This collection contains the papers of John N. Whitford, commander of the 67th North Carolina Regiment during the Civil War, cotton planter, and state senator. The collection includes contracts for the hire of slaves in the 1850s; reports of Mary E. Williamson and Caroline Williamson at school in Oxford, North Carolina; accounts of F. T. Williamson, Mary E. Williamson, and Caroline Williamson with their guardian, William Foy; fire insurance policies; papers relating to suits involving John N. Whitford; miscellaneous military papers, for the most part related to the service of John N. Whitford in the Confederate Army; contracts between Whitford and freedmen; a letter to Whitford from a former slave; miscellaneous land surveys and papers related to land transactions, household accounts, bills and receipts, and legal papers; handbills for Whitford's campaign for the state senate in 1888; papers and letters related to the breeding of horses; tax lists for the lower Black River district, New Hanover County, North Carolina; records of tax delinquents; and the wills of John N. Whitford and Mary E. (Williamson) Whitford. Volumes include a tax book for New Bern, North Carolina, 1856; account books; and memorandum books. One of the memoranda books contains general orders of John N. Whitford as the col. of the 67th Regt. of N.C. Troops and post-Civil War plantation records of John N. and Harry Whitford. There is printed material on the Farmers' Alliance in North Carolina and Virginia, the Knights of Honor, and the Royal Arcanum.
One notable letter written by one of Whitford's freed slaves describes his condition and asks for a certificate of ownership for a horse, because some soldiers were trying to confiscate his property (Oct. 8, 1864).
During the Civil War, John N. Whitford (d. ca. 1894) was Col. of the 67th Regt. of N.C. Troops. In 1864 he was stationed in Kinston, N.C., and in March of 1865 he was transferred to Tarboro. Arter the war he was a cotton planter in Jones Co., near New Bern, N.C. In 1882 he was elected to the N.C. Senate for one term. He ran again, unsuccessfully, in 1888.
John N. Whitford's wife, Mary E. Williamson, was sister to Caroline Williamson, who married John's brother Harry Whitford. Mary E. died in 1883. John and Mary's children were John H., Annie C., and Laura. In 1890-1891, Annie was in school in Salem. She married Dr. George Hayes in 1898. After John N. Whitford's death ca. 1894, his brother Harry became the guardian of his minor heirs.
