MacRae family papers, 1817-1943

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Summary

Creator:
MacRae family
Abstract:
Correspondence, diary, account books, ledgers, bills, receipts, business records, legal papers, and other material of the MacRae family of North Carolina and Florida. Alexander MacRae's papers concern Florida plantations and their management, the Seminole Indian War (1842), and settlements in southern Florida. Papers of his son, Archibald MacRae, deal with his life aboard ship as a U.S. naval officer, and with his trips to the Azores, Italy, Sicily, Hawaii, South America, and California during the Mexican War. Other papers pertain to railroad construction and management, North Carolina militia (1832, 1839), a general commission business, life in the Confederacy and Confederate Army during the Civil War, postwar business and industrial development in the Wilmington, N.C., area, and a variety of business enterprises with which the MacRae family was connected. Includes writings and papers of Hugh MacRae.
Extent:
10 Linear Feet (4270 items)
Language:
Materials in English
Collection ID:
RL.10995

Background

Scope and content:

Collection contains primarily correspondence, diary, account books, ledgers, bills, receipts, business records, legal papers, and other material of Hugh MacRae and the MacRae family of North Carolina and Florida.

From the ante-bellum period there are papers of Hugh MacRae's grandfather, Alexander MacRae, concerning the management of plantations in Florida and the second Seminole War; of Archibald MacRae, pertaining to his career in the United States Navy, including a voyage to the Azores and the Mediterranean Sea, 1838, observation of the British attack on Egyptian forces, 1840, participation in the Mexican War in California, voyage to Hawaii, 1847, and descriptions of political and social events in Chile while part of the United States Naval Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere, 1849-1852; of John Colin MacRae and Henry MacRae, relating to the construction and management of railroads in North Carolina and general construction and transportation development in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, including correspondence concerning quarrels between the Wilmington and Manchester Rail road, headed by Alexander MacRae, and other North Carolina lines; and of John MacRae and Donald MacRae, concerning their general commission business in Wilmington, North Carolina, founded in 1849, the Endor Iron Works (McIver, North Carolina), begun in 1857, and the political activities of John MacRae in Wilmington.

Civil War papers reflecting army life are those of William MacRae, Robert Bruce MacRae, Henry MacRae, and Walter G. MacRae, all of whom served in the Confederate Army, for the most part in North Carolina and Virginia. Their letters describe numerous battles and skirmishes and depict camp life in the 1st, 5th, and 87th North Carolina Regiments and the 2nd North Carolina Regiment, Cavalry. Letters of Donald MacRae, John Colin MacRae, Roderick MacRae, and Alexander MacRae, Jr., concern conditions at home during the war and family business interests, including the sale of cotton, blockade running, operations of an iron works, manufacture of salt, an epidemic of yellow fever in Wilmington, speculation and economic dislocation at the end of the war, and the occupation of Wilmington by Union troops.

Papers for the years after the Civil War are primarily those of Donald MacRae and his son, Hugh MacRae. Papers of Donald MacRae concern the handling of family real estate; settlement of claims on property in Florida; the guano business, particularly the Navassa Guano Company; general business interests, including the development of Linville, North Carolina, as a resort by the Linville Improvement Company and the Western North Carolina Stage Coach Company; and power development, especially the Great Falls Water Power Mining and Iron Company. The papers after 1890 are increasingly those of Hugh MacRae and concern his business interests, including the Wilmington Street Railroad Company, the Consolidated Railways, Light and Power Company, the Central Carolina Power Company in South Carolina, the Tidewater Power Company, and the Investment Trust Company of Wilmington (North Carolina), and his interest in land development and land reclamation, including the formation of farm communities near Wilmington, the promotion of legislation designed to help tenant farmers acquire their own land and to encourage immigration, the creation of the Carolina Trucking Development Company and the Carolina Real Estate Trust Company, and MacRae's work with the National Economy League and the Southern Economic Council in the 1930s.

The collection contains bills and receipts from many of the businesses in which the MacRae family was interested and a number of volumes dealing with personal and business matters, including works on rural rehabilitation; a diary of Robert Bruce MacRae, 1865-1866; a volume of Hugh MacRae's experiment records, 1909; "Roll of the Wilmington Hibernian Society," 1866-1879; account books of Alexander MacRae; record book of Donald MacRae, Company K, 2nd North Carolina Regiment in the Spanish-American War; letter book of Hugh MacRae, 1899-1900; and mercantile and shipping records for J. & D. MacRae of Wilmington, 1858-1860.

Biographical / historical:

MacRae family of North Carolina and Florida.

Acquisition information:
The MacRae Family Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library in 1956-1958.
Processing information:

Processed by: Rubenstein Library staff

Physical location:
For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.

All or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. The library may require up to 48-hours to retrieve these materials for research use.

Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library to use this collection.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], MacRae Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.