Utica Normal and Industrial Institute grouping, includes: Typed Letter Signed, "Wm. H. Holtzclaw" 2p. quarto, on "The Utica Normal and Industrial Institute For the Training of Colored Young Men and Women" Utica, Mississippi, May 29, 1908, addressed to Thomas J. Holtzclaw of Mount Vernon, Illinois, and reads in part: "...I am delighted to have your letter of May 26 which I would have answered earlier but for the fact that I was away from home. Perhaps, if you had known that I am a Negro, you would not have expected much information from me. Your letter is very interesting, however, and I have read it carefully. I do not know anything definite about my ancestry, but it seems pretty certain that I am descended from both African and German stock, also English and perhaps Indian stock. But as a matter of fact I am not absolutely certain, of any of these, except that the color of my skin seems a fair proof that I am descended from African stock. Both my mother and father were slaves and neither of them knows of their origin. It has been said, however, that the late General James T. Holtzclaw of Montgomery, Alabama, was my grandfather. I do not know how true it is. I am a Alabamian by birth and have been in Mississippi only six years. I have no way of tracing the lineage of the white family of Ala. Holtzclaws, but I have an idea, that if they could be traced, they would prove to be the same family that settled in Philadelphia some years ago. I am enclosing a booklet which I think you will read with interest, also a circular which gives later information..." Fine...plus; Booklet "A Negro's Life Story. From the Humblest Beginning to the Headship of a Helpful and Important Institution - A Frank Narrative of the Over-Coming of Extraordinary Difficulties - An Insight into Life in the Black Belt, of Mississippi." by Wm. H. Holtzclaw, 32p. 12mo. Fine...plus; Four page circular for "The Utica Normal and Industrial Institute." Fine. (3 items)^tGeneral James Thaddeus Holtzclaw (December 17, 1833 - July 19, 1893) was an Alabama lawyer, railroad commissioner, and general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role of several major engagements of the Army of Tennessee in the Western Theater. ^tGeneral James Thadeus Holtzclaw (December 17, 1833 – July 19, 1893) was an Alabama lawyer, railroad commissioner, and general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role of several major engagements of the Army of Tennessee in the Western Theater.