Rigsbee Family Deeds records, 1858-1902

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Summary

Creator:
Rigsbee, Atlas Munroe, 1841-1903, Angier, Malbourne Addison, 1820-1900, and Rigsbee, Thomas Jefferson, 1846-1917
Abstract:
Duke University's West Campus sits on land that was once part of the Rigsbee family's 600 acre farm. Along with the Angier, Blackwell, Carlton, Ferrell, Mangum, Maynor, Strayhorn, and Styron families, the Rigsbees bought and sold properties that have become much of the city of Durham. Records include twenty-six original documents, deeds, and an easement reflecting the legal transactions for land and properties bought and sold in Durham and Orange Counties.
Extent:
.5 Linear Feet
Language:
Materials in English.
Collection ID:
UA.01.17.0001
University Archives Record Group:
01 -- General Information and University History
01 -- General Information and University History > 17 -- Unknown Subgroup

Background

Scope and content:

Records include twenty-six original documents, deeds, and an easement reflecting the legal transactions for land and properties bought and sold in Durham and Orange Counties. The scope and content for each item includes, if known, location of each deed's registration in the official deed book by name/number, and page number, its registration date, and an abbreviated description of the property taken from the original document.

Biographical / historical:

Duke University's West Campus sits on land that was once part of the Rigsbee family's 600 acre farm. Along with the Angier, Blackwell, Carlton, Ferrell, Mangum, Maynor, Strayhorn, and Styron families, the Rigsbee's bought and sold properties that have become much of the city of Durham. The family deeds are also a reflection of the transactions which shaped areas of downtown to accommodate Erwin Mills, the Ninth Street area, general stores, textile and saw mills, and other businesses. As Mary Whitworth Leigh Rigsbee, Rowena Margaret Brassfield Rigsbee, Nancy H. Brassfield Rigsbee, and other wives are included in the deeds, the women were involved in managing land assets.

Jesse Rigsbee, a Revolutionary War veteran, and one of the two Jesse Rigsbee's in the county, established his family in eastern Orange County. In 1790, the federal census records William Rigsby of Duplin County as a holder of two enslaved people. By 1840 there were 25 Rigsbee families living in North Carolina. The 1850 U.S. Federal Census Slave Schedules, document other Rigsbee family members as holding enslaved people, as did James Blackwell, M. L. Carlton, Simeon Ferrell, William Mangum, John Strayhorn, Wallace Styron.

From the late 1790s to the mid-1910s, the Rigsbee family farm produced tobacco, corn and sweet potatoes. Jesse Rigsbee and Mary Vickers Rigsbee's son, Atlas Munroe Rigsbee lived on the northwest corner of what is now East Chapel Hill Street, and Rigsbee Avenue. A. M. Rigsbee's farm included Mangum Street and Cleveland-Holloway. His brother, Thomas Jefferson Rigsbee, purchased large tracts west of Durham.

The small cemetery, near Duke's Wallace Wade Stadium is the only remaining Rigsbee family farm property. The cemetery is described as: "a three foot high stone wall and steel gate encloses approximately 12 graves set around two small pine trees." A Duke Chronicle reporter wrote that shortly before Thomas J. Rigsbee Jr. became the last person laid to rest in the graveyard in 1924, he sat on the low cemetery wall and James B. Duke told Rigsbee his plans to build a university. In 1925, Murray Jones then purchased several hundred acres of forest and farmland from Rigsbee's widow on James Duke's behalf, and the Rigsbee family retained ownership of the graveyard. While the Rigsbee's farm made up the bulk of the original West Campus, it was only a portion of the land purchased for the Dukes by Jones for the future home of Trinity College, later renamed Duke University.

Sources, accessed 11/24/2020: https://www.oldwestdurham.org/history/; https://www.opendurham.org/buildings/thomas-j-rigsbee-farm-duke-university-west-campus; https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/tombstones-blue-zone; https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=rigsbee; https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/imageviewer/collections/5058/images/4440913_00368?pId=16681; http://hindskw.com/KennethHinds/5919.html; https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/rigsby/840/

Acquisition information:
The Rigsbee Family Deeds records were received by the Duke University Archives as a gift in 2018.
Processing information:

Processed by Leah M. Kerr, November 2020

Accessions described in this collection guide: UA2018-0068

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged chronologically.

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.

Terms of access:

Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Rigsbee Family Deeds records, 1858-1902, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1bt79