Brown's Schoolhouse was established in 1838 in Randolph County, North Carolina. The school would go through iterations as Union Institute Academy, Normal College, and eventually Trinity College. The college relocated to Durham, North Carolina in 1892 and was renamed Duke University in 1924. This collection consists of administrative, academic, and financial records. Materials include accounting ledgers, roll books, student lists and rosters including lists containing the names of students from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, minutes and resolutions, financial and annual reports, account statements, addresses, sermons, correspondence, writings of Braxton Craven, and Trinity College publications.
The Leach family of Randolph County traces its founding to Stephen Leach who appears in the records of provincial North Carolina in the mid-eighteenth century. The Leach family joined other white families in Randolph County to improve the local school, Brown's Schoolhouse, and continued to be involved with the school through to its development into Trinity College. This collection consists of materials regarding the family's history. Included are genealogy research files, correspondence, personal writings, photographs, scrapbook, autograph books, and clippings. Materials with known dates span 1798 to 1994.
Tomlinson Store was a steam tanning works, shoemaking establishment and general store run by Allen U. Tomlinson in Randolph County, NC. Ledger B contains accounts of the Methodist and Quaker families that formed Union Institute as well as Brantley York and school faculty.