursued simultaneously.
The father and mother had become opposed to
slavery, had liberated their own slaves, and had removed
from Lynchburg to Indiana. Later, however, they had
returned to Virginia—this time the physical climate, not
the political one, being the deciding factor. In 1851 the
elder of the brothers, James Philemon Holcombe, had been
appointed Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of
Virginia and three years later had been promoted to a full
professorship. He was a vigorous supporter of States'
Rights; and in the years just prior to 1861 he became the
spokesman of the more extreme elements in the University.
On the outbreak of the war he resigned his chair in order
to devote his notable powers as lawyer, author, and publicist
to crusading projects in behalf of the Confederacy.

The younger brother, Thomas Berkeley Holcombe, was
of a more retiring disposition, with fewer of the qualities
of a crusader. He had been a student at the University of
Virginia, but only for one session, 1841–1842. He had gone
with his parents to Indiana, and had later settled in Cincinnati,
Ohio. There he became associated with Alexander
McGoffey in a law office, his own special interest apparently
being the codification of law. Like the Professor of Law
and like another brother, William Henry Holcombe, who
attained to leadership among homeopathic physicians,

William Wertenbaker

Rector Jefferson's Letter of Appointment to William Wertenbaker

Thomas displayed facility in writing; and in time he took
on the editorship of a democratic publication, the Indiana
State Journal.

It was with this background that Thomas Holcombe
became Librarian of the University of Virginia. In the
preceding historical sketch it has been pointed out that
he was the nearest approach to a “professional” Librarian
that the University had during the nineteenth century. It
will be remembered that in his four years in that office,
from September 1857 through December 1861, there was
increase in student enrollments and in the number of book
purchases, and that there was added to the Librarian's
regular duties the preparation of a catalogue. Holcombe
was a diligent and a conscientious worker. This was probably
fortunate for him—as well as for the University
Library. For it was a time of bitter partisanship, in which
his brother, the Professor of Law, was taking a leading part;
and concentration on routine tasks would help to supply
wholesome balance for the gentle and sensitive younger
brother. Even so, it seems to have been an increasingly
difficult period for Librarian Holcombe; and by October
1860 he was petitioning the Faculty to permit him to close
the Library at noon on Saturday, in order that he might
“spend as many Sundays as I conveniently can in Lynchburg,
my birthplace and where many relatives and friends
of my family reside.” To compensate for the earlier closing,
which would enable him to avoid traveling on the Sabbath
Day, he offered to open the Library earlier on five days of
the week. If the request were granted, he wrote to the
Faculty, “I shall be able to do this without violating the
Sabbath or neglecting my duties.” And he pathetically
added, “My health and spirits urgently require some relief
of this sort.” It is pleasant to record that the request was
granted.

Had the times not been out of joint, it is possible that

Holcombe might have made a valuable contribution to the
development of this University Library. But 1861 ended
peace-time progress. In December of that year, Holcombe
departed from the University on leave of absence for the
balance of that session. He did not return.

Of his remaining years there is little known. His interest
in literary studies seems to have continued. In 1870 there
came from him to the Board of Visitors a letter asking for
the loan of books from the University Library. But the
policy of book loans had not yet been liberalized; and it
was deemed necessary to reply to this former Librarian that
he would be permitted the use of books in the library room
only. In his last days he suffered increasingly from a persecution
complex. Fortunately those days were spent in the
friendly home in New Orleans of his physician brother,
William Henry Holcombe; and there he died in December
1872. He had been a mild and kindly soul in a family of
vigorous and dominant personalities and in a time of tragic
emotional strain.