Correspondence, 1842-1882

Scope and content:

The correspondence of Braxton Craven that survives documents the financial struggles of Normal College and later Trinity College. During the 1850s and 1860s, the correspondence describes attempts to gain state aid to the College and the formation of a cadet corps at Trinity. Included are typed copies from the original correspondence in the North Carolina Department of Archives and History in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Methodist Church seems to dominate the correspondence after 1859, when it becomes the chief financial supporter of the College. A few surviving family letters are also present. They pertain to the illness and death of Craven in 1882. Also included is a letterbook (1870-1882) that contains copies of letters, receipts, bylaws of the Trinity Normal School, bursar accounts, and faculty salary payments. Major correspondents include John Alspaugh, member of the Board of Trustees of Trinity College, Bishop Edward R. Ames of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Calvin Henderson Wiley, John S. Brown and Governors Thomas Settle Reid, David Lowry Swain and Henry Toole Clarke of North Carolina.

Arrangement:

Arrangement: chronological

Contents

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