Search Results
W. Robert Leckie papers, 1768-1906 and undated 3 Linear Feet
The collection is divided into two series: Correspondence and Papers, and Ledgers. The papers of W. Robert Leckie and William Hendrick overlap; both series contain records of Hendrick's ancestors. Both series are arranged chronologically by year.
In the Correspondence and Papers series, the papers of W. Robert Leckie are concerned with the construction of public buildings, canals, arsenals, aqueducts, fortifications, masonry of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and surveying and building of walls in the District of Columbia. The papers focus primarily on the prices of commodities used in construction work, rather than on qualities of military architecture itself. Also included are the records of a lawsuit between Leckie and James Couty; papers relative to experiments in the production of lime, cement, and bricks; nine letters from Isaac Roberdeau revealing practices of engineers of the period; and a 91-page bound report of the commissioners appointed by the president for planning the defense of the United States. This report, though undated, was probably made after the War of 1812 and includes extensive details relative to the problems of defense, including topography, waterways, roadways, population, distances, and probable expenses of constructing forts. Some of Leckie's papers reflect his efforts to obtain contracts for the construction of such buildings at the Augusta Arsenal.
The papers of William Hendrick and Mary Ann Leckie, his wife, constitute a long record of the sales of plantation products and the purchase of supplies from commission merchants in Petersburg, Virginia, and the operation of a series of tobacco and corn farms. In addition, Hendrick's children wrote letters from Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey; Virginia Military Institute, Lexington; and various other academies. Also includes two writing exercise books for children.
In the Ledgers series, among the volumes from Leckie are the following: diary and accounts, 1828-1829, of engineering contracts and cement stone quarries at Shepherdstown, Va., Seneca, Md., Baltimore, and a point near the Monocacy River; a memorandum book containing data for surveying water lines, leveling streets, and building aqueducts in Georgetown and Washington, D.C.; and a memorandum book of John Leckie, associated with his father, W. Robert Leckie. Among the volumes from Hendrick are several plantation account books, a memorandum book, and accounts of a mercantile firm. The account books dated 1799 and earlier were kept by Hendrick’s forbears.
Woody family papers, 1784-1939 9 Linear Feet — 2,389 Items
Papers of Robert Woody, Newton Dixon Woody, and other members of the Woody family include a rich trove of business and personal correspondence; legal and financial papers; printed materials; and manuscript volumes. The papers of this family concern the mercantile and milling businesses of Robert Woody in Chatham County, North Carolina, and Newton Dixon Woody in Guilford County, North Carolina, in the 1850s; the decision of Newton D. Woody to leave North Carolina during the Civil War and his return in 1865; experiences of Frank H. Woody, a lawyer and clerk, in the Washington and Montana territories in the 1860s and 1870s, in which he mentions clashes with Native Americans and settlers, and reports seeing Sherman in 1878. There are also letters with news from relatives living in Indiana.
Other papers include information about temperance meetings, including the General Southern Temperance Conference at Fayetteville, North Carolina, 1835; hog droving; commodity prices in the last half of the 19th century; general economic conditions in North Carolina and the United States in the 19th century; the upkeep of roads in Guilford County; and the experiences of Mary Ann Woody as a student at New Garden Boarding School, Guilford County, 1852-1853. In addition, there is a bill of sale for slaves and a letter from Alabama describing African American celebrations at Christmas, 1857.
There are also important materials regarding the Civil War and its aftermath, including descriptions of camp life by a soldier in the 21st North Carolina Regiment during the Civil War; experiences of Confederate soldiers in Union prisons at Johnson's Island, Ohio, and Elmira, New York, during the war; and accounts of Reconstruction in Augusta, Georgia, given by a Union sympathizer, 1867-1868. Printed matter in the collection relates to the activities of Unionists in North Carolina during the Civil War and opposition to Ulysses S. Grant and the Radicals. There is also a May 1865 letter saying that John Gilmore of N.C. was dividing land with freed African Americans, and a letter mentioning African American violence during elections in an unspecified state in Dec. 1870.
Volumes in the collection include minutes of meetings of the Orange Peace Society, Orange County, North Carolina, 1824-1830; memorandum books; an account book kept during the construction of a Quaker church at High Falls, North Carolina, 1905-1909; minute book of meetings of the Friends of Prosperity, 1913-1914. Other papers in the collection mention camp meetings and religious revivals in North Carolina and their effect on Quakers. There are also financial record books of Robert Woody and Newton Dixon Woody.
Winn family papers, 1780-1925, bulk 1780-1889 5 Linear Feet — 9 boxes, 2,684 items, 27 vols.
Family and business correspondence of John Winn (d. 1844); of his wife Lucy Winn; and of their numerous children, including Philip James Winn. The correspondence of John Winn, farmer, lawyer, postmaster at Winnsville, captain in the War of 1812, and agent for General John Hartwell Cocke, includes information on Bremo, the plantation of the latter, including also a list of periodicals subscribed to by Cocker and legal cases relative to Revolutionary bounty land.
Correspondence centering around Philip James Winn includes information on the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, both of which he attended; one letter with a description of the unusual religious services of the Dunkards; a deed for land purchased by a free Negro; records of the invention and patenting of a 'New Gate Latch' by Philip J. Winn; and the interest of various members of the family in law, medicine, agriculture, mechanics, business, religion, and the operation of a stagecoach line between Richmond and Staunton, Virginia.
Collection also Includes a letter of William H. Winn containing detailed descriptions of the battles of Bethel, 1861, and Gettysburg, 1863, in which he participated as a Confederate soldier. More than half the collection consists of receipts and bills connected chiefly with John Winn's work in Revolutionary bounty lands and with Philip James Winn's invention. Twenty-seven volumes include post office accounts of John Winn and of his successor, Philip James Winn; a letter book concerning the 'New Gate Latch'; accounts of the estate of Samuel Kidd; letter books; ledgers; medical notes; and records of births and deaths of slaves.
William Young notebook of seventy-seven sermons, 1835-1848 0.4 Linear Feet — 1 item
Collection of 77 manuscript sermons (246 pages) that were written and used by the Reverend William Young, delivered at irregular intervals between December 1835 and January 1848. Each sermon is identified by a date and place and is signed by Young. They approximately follow the chronology of Young's circuit appointments. The text is followed by an index in which there is a brief thematic description of each sermon, along with the Bible verse upon which it is based.
Collection includes correspondence and other papers of Renwick, his wife, Rosannah Rogers Renwick, and related members of the Beard, Bothwell, Lyons, Renwick, and Rogers families, including material on South Carolina cotton planting, slavery, politics, social life, and customs; U.S. Representative James Rogers; and the Renwick and Rogers families.
William Woods Holden papers, 1834-1929 and undated 4.0 Linear Feet
The collection documents Holden's career as a journalist and politician, including his shift in party allegiance from Democrat to Republican during the Civil War. He served as the 28th and 30th governor of North Carolina.
Pre-Civil War letters deal mainly with personal and legal matters and with the Democratic convention in Charleston, S.C., 1860, and presidential election of 1860. Post-war materials concern the history of journalism in North Carolina; Holden's appointment by Andrew Johnson as provisional governor of North Carolina in 1865; his election as governor in 1868; Reconstruction policies; Ku Klux Klan activity in the state; the Kirk-Holden War; the "Ferrell Matter," a debt case in which Holden was the guarantor; Holden's impeachment as governor in 1870; his conviction by the N.C. Senate in 1871; his appointment as postmaster by Ulysses S. Grant in 1873; and life and politics in Washington during the period of Radical control. Of note are depositions and other evidence gathered by Holden and his supporters of various members of the Ku Klux Klan, documenting their membership and activities during 1869-1870.
The collection also includes Holden family papers, including scrapbooks and account books kept by Holden's wife and daughters; Holden's memoirs, recorded by his daughter Mary Holden Sherwood and edited by W.K. Boyd as part of the Trinity College Historical Society; some family photographs and materials related to the Holden homestead in Raleigh, N.C.; writings and poetry by Holden and his son, Joseph Holden; obituaries and clippings about Holden and his legacy; and other assorted personal and financial papers. Though removed from public life, Holden continued to write about public policy and government, sometimes critical of both parties, until his death in 1892.
William Wilberforce papers, 1782-1837 and undated 1.0 Linear Foot
Collection consists largely of correspondence to and from William Wilberforce, with subjects ranging across abolitionist politics in Great Britain, business correspondence about the West India Committee, and personal family news and health. Correspondents include British politician William Pitt (the younger); Thomas Harrison, a close friend and a member of the Duke of Gloucester's West India Committee; Hannah More, an English writer and philanthropist; his close friend John Scandrett Harford, Jr. of Blaise Castle (near Bristol, England); George Montagu, Fourth Duke of Manchester; Lord Brougham; Spencer Perceval; Thomas Chalmers; George Canning; and John Bowdler (d. 1815).
Letters from this collection, particularly in the 1810s, often reference slavery and Wilberforce's work with abolitionists. In one letter of Aug. 10, 1814, Wilberforce wrote Harrison that he had been able to persuade Thomas Clarkson not to attend the Congress of Vienna. Articles appeared in The Edinburgh Review during 1814 which questioned William Pitt's motives in supporting the abolitionists. Wilberforce (Oct. 22, 1814) wrote Harrison concerning his relations with the younger Pitt (d. 1806), and stated that his belief was that Pitt had been a "sincere friend" of the abolition movement. Other letters for 1814 mention such things as the West India Committee and its membership, including the Duke of Gloucester, Lord Grey, Marquis Lansdowne, and Lord Grenville (Mar. 20 and Apr. 20), and the planned composition and distribution of pamphlets describing the evils of the slave trade and advocating its abolition (Apr. 26 and Oct. 3). The letter of Apr. 26 suggests the establishment of a special board, sanctioned by the King, to see to the composition of such works. Other letters from this period are between Wilberforce and Harford. One letter of Oct. 12, 1814, speaks of French publications which favor abolition and mentions Chateaubriand, Humboldt, Sismondi, and Madame de Staël. It also tells of the Duke of Wellington, the King of France (Louis XVIII), Prince Talleyrand, and the English Prince Regent (later George IV) as being favorable to abolition. A letter of Nov. 23, 1814, continues to speak of abolition in the light of world events, and Wellington and Tallevrand's correspondence with him. One fragment of a strong letter, dated 1815, gives a graphic account of two slave ships. This letter also asks Harford to try to interest the Roman Catholic Church in banning the slave trade. Wilberforce also mentions trying to interest Sir Thomas Acland and Lord Castlereagh in making an attempt to interest the Pope in the abolition of the slave trade. In 1817, Wilberforce was bothered by the hostile pamphlets of one of his opponents, the anti-abolitionist Joseph Marryat. Wilberforce wrote to Harrison concerning this matter on Aug. 4, 1817, and discussed the urgency of having one of James Stephen's speeches in answer to Marryat printed and distributed as soon as possible. Wilberforce recognized the need for much printed material to educate the peoples of all countries, and especially the "unprincipled Frenchmen" (letter of Aug. 5, 1821), in support of abolition of slavery. A July 9, 1816, letter speaks of Zachary Macaulay; and a May 7, 1817, letter tells of a Macaulay letter falling into the hands of Joseph Marryat. Wilberforce also speaks bitterly of Marryat's attack on himself.
The collection also includes letters about conditions and religion in Ireland. A Sept. 8, 1812, letter asks Harford (during his bridal tour of Ireland) to try to ascertain the comparative moral effects of the Catholic and Protestant religions on the peasant and servant classes of Ireland. A Feb. 7, 1827, letter from Charles Forster to Harford tells of the efforts of the Church of England clergy to convert the Roman Catholics in Ireland.
These letters often mention charities, especially the Bible Society. A May 2, 1821, letter speaks of investigating and learning about colleges. Wilberforce speaks of the "experiment" in education being conducted by Harford. This is leading up to Harford's giving land and helping found St. David's College in South Wales in 1822. A Nov. 9, 1827, letter speaks of St. David's College. There is also an 1819 pamphlet for the "House of Protection for the Maintenance and Instruction of Girls of Good Character."
The collection also includes two volumes which record Wilberforce's account with the London banking house of Smith, Payne, and Smiths during 1829-1833. The itemized transactions provide details about his expenditures, including investments and benevolences.
Other topics discussed include the African Institute; agriculture; economic panic among farmers, 1830; the Corn Laws; American Friends; the Treaty of Amiens; the Army Training Bill; the Waterloo campaign; conditions in New South Wales, Australia; British relations with Austria, Brazil, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the United States, and the Vatican; economic conditions in Austria; Baptists; Baptist missions in India; the Church of England in England, Ireland and other British colonies; patronage and tithes of the Church of England; the Methodist Church; the Moravians, the Church Missionary Society; the Church of Scotland; the Blagdon Affair; censorship of books; emigration to Canada; the Congress of Vienna; the coal trade; economic conditions in England and Scotland; education; St. David's College, South Wales; politics and government in England, France, Ireland, Jamaica, Sierra Leone, Trinidad, and Venezuela; elections; French colonies; free trade versus protection; the French Revolution; Greek Independence; Haiti; South Africa; the Society of Friends; labor; landlords and tenants; manufacturers in Scotland; the textile industry; the Royal Navy; Black officers in the Royal Navy; parliamentary reform; prisons; need to reform the penal code; the use of capital punishment; the poor laws and poor relief; Socinianism; the New Rupture Society; and personal matters, including Wilberforce's failing health.
William Weaver papers, 1809-1885 4 Linear Feet — 3,387 Items
Collection contains business papers of William Weaver (1781-1863?), owner of the Bath Iron Works, dealing with the iron industry in Virginia, and containing information on types of items in demand; collection of debts; prices of iron, land, crops, and livestock.
Materials document the hiring and use of enslaved labors in the iron industry, including diet, clothing, wages, and prices of enslaved laborers. There are several lists of enslaved persons with brief physical descriptions and comments on their reliability as workers.
Personal correspondence discusses cholera in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Baltimore, Maryland, 1832; smallpox in Lexington, Virginia; typhoid in Texas, 1853; the activities and pension of a Revolutionary soldier; state and national politics, especially under Andrew Jackson; the completion of the canal from the mouth of the Brazos River to Galveston, Texas, 1853; the election of 1860; vigilance committees in Virginia; the use of substitutes; troop movements through Lynchburg and Richmond, Virginia; food prices; the death of Thomas Jonathan Jackson; and the iron industry during the war.
Letters, 1861-1863, from John Letcher (1813-1884), U. S. congressman, 1851-1859, and governor of Virginia during the Civil War, discuss his message to the Virginia General Assembly concerning state and Confederate affairs in 1861; rumors; the failure of the legislature to provide replacement troops; military actions at Gordonsville and Fredericksburg, Virginia; various Confederate and Union generals; the unlikelihood of European intervention; military activity in North Carolina; and public opinion in the North.
William Watts Ball papers, 1778-1952 and undated 31 Linear Feet — Approx. 26,000 Items
Collection consists of personal and political correspondence, diaries, business papers, speeches, editorials, notes, printed matter, personal account books, memorandum books, photographic materials, and scrapbooks. The papers document a long period in Southern history, and reflect Ball's activities as editor of several newspapers, including The State, of Columbia, S.C., and the News and Courier, also of Columbia, S.C. The main group is concerned with national and South Carolina history for the first half of the 20th century. Topics referred to include American politics; the South Carolina textile industry; African Americans in the South; the depression and the F. D. Roosevelt administration; newspapers and the newspaper business; education in South Carolina; conditions and problems stemming from both World Wars; prohibition; states' rights; South Carolina social life and customs; Roman Catholicism in South Carolina; international issues; and general business and family matters.
A substantial portion of the papers consists of family correspondence containing information on school and college life; Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s; social life and customs in Laurens, Charleston, and Columbia, South Carolina; and England, the Italian battlefront, and a journey across the Atlantic during World War II. Other letters come from editors, publishers, educators, politicians, financiers, and industrialists, principally from South Carolina, although some national figures are found. These correspondents include J. J. McSwain, D. C. Heyward, John Gary Evans, John Hays Hammond, M. F. Ansel, David D. Wallace, James C. Hemphill, Ambrose E. Gonzales, Thomas R. Waring, Nathaniel B. Dial, James F. Byrnes, Ulrich B. Phillips, Josephus Daniels, Bernard M. Baruch, Warrington Dawson, Ellison D. Smith, Max Fleischman, Nicholas Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie, Frederick H. Allen, and Archibald Rutledge.
Ball's financial papers, scattered throughout the collection, generally relate to real estate investments, stock holdings in textile mills, and the Depression as it affected his financial situation. A major part of the correspondence pertains to state and national politics. Letters discuss Tillmanism and Bleasism; the state primary system and election reform; state and national elections; opposition to the New Deal and the formation of the Southern Democratic Party; and other local, state, and national issues.
Material on race relations begins as early as 1916, but is particularly abundant from the 1930s onwards. Involved with the issue of states' rights versus federal control, the "Negro problem" includes the anti-lynching movement, enfranchisement and control of the African American vote, racial unrest, segregation, and other matters. The papers reveal Ball's interest in education, especially the development of schools of journalism, the expansion of the state-supported college system, the University of South Carolina, and the South Carolina School for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind.
Other papers relate to Ball's editorship of various South Carolina newspapers, principally The State and the News and Courier, and to his publishing efforts. There is also material on the textile industry in South Carolina, labor unrest and unionization, prohibition, women's suffrage, the Great Depression, World Wars I and II, recollections by Ball and others of social life, customs and politics during the 1870s through the 1890s, the economic and industrial development of South Carolina, genealogy of the Watts and Ball families, and drafts and copies of speeches and editorials.
The photographic items include 34 black-and-white photographs (ca. 1840-1940), chiefly consisting of group and individual portraits of W. W. Ball's family, friends, and colleagues in journalism. There are several views of the Ball family's ancestral plantation home in Laurens, S.C. Volumes include family account books, 1911-1942, a memorandum book beginning in 1901; scrapbooks, 1893-1951; a digest of the military service of Frank Parker, 1894-1945; and Ball's diaries, 1916-1952.
William T. Richards papers, 1788-1923 and undated, bulk 1845-1903 0.5 Linear Feet — Approx. 342 Items
Chiefly correspondence of William T. Richards and his family and friends. Richards was a New England native, and three early letters from the 1840s are from a sister in Danbury, Connecticut. One letter from Chattooga County, Georgia (1865 Aug. 31) speaks of the devastation in that area from the Civil War. An early item is a power of attorney of 1833 from the merchant Joseph Ganahl to Francis Ganahl. Also includes a bill for goods bought in New York, N.Y. in October, 1865; invitations; announcements; and clippings which relate to William Hill, once Secretary of State for North Carolina. One item is an announcement of William T. Richard's retirement in 1903 as treasurer and paymaster of the Georgia Railroad. Some materials relate to the Hill and Thomas families in N.C., but their relation to the Richards family is unknown.
Collection includes correspondence and business, personal, and legal papers of Tolbert and several members of the Tolbert (Talbot) and Huber families of Chambersburg, Pa., containing information about family affairs, Republican Party affairs in Chambersburg, and William E. Tolbert's activities with the Chief Engineer's Office of the U.S. Military Railroad in the Division of the Mississippi. There are a number of letters (1883-1922) to Emma Tolbert from her friend Elizabeth Russell, who was a Methodist missionary in Nagasaki, Japan.
William Tilghman papers, 1671-1876 2.8 Linear Feet — 5 Boxes, 900 items
This collection houses the papers of William Tilghman (1756-1824), lawyer and chief justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania. They relate chiefly to his law practice in Maryland, 1783-1793, and to his service in the Maryland general assembly, 1788-1793, and include legal papers dealing with litigation, land sales, the collection of debts, notes, the settlement of estates, and other legal matters. Included are deeds, indentures, wills, estate records, court records, and other legal papers relating chiefly to Cecil, Kent, and Queen Anne counties, a roster, 1818-1819, of the citizens of Charles County, scattered papers pertaining to the Church of England in Maryland, occasional references to personal matters, and legal and business papers concerning the family, including papers dealing with loan transactions and with the settlement of the estate of William Tilghman.
The collection also has scattered papers of Tilghman's father, James Tilghman, a lawyer, several bills and accounts of St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, and Charlotte Hall School, Charlotte Hall, Maryland, petitions and acts relating to Tilghman's career in the general assembly chiefly dealing with the settlement of local affairs, including the disposal of reserved lands, an evaluation of land in various counties, and an estimate of the cost of building a turnpike between Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D. C., and other papers dealing with legal and business matters.
The volumes are a digest, 1747-1760, of cases at law in which James Tilghman was an attorney, a System of Law concerning Estates by Richard Tilghman IV, legal notes kept by William Tilghman as a young man, and dockets of William Tilghman in the Kent County court for the March 1794 term.
William Thomas Leavell papers, 1831-1932 5.6 Linear Feet — 17 boxes; 5,136 items
Collection comprises the papers of W. T. Leavell and of his son-in-law, Edward Allen Hitchcock McDonald, Confederate officer, attorney, and businessman. Leavell's papers contain correspondence with leaders of the Episcopal Church concerning church business, doctrinal disputes within the church, and debates between the Episcopal Church and other Protestant denominations; and family letters and papers which provide information on the salaries, duties, and home life of a minister.
The papers also contain material pertaining to the economic and agricultural conditions in Leavell's parishes in Virginia and West Virginia and genealogical material on many of his parishioners; letters while a student at Bristol College, Bristol, Pa., 1833-1836, and at Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary, 1836-37; letters from brothers and sisters in Spotsylvania and Culpeper counties, Va., discussing agriculture; correspondence between daughter Anne Leavell and John M. Daniel in the 1870s, both before and after their respective marriages; and over 200 sermons. Leavell was a teacher at Fairfax Institute, 1837-39. Box 9 contains a diary in which Leavell included much autobiographical information.
The papers of Edward Allen Hitchcock McDonald contain letters from Civil War veterans of McDonald's regiments, the 11th Virginia Cavalry and the 77th Virginia Militia, concerning battles and skirmishes in which they participated; a manuscript copy of McDonald's "The History of the Laurel Brigade," and letters, 1870-1890, pertaining to the Louisville Abstract and Loan Company and general business conditions in Louisville, Ky.
William Thomas Laprade papers, 1660-1975 (bulk 1898-1975) 40 Linear Feet — 40,000 Items
Contains materials pertaining to the personal and professional activities of William Thomas Laprade, educator, historian, editor, and civic leader in the Duke University community. Papers include correspondence, notes, reports, printed materials, manuscript materials, photographs, diplomas, memorabilia, clippings, student papers, and letters. Materials include research and manuscript materials for books on 17th, 18th, and 19th century Europe, as well as a letter from Anthony Eyre to his brother-in-law, Sir John Newton, English mathematician and astronomer (1660). Correspondence concerns professional interests, Laprade's family, the Great Depression, World War I, and World War II. A complete alphabetical index to named persons in this collection, including correspondence, can be found in Box 16. The oversize box contains materials from the Laprade collection that were formerly housed in the map cabinets and the General Oversize collection. Materials range in date from 1660-1975 (bulk 1898-1975).
Personal and Laprade family letters are concerned with family and local news, health, church meetings, grain production at the family mill in Rivermont, Va., the 1908 presidential election, and Laprade's father's voting machine invention. From about 1902 to 1904, Laprade participated in a large network of correspondence centered in the Weekly Courier-Journal newspaper of Louisville, Ky. Students wrote in, under pseudonyms, to discuss their ideals and problems. Other correspondence subjects include the effects of World War I and World War II on the Laprade family.
William Swinton Bennett Hopkins papers, 1834-1946, bulk 1852-1898 3.5 Linear Feet — 1657 Items
Collection consists largely of correspondence between family members, friends, and business associates spanning three generations, as well as some Civil War and early Reconstruction letters relating to Hopkins' activities in New Orleans. Correspondents include Hopkins' daughter, Elizabeth; her husband Alfred Lawrence Aiken, a prominent banker in Boston; the Gadsden family of Charleston, S.C.; and the Peck family, relatives of Hopkins' wife, Lizzie. An information folder chronologically lists a portion of the collection. Also included in this collection are a few legal papers, financial papers, addresses and writings, pictures, and a miscellaneous folder that includes some genealogy. Subjects mentioned in the letters include travel in the U.S. and Europe, marriage and family life, illness, Williams College, Yale College, politics, law,"bloodletting with leeches," Civil War activities, and The Worcester Continentals.
William Smith papers, 1785-1860 1 Linear Foot — 328 Items
This collection consists of letters and writings to and from William Smith, as well as collected printed materials largely related to Smith's work opposing the slave trade and the abolition of slavery in British colonies in the early 1800s. Outstanding are the 24 letters of William Wilberforce (1759-1833); these discuss such topics as: religion, sickness in the family, his sickness which forced him to leave the House of Commons, his family and his desire for more private life with them, his relatives, political disappointments, trips and engagements, publishers, criminals in Great Britain and their punishment, resolutions and plans for the abolition of slavery, the antl-slavery society, the Jamaica Law, Spanish slave trade, Spanish abolition, William Pitt, Lord Grenville and his estate Dropmore, Dr. Channing, Robert Hall, and Thomas Buxton.
A number of the letters from Smith's many correspondents stand out. There are a number of letters around 1790 from various societies and committees discussing the abolition of slavery and approving Smith's actions; some of them also mention Wilberforce. A letter from J. Yule in Edinburgh of August 13, 1792, tells of the poor Scottish peasants who are being driven from their lands to make room for sheep which are more profitable. Three letters from James Muir between 1793 and 1797 discuss the case of his son who has been banished for fourteen years for Joining the Society for Parliamentary Reform. A letter from John Longley on January 31, 1796, tells of a book which he has just published on parliamentary reform and discusses various aspects of the English government from the viewpoint of a reformer. Thomas Coke on March 16, 1809, writes of the different slavery laws in Jamaica. A lengthy 1813 letter from Andrew Wedderburn, a Jamaica plantation owner, discusses the condition of the enslaved people after a storm, their food supplies, sickness and death, his attitude toward their care, the various uses of the land, the crops raised, the market for produce, the purchase and hiring of slaves. A number of letters from Bermuda, Nevis, St. Vincent, Barbados, and Berbice contain similar discussions. An unusually good letter comes from a planter in St. Vincent, April 4, 1816. Some of these planters' letters give in rather emphatic terms the case of the planters against the abolition of slavery. There is copy of a sermon preached at Port Royal, Jamaica, June 7, 1822, on the anniversary of the great earthquake (1692) which contains a very frank and oven criticism of the moral life of Port Royal.
One significant in the collection is a letter in very tiny handwriting from John Horseman, July 15, 1817, which includes the text of Robert Southey's poem entitled "To the Exiled Patriots." The only known publication of the poem is in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Essays on His Own Times, (1850) I, 19-20. Horseman's edition of the poem contains sixteen stanzas as compared to Coleridge's ten. In addition eight of the lines are different in the two editions.
Several letters from Thomas Clarkson between 1825 and 1827 discuss the methods to be used in the drive for complete abolition of slavery. A letter from T. Gisborne in 1829 accuses Smith of being a Papist. A lengthy petition in 1829 signed by 95 principal native inhabitants of Bombay, India, protests to the House of Commons against certain grievances and asks redress. A letter of Gilbert Shelton in Bermuda in 1832 comments with keen insight on the recent Reform Act, on Irish independence, and on the types of Christian missionaries in the West Indies; later letters from him give considerable details regarding the purchase of a life insurance Policy in England. Different letters in 1833 tell of the methods and problems involved in the abolition of slavery. A letter from James Stephen announces Wilberforce's death, July 29, 1833; also a letter from Wilberforce's son, Robert, tells of the death. There is a copy of a petition to Rev. H. W. Wilberforce signed by 127 members of both houses of Parliament requesting that William Wilberforce be buried in Westminster Abbey and that they be granted permission to attend the funeral. Several letters between the Clarksons and William Smith shortly offer Wilberforce's death concern Robert Wilberforce's proposed life of his father and his ideas of attacking some of Thomas Clarkson's claims for himself in the abolition movement.
The correspondents in this collection include: M. Babington, J. Barham, Richard Bickell, Henry Bright, Richard Brodbelt, Priscilla Buxton, Thomas Powell Buxton, Catherine Clarkson, Thomas Coke, Benjamin Cooper, John Frederick Garling, T. Gisborne, Andrew Grant, Robert Grosvenor, George Hibbert, John Horseman, Robert Harry Inglis, John Longley, Men Leith, Zachary Macaulay, A. Mavrocordato, James Muir, J. Plymley, D. Power, William Rathbone, Gilbert Salton, Philip Sansom, John Scott, B. Shank, Granville Sharp, E. Sharpe, James Stephen, W. Villers, Andrew Wedderborn, James Weeker, Barbara Ann Wilberforce, Robert I. Wilberforce, William Wilberforce, John Wright, and J. Yule.
In addition to the letters mentioned above, there is extensive evidence in the miscellaneous papers and the printed material on slavery. It includes Smith's notes and research on: spies in the slave trade, deaths (of crew and captives) on slave ships, food carried on slave ships, methods of obtaining slaves in Africa, conditions of Africans in Africa, British exports to Africa, eyewitness accounts and lists of witnesses, general information on the West Indies, estates and plantations, diseases and epidemics, population, mistreatment of slaves, breeding of slaves versus importation, description of a riot in Barbados in 1823 and the destruction of a Methodist chapel, printed petitions from the West Indies showing the increasingly difficult financial position of the sugar planters due to high taxes, shipping costs, and low prices, lists and copies of British Laws concerning slavery in the colonies, a planter's plan for the emancipation of slaves over a period of 34 years, conditions of slaves in French colonies, papers comparing the raising of sugar cane in the West Indies and in the East Indies and India, letters regarding the abolition of slavery in Ceylon, speeches in Parliament or manuscripts of books, Parliamentary resolutions, printed statements for and against slavery, history of the movement for abolition, newspaper excerpts, and magazine articles.
William Sims papers, 1770-1860 3.6 Linear Feet — 385 Items
Correspondence, financial papers, and legal documents, concerning William Sims' extensive plantation holdings in South Carolina. Includes two account books. Correspondence is primarily related to business matters, including cotton trade and prices; the price and availability of slaves; and the beginnings of a textile industry on the plantation. Local and state politicians in South Carolina are often mentioned, as is the general economic plight of the Southern planter in the period (ca. 1819-1830), and currency problems in the state (ca. 1826-1830). One personal letter effusively describes newly settled land in Mississippi and the quality of the cotton grown there.
Detailed financial papers form the bulk of the collection, and concern the cotton trade (including weights, bale numbers, shipping, prices, and sales), and household and plantation expenses. Legal papers are confined to deeds, documents of land litigation, military commissions, and documents relating to slaves, such as indentures and lists of slaves on the plantation. Also includes genealogical information on the Sims family.
William Sigler papers, 1825-1855 2.5 Linear Feet — 1300 Items
Collection contains personal correspondence, business papers, and receipts relating to William Sigler. Some correspondence concerns local politics and economic conditions. Sigler sometimes corresponded with prominent merchants in Baltimore, Md.
William S. Carter papers, 1830-1922 3 Linear Feet
Collection contains correspondence, legal and financial papers, and account books from the Carter, Howard, and Spencer families of Hyde County, North Carolina. The ledger books largely relate to William and David Carter's plantations and crops, particularly corn, and also contain expenses and accounts for different Hyde County residents throughout the mid-ninteenth century. A small amount of materials in the ledgers relate to Black people and are indicated with the headings "negro" - this material is sporadic and dates both pre- and post-emancipation.
Correspondence and legal papers in the collection largely relate to the estate management, land, farming, and business or trading expenses for the Carter family. Some materials relate to the American Civil War, including correspondence informing the family of the death of Captain James Carter in 1862. Other materials relate to the enslavement of different men, women, and children, including bills of sale, rental and lease information, and medical expenses accrued by the slaveholders for the different slaves treated on various plantations in the 1850s and 1860s. One document records the names of slaves who self-emancipated themselves following the Union Army victory at the Battle of New Bern. Following the war, most correspondence and legal documents relate to estates and other routine business transactions. There are two election certificates for William Carter in the 1860s, and a draft of a letter to the editor from David S. Carter promoting Democratic candidate Edward J. Warren. The collection also contains several dozen forms returned to the Richmond Boarding House Bureau of Information (1907) reflecting prices of room and board.
William Righter and Mary Wager Fisher papers, 1830-1934 4.5 Linear Feet — 2,850 Items
The papers of the lawyer and educator William Righter Fisher and the journalist Mary Wager Fisher consist primarily of correspondence, but also include photographs (several of them tintypes and cartes-de-visite), financial papers, diaries, clippings, printed material, and writings and speeches. Among correspondents are many journalists, physicians, educators, and other notable figures of the late nineteenth century including Lucy Abbott, Mercy Baker, Jennie Chapin, Mary L. Booth, W.S. Burke, James Gowdy Clark, M.E. Dodge, Weston Flint, P. Girard, S. D. Harris, Albert Leffingwell, Henry C. Olney, W. Trickett, George Boyer Vashon, and Frank J. Webb. The collection also includes letters from James B. Hazelton of the First Regiment, New York Artillery. Hazelton's letters describe battles and political events of the Civil War, including Lincoln's re-election campaign and the anti-draft riots. The papers are particularly rich in documentation of women in medicine and women's medical education in the second half of the nineteenth century; the Freedmen's schools in the Reconstruction South; the movement for women's rights; and friendship among American women in the late Victorian era.
The Correspondence Series includes letters from three prominent women physicians of the period (Jennie Chapin, Mercy N. Baker, and Lucy M. Abbott) to Mary Wager before her marriage to Fisher. In their letters they described their medical education, their obstetrical experience, and the high cost of tuition and living expenses at the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia. Letters prior to her marriage in 1876 also attest to Wager's numerous romantic involvements. Among her admirers was lawyer and educator Weston Flint, and the Correspondence Series includes over 100 letters from him describing his political, social, and literary interests as well as his deep affection for Mary Wager. He also wrote about his wartime travels and his interest in helping the contrabands medically and educationally. Flint detailed political events of the Civil War, including Lincoln's re-election campaign and the anti-draft riots, and mentions the Copperheads. He expressed particular interest in the moral state of soldiers, decrying their drinking of alcohol and consorting with prostitutes. Flint sometimes included poetry in his letters.
Also in the Correspondence Series are two letters (1870) from Frank J. Webb, the author of The Garies and Their Friends (1857), a daring novel about an interracial couple. In one of these letters dated May 5, he referred to a 500-page manuscript sent to Harper's for an unpublished novel, Paul Sumner, which he considered to be superior to The Garies. In a four-page letter to Wager (April 9, 1870), African American writer, attorney, and educator George Boyer Vashon provided an autobiography. The events of his life were penned on the letterhead of The New Era: A National Journal, Edited by Colored Men.
The collection offers insight into emotionally intense friendships between women of the nineteenth century. Wager's female friends sent good wishes, but expressed great jealousy at the time of her marriage to Fisher. Young women wrote of both romantic and sisterly love for Mary, and sometimes discussed such issues as women's education, women's dress, women's suffrage, and temperance.
The bulk of William Righter Fisher's letters in the collection were written between him and his parents. A small cache of letters from author and dean of Dickenson College Law School William Trickett, who lived in Germany in 1872, provide a vivid illustration of the political climate and structure of the Germany of Bismarck. Also to be found among letters to Fisher are several written in the late 1860's by agents of the Freedmen's Bureau and the Freedmen's school in Wytheville, Virginia.
While the bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, some speeches and writings by Mary Wager Fisher and Weston Flint are included. Of particular interest is a photocopy of Mary Wager's article entitled " Women as Physicians." Also, the Pictures Series includes both cartes-de-visite and tintypes.
The William Righter and Mary Wager Fisher Papers provide numerous windows through which researchers can view aspects of late Victorian America. The collection provides an unusual entree into the private and public lives of nineteenth-century men and women, and particularly provides information about the professionalization of American women, relationships between women in nineteenth-century America, and race relations in the Reconstruction South.
William Preston Few records and papers, 1814-1971 and undated (bulk 1911-1940) 70 Linear Feet — 69,000 items
The William Preston Few Records and Papers contain correspondence from Few's office files as President of Trinity College and Duke University, reports, clippings, copies of speeches and manuscripts, memorandum books, bound volumes, index cards that catalog Few's office files, and other types of printed material. The files are arranged in six series. They include: Correspondence, Subject Files, Bound Volumes, Oversize Materials, Index Cards to Few Papers, and Additions.
Major subjects include education; philanthropy; the development of Trinity College, from its beginning in Randolph County, N.C., to Duke University; the development of the Duke Endowment; Trinity and Duke departmental operations; the school's relationship with the Methodist Church; and business of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
The Correspondence makes up a large part of the collection. The bulk of this correspondence is from Few's office files as President of Trinity College and Duke University. The correspondence includes incoming letters to Few's office, copies of outgoing letters, reports, minutes, telegrams, newsletters, and other materials generated or received by the President's office. Among the correspondents are: William Hayes Ackland, Alice Mary Baldwin, John Spencer Bassett, Julian S. Carr, Robert D.W. Conner, Angier Buchanan Duke, Benjamin Newton Duke, James Buchanan Duke, John Carlisle Kilgo, and Edward R. Murrow. There is also some personal correspondence dating from 1885.
The Subject Files include a wide variety of materials collected by Few's office. They include correspondence, reports, clippings and other types of printed material. Major subjects include education; philanthropy; the development of Trinity College from its beginning in Randolph County, N.C., to Duke University; the development of the Duke Endowment; Trinity and Duke departmental operations; the school's relationship with the Methodist Church; and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Included are Few's speeches made at university functions, to community groups, and at funerals. There are a number of speeches that give Few's opinions about education and the development of Duke University while he was President.
The Bound Volumes include a manuscript arithmetic primer, dated 1814, written by Alston W. Kendrick, Few's grandfather; a trigonometry textbook used by Few; a Bible; class records, 1913-1929 and undated; an incomplete set of Few's memoranda books for the years 1922-1933; and several alumni reviews.
The Index Cards to Few's Papers were apparently created by Few's office and catalog the holdings in the office files. However, not all of the materials or names referenced on the index cards can be found in the William Preston Few Records and Papers.
The Oversize Materials include folders removed from the subject files, diplomas, and a bound volume. The Additions include some correspondence, and obituaries for Mrs. William Preston Few (Mary Reamey Thomas Few), that were incorporated into the collection after it was transferred to University Archives.
William Patterson Smith papers, 1791-1943 26.4 Linear Feet — 22,305 Items
Personal and business correspondence of William Patterson Smith (1796-1878), merchant and planter of Gloucester County, Virginia; and of his son-in-law Isaac Howell Carrington (1827-1887), provost marshal at Richmond (1862-1865) and attorney in Pittsylvania County and Richmond, Va.
Approximately one-half of the collection consists of the business papers and correspondence of Thomas and William P. Smith in conducting their mercantile firm in Gloucester and a grain trade throughout the Chesapeake area, with connections in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, London, and the West Indies. The nature of these records is: bills, notes, receipts, bills of lading, orders, sales accounts, chancery court records, writs, estate papers, account books, indentures, wills, stock certificates, inventories, bank books, bonds, etc. The papers prior to 1800 are those of Warner Lewis, John Lewis, John Powell, William Armistead, and William Taliaferro, and deal largely with the administration of estates. Around 1810, Thomas Smith and John Tabb formed a mercantile firm which lasted until 1826, when Tabb withdrew. The Smiths continued this firm until the Civil War. The store was general in nature, handling groceries, clothing, machinery, furniture, etc; while the firm also carried on an extensive trade in grain. William P. Smith was also a partner with Thomas T. Wiatt in a mercantile firm located in Weldon, N.C., 1818-circa 1860. The Smiths were men of broad commercial interests and were quite interested in land speculation in Texas, Arkansas, and West Virginia, internal improvements in Virginia and North Carolina, stocks and bonds, banks and banking, property and fire insurance, improvements in agricultural machinery, fertilizers, and farming methods. Abundant price data on slaves, horses, clothing, dry goods, all grains, drugs, farm implements, groceries, whiskeys, cotton, tobacco, and lands is found between 1815 and 1860.
The combined personal and business papers give a broad view of life in Tidewater Virginia from 1800-1875, and throw light on Richmond, Va., 1850-1865; Goochland Co., Va., 1850-1870; and Charlotte, Halifax, and Pittsylvania counties, Va., 1845-1880. Besides the subjects already mentioned, information can be found on social life and customs, recreations and amusements; religious life; slavery in all its aspects; free African Americans; the county militia system; Virginia and U.S. politics, 1820-1880; the Hussey and McCormick reapers; agricultural societies; the panics of 1819 and 1837; cotton, corn, wheat, barley, oats, and sugar cane cultivation; secondary (various academies) and higher (Yale University, University of Virginia, University of N.C., College of William and Mary, Virginia Military Institute, Washington College, U.S. Military Academy); the Seminole War; Mexican War and annexation of Texas; Thomas S. Dabney in Mississippi; California gold rush; trips to Philadelphia, New York, the Virginia Springs; Virginia Constitutional Conventions of 1829 and 1850; abolition and secession sentiments; iron, cotton, and wool manufacture; military and civilian life during the Civil War, especially Richmond 1861-1865, and Gloucester County under Union occupation; "contrabands"; Confederate military hospitals; taxation by Confederate government; freedmen raids; confiscation of property; Union blockade of Chesapeake Bay; the U.S. military prison at Newport News; freedmen; Reconstruction; coal lands in the Kanawha Valley; and phosphate mining in Tennessee.
Correspondents include: Joseph R. Anderson, Thomas August, John Strode Barbour, George William Booker, Alexander Brown, Charles Bruce, Philip Alexander Bruce, William Jennings Bryan, Allen Taylor Caperton, Jacob D. Cox, William W. Crump, Edward Cross, Thomas S. Dabney, John Reeves Jones Daniel, John Warwick Daniel, Beverley Browne Douglass, Tazewell Ellett, Benjamin Stoddard Ewell, William Stephen Field, Henry D. Flood, Thomas Frank Gailor, William B. Giles, William Wirt Henry, Johns Hopkins, Maria Mason (Tabb) Hubbard, William J. Hubbard, Obed Hussey, Edward Southey Joynes, John Pendleton Kennedy, John Lamb, John Lewis, Warner Lewis, John B. Lightfoot, Harriet (Field) Lightfoot, William Gordon McCabe, Alfred Thayer Mahan, C. Harrison Mann, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Joseph Mays, William G. Minor, Richard Channing Moore, Samuel Mordecai, Richard Morton, Philip N. Nicholas, John Patterson, Samuel Finley Patterson, Thomas Lewis Preston, William Cabell Rives, Theodore Roosevelt, John Roy, Winfield Scott, John Seddon, Francis Henney Smith, Gustavus Woodson Smith, William Alexander Smith, William Nathan Harrell Smith, George E. Tabb, Henrietta A. Tabb, Henry W. Tabb, John Henry Tabb, John Prosser Tabb, Philip M. Tabb, Philip A. Taliaferro, William Booth Taliaferro, Christopher Tompkins, Christopher Quarles Tompkins, Harriet P. Tompkins, Maria B. Tompkins, Theodore Gaillard Thomas, John Randolph Tucker, James Hoge Tyler, John Tyler, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Abel Parker Upshur, Henry P. Van Bibber, Charles Scott Venable, James A. Walker, Benjamin R. Wellford, Henry Horatio Wells, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, William L. Wilson, William L. Wilson, and Levi Woodbury.
William Morehead papers, 1834-1898 and undated 3 Linear Feet
This collection contains correspondence to William Morehead from various business establishments in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. The letters pertain to all phases of Morehead’s business transactions including sale and purchase of goods, particularly stoves and water pumps, shipment of goods, borrowing of money, payment of promissory notes, and other matters. The collection also contains numerous advertisements, bills and receipts, and eighteen account books recording the sales and expenses of Morehead's store during the 1860's and 1870's.
William Law papers, 1761-1890 2.4 Linear Feet — 4 boxes, 1,863 items (including 20 vols.)
This collection contains personal and business correspondence and papers of William Law (1792-1868), planter, merchant, and leader of the local militia, the DuBose family, and of Cyrus Bacot, with whom Law was connected by marriage.
As captain of the Black Creek Militia, 1813-1820, Law's papers include muster rolls, accounts of courts-martial, lists of absentees with their excuses, and numerous orders. Law's plantation records are confined to frequent lists of slaves, accounts of cotton planted and produced, and weights of hogs killed. The bulk of the papers is concerned with Law's activities as a merchant in partnership with Daniel DuBose, including records of large amounts of cotton sold to Charleston commission merchants, of turpentine and bricks sold, and papers, bills, receipts, account books, daybooks, cashbooks, and ledgers.
Also included in the collection are an account book of lumber sold by Law and Cyrus Bacot, and letters and papers showing Law's activities in the temperance movement and the Presbyterian Church. Personal letters, largely confined to the period after 1839, fall into three categories; letters of sympathy at the death of Law's wife in 1839; frequent letters from members of the Cooper and DuBose families; and letters from Law's brother, James Robert Law, who was often involved in financial difficulties. Letters from James Robert Law are concerned with planting operations in Sumter District, South Carolina, and, beginning with 1848, in Madison County, Florida.
There are also a description of the Alabama River and its fertile lowlands by William I. DuBose written from Fort Claiborne, Monroe County, Mississippi, in 1815; accounts of a trip to Red Sulphur Springs as well as other springs in Virginia in 1835; a long account by James R. Law relative to a marl bed on his Sumter plantation, and Civil War letters from William Law's son revealing numerous incidents of camp life.
William Johnston Cocke papers, 1682-1977, bulk 1900-1960 6.4 Linear Feet — 2121 Items
Collection reflects the varied interests of Cocke. It is divided into the following categories: correspondence (1815-1969, some transcribed); writings (1682-1965); speeches (1896-1965); miscellany (ca. 1908); clippings (1792-1975); printed materials (1865-1977); volumes (1886-1954); pictures, late 19th and early 20th centuries; and an alphabetical file (1787-1977), arranged by topic. The collection covers a wide variety of topics and time periods, but most of the material has dates in the span 1900-1960. Included are personal correspondence and materials relating to Cocke's political and civic interests. His many correspondents include Sam Ervin, B. Everett Jordan, and Terry Sanford. Correspondence topics include the Democratic Party; life as an American law student in England; English law compared to American law; travels in Europe; Thomas Wolfe, whom Cocke knew; publishing efforts; and a meeting with Lady Astor and the future King Edward VII. Other items include family letters; manuscripts by Cocke's mother, Nola, including "My Reminiscences of the Sixties (1861-1865)" about the Reconstruction era in Tenn.; clippings regarding a proposed N.C. constitution amendment requiring a literacy test for voter registrants in the 1860s; speeches by William Cocke, Sr., mayor of Asheville, N.C.; a guardian's account book later turned into a scrapbook; a large campaign scrapbook for Senate candidate Alton Asa Lennon; Cocke-Dilworth family photographs and many albumen prints of Europe. Topics in the alphabetical file include civic clubs; United World Federalists, Inc.; the attempt to establish the state of Franklin in what is now western N.C.; legal cases regarding horse stealing, a slave sale, and other topics; court reform in N.C. and the Bell Committee; and the Commission on International Cooperation under the N.C. Dept. of Conservation and Development.
William Holland Thomas papers, 1814-1900s and undated 30 Linear Feet
Collection contains letters and papers of William H. Thomas (1805-1893) concerning his life and businesses in western North Carolina; his role as a white agent representing the Indians in negotiations and communications with the U.S. government; the removal of the Eastern Band of Cherokee on the Trail of Tears; the legal and financial conditions of Cherokee who remained behind in North Carolina; the building of roads and railroads through Western North Carolina; fighting during the Civil War in East Tennessee, including Thomas's leadership of Thomas's Legion in the Confederate Army; postwar administration of Indian affairs; and private business of Thomas, including some documentation of his declining health and his institutionalization for mental instability. There are also account books, day books, and ledgers showing a record of goods bought and sold in Thomas's five stores in Haywood and Cherokee counties. Included also are business correspondence and miscellaneous accounts, 1875-1890, of his son, William Holland Thomas, Jr., merchant and farmer of Jackson County, North Carolina.
William H. Helfand Collection of Medical Prints and Posters, 1695-1991, bulk 1800-1899 3 Linear Feet — 34 Items
The William H. Helfand Collection of Medical Prints and Posters consists of 34 prints and posters realted to the history of medicine and pharmacology, dating from 1695 to 1991, with the bulk of the prints dating from 19th century. Paris, France is the provenance for many of the posters, but several hail from England and the United States. The posters are represented in two formats: lithographs and engravings, some of which are hand colored. Ranging in size from 5"x8" to 19"x23", the prints include caricatures, political satire, comics and advertisements, dealing with a range of subjects from quacks, alchemy, charlatans and cheats to pastoral and hospital scenes. George Cruikshank and Honoré Daumier are represented amongst the artists. Acquired as part of the History of Medicine Collections at Duke University.
William Henry Hall papers, 1736-1862 1020 items
Collection includes three generations of the Hall family and documents their involvement with tobacco and other plantation operations in Maryland during the 18th and 19th centuries, including the shift to lumber and wheat after 1800. Also includes information on cotton plantations in South Carolina and the sale of cotton to England, Maryland politics and government in the 1780s, insurrections by enslaved people, and naval impressment at the time of the War of 1812.
William D. Smith papers, 1816-1921 0.75 Linear Feet
Mainly diaries, account books, ledgers, and an autograph album from multiple members of the Page, Smith, Thompson, and Williams families who lived in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Ohio. Three of the diaries are written by H.M. Williams (b.1842), who traveled to Cincinnati as a Christian missionary in 1882. Her diaries record her daily activities such as visiting the sick, attending meetings of various social and religious societies, and teaching Sunday school. One notebook was written by Mary Page Thompson (b. 1869) while she attended State Normal School in Baltimore (Md.) 1889, and includes notes on biology, psychology, and religion, including notes on a discussion of Christian missionary work in China. There are several items relating to Philip Doddridge Thompson (b. 1838), a Christian minister who worked in several states and one ledger that indicates that William Doddridge Smith was a Justice of the Peace in Clarke County, Virginia in 1866. Collection also includes one folder of indentures, deeds, and wills the bulk of which was created during 1816-1854 and is related to the business and legal dealings of William Doddridge Smith and his father, Edward Jaquelin Smith, who were active in Virginia and West Virginia. There is also one folder of correspondence, photographs, clippings, and ephemera.
William C. Thornton papers, 1805-1854 0.5 Linear Feet
The following description has been transcribed from the card catalog, which was composed in 1951:
The central figure of this correspondence, which is largely that of the related Compton Thornton, Treadway, and Wainwright families of London, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, is William C. Thornton. By 1817 he was associated with John G. Smith and Co. of Richmond. Between then and May 1820, he took a position with the U.S. Bank in Richmond. Within a few years he had left the bank and was in a mercantile business near Prince Edward Court House, Virginia, with his brother-in-law, Thomas Treadway, Sr. After two years, he sold out and went to New York, where he went into business with Thomas Treadway, Jr., Thomas Sr.'s nephew. He later entered the U.S. Bank in Philadelphia, where he remained until the early 1840s when he returned to business.
In a letter of August 1805, Townsend Compton writes from London about several members of his family and the fear there of an invasion by Napoleon's forces; in Dec. 1816, he writes of the depression in England, blaming Pitt's measures for nearly ruining the country, and stating that Spain and Ferdinand VII would disgrace a nation of barbarians. A later letter from Compton (May 1, 1820) comments further on England's depression, and speaks of the success of actors Kean and Matthews.
There are also letters to Rachel, Rebecca, and Abraham M. Church; James Martin; letters from Medmor Goodwin (1817); Mary Treadway in 1826 to Rebecca Thornton, wife of William C. Thornton; letters to Rebecca from her sister Caroline in Farmville; Sarah H. Thornton and M.F. Thornton to their uncle, William J. Wainwright; a series of letters starting in Oct. 1839 from T.T. Treadway at the University of Virginia to his aunt and his cousin, Edward C. Thornton of Philadelphia; Elizabeth Russell Norwood of Boston to her friend Mrs. William Wainwright (including a letter from Aug. 1842 regarding women's rights); a letter from T.T. Treadway of Prince Edward in 1842 discussing slaveholding; a letter from Newton, CT., in Jan. 1844 about temperance debates and lectures; letters to Sarah A. Thornton from her friends; and a letter from Mary Treadway in Dec. 1852 commenting on Uncle Tom's Cabin.
William Clark Grasty papers, 1788-1906 and undated (bulk 1800-1869), bulk 1800-1869 10.9 Linear Feet — 8,175 Items
Correspondence, account books, daybooks, fee books, invoices, ledgers, memoranda books, records of sales, inventories, and letterpress copybooks, chiefly 1800-1869, of three generations of general merchants of Pittsylvania Co., Va. Business interests included a general store, a tavern, a blacksmith shop, a simplified type of banking, and the keeping of a post office. Large amounts of tobacco were bought and sold before the Civil War. Post-war records indicate a large volume of trade in Peruvian guano and commercial fertilizers. Partners in the firm included Philip L. Grasty and other members of the Grasty family, John F. Rison and Samuel Pannill. Includes letters (1849-1867) of John S. Grasty, a Presbyterian minister, referring to North Carolina agriculture, slave hiring, Unionist sympathy among the Dutch population of Botetourt Co., Va., and the devastation of Fincastle, Va., during the war.
William C. Holgate papers, 1798-1911 and undated bulk 1799-1887 3 Linear Feet — Approx. 1,605 Items
Family, business, and legal papers, dating chiefly from 1799-1887, of William C. Holgate, of his father, Curtis Holgate, and of William's daughter, Fannie Holgate Harley. Papers before 1852 relate mostly to legal and business affairs of Holgate and his father, including investments in Ohio land and New York railroads; papers of his daughter begin in 1872 and are concerned with family affairs, but also include references to birth control, abortions, a smallpox epidemic, and the education of women. Includes letters from students at Hamilton College and the University of Vermont in the 1830s; papers relating to land speculation; and material pertaining to the economic development of Defiance, Ohio, and internal improvements and education in Ohio for the period from 1830-1840.
William Boone Douglass papers, 1809-1948 8.75 Linear Feet
Collection includes a biographical sketch of Douglass, correspondence of the Boone and Douglass families, genealogical information and research, financial and legal documents, material related to Douglass' survey work and national parks, printed and visual material, and writings.
Correspondence pertains to family matters, the Kansas-Nebraska question, the passing of the first overland mail from California through Cassville, Missouri in 1858, elections to be held in Indiana in 1860, Douglass' surveying activities, establishment of a National Park of the Cliff Cities of New Mexico, the securing of power from Boulder Dam, and other matters. There are several Civil War letters from both Union and Confederate soldiers. There is a large amount of correspondence for Douglass' parents, Benjamin P. Douglass and Victoria Boone, as well as for his son, William Boone Douglass, Jr.
The financial and legal documents include receipts, account books, deeds, a court docket from an unidentified court, and patent case files and diagrams. Also of note is an 1814 deed of emancipation for Sally and Champion, two formerly enslaved people, who were emancipated by William Vincett in Harrison County, Indiana.
Booklets, brochures, and publications cover a wide range of topics and locations, including traveling in Santa Fe, N.M., the Transylvania Company and the founding of Henderson, K.Y., and the history of U.S. coinage laws.
Material related to Douglass' survey work consists of notes, writings, and drawings about the different sites that he surveyed, particularly those in present-day Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, as well as maps and plats. Douglass' published "Notes on the Shrines of the Tewa and Other Pueblo Indians of New Mexico" (1917) is included in the writings. Also included are many photographs of Utah, New Mexico, and the Southwest. These photographs show natural formations, the surveyors, and also Pueblo peoples and customs, including Santiago Naranjo, Francisco Naranjo, and the Pueblo peoples' traditional Buffalo Dance. The Notebook on Pueblo Indians, Vol. I, contains descriptions of Douglass' visit to the San Ildefonso Pueblo and his observations of dwellings, meals, symbols, and rituals, with particular attention paid to the Scalp Dance. Vol. II contains notes on the Tewa language, cardinal colors and locations, clans, culture, and history, as well as Douglass' notes on other publications that address the Tewa language and Pueblo peoples. Douglass' survey work prompted him to advocate for the establishment of a "National Park of the Cliff Cities of New Mexico"--material related to this effort, including proposed legislation and maps, is in the collection.
Correspondence, clippings, and the material related to Douglass' survey work make mention of the indigenous groups and individuals he encountered, including the Paiute, Navajo, and Pueblo peoples and Jim Mike, Santiago Naranjo, and Francisco Naranjo. Most of the material about Jim Mike addresses his role in leading Douglass to the natural bridges in Utah, including what is now known as Rainbow Bridge National Monument.
William Baskerville Hamilton papers, 1700-1975 80 Linear Feet — 53,700 items
Correspondence, memoranda, and reports, relating to Hamilton's teaching career; reasearch notes for his work in antebellum Mississippi history, particularly the Territorial period, and for biographies of William Wyndham Grenville, Baron, and William Murray, Earl of Mansfield; and personal and family papers. Includes ca. 9,000 British historical manuscripts donated by Hamilton, cataloged separately by the repository. Correspondents include Nash Kerr Burger, Hubert Creekmore, Eudora Welty, and other Mississippi literary figures.
William Alexander Smith papers, 1765-1949 20 Linear Feet — 51 boxes; 9 separately bound volumes
Collection contains correspondence, legal and financial papers, volumes, printed material and other items relating to the various activities and interests of William Alexander Smith (1843-1934), businessman and investor.
Records of Smith's general mercantile business, 1866-1886, include store accounts, 1875-1886, and a purchase journal, 1875-1877, listing various expenses.
Records of the operation of a store with Charles A. Smith include a ledger, an invoice book, and inventories and financial reports pertaining to the store and its failure.
The management of Smith's farm on the Pee Dee River is documented by records on the cotton trade, prices, the condition of crops, and marketting, and includes agreements with tenant farmers. Records of the Yadkin Falls Manufacturing Company, Milledgeville, North Carolina, 1883-1896, of which William Smith was president, include a letter book, 1887-1888, and an account book, 1876-1887, listing the expenses for the construction of this cotton mill and an inventory of mercantile goods purchased by the company.
For the Eldorado Cotton Mills, Milledgeville, 1897-1906, of which Smith also was president, there are a letter book, 1899-1902; a time book, 1898-1903, a general store ledger, 1900-1903; bank check, dividend check, and deposit books, 1898-1902; correspondence with Tucker & Carter Rope Company which Eldorado supplied with goods, 1898-1902; and records of a legal and financial controversy, 1914-1919.
Other textile mills in North Carolina and South Carolina are the subject of correspondence with Francis Johnstone Murdoch, Episcopal clergyman and textile executive; with Lee Slater Overman, textile executive and U.S. senator; and with James William Cannon, operator of Cannon Mills.
Correspondence with George Stephens, president of the Stephens Company, developers, and officer of the American Trust Company of Charlotte, North Carolina, concerns real estate ventures, such as the development of Myers Park residential area in Charlotte.
Other records relate to investment in the Southern States Finance Company, 1922-1925.
Mining of gold, copper, and mica is the subject of material on the Eagle River Mining Company in Alaska, 1905-1916, the Montana Consolidated Gold Mining Company, 1905-1918, the Monarch Mining and Smelting Company, Wickenburg, Arizona, 1906-1918, and the Spruce Pine Mica Company, Inc., Spruce Pine, North Carolina, 1924-1933.
Papers concerning the insurance business comprise those of the North State Fire Insurance Company and the Dixie Fire Insurance Company, both of Greensboro, North Carolina.
Relating to the railroad and the automobile industries are papers of the Edwards Railway Motor Car Company of Sanford, North Carolina, 1923-1927; the David Buick Carburetor Corporation, 1922-1932; the Fox Motor Car Company, 1922-1923; and the Winston-Salem Railway through Ansonville, 1910-1911.
Other business records concern lumbering in North Carolina, 1916-1925; the Carolina Remedies Company of Union, South Carolina, 1922-1925; the W. L. Hand Medicine Company of Charlotte, North Carolina, 1923-1925; the John E. Hughes Company, Inc., tobacco processor of Danville, Virginia, 1922-1924; and the Forsyth Furniture Lines, Inc., 1922-1923.
Records of William A. Smith's activities as purchasing agent, banker, and broker include ledgers, 1873-1933; daybook, 1885-1893; letter and letterpress books, 1867-1895 and 1909-1910; and other account books.
Papers relating to Smith's writings include material on the publication of his Anson Guards: Company Fourteenth Regiment, North Carolina Volunteers, 1861-1865 (Charlotte: 1914), including correspondence with the Stone Publishing Company, and reminiscences of several members of the Guards; papers on the causes and historiography of the Civil War, especially correspondence with Samuel A'Court Ashe, 1920s and 1930s, correspondence with Benjamin Franklin Johnson, 1915-1916, concerning a biographical sketch of Smith in Johnson's Makers of America; correspondence about Smith's pamphlet on the designing of the Confederate flag and the raising of the first flag of secession in North Carolina; and correspondence and genealogical notes used in the writing of Smith's Family Tree Book, Genealogical and Biographical (Los Angeles: 1922).
There are papers concerning the United Confederate Veterans, especially while Smith was commander of the North Carolina Division during the 1920s.
Correspondence, bills and receipts, ledgers, and writings concerning educational institutions relate to Carolina Female College, Ansonville, of which Smith's father, William Gaston Smith, was chairman of the board of trustees; sponsorship of the Nona Institute at Ansonville, 1906-1910, oriented toward the Episcopal Church; the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, of which Smith was a trustee; Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina, which Smith had attended before the Civil War; the education of Smith's adopted son, Bennett Dunlap Nelme, at textile schools and mills, including comment about New Bedford and Lowell textile schools in Massachusetts, 1902-1907, and about North Carolina State College, Raleigh, 1900-1903; controversy over the content of history textbooks used in the state public schools, 1921; and membership on the board of managers of the Thompson Orphanage, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Correspondence with Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire and Archdeacon Edwin A. Osborne concerns affairs of the Episcopal Church, its missions, local churches, and the diocese.
Relating to the Freemasons are a history of Carolina Lodge No. 141 of Ansonville and the minutes of the lodge, 1906-1925.
Scattered correspondence and other papers pertain to North Carolina elections, especially the Democratic primary of 1912; the courts; the Democratic Party; county government; the good roads movement, especially in 1916; the family life and political career of Edward Hull Crump of Memphis, Tennessee, who was the son of Smith's first cousin; and politics in Mississippi and Tennessee. Other papers include the steam mill account books, 1851-1861, of Smith & Ingram who operated a sawmill in Anson County and correspondence, 1850-1851, concerning the acquisition of the steam machinery to run the mill; diary and notebook, 1765-1789, of James Auld, farmer, clerk of the court, and operator of a store for Joseph Montfort; North Carolina Argus subscription book, i852-1853; account books, 1840-1857, of blacksmiths; account books, 1835-1858 and 1860-1864, of grist mill operators; ledger, 1835-1845, of William Gaston Smith's mercantile business; account books, 1840s and 1850s, of Joseph Pearson Smith, brother of William Gaston Smith, and operator of a mercantile business; ledger, 1858, of Joseph Pearson Smith, and ledger, 1855-1858, of Eli Freeman, carriage repairman, containing records of the sale and repair of carriages and buggies; deeds and plats; papers relating to the administration of the estates of William Gaston Smith (1802-1879), of John Smith (1772-1854), father of William Gaston Smith, and of Mary (Bellew) Smith (1775-1872), wife of John Smith; cashbook, 1875-1902, of William Alexander Smith; an inventory of notes and accounts receivable; stock dividend ledger, 1931-1934; and the financial reports of Mary (Bennett) Smith, William Alexander Smith's wife, and Bennett Dunlap Nelme, who, after 1926, were the legal guardians of William Alexander Smith.
Description taken from: Davis and Miller, Guide to the Cataloged Collections in the Manuscript Department of the William R. Perkins Library, Duke University (1980).
Westall Family papers, 1790-1986 (bulk 1880-1986) and undated 6 Linear Feet — 2,226 Items
Includes papers of several different members of the family including correspondence, clippings, speeches, and writings of Virginia Westall in her capacity as aide to General R. L. Eichelberger; papers from family's various civic capacities; WWI and WWII correspondence; military records; family photographs and clippings; other personal correspondence including some related to cousin Thomas Wolfe; photos of Asheville; Westall genealogy; some poetry, a journal, other writings; business papers including those concerning violin making and some from a family member's construction business in Asheville.
The Wesley Works Archive, 1676-1996 and undated, bulk 1724-1791, 1960-1996, forms part of the working papers of the Wesley Works Editorial Project (WWEP). Formed in 1960, this international and inter denominational consortium of scholars is producing a complete critical edition of the works of John Wesley, the 18th century Church of England clergyman who was a primary founder of Methodism. The collection consists of that portion of the Project's documents gathered by Frank Baker during almost four decades of service as the WWEP's General Editor, Textual Editor, and main bibliographer, and consists of the correspondence, writings, research, printed materials, photocopied manuscripts, proofs, and other materials produced by Baker and the many other historians, theologians, and clergy who have participated in the Project. Because John Wesley preached, wrote, and published so widely, the content of the research materials required for a full edition of his writings necessarily contains much information not only about the founding and early history of the Methodist and Wesleyan Methodist Churches, but also much information about the history of religious thought and dissent in 18th century England, the Evangelical Revival, and the history of publishing. Beyond the ostensible purpose of the WWEP, however, the modern correspondence and scholarly debate contained in these papers also throws light on such topics as scholarly publishing and textual criticism.
The collection also sheds light on the history and mechanics of the transmission of texts. That is, while the reproduced printed materials here document the complex publishing and textual history of the thousands of editions of Wesley's writings to appear in his lifetime alone, at the same time the original writings of modern scholars involved in the WWEP document how older texts are researched and recovered from the past, all for the purpose of establishing a present authoritative text to be passed on to the future.
Series in the Wesley Works Archive are arranged to correspond to the unit structure of the thirty-five volume Bicentennial Edition. Described more fully below, the initial sixteen series of the archive and the sixteen units and thirty-five volumes of the Bicentennial Edition are as follows: Sermons (1-4); Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (5-6); A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (7); Worship (8); The Methodist Societies (9-10); The Appeals to Men of Reason and Religion and Certain Related Open Letters (11); Doctrinal and Controversial Treatises (12-13); Social/Political Tracts (14); Catechetical/Educational Works (15); Editorial Works (16); Medical Writings (17); Journals and Diaries (18-24); Letters (25-31); Oxford Diaries (32); Bibliography (33-34); and Index and Miscellanea (35). A concluding seventeenth series, General Files, gathers materials about the overall history and organization of the WWEP.
The history of the Wesley Works Editorial Project already extends more than fifty years, from its inception in 1960 to the 2011 publication of The Methodist Societies: The Minutes of Conference. This volume, as the seventeenth to be published, marks the halfway point of the entire Bicentennial Edition, which will comprise thirty-four volumes plus a concluding general index volume. Although the General Files are placed as the final series in order to avoid interrupting the parallel structure of series and volumes, they actually mark the best place to begin an overview of the collection, since their various folder groups document much of the administrative history of the Project. Overviews and details of the Project's inception, history, institutional support, and editorial guidelines are best found in the folder groups for the Board of Directors and the Editorial Board. The history of the actual content, intellectual structure, and presentation of volumes can be found in such groups as grouped under such categories as Editorial Procedures and Bulletins of the WWP. Most of the latter were issued by Frank Baker in the 1970s and contain much detail about the content and style choices that were being made for various volumes. The General Files also contain materials that may relate to more than one unit of the Bicentennial Edition, as well as some Wesley publications not selected for inclusion, especially his Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament.
Wesley family papers, 1726-1889 and undated 3 Linear Feet — 46 Items
The Wesley family papers, 1726-1889 and undated, comprise correspondence, poems, sermons, affidavits, and other documents of the brothers John Wesley (1703-1791) and Charles Wesley (1707-1788), both Church of England clergymen and two of the founders of Methodism; of Sarah Wesley (1726-1822), wife of Charles; and of Sarah Wesley (1759-1828), daughter of Charles and Sarah.
John Wesley's letters discuss his life as a student at Lincoln College; the administration of Kingswood School, Bath; his conflict with the Countess of Huntingdon; his involvement with the funeral sermon for George Whitefield and Whitefield's estate; and various other topics including the appointment of ministers. Charles Wesley's letters discuss details of the Wesley brothers' experiences on their mission to Georgia, including their relationship with James Oglethorpe, and his regrets over the Methodists' separation from the Church of England. Correspondents and persons mentioned include Samuel Wesley (brother of John and Charles), Eliza Bennis, Joseph Benson, Samuel Bradburn, James Kenton, and Samuel Lloyd.
Other materials include an inventory of John Wesley's library at the time of his death; a signed affidavit concerning a major chapel of British Methodism, opened in Nottingham in 1783; a photograph album of places in England associated with the Wesley family and the history of Methodism; and some infant baptismal clothing (a christening gown) attributed to the Wesley family.
Original correspondence housed in Box 1 available by prior request only. Use copies are in Box 2.
Wendell Holmes Stephenson papers, 1820-1968 34.6 Linear Feet — about 25,950 items
The papers of Wendell Holmes Stephenson span the years 1820-1968, but the bulk of the materials date from 1922 to 1968. They consist of correspondence, writings and speeches, research and teaching material, and subject files. The collection primarily concerns Stephenson's career as a university professor, historian and author, and editor of historical journals. His field was Southern history but included American history, and his interests spanned the colonial period to the 20th century.
The beginnings of Stephenson's career are documented in a limited number of letters, writings, and notes dating from his undergraduate studies at Indiana University and his graduate work at the University of Michigan in the 1920s. These materials are scattered principally in the Correspondence, Writings and Speeches, and Teaching Materials series.
The materials about his career as teacher, editor, and historical writer from the 1920s to the 1960s are not neatly organized into any particular series. The Journal of Southern History Series does record the bulk of his work with that publication, but information about particular persons, topics, and institutions is often available in more than one series, sometimes in all of them.
The Correspondence, Writings and Speeches, Subject Files, Teaching Material, and Research and Bibliographical Notes series span Stephenson's career from the 1920s to the 1960s. The Correspondence Series is considerably more extensive than the other series. Information about individuals, schools, associations, and publishers is principally filed in the Correspondence, Writings and Speeches, Subject Files, and Teaching Material series. The Research and Bibliographical Notes series contains Stephenson's research notes about persons, places, and topics in Southern and American history, but additional notes and information about them may also appear in other series.
Stephenson was the first editor of the Journal of Southern History that began publication in 1935. Correspondence files are extensive, and some subject files are also available. The papers document the operations of the Journal during Stephenson's editorship, 1935-1941, but also to a limited extent as late as 1944 and in the years prior to the inception of publication. The activity recorded ranges from routine business to dealings with the principal scholars in the field. What Southern history was during this period and who was doing research and writing is amply documented.
Stephenson was later the editor of another important journal, the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, during 1946-1953. Files under its name are in the Correspondence and Subject Files series. However, there are many more files in the Correspondence Series because he integrated his editorial files into his other correspondence. Material about the Review is not confined to the years of Stephenson's editorship.
Manuscripts of the articles and books of various historians are sometimes included in their files in the Journal of Southern History, Subject Files, and Correspondence series. In most cases the presence of these writings is related to Stephenson's editorial work, but some were filed because he was interested in the work of earlier historians.
Washington M. Smith papers, 1830-1916 and undated 11.4 Linear Feet — 8,578 Items
Personal, legal and financial papers of Washington M. Smith, lawyer, planter, and president of the Bank of Selma, relating to his law practice; his appointment as legal advisor for the Bank of Alabama in Tuscaloosa; his presidency of the Bank of Selma; the development of his plantation in Dallas County; exports of cotton and naval stores through brokers in Mobile; his real estate ventures in Selma and in Minnesota, and the inheritance by his wife, Susan (Parker) Smith, of property in Texas; the movement in the 1850s for public schools; his service on the school board of Selma, 1865-1868; his service as state representative in 1844 and in 1861-1863; his struggle after the Civil War to rebuild his estate; his efforts to establish a private banking house in Selma his partnership with John McGinnis in a general banking and stock and gold brokerage business in New York; attempts to restore the prosperity of his plantation, including contracts with many of his former slaves; his journey to England to establish cotton markets; his despondency over economic conditions in Alabama; and his consideration of migration to California. Arranged in the following series: Correspondence, Legal Papers, Financial Papers, Printed Material, and Volumes.
Included are personal correspondence between Smith and his wife while on his travels; records of slave purchases and sales; correspondence, bills, and receipts relating to the running of the plantation; scattered price current bulletins for Mobile, Alabama, 1848-1866, and for Liverpool, England, 1865-1869; Smith's petition for pardon to Andrew Johnson explaining his feelings about secession and his activities during the war, and other miscellaneous items pertaining to Smith's activities. After Smith's death in 1869, the papers chiefly relate to the education of their seven children at various schools and academies, including Virginia Military Institute (Lexington, Virginia), Moore's Business College (Atlanta, Georgia), the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa), and Shorter College (Rome, Georgia); to the settlement and administration of the Smith estate; to a family quarrel between Susan (Parker) Smith and her children over disposal of the property in Minnesota; and to the children's efforts at various occupations. Also included are letters of Colonel Hilary A. Herbert (1834-1919), U.S. congressman from Alabama, 1877-1893, and secretary of the navy, 1893-1897, and husband of Smith's daughter, Ella, chiefly concerning family matters; letters from Leila Herbert, daughter of Hilary A. Herbert and Ella (Smith) Herbert, Washington hostess, and author of The First American, His Homes and Households (1900), discussing family matters and Washington social activities; numerous account books of Susan (Parker) Smith containing records of household expenses; course of study of the Selma Study Club, 1907-1908; catalog of the San Souci girls' school near Greenville, South Carolina, 1902-1903; the annual report of Beta Theta Pi for 1896; and other miscellaneous items.
Washington Duke papers, 1764-1987 2.6 Linear Feet
The bulk of the papers of Washington Duke, a tobacco manufacturer and philanthropist, date from 1890 to 1905, but the papers include items as early as 1764 and as late as 1987. The collection is a created one; materials from several sources have been brought together to form the Washington Duke Papers. The collection relates primarily to the financial and philanthropic interests of Washington Duke after his retirement from W. Duke, Sons and Company in 1880. There are five series: Correspondence, Financial Papers, Genealogical Papers, Legal Papers, and Miscellaneous Papers.
The Correspondence Series begins with two letters (photocopies) written by Washington Duke in 1863, when he was preparing to enter the Confederate Army. After the war Mr. Duke began establishing his tobacco business. This series contains no correspondence for the period 1865-1889. The bulk of the correspondence covers the period 1890-1905, after Mr. Duke had retired from the tobacco business. These letters reveal his financial and philanthropic interests after retirement. Letters come from the following sources:
- 1. Relatives, seeking aid or sending thanks for gifts.
- 2. Methodist Episcopal Church, South, members and ministers seeking assistance for church buildings, furnishings, orphans, widows, and missionaries.
- 3. Schools and colleges asking for aid or expressing appreciation for aid given. Louisburg Female College, Rutherford College, Trinity College and Kittrell College were among those writing about finances. The orphanage at Oxford was supported for a number of years. Many students, both black and white, sought financial assistance from Mr. Duke in the way of scholarships or loans.
- 4. Business associates or would-be partners seeking financial assistance or employment. These letters are largely concerned with textiles and tobacco. For example there are letters reflecting Mr. Duke's encouragement of black capitalism in the founding of the Coleman Manufacturing Company at Concord, N.C.
- 5. People who were ill or unlucky, many of them very impoverished.
The letters in the Correspondence Series dated 1975-1976 are concerned with Washington Duke's dealings with the J. W. Scott and Company in Greensboro, N.C. (1871) and the nomination of St. Joseph's A.M.E Church in Durham to the National Register of Historic Places. This series does not include any original letters written by Washington Duke.
The Financial Papers Series consists of records of Washington Duke's business interests and philanthropy. The oldest volume is a ledger (1873-1877), kept at the time Washington Duke and his sons moved their factory from the farm to Durham. Duke tobacco products were being shipped to markets from Maine to California, including locations in frontier Montana. An account book for the Durham Warehouse covers the period 1876-1884 and gives an interesting glimpse of the beginnings of Duke tobacco organization. Records were kept of purchases of tobacco, promotion trips to Europe and Australia (1883-1884), and the entry of George Washington Watts into the firm (1878).
A summary of the personal finances of Washington Duke is noted in financial papers dating from 1893 until the time of his death in 1905. These records include a journal, ledger, cashbook, and check stubs. They are parallel in content and supplement each other; they appear to have been the work of his private secretary, James E. Stagg.
The journal (1893-1905) indicates gifts to family, relatives, and individuals, as well as transactions with institutions such as the White Rock Baptist Church, St. Joseph's AME Church, Louisburg Female College, and the Durham Conservatory of Music. Businesses noted include the American Tobacco Company, the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company, Cary Lumber Company, together with a number of cotton mills, railroads, and banks.
The cashbook (1893-1905) lists, in more detail, dividends from investments as well as donations to individuals and institutions over a period of a decade or more. Washington Duke was consistently generous to his immediate family and his many nieces and nephews. His tithing to the church covered gifts to the Main Street Methodist Church, ministers, Negro churches, orphanages and schools. With the coming of Trinity College to Durham, he made generous contributions to its finances, including small gifts to the baseball team and to the library for book stacks. The check stubs cover the period 1899 to 1905. The final entry refers to the balance transferred to his sons after Washington Duke's death.
The ledger (1893-1904) contains accounts listing mills, railroads, and other property. Also included are notations concerning rents, personal expenses, tithes and repairs. Many names of Durham citizens appear here.
The Genealogical Papers Series contains the Washington Duke family Bible (1861) as well as family trees and correspondence regarding lineage and descendants of Duke family members. The bulk of the material is photocopies from the James B. Duke Papers, including copies of letters which detail what Washington Duke remembered about his family.
The Legal Papers Series includes copies of court, marriage, and property records pertaining to the Duke family and its settlement in Orange County, in the vicinity of present-day Durham, N.C. Other papers include a copy of Washington Duke's last will and testament (1900) and the indenture establishing the Doris Duke Trust (1925).
The Miscellaneous Papers Series is composed of pictures, clippings, and general materials. The pictures are primarily photographs of homes, people, and tobacco factories. They have no dates and many are copies of originals on permanent loan to the Duke Homestead, a National Historic site. The homes include those of Taylor Duke (presumed) and Washington Duke, as well as interior views of rooms at the Duke Homestead. There are pictures of Washington Duke and of his statue and of three buildings on the Duke Farm used as tobacco factories prior to the move to Durham.
Clippings are family and business related dating from 1890-1987. A Memorial Album of notices on the death of Washington Duke (1905) is arranged alphabetically by city.
General materials relate to the Duke Homestead and include a variety of other printed and manuscript items. Among them are a Tribute to Bishop Marvin, ca. 1877 (photocopy); Resolution of Thanks and Appreciation, St. Joseph's AME to Washington Duke, 1902; a Resolution by the Board of Directors of the Fidelity Bank in memory of Washington Duke (1905); and a manuscript list of persons sending condolences/flowers on the death of Washington Duke, 1905. Photostats of two records in the C.S.A. Archives in the National Archives are concerned with the Civil War career of Washington Duke. One, dated April 4, 1864, is a report for Co. A of the Camp Guard by Captain George B. Baker, Assistant Quartermaster at Camp Holmes, Raleigh. The second item is a list of men who signed up for three years service in the Confederate Navy. Washington Duke's signature appears on both of these documents.
Washington Dearmont papers, 1787-1944 and undated, bulk 1851-1930 5 Linear Feet — Approximately 5200 Items
Routine family and business correspondence dating from 1787 to 1944, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1851-1930. A portion of the records relate to Dearmont’s position as a salt agent. A few Civil War letters contain orders preparatory to the march on Harper’s Ferry and concern the procurement of salt and horses. Later correspondence concerns Mamie Dearmont and relates in part to women in politics in Colorado, 1912. Other topics of correspondence include Virginia politics, and school life at Eastern College, Front Royal, Va., and at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. There are also business records of the following persons: George Weaver, a merchant at White Post; Greenbury W. Weaver; the postmaster at White Post; G. C. Hamill; and William Berry of Clarke County. The earliest dates refer to financial ledgers and other volumes; one of these contains ledgers of G. C. Hamill and of Washington Dearmont.
Walton family papers, 1730-1980 and undated, bulk 1890-1975 4.5 Linear Feet — 9 boxes; 2 oversize folders — Approximately 1700 items — Approximately 1700 items
The Walton family papers date from 1730 to 1980, and comprise journals and diaries; incoming and outgoing correspondence; writings; postcards, photographs, albums and negatives; clippings; printed material; and genealogical information and history relating to Hingham, Massachusetts.
Small groups of early materials refer to the lives of Eleanore's father James Loring Baker and the history of Hingham, Massachusetts. Later correspondence documents the courtship and early marriage of Eleanore Coolidge Baker and George E. Walton; an 1896 diary recounts George Walton's trip to Florida by wagon. A larger series of papers and correspondence relates to Loring Baker Walton's student years, travel abroad, service in World War I, and his role as academic author and professor of Romance Languages at Duke University. Letters in this series also document Loring B. Walton's relationship with his mother Eleanore and her involvement in various societies, clubs, and employment as a film censor in Kansas City, Missouri.
Photographs, postcards, and negatives in the collection include portraits of family members; images of travel abroad in France and Hingham, Massachusetts, circa 1920s; Fort Douglas, Utah, 1920; and the campuses of Harvard and Princeton in 1920, and unidentified subjects.
Addition (03-053)(175 items, .2 lin. ft.; dated 1917-1968) comprises materials on Loring Baker Walton, and consists primarily of scholarly correspondence and materials concerning his work on Anatole France and other projects (1932-1968). Also includes his class notes from Harvard (1917-1918), and from his training and service with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.
Addition (08-184)(375 items, .4 lin. ft.; dated 1891-1980 and undated) contains primarily material related to Loring Baker Walton's background and service with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. Includes information regarding Walton family property settlements for land they owned in Germany that was damaged during WWII. There are also letters (1891-1951) for George E. and Eleanore C. Walton.
Walter Lee Sutton papers, 1811-1947 5.8 Linear Feet — 1,409 Items
The Walter Lee Sutton Papers span the period 1811 to 1947 with the bulk dating from 1883 to 1939. Three generations of the interrelated Anderson, Danforth, Sutton, and Wynn families are represented in the collection. While the collection primarily focuses on Sutton, many of the earlier papers relate to his wife's family, the Wynns and Danforths, her paternal and maternal relatives respectively.
The majority of the collection consists of courtship letters between Walter Sutton and Harriet (Hattie) L. Wynn (1883-1886), and ledgers and daybooks of the general merchandising businesses Heard and Sutton and W. L. Sutton. Therefore, the major strengths of the collection include its delineation of courtship customs in the 1880s and its depiction over a thirty-five period of a small general merchandising firm. While the correspondence spans the period 1811 to 1936, there are very few letters that date between 1814 and 1830, thereby leaving several years virtually uncovered in the collection.
The general merchandising businesses of Heard and Sutton and W. L. Sutton sold a variety of items including farm implements, wagons, buggies, hardware, groceries, dynamite, oil, gas, clothing, and dry goods. Because of the time period covered by these accounting records, one can readily see the transition from “horse and buggy days” to the increasing influence of the automobile. Besides business records, the account books also contain a few domestic accounting records for the Sutton family. Regular customers include members of the Anderson, Sutton, and Heard families. In some there are details about employees, including the number of days they have worked or days missed. Other volumes include an estimate of the amount of lumber sold, the amount of hay cut, or which fields were used for cotton picking.
Sutton's cashbook, 1907-1909, not only delineates the cash received and paid out, but also identifies several products Sutton sold. Some of these entries also include names of companies or persons from whom he received products. While there are separate account books for ice (1909 June-1910 Oct.) and cotton ginning (1908 Oct.-Feb. 1912), ice and cotton ginning accounts are also included in some of the other W. L. Sutton Company ledger and daybooks for other years.
The daybooks commonly itemize lists of goods received. Volume 17 includes a list of bank deposits for the years 1922 to 1927, while in later years 1932 to 1939, bank deposits are typically recorded in the daybooks for the period covered by the daybooks. Also in volume 17, for the years 1923 and 1924, deposits are listed for merchandisers' accounts.
In one instance, the ledger for the W. L. Sutton Company had been used earlier for another purpose. Volume 34 contains a list of debts and credits for merchandisers' accounts for the period January 1, 1936 to March 31, 1937, while at the front of the volume there are records for the Danburg Baptist Church Women's Missionary Society, 1910 to 1921.
Volume 37, “Cotton Accounting Book” (1920-1927) includes Sutton's accounting records for his work as a cotton merchant. The accounting records indicate that Sutton shipped cotton to various companies including: Barnett and Company, Athens, Ga.; Georgia Cotton Growers Co-op Association; Rowland Company, Athens, Ga.; Washington Warehouse Company, Washington, Ga.; and George W. Wright, Augusta, Ga.
Loose materials, chiefly business receipts, were laid into several accounting books. Included are receipts from merchandisers who provided goods to the W. L. Sutton Company and from various warehouses and companies where cotton was shipped. There is also a contract for ice between W. L. Sutton and Pope Manufacturing Company indicating that Pope will sell ice to the W. L. Sutton Company.
Other Sutton accounting records indicate that he sold lumber, kept accounts for the Dansburg School District Board of Education, maintained records for the buying and use of livestock, and kept a record of personal expenses.
Additional financial records include a blacksmith account book kept by Samuel Danforth (1836-1838) and one for a boarding house in Washington, Ga. maintained by Harriet Brown Danforth (1857-1860). Promissory notes and a statement of receipts and disbursements for the estates of Samuel K. Wynn (Hattie's father) and Walter L. Sutton are among the other financial papers.
Among the earliest letters is a series that begins during the War of 1812 and continues to 1814 between George Reab in New York and others concerning his military service. (Reab married Almira S. Brown in 1816 and is a great aunt of Hattie Wynn.) Letters concern whether Reab could be asked to bear arms against the British again since he had been held as a prisoner of war by them and had later been released on parole. Reab stated that he should not be asked to bear arms, invoking the French parole d'honneur as the reason, which is a pledge or oath under which a prisoner of war is released with the understanding that he will not again bear arms until exchanged. It is unclear from the correspondence whether Reab was successful. By April 1813 he had been appointed 3rd lieutenant in the United States 13th Infantry Regiment and by 1816 he had retired from military service. The collection contains a list of officers, including George Reab, Jr. in the 13th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army, which is dated July 31, 1812.
Correspondence from Almira B. Reab during the 1840s to family and friends in New York and Vermont describe how she adjusted to life in the south. Originally from New York, she lived with her sister Harriet B. Danforth and her family in Danburg, Ga. at the time these letters were written.
The collection contains three diaries, one kept by Harriet Brown Danforth and her daughter Emma. Harriet's entries (1858, Jan. 3-1859, Nov. 30) primarily denote when she attended church and in some instances the Biblical scriptures which were read, while Emma's entries (1860? Aug. 26-Dec. 13) concern teaching school. The other two diaries were kept by Walter (1885, Aug. 15-Dec. 23). Several entries relate to Hattie Sutton, while others concern the “liquor issue.” Miscellaneous financial information is found in them as well.
Other items in the collection include minutes and bylaws of debating societies, 1853-1855, including the Pine Grove Polemic Society, Philomathian Society, and the Sandtown (Sandtown was formerly known as Hyde) Polemic Society; an undated handwritten arithmetic book; miscellaneous poetry (1816, 1846 and undated); school notes; minutes of the Willis A. Sutton P.T.A. in Danburg, Ga.; Walter Sutton's Sunday School superintendent record book for 1891; obituaries for various Sutton and Wynn family members; several printed graduation exercise programs from Danburg High School; other miscellaneous writings; and a few photographs.
Papers in the collection indicate that Walter Sutton was having financial difficulties in the late 1890s and early 1900s. In 1897 and later in the 1920s, he was reminded by his creditors that he had outstanding debts. Legal papers from the 1930s also indicate he was suffering from monetary adversities. A petition filed by the American Agricultural Chemical Society for non-payment of debts (1934, Jan. 12) was apparently paid off later that year by selling some of Sutton's land. The agricultural depression during this period was probably a factor in his economic downturn.
Walker family papers, 1804-1865 0.25 Linear Feet — 1 half-document box
Collection contains assorted letters, receipts, and transactional papers related to the sale and hire of enslaved people through several generations of the Walker family, owners of White Hall Plantation in Cumberland, Virginia.
Early material relates to William Walker, including letters from neighbors and associates with slave passes recorded on the item, agreements about hiring prices for different enslaved laborers, and a manuscript copy of his will (dated 1838-1839) that bequeathed numerous enslaved people to different members of his family.
Similar hire agreements and correspondence is present from the era of William B.B. Walker, as well as some bills for medical care of enslaved people. There are also tax receipts indicating how many enslaved people William B.B. Walker owed taxes on in the mid-1800s.
There are some materials alluding to the American Civil War, including correspondence from William D. Walker to his father and some Confederate property assessments. There are also receipts and invoices from William D. Walker for hiring and selling some enslaved people.
Vause W. Marshall papers, 1768-1940 1 Linear Foot — 494 Items
Collection consists of correspondence, legal documents, bills, receipts, Civil War muster rolls, clippings and business printed matter, and a diary.