Back to TopDescriptive Summary
- Repository
-
Southern Historical Collection
- Creator
-
Barnes, David Alexander, 1819-1892.
- Title
- David Alexander Barnes Papers, 1806-1892
- Call Number
- 3484
- Language of Materials
- Materials in
English
- Extent
-
- Items: About 350
- Linear Feet: 1.5
Abstract
David Alexander Barnes graduated from the University of North Carolina with an A.B. in 1840. He lived at Jackson (Northampton
County), N.C., and was a member of the state House of Commons in 1844, 1846, 1850, and of the Convention of 1861. He was a
superior court judge from 1865 to 1868 and a university trustee in 1868. In 1873, he married Bettie Vaughan.
The collection includes personal and business correspondence, chiefly 1850-1890; bills and receipts; bills of sale; wills;
deeds; indentures; and other legal papers of David Anderson Barnes. The papers concerning legal matters handled by Barnes
are largely relate to members of the Burgwyn and McRae families. They include letters concerning Alveston, the Burgwyn plantation
in Occoneechie Neck, Northampton County, N.C.; George Pollock Burgwyn's bankruptcy case; and the affairs of T. Pollock Burgwyn
and his sister Emily. There are scattered items relating to Barnes's service as aide-de-camp to North Carolina governor Zebulan
B. Vance during the Civil War and to his postwar railroad interests as a director and attorney of the Seaboard and Roanoke
Railroad. Postwar political correspondence includes letters to and from Jonathan Worth, William C. Bagley, and others. Personal
correspondence includes letters between Bettie Vaughan Barnes, the Vaughan family, and her husband and children, especially
son David Collin Barnes while he was a student at Horner Academy, Oxford, N.C. Volumes include Collin William Barnes's ledger
for provisions, shoe shop, and labor, 1820-1832; an account book and ledger for whiskey and bacon, 1833; Boons Mill day books,
1836-1839; other account books; proceedings of the Jackson Lyceum Society, Jackson, N.C., 1838-1839; and the 1840 diary Barnes
kept while he was a student at the University of North Carolina.
Back to TopAdministrative Information
- Restrictions to Access
- No restrictions.
- Acquisitions Information
- Gift of the Barnes family and David Collin Barnes, Jr.
- Processing Information
- Processed by: Manuscripts Department Staff, October 1975
- Encoded by: Mara Dabrishus, October 2004
- Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the encoding of this
finding aid.
- Preferred Citation
- [Identification of item], in the David Alexander Barnes Papers #3484, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Copyright Notice
- Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright
law.
Back to TopOnline Catalog Headings
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
- Account books.
- Alveston Plantation (Northampton County, N.C.).
- Bagley, William C. (William Chandler), 1874-1946.
- Bankruptcy--North Carolina--History--19th century.
- Barnes family.
- Burgwyn family.
- College students--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
- Estates (Law)--North Carolina--History--19th century.
- Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
- Horner Academy (Oxford, N.C.).
- Jackson (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
- Lawyers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
- Literature--North Carolina--Societies, etc.--History--19th century.
- McRae family.
- North Carolina--Intellectual life--19th century.
- North Carolina--Politics and government.
- Plantations--North Carolina--Northampton County.
- Railroads--North Carolina--History--19th century.
- Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--North Carolina.
- Schools--North Carolina--Oxford--History--19th century.
- Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad Company--History.
- University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--History--19th century.
- Vance, Zebulon Baird, 1830-1894.
- Vaughan family.
- Worth, Jonathan, 1802-1869.
Back to TopBiographical Note
David Alexander Barnes was born in 1819 in Northampton County, N.C. He was the son of Collin William Barnes (1783-1855) and
his second wife Louisa (1795-1866), daughter of Bailey and Mary Barnes. His father was a planter and mill owner and member
of the state Senate, 1829-1830. Collin William Barnes and his first wife Dorcas Stephenso had one son, William Henry, who
married Eliza Ann Clifton. Collin William Barnes and Louisa Barnes had David Alexander; George B.; Joseph; Eliza Ann, who
married Jesse Moore in 1838; Maria L., who married William H. Faison in 1847; and Caroline (1832-1892) (Carrie), who married
William H. Drewry, a merchant of Petersburg, Va.
David A. Barnes graduated from the University of North Carolina with an A.B. in 1840; he later received an A.M. from UNC.
He lived at Jackson and later Murfreesboro, N.C., and was a member of the state House of Commons in 1844, 1846, and 1850,
and of the Convention of 1861. He was a superior court judge from 1865 to 1868 and a UNC trustee in 1868.
In 1873, he married Bettie Vaughan (1850-1918), daughter of Uriah Vaughan (1813-1890) and Sarah Jenkins Vaughan of Murfreesboro.
They had four children: Elizabeth Vaughan (b. 1874), David Collin (b. 1875), Sarah Louisa (b 1878), and Annie Rosa Caroline.
Barnes died in 1892.
Back to TopCollection Overview
The collection includes personal and business correspondence, chiefly 1850-1890; bills and receipts; bills of sale; wills;
deeds; indentures; and other legal papers of David Anderson Barnes. The papers concerning legal matters handled by Barnes are largely relate to members of the Burgwyn and McRae families. They include letters concerning Alveston, the Burgwyn plantation in Occoneechie Neck, Northampton County, N.C.; George Pollock Burgwyn's bankruptcy case; and the affairs of T. Pollock Burgwyn and his sister Emily. There are scattered items relating to Barnes's service as aide-de-camp to North Carolina governor Zebulan B. Vance during the Civil War and to his postwar railroad interests as a director and attorney of the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. Postwar political correspondence includes letters to and from Jonathan Worth, William C. Bagley, and others. Personal correspondence includes letters between Bettie Vaughan Barnes, the Vaughan family, and her husband and children, especially son David Collin Barnes while he was a student at Horner Academy, Oxford, N.C. Volumes include Collin William Barnes's ledger for provisions, shoe shop, and labor, 1820-1832; an account book and ledger for whiskey and bacon, 1833; Boons Mill day books, 1836-1839; other account books; proceedings of the Jackson Lyceum Society, Jackson, N.C., 1838-1839; and the 1840 diary Barnes kept while he was a student at the University of North Carolina.
Back to TopItems Separated
Items separated include oversize volumes (V-3484/S-3, S-4).
Back to TopDetailed Description of the Collection
Papers, 1806-1892 and undated.
About 350 items.
Indentures, wills, deeds, bills, and receipts aer present throughout the collection.
Folder
1
Papers, 1806-1839
Notes by David Collin Barnes, Jr., identifying persons and places in the papers and giving related family data.
Folder
2
Papers, 1840-1849
Includes will of Julia T. Burgwyn, wife of the Reverend Cameron McRae; letter, T. Pollock Burgwyn to David Alexander Barnes
Folder
3-4
Papers, 1850-1855
Includes correspondence and legal papers related to settlement of the estate of Exum Liles and the debts and claims of his
son and executor Joseph T. Liles of Polk County, Tex.; similar materials related to the estate of Collin William Barnes for
whom David Alexander Barnes was executor; slight scattered family correspondence of Bettie Vaughn Barnes; business letters
from T. Pollock Burgwyn and his sister Emily in Europe
Folder
5-7
Papers, 1860-1868
Correspondence and legal papers dealing with the Burgwyns' financial difficulties, including letters, 1860, from Emily Burgwyn
in England concerned with her brother's illness and her own lack of funds, and a letter from Emily's attorney Thomas Bragg,
19 December 1860, written from Washington and commenting on national affairs. During the Civil War, letters received by Bettie
Vaughn Barnes and her sisters from friends and relatives in Petersburg, Va., and Raleigh, N.C., and from Confederate camps
in Goldsboro, N.C., Fredericksburg, Va., and elsewhere. Scattered letters concerning both the civilian and the military situation
received by David Alexander Barnes as aid-de-camp to North Carolina governor Zebulon B. Vance. Letters on post-war political
and social conditions, railroad affairs, and the addministration of justice from William H. Bagley, Thomas Atkinson, S. A.
Norfleet, Jonathan Worth, and others, including a 9-page exposition by Worth, 22 August 1866, on civilian-military relations
in the state and the courts, and Worth's reaction, 7 August 1867, to the resignation of Judge A. S. Merrimon. On 1 October
1866, Barnes's charge to the Wayne County Superior Court. In 1867, a draft letter by Barnes expressing appreciation to Governor
Worth for upholding Barnes's sentencing in a case concerning the beating of an African American. In January 1867, a letter
wherein Barnes defended his actions during Reconstruction
Folder
8-9
Papers, 1870-1879
Family correspondence, primarily letters written and received by Bettie Vaughn Barnes, including letters to her from David
Alexander Barnes while away on business and letters from her to her sisters
Folder
10
Papers, 1880-1889
Legal and business papers, including letters, 13 February 1885, from Walter Clark about exchanging railroad passes, and, 14
October 1885, from R. Vann of Vanndale, Ark., reporting on the children of Barnes's deceased half-brother, who had earlier
emigrated to Arkansas
Folder
11
Papers, 1890-1899
Family correspondence, including letters to David Collin Barnes at Horner School, Oxford, N.C., from his parents and others.
Will of David Alexander Barnes, obituary, and letters of condolence to Bettie Vaughn Barnes
Folder
12
Papers, 1932, 1956, 1963, 1966, and undated
Family and business correspondence, including a letter from B. B. Winborne on the expenses of operating the Murfreesboro railroad.
Drafts of speeches and briefs. Photograph, Sarah Vaughn, sister of Bettie Vaughn Barnes
Folder
13
Printed items, 1851, 1866-1867, and undated
Speech, 1851, by David Alexander Barnes on slavery. Report, 1866, of the committee on the stay law. Brief, undated, filed
by Barnes as attorney for the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. Weekly Southerner, Tarboro, N.C., 7 March 1867, containing Barnes's decision invalidating the stay law
Folder
14
V-3438/1: Collin William Barnes ledger, 1820-1832, 287 pages
Collin William Barnes's ledger for provisions, miscellaneous services, shoe shop, and labor
V-3484/2: Account book, 1833 and December 1866
Slight account book containing ledger, 1833, for whiskey and bacon, and accounts, 1866, of sale of perishable estate of Howell
Francis by David Alexander Barnes, administrator
V-3483/S-3: Boons Mill day book, 2 September 1836-9 May 1837, 232 pages
Day-by-day entries showing name of purchaser (including Collin William Barnes), commodity sold, and price for provisions (whiskey,
cloth, general merchandise)
V-3484/S-4: Boon Mill day book, 26 July 1838-7 February 1839, 259 pages
Folder
15
V-3483/5: Jackson Lycaeum Society proceedings, October 1838-May 1839
Proceedings of the Jackson Lycaeum Society's weekly meetings and its constitution and bylaws
Folder
16
V-3484/6: David Alexander Barnes diary, 1840, with other entries from the early 1840s
Diary of David Alexander Barnes, 8-15 February 1840, as a student at the University of North Carolina (8 pages); a speech
delivered by him in his senior year; and numerous notes on bible study, history, Blackstone, philosophy, essays, poems, etc.
Also some financial memoranda, personal and for the March Court in 1842; legal forms; and miscellaneous memoranda, early 1840s
 |
Digital version: Excerpts from the diary of David A. Barnes, 10 and 15 February 1840 |
Folder
17
V-3484/7: Futrell and Askew accounts, 1843-1858 and some through 1875
Accounts of Futrell and Askew estates and other accounts of Charles Futrell
Folder
18
V-3484/8: David Alexander Barnes accounts, 1855-1874
Accounts of David Alexander Barnes, mainly late 1850s and early 1860s, as executor of estate of Collin William Barnes and
as agent, guardian, and executor for many other clients, including William T. Walke and Howell Francis
Folder
19
V-3484/9: David Alexander Barnes accounts, 1868-1877, 153 pages
Accounts of David Alexander Barnes showing legal fees charged and cotton and other accounts. Also cash receipts day-by-day,
1868-1875. Index in front of volume
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