Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the John Cheesborough Papers #1833, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy (filmed 2005-2006) available.

• Reel 1: Entire collection

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mary Cheesborough of Biltmore, N.C., in 1951.

Additional Descriptive Resources

The original finding aid is filed in folder 1.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Bank of Charleston.
• Banks and banking--South Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Charleston (S.C.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Cheesborough, John, 1817-1903.
• Columbia (S.C.)--History.
• Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• South Carolina--Economic conditions.
• South Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

John Cheesborough (1817-1903) was born in Georgetown, S.C. He was cashier of the Bank of Charleston, first in Charleston, S.C., and later in Columbia, S.C. Cheesborough and his wife, Lou, had two daughters, Clara and Louise. Letters in this collection mention other children Edith, Minnie, Janey, Willie, and Johnny, but seem to indicate that they were by a former wife. John Cheesborough died at Biltmore, N.C.

The collection consists of letters, mainly 1859-1864, from John Cheesborough while working for the Bank of Charleston first in Charleston, S.C., and later in Columbia, S.C., during the Civil War, to his wife, Lou, in Asheville, N.C. The letters concern family matters and personal experiences and public events Cheesborough encountered while in Charleston, 1859-1861, and in Columbia, 1862-1864. Cheesborough commented on high prices and scarcities of goods; activities of the bank; the Confederacy's hopes for European intervention; counterfeit notes in circulation; the difficulty his mother experienced in trying to travel from Philadelphia, Pa., to the South; and military activities, such as attacks made on Charleston by federal forces, a ship carrying munitions and other supplies that ran the federal blockade at Charleston, troop movements through Columbia on the way to Virginia, and the death or wounds of friends in the Confederate army. An 1876 letter from Cheesborough to his wife mentions recuperating from an illness and travel to New York City, N.Y. There are scattered letters of other family members, including an 1893 letter describing travel in Europe and plans to study at Edinburgh.