Inventory of the Bessie Heath Daniel Papers, 1753-1987

Collection Number 4187

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Manuscripts Department, University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Collection Information
block Descriptive Summary
block Administrative Information
block Online Catalog Headings
block Biographical Note
block Collection Overview
plus Detailed Description of the Collection
block Items Separated
block Related Collections
Contact Information:
Manuscripts Department
CB#3926, Wilson Library
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
Phone: 919/962-1345
Fax: 919/962-3594
Email: mss@email.unc.edu
URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/
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Descriptive Summary

Repository
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Creator
Daniel, Bessie Heath, 1886-1976.
Title
Bessie Heath Daniel Papers, 1753-1987
Call Number
4187
Language of Materials
Materials in English
Extent
Items: About 1820
Linear Feet: 10.5
Abstract
Bessie Heath Daniel, farmer, teacher, and amateur historian, of Person County, N.C., was born to Lewis Heath Daniel, a tobacco farmer and distillery warehouse employee, and Sallie Barnett Daniel at the family home in Flat River, N.C. She had one sister, Bertha Daniel Cloyd, who married Edward Lamar Cloyd, dean of students at North Carolina State University for nearly 40 years, with whom she had two children, Edward Lamar Cloyd Jr., and Ann Daniel Cloyd. Bessie Heath Daniel attended the State Normal and Industrial College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in Greensboro, N.C., and worked there in the office of the president. She also held positions as the treasurer of the Kanuga Club near Hendersonville, N.C., and as an administrative assistant in the Agricultural Extension Service of Roxboro, N.C., and Person County. Daniel held numerous clerical positions, taught at Roxboro High School and the Hillcrest School in Flat River, and from 1923 to her retirement managed the family tobacco farm. From 1957 to 1975, she hosted a weekly radio program on WRXO in Roxboro, N.C., devoted to Person County history.
The collection includes correspondence, financial and legal materials, and other items relating to Bessie Heath Daniel and others. Personal and business correspondence is mostly among Bessie Heath Daniel, Sallie Barnett Daniel, Lewis Heath Daniel, Bertha Daniel Cloyd, and their friends and family. Topics include tobacco farm management, rural household affairs, and the daily life of young female college students in the early 1900s. Financial materials including financial and legal documents from the 19th and 20th centuries; documents relating to Lewis Heath Daniel's employment at the distillery warehouse in Roxboro, N.C.; bank books; account books (one of which includes a muster roll for Company A, 35th Battalion of Home Guards and a list of names and birth dates of slaves born 1813-1864); documents relating to the Daniel homestead and tobacco farm in Flat River, N.C.; and receipts. There are also materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel's weekly radio program; school materials including a cipher book, possibly of J. A. Lunsford; an "Album of Remembrance" of Carrie Scott while attending the Warrenton Female Collegiate Institute; materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel and Bertha Daniel Cloyd's education, such as notebooks, essays, tests, and grade reports; historical and genealogical materials including pages of a family record including birth, death, and marriage dates for the Ward, Bacon, Lamkin, Gregory, Edwards, and Scott family members, 1753-1886; printed materials; photographs, including a daguerreotype of Ann Lunsford Daniel; and other items.

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Administrative Information

Restrictions to Access
No restrictions.
Alternate Form of Material
Microfilm copy of two account books (filmed July 1979) available.
Reel 1: Folders 86-87
Acquisitions Information
Received from Dan Jackson and Hester B. Jackson of Dobson, N.C., in June 1979, October 1980, August 1982 (Acc. 82074), and July 1983; received from Dan Jackson in October 2005 (Acc. 100196).
Processing Information
Processed by: Margaret Dickson, June 2006
Encoded by: Margaret Dickson, June 2006
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Additional Descriptive Resources

Print finding aid available; describes items in folders 86-88, 117-118 and 124 only.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the Bessie Heath Daniel Papers #4187, Southern Historical Collection, The 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.
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Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.

Account books--North Carolina.
Bacon family.
Daniel, Bessie Heath, 1886-1976.
Daniel family.
Edwards family.
Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
Flat River (N.C.)--History.
Genealogy.
Gregory family.
Heath family.
Historians--North Carolina.
Lamkin family.
Mathematics--Problems, exercises, etc.
North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College--Students.
North Carolina. Militia.
North Carolina--Genealogy.
North Carolina--Rural conditions.
Person County (N.C.)--History.
Person County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
Radio programs--North Carolina.
Rural women--North Carolina.
School notebooks.
Scott family.
Slave records--North Carolina.
Slavery--North Carolina.
Tobacco farmers--North Carolina.
Tobacco farms--North Carolina.
Tobacco--North Carolina.
University of North Carolina at Greensboro--History.
Ward family.
Warrenton Female Collegiate Institute (Warrenton, N.C.)
Women college students--North Carolina--History--20th century.
Women farmers--North Carolina.
Women teachers--North Carolina--History--20th century.
Women tobacco workers--North Carolina.
Women--Education--North Carolina--History--19th century.
Women--Education--North Carolina--History--20th century.
Women--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
WRXO (Radio station : Roxboro, N.C.)
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Related Collections

Flat River Church (Person County, N.C.) Records (#1817)
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Biographical Note

Bessie Heath Daniel (1886-1976), was a farmer, teacher, and amateur historian of Person County, N.C. She was born to parents Lewis Heath Daniel (1850-1934) and Sallie Barnett Daniel (1860-1916) at the family homestead and farm in Flat River, N.C. She had one sister, Bertha Daniel, also known as Bertha Daniel Cloyd. Daniel's parents were tobacco farmers, farming the land that her paternal grandfather purchased in 1847. In addition to tobacco farming, Lewis Heath Daniel was employed at a distillery warehouse in Roxboro, N.C., from 1890 to 1900.

Bessie Heath Daniel attended the State Normal and Industrial College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in Greensboro, N.C., and graduated in 1905. From 1905 to 1909, her sister Bertha attended the Normal College as well. During Daniel's undergraduate years and for four years after graduation, Daniel worked in the office of the college president, as an assistant to the campus librarian, and as a teacher in the business department. Upon leaving her position at the college, Daniel worked as the treasurer of the Kanuga Club near Hendersonville, N.C.; a teacher at Roxboro High School and the Hillcrest School; an administrative assistant in the Agricultural Extension Service in Roxboro and Person County; and held clerical positions in Statesville, N.C., Asheville, N.C., Rutherfordton, N.C., and Washington D.C. (during World War I). From 1923 to her retirement, Daniel managed the family farm at Flat River.

Bessie Heath Daniel's sister Bertha married Edward Lamar Cloyd, who served as dean of students at North Carolina State University for nearly forty years. They had two children, Edward Lamar Cloyd Jr., called "Son," and Ann Daniel Cloyd, in whose lives Bessie Daniel was an active participant.

Daniel was an avid local historian and collected materials relating to the history of Person County and the genealogy and history of the her family. From 1957 to 1975, she hosted a weekly radio program on WRXO in Roxboro, N.C., which was devoted to Person County history and other items of relevance to the region.

Bessie Heath Daniel died at the age of 89 in February 1976.

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Collection Overview

The collection includes personal and business correspondence, mostly among Bessie Heath Daniel, Sallie Barnett Daniel, Lewis Heath Daniel, Bertha Daniel Cloyd, and their friends and family. Topics include tobacco farm management, rural household affairs, and the daily life of young female college students in the early 1900s. Financial materials including financial and legal documents from the 19th and 20th centuries; documents relating to Lewis Heath Daniel's employment at the distillery warehouse in Roxboro, N.C.; bank books; account books (one of which includes a muster roll for Company A, 35th Battalion of Home Guards and a list of names and birth dates of slaves born 1813-1864); documents relating to the Daniel homestead and tobacco farm in Flat River, N.C.; and receipts. There are also materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel's weekly radio program; school materials including a cipher book, possibly of J. A. Lunsford; an "Album of Remembrance" of Carrie Scott while attending the Warrenton Female Collegiate Institute; materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel and Bertha Daniel Cloyd's education, such as notebooks, essays, tests, and grade reports; historical and genealogical materials including pages of a family record including birth, death, and marriage dates for the Ward, Bacon, Lamkin, Gregory, Edwards, and Scott family members, 1753-1886; printed materials; photographs, including a daguerreotype of Ann Lunsford Daniel; and other items.

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Arrangement of Collection

1. Correspondence
1.1. Personal Correspondence
1.2. Business Correspondence
2. Financial and Legal Materials
2.1. Financial and Legal Documents
2.2. Daniel Farm and Homestead Materials
2.3. Receipts
3. Radio Program Materials
4. School Materials
5. Historical and Genealogical Materials
5.1. Materials Compiled by Bessie Heath Daniel
5.2. Materials Compiled by Hester Jackson
6. Printed Materials
7. Other Papers
8. Photographs
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Items Separated

Items separated include photographs (folders P-4187/1-7) and one daguerreotype (SF-P-4187/1).
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Detailed Description of the Collection

1. Correspondence, 1831-1980 and undated.

About 680 items.
Arrangement: chronological by year.
Correspondence relating to the personal and business activities of Bessie Heath Daniel, her family, and her forbears. The bulk of the correspondence is personal. Business correspondence is much sparser.
A small portion of the correspondence was received by the Southern Historical Collection already having suffered significant mold or physical damage or having deteriorated to fragments. These items have been placed in folder 80.
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1.1. Personal Correspondence, 1831-1980 and undated.
About 600 items.
Arrangement: chronological by year.
Personal correspondence consists predominantly of letters written to and from Bessie Heath Daniel and other members of the Daniel family. Letters written prior to 1900 are chiefly those written to or from Sallie Barnett Daniel, and describe daily life in rural Person County. Folder 1 contains a letter of August 1831 from Dr. Currie Barnett, Bessie Heath Daniel's great-grandfather, to his daughter, Elizabeth Bolton, advising her as to how to be a good wife and run a household.
Correspondence from 1900 to around 1910 is generally between Bessie, her sister Bertha, and their parents while one or both children was attending the State Normal and Agricultural College in Greensboro. Letters from Bessie and Bertha describe the daily life of a young female college student, while letters from their parents, chiefly from Sallie Barnett Daniel, describe the daily life and business of running a farm.
Many letters from the first quarter of the 19th century are addressed to "Miss Daniel" and are from former or current students of Bessie Heath Daniel while she was teaching.
The bulk of the correspondence after about 1930 is generally from Bertha Daniel Cloyd, after she married Edward Lamar Cloyd, her son, Edward Lamar Cloyd Jr., daughter, Ann Daniel Cloyd, their children, and Bessie Daniel.
See Folder 133 in Subseries 5.2 for letters written from Bessie Heath Daniel to Hester and Charles Jackson during the years 1972-1976.
Some folders are noted as containing transcripts of letters. These transcripts were donated as a part of the collection and were possibly created by Hester Jackson as part of her effort to write a book about the Daniel family.
Folder 1
Letter from Dr. Currie Barnett to his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Bolton, August 1831, plus transcript and photocopy.
Folder 2
1870-1879
Folder 3
1880
Folder 4-5
1881
Folder 6
1882-1889
Folder 7
1890-1898
Folder 8
1900-1901
Folder 9-13
1902
Folder 9 contains transcripts of some letters.
Folder 14-18
1903
Folder 14 contains transcript of one letter.
Folder 19-22
1904
Folder 19 contains transcripts of some letters.
Folder 23-28
1905
Folder 23 contains transcripts of some letters.
Folder 29-31
1906
Folder 29 contains transcripts of some letters.
Folder 32-36
1907
Folder 32 contains transcripts of some letters.
Folder 37-43
1908
Folder 37 contains transcripts of some letters.
Folder 44-47
1909
Folder 44 contains transcripts of some letters.
Folder 48-50
1910
Folder 51
1911
Contains transcripts of some letters.
Folder 52
1912
Folder 53
1913-1915
Folder 54
1916-1919
Folder 55
1920
Folder 56
1921-1922
Folder 57
1923-1925
Folder 58
1926-1929
Folder 59
1930-1936
Contains transcript of one letter.
Folder 60
1937-1939
Folder 61
1940-1948
Folder 62
1952-1959
Folder 63
1961-1963
Folder 64
1967-1969
Folder 65
1970-1971
Folder 66-67
1972-1973
Folder 68
1974-1975, 1980
Folder 69
Handwritten transcripts
Folder 70-79
Undated
Folder 80
Fragments of letters
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1.2. Business Correspondence, 1876-1970.
About 80 items.
Arrangement: chronological by year.
Business correspondence is chiefly that of Lewis Heath Daniel and Bessie Heath Daniel, and generally relates to the business of running a dairy and tobacco farm. Other business correspondence relates to Bessie Daniel's work as a teacher, a typist, and a secretary.
Folder 81
1876-1899
Folder 82
1900-1909
Folder 83
1910-1911
Folder 84
1912-1919
Folder 85
1920-1970

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2. Financial and Legal Materials, 1838-1976 and undated.

About 265 items.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Financial materials include account books, bank books, materials relating to the ownership of the Daniel farm and homestead, and receipts.
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2.1. Financial and Legal Documents, 1854-1976 and undated.
About 65 items.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Account books, bank books, and financial and legal documents relating to the business activities of Bessie Heath Daniel, her father, Lewis Heath Daniel, and their forbears. Of special interest is an account book in Folder 86, which includes a muster role for Company A, 35th Battalion of Home Guards and a list of names and birth dates for slaves born 1813-1864. Folder 93 contains documents relating to Lewis Heath Daniel's employment at a distillery warehouse in Roxboro, N.C., 1890-1900.
Account books in folders 86-87 are also available on microfilm.
Folder 86
Account book, 1856-1862
Apparently of Campbell Barnett, Bessie Heath Daniel's grandfather, of Person County, N.C., listing merchandise sold and payments received. Arrangement of entries is by name of customer. Also included are a muster role (1862?) for Company A, 35th Battalion of Home Guards and a list of names and birth dates for slaves born 1813-1864. (Also available on microfilm.)
Folder 87
Account book, 1854, 1858-1860
Of J. A. Lunsford, and Bros., dry goods merchants of High Hill, Person County, N.C. Entries, for suppliers from whom merchandise was purchased, are arranged chronologically. (Also available on microfilm.)
Folder 88
Account book, July 1855-December 1860
Of J. A. Lunsford and Bros., High Hill, Person County, N.C. Entries, for customers, are arranged chronologically.
Folder 89
Account book, 1878-1880
Folder 90
Account book, 1877-1886
Folder 91-92
Financial and legal documents
Folder 93
Distillery warehouse documents
Folder 94
Bank books
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2.2. Daniel Farm and Homestead Materials, 1945-1976 and undated.
About 50 items.
Papers documenting the changing ownership of the Daniel farm and homestead throughout time, inventories of Bessie Heath Daniel's possessions, and documentation of a legal dispute occuring in the 1950s between Bessie Heath Daniel and one of her neighbors regarding their adjoining property line.
Folder 95-99
Daniel Farm and Homestead Materials
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2.3. Receipts, 1838-1975 and undated.
About 150 items.
Arrangement: chronological by year.
Receipts documenting the business transactions of Lewis Heath Daniel, Bessie Heath Daniel, and their forbears.
Folder 100
1838-1879
Folder 101
1880-1899
Folder 102
1901-1929
Folder 103
1930-1975
Folder 104
Undated

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3. Radio Program Materials, 1957-1974 and undated.

About 350 items.
Arrangement: chronological by year.
Materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel's weekly radio program about Person County and its history on WRXO in Roxboro, N.C., running from 1957 to 1975. Papers include notes she made for her programs along with pertinant clippings and articles, and an annual report for the radio station for the year 1973.
Folder 105
1957-1960
Folder 106
1961-1963
Folder 107
1964-1967
Folder 108-109
1969-1970
Folder 110-111
1971
Folder 112
1972-1973
Folder 113
1973-1974
Folder 114-115
Undated

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4. School Materials, 1829-1905 and undated.

About 50 items.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel and Bertha Daniel's education at the Roxboro Institute, a public school they attended, and the State Normal and Industrial College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro), including notebooks, essays, tests, and grade reports. Also included is a cipher book, circa 1829-1841, possibly belonging to J. A. Lunsford, in and an "Album of Remembrance," belonging to Carrie Scott while she attended the Warrenton Female Collegiate Institute in Warrenton, N.C., in 1857-1858. Folder 122 contains a handwritten copy of Bessie Heath Daniel's senior speech at the State Normal and Industrial College, entitled "Southern Women as Breadwinners, and folder 123 contains Daniel's senior class yearbook and class pin."
Folder 116
Math exercise notebook
Folder 117
Cipher book, circa 1829-1841
Possibly belonging to J. A. Lunsford, Person County, N.C. About 350 pages.
Folder 118
"Album of Remembrance," 1857-1858
Of Carrie Scott, Warrenton Female Collegiate Institute, Warrenton, N.C., consisting of brief messages from teachers and fellow students.
Folder 119
Roxboro Institute
Folder 120
School notebooks: Bertha Daniel
Folder 121
School notebooks: Bessie Daniel
Folder 122
North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College
Folder 123
Yearbook and senior class pin, 1905

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5. Historical and Genealogical Materials, 1753-1987 and undated.

About 175 items.
Arrangement: by type of material.
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5.1. Materials Compiled by Bessie Heath Daniel, 1753-1976 and undated.
About 75 items.
Materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel's quest for information regarding the history of Person County and the Daniel family genealogy, which were closely linked. Folder 124 contains pages of a family record, possibly taken from Bibles. Folders 125-129 contain information on the Daniel, Lunsford, and other Person County families, information on the history of the Daniel Homestead and Person County in general, and parts of a transcript which appears to be autobiographical accounts of events by Lewis Heath Daniel. Folders 130-131 contain information on the history of post offices and early mail routes of Person County.
Folder 124
"Family Record" pages
Presumably removed from family Bibles. There are two sets, each consisting of four pages. Family names include Ward, Bacon, Lamkin, Gregory, Edwards, and Scott. Dates of births, marriages, and deaths recorded range from 1753 to 1886.
Folder 125-129
Historical and genealogical materials
Folder 130-131
Post office history materials
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5.2. Materials Compiled by Hester Jackson, 1976-1987 and undated.
About 100 items.
Arrangement: by subject.
Materials compiled by Hester Jackson, a close friend and neighbor of Bessie Heath Daniel's, to whom she willed her papers at the time of her death. These papers represent Jackson's efforts to further Daniel's genealogical and historical research with the intention of writing a book.
Folder 132
Two letters
Contains a presumably unmailed letter from Hester Jackson to Carolyn Wallace, then director of the Southern Historical Collection, regarding the donation of the Bessie Heath Daniel Papers, dated 5 September 1979, and a letter received by Hester Jackson from the North Carolina Genealogical Society approving her proposal for a book on the Sallie Barnett Daniel letters (never written), dated 8 April 1987.
Folder 133
Letters from Bessie Heath Daniel to Hester and Charles Jackson, 1972-1976
Folder 134-136
Barnett family materials
Folder 137
Bessie Daniel Materials
Two photographs (one of Bessie Heath Daniel with her mother, father and sister and one of two unidentified women standing in front of the Washington Monument) have been separated from this folder and can be found in P-4187/6.

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6. Printed Materials.

About 150 items.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Printed materials include clippings, programs and invitations, postcards, greeting cards, and calling cards, printed ephemera, and a few periodicals.
Folder 138
Clippings
Folder 139
Programs and invitations
Folder 140
Postcards, greeting cards, and calling cards
Folder 141-143
Printed ephemera
Folder 144-145
Periodicals

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7. Other Papers, circa 1900-1980 and undated.

About 50 items.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Other papers include writings of undetermined authorship, often hand-written and fragmented; Bessie Heath Daniel's last will and testament; photocopies of articles about Bessie Heath Daniel; fragments of papers; and Bessie Heath Daniel's 1974 and 1975 day planners.
Folder 146
Writings
Folder 147-148
Other papers
Folder 149
Fragments
Folder 150
Day planners, 1974 and 1975

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8. Photographs, 1895-1976 and undated.

About 100 items.
Arrangement: by subject.
Image Folder P-4187/1
Identified people
Image Folder P-4187/2-3
Unidentified people
Image Folder P-4187/4
Bessie Daniel house, 1976
Image Folder P-4187/5
Daniel homestead and farm
Image Folder P-4187/6
Hester Jackson materials
Image Folder P-4187/7
Negatives
Special Format Image SF-4187/1
Daguerreotype of Ann Lunsford Daniel

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