A 150 year old Civil War wallet, owned by an agent of the Confederate government and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, was returned to the Eastern Carolina descendants of that man Wednesday after being missing for the last 50-years.
The wallet containing personal papers of John Lewis Coleman was purchased at a Virginia swap meet by a collector from California. The collector hired a genealogist to track down the descendants and found that they lived in Greenville. He contacted the great granddaughter and great great granddaughter of Coleman and sent them the wallet which arrived Wednesday.
Susan Smith is Coleman's great great granddaughter. She says, "I thought, oh my gosh! This can't be true. I was really kind of skeptical and really kind of leery of the story. But then as we continued to exchange emails, I actually received pictures of the wallet and contents that were in the wallet and I recognized his signature."
The Smith family collects items belonging to John Coleman and say they are proud to add this precious family heirloom to their collection.
