Worth family papers, 1844-1955 and undated

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Summary

Creator:
Worth family
Abstract:
The Worth family was a family of plantation owners, lawyers, politicians, and businessmen from Randolph County, North Carolina, residing in Asheboro and Wilmington. Collection includes correspondence, business records, and other papers, pertaining chiefly to family matters, business affairs, opposition to Southern secession, politics in North Carolina, fertilizer manufacturing and marketing, textile industry, Zebulon Baird Vance, and patronage during the early years of Woodrow Wilson's presidency.
Extent:
1.5 Linear Feet
Language:
Material in English
Collection ID:
RL.01413

Background

Scope and content:

The papers of the Worth family of North Carolina contain correspondence, business records, and other papers, pertaining chiefly to family matters, business affairs, opposition to Southern secession, politics in North Carolina, fertilizer manufacturing and marketing, textile industry, Zebulon Baird Vance, and patronage during the early years of Woodrow Wilson's presidency. Includes the papers of Jonathan Worth (1802-1869), lawyer and governor of North Carolina, including a few of his official papers as governor during Reconstruction, 1865-1868; correspondence relating to his business interests and law practice; and letters of Jonathan Worth and Martitia (Daniel) Worth in the 1850s to a son at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, concerning family matters and the construction of a plank road near Asheboro, North Carolina. Also among the papers identified with him are commissions signed by him as governor and a copy of a newspaper article concerning a speech he delivered at the Negro Educational Convention (October 13, 1866), a certification of election returns in Beaufort County (October 20, 1866), and an 1868 letter related to elections and the North Carolina Constitution of 1868.

Materials relating to David Gaston Worth (1831-1897) contain essays from David Worth's college days; Civil War correspondence concerning financial conditions in the Confederacy and the Confederate salt works at Wilmington, North Carolina; material relating to the Bingham School, Mebane, North Carolina, and the Fifth Street Methodist Church, Wilmington, North Carolina; there are also some business papers.

Later papers consist of business records belonging to William Elliott Worth: a ledger, 1906-1911, for William E. Worth and Company, dealers in ice, coal, wood, and other merchandise; and records of the Universal Oil and Fertilizer Company, including a ledger, 1903-1914, and a letterpress book, 1906-1907, concerning the manufacture and marketing of various fertilizers, cottonseed oil, and related products.

The papers of Charles William Worth contain letters written to and from his parents while he was a student at the Bingham School, Orange County, N.C., and at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and letters from many prominent North Carolinians advocating for his appointment as American consul at Shanghai, China, and other political posts, 1912-1913 and later years.

The collection also contains five account books, 1888-1924, of Worth & Worth and its successor, The Worth Co., a large Wilmington firm of grocers and commission merchants which also traded in cotton and naval stores.

Acquisition information:
The Worth Family papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase in 1969-1971 and in 2022.
Processing information:

Processed by Rubenstein Library staff, November 2011

Encoded by Matthew Warren, April 2012

Accession(s) described in this finding aid: 70-173, 70-174, 71-250, 2022-0067.

Updated by Leah Tams, June 2022.

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:

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], Worth Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1d725