Southern Sources

The latest group of legacy finding aids has just been posted online. Some of the notable collections in this group are:

Carolina Central Railway Company Records, #4278

In 1873, the Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherfordton Railroad was reorganized as the Carolina Central Railway Company. In 1875, the company completed a line to Shelby, N.C. The collection includes correspondence, financial and legal material, and other records, of the railroad and its officials in Wilmington, N.C., and New York, N.Y., particularly Charles H. Roberts (born 1821), president. Principally consisting of intra-company correspondence, the records chiefly relate to railroad management, financial matters, and bond sales.

James Crawford Biggs Papers, #4299

James Crawford Biggs was an attorney in various North Carolina locations, 1894-1933 and 1935-1950; solicitor general of the United States, 1933-1935; and federally-appointed trustee for the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad Company. Correspondence, chiefly 1915-1924 and 1933-1939; organizational records and financial and legal material relating to the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway; notes for court cases; speeches and other writings on law, politics, and North Carolina history; miscellaneous financial and legal material; and photographs of Biggs and friends from the 1930s and 1940s.

Adelaide Walters Papers, #4293

Adelaide Walters (1907-1981) of Chapel Hill, N.C., was a local political activist, volunteer, civic leader, and Democratic Party officer. The collection includes correspondence, writings, clippings, and other papers of Adelaide Walters. These papers are mostly political correspondence and records relating to various organizations, especially the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen, the Community Church of Chapel Hill, and the Chapel Hill Interfaith Council for Social Service. They treat such topics as civil rights of African Americans in Chapel Hill, the North Carolina Democratic Party, women in politics, and urban and regional planning.

E. E. Moffitt Papers, #519

E. E. Moffitt was the daughter of North Carolina governor Jonathan Worth. She married first Samuel Spencer Jackson (died 1875), second Samuel Walker (died 1877), and third Eli Needham Moffitt (died 1886). The collection includes correspondence, club records, scrapbooks, and other papers, chiefly 1878-1930, of Elvira Evelyna (Worth) Moffitt, concerning her club work and civic, cultural, and historical projects in Raleigh, N.C., and Richmond, Va. Organizations represented include the Raleigh Woman’s Club, North Carolina Peace Society, Women’s Association for the Betterment of Public Schools, Matthew Fontaine Maury Memorial Association, Daughters of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Colonial Dames, and Roanoke Colony Memorial Association.

A complete list of all updated and posted legacy finding aids can be found here.

A new batch of updated and encoded legacy finding aids has just been posted. Some of the notable collections in this group are:

Salisbury Book Club Records, #4054

Oprah has nothing on these ladies (yet). The collection includes descriptive and detailed minutes of monthly meetings of a women’s book club in Salisbury, N.C., for thirty-three years, with only a few gaps, including book lists, accounts of programs, notes on discussions of cultural interest and on social matters, and indications of the spirit and atmosphere of the meetings, the charm of the hostesses’ arrangements, and other matters.

Emily Louise Pollard Papers, #4106

Emily Louise Pollard (1896-1972) traveled extensively, visiting Europe, 1913, 1924, 1926, and 1951, and California, 1917. The collection includes diaries and letters written by Pollard while traveling; letters concerning life in Chapel Hill, N.C., 1939-1941; poems and other writings by Pollard and her brother, Edward Bagby Pollard Junior, of Chapel Hill, N.C.; and miscellaneous volumes, including collected eulogies honoring Emily Pollard.

Riddick Family Papers, #4120

Members of the Riddick family include Wallace C. Riddick (1864-1942), professor of civil engineering and administrator at North Carolina State College, Raleigh, N.C., 1892-1937; his nephew, Ivy G. Riddick (1890-1956), an agent of the British-American Tobacco Company, Shanghai, China, 1918-1943; and Ivy Riddick’s wife, Margaret Riddick. Wallace Riddick’s material consists largely of items relating to land he bought and sold in Wake County, N.C., but includes some items relating to N.C. State College and engineering education. Papers of Ivy Riddick and his wife include personal letters discussing conditions in Shanghai and the Philippines, 1939-1943, and some items relating to Riddick’s employment by the British-American Tobacco Company. Also included are photograph albums and scrapbooks kept by the Riddicks in China.

Hubert Samuel Robinson Diaries and Scrapbooks, #4123

Hubert Samuel Robinson (1893-1972) was a chauffeur, butler, and gardener, 1932-1949, for the family of Frank Porter Graham, president of the University of North Carolina. Robinson was also a custodian, 1950-1966, at the University of North Carolina, a civic and political leader, and the first black alderman of Chapel Hill, N.C. The collection includes pocket diaries, 1929-1969, and scrapbooks, 1912-1964, containing clippings, correspondence, and memorabilia of Hubert S. Robinson Senior. The diaries contain very brief, almost daily entries, chiefly concerning Robinson’s work, his church, civic, social, and political activities, events in Chapel Hill, University sports events and other University occasions, family matters, and national news.

A complete list of all updated and posted legacy finding aids can be found here.

The latest group of legacy finding aids has just been posted online. Some of the notable collections from this group include:

Edith Russell Harrington Papers, #3821

Edith Russell Harrington was a writer, producer, and director of civic pageants across the South.  With her husband, Herschel R. Harrington, she founded Harrington-Russell Studios, Complete Pageant Service, in Asheville, N.C., in 1930, and operated the business for about fifteen years. Herschel Harrington did technical work, including lighting and set design, for the pageants his wife wrote and directed. The collection includes correspondence, plans, outlines, notes, and other papers of Edith Russell Harrington, primarily from the 1930s, relating to outdoor dramas, pageants, and festivals produced by Harrington-Russell Studios throughout the South; material relating to Van Horn’s, a Philadelphia costume supplier for which Harrington-Russell acted as agent in Florida in the 1930s; and scripts Harrington wrote for the Children’s Civic Theater in Atlanta, Ga., in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Genevieve Pearce Moore Diary, #3943

Genevieve Pearce Moore (born circa 1889) of High Point, N.C., was an elementary school teacher and counselor in North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. The collection includes the intermittent personal diary of Moore while working and vacationing in various locations. The entries concern Moore’s daily personal and domestic life, her work with school children, especially in music; her various social, church, volunteer, and club activities; and her frequent vacation trips.

North Carolina Constitutional Commission, #3991

In 1931 a commission of nine members was appointed to recommend revisions to the state constitution of North Carolina. Burton Craige (1875-1945), a lawyer of Winston-Salem, N.C., was one of commission members, along with Lindsay Carter Warren (born 1889) and John Johnston Parker (1885-1958). The collection inlcudes correspondence of Burton Craige regarding the report of the Constitutional Commission. Also included are mimeographed proceedings, drafts, working papers, and pertinent published material. At the recommendation of the State Supreme Court, the proposed constitution of 1933 was never submitted to the voters.

Lucy Maria Cobb Papers, #4019

Lucy Maria Cobb (1877-1969) was a teacher, professional genealogist, and free-lance writer of Raleigh, N.C. The collection includes personal and professional papers of Cobb including family and genealogical correspondence, genealogical notes, primary drafts of poems, plays, children’s stories, and articles by her, and the libretto (by Cobb) and music for an unpublished operetta, “The Pirate and the Governor’s Daughter.” Mary Louisa Cobb (1899-1976), Lucy Cobb’s niece in Chapel Hill, N.C., was her most frequent family correspondent; her letters discuss family matters and report on people and events in Chapel Hill. Family correspondence also deals with Lucy’s well-being as she ages, discussing dilemmas faced by an older, single woman in the late 1950s and 1960s.

A complete list of all updated and posted legacy finding aids can be found here.

Over 50 additional newly updated and edited legacy finding aids are now available online.  Some of the notable collections in this group are:

William Wallace White Diaries, 1857-1910, #3265

William Wallace White was a planter and storekeeper at Holly Hill plantation in Warren (now Vance) County, N.C. His 48 diaries contain a full daily account of his farming activities, which included the cultivation of tobacco, cotton, grain, corn, vegetables, melons, livestock, etc., and of public life in the area.

Edwin McNeill Poteat Papers, 1925-1956, #3302

Edwin McNeill Poteat was a Baptist preacher, teacher, and missionary in China, 1917-1929, author, president of Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, 1944-1948, and pastor at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, N.C., 1929-1937 and 1948-1955, and at Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio, 1937-1944. The collection includes personal and professional correspondence, mainly 1944-1955, and writings of Poteat. Included are letters, 1925-1929, discussing the Chinese nationalist movement and its effect on missionary work; correspondence with various religious and social action organizations, particularly concerning conscientious objection to World War I and interracial cooperation; and routine office correspondence. Also included are sermons, articles, speeches, and an unpublished book manuscript.

Elizabeth City Buggy Company Account Books, 1927-1932, #3334

Elizabeth City Buggy Company of Elizabeth City, N.C., apparently started in 1899 and acted as an agent for Hackney and Chase City Wagons and American Field and Hog Fencing and also manufactured buggies and phaetons. The collection includes daybooks and ledgers, 1827-1932, with names of customers, specifying equipment purchased and repairs for wagons, automobiles, and farm machinery.

Peter Spence Gilchrist Papers, 1901-1911, #3393

Peter Spence Gilchrist was an English immigrant and pioneer in chemical engineering of Charlotte, N.C. Gilchrist designed sulphuric acid plants and fertilizer plants and was a pioneer in the development of the phosphate industry and in chemical engineering in the southeast.The collection includes business letters, chiefly 1904-1910, received by Gilchrist’s firm, Southern Card, Clothing, and Reed Company, relating to the building of fertilizer plants and the installation of works for phosphate processes along the eastern seaboard.

A full list of all updated and published legacy finding aids can be found here.

A new batch of updated finding aids has just been posted.  Collections comprising this group include a number of family papers:

Hatch Family Papers, #2508-z

Thomas Hatch (1761-1868?) resided in Orange County, N.C. The collection includes a transcription of an autobiographical letter, 1813, by Thomas Hatch; other family data; and information about and photographs of old houses in Orange and Chatham counties, N.C., owned by Hatch and his connections.

Click Family Papers, #2537

The collection includes the papers of the Click family, early residents of Rowan County, N.C., consisting chiefly of deeds and wills; a letter, 1835, from relatives who had moved to Indiana reporting conditions there; family letters and papers related to the sale of tobacco, 1880-1895; and scattered items pertaining to the Lutheran church in North Carolina. The family name was also spelled Glucke and Gluicke.

Price Family Papers, #2850

Members of the Price family resided in Mecklenburg County, N.C., and Fayette County and Giles County, Tenn., where several members of the family moved to settle and where many of them owned land. The collection is primarily business and financial papers, with some family letters, of several generations of the Price family. Papers are mainly those of Isaac Price, Isaac Price Junior, and Isaac Jasper Price, and deal with farming, estate settlement, lands and property, medical services, settlement in Tennessee, the Steele Creek Church in Mecklenburg County, and family matters.

Harper Family Account Books, #2908

The Harper Family of Caldwell County, N.C., owned a general merchandise business in Lenoir, N.C., operating at times under the name Waugh and Harper. The collection includes extensive daybook and ledger accounts of Waugh and Harper and other records of scattered dates relating to this business, including invoices, inventories, shipping and hauling accounts, produce orders, barter accounts for such items as wild herbs, roots, bark, and sheepskins, and letterpress copies of business letters; and a cash book of the Chester & Lenoir Railroad, 1874-1882.

A full list of all legacy finding aids published can be found here.

Over 40 additional newly updated and edited legacy finding aids are now available.  Some of the notable collections included in this group are:

Thomas Sparrow Papers, 1835-1871, #1878

Sparrow was a lawyer, North Carolina state legislator, and a Confederate officer.  There are references to several duels in this collection, and a diary Sparrow kept while serving in the Civil War is also included.

De Graffenried Family Papers, 1735-1958, #1692

Baron Christoph von Graffenried (1661-1743) of Switzerland, Landgrave of Carolina, founded New Bern, N.C., in 1710. His family and descendents resided in Switzerland and America.  One original item in the collection is a letter, 1735, from the Baron to his son about genealogy.

William Richardson Davie Papers, 1758-1819, #1793

Davie was a lawyer, state legislator, Revolutionary officer, member of the United States Constitutional Convention, Federalist governor of North Carolina, and peace commissioner to France, and was influential in the founding of the University of North Carolina.  These papers include letters to, from, and about Davie and his family. Two long narratives pertain to Davie’s Revolutionary War experiences as a cavalry officer in North and South Carolina and as commissary general to Nathanael Greene.

Joseph Hyde Pratt Papers, 1889-1942, #2169

Pratt was a mining engineer; mineralogist; geologist; and educator. He was the North Carolina state mineralogist, 1897-1906, and the N.C. state geologist, 1906-1923. Much material in the collection is related to the N.C. Geological Survey and to the Geological and Economic Survey.

A full list of all legacy finding aids published can be found here.