Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#204
DAVIDSON FAMILY PAPERS
Inventory
Abstract: Family and business correspondence, chiefly 1835-
1856, account books, ledgers, and day books of members
of the Davidson family of Mecklenburg and Gaston
counties, N.C., who lived at Rural Hill Plantation,
Mecklenburg County, 1833-1890; Ingleside Plantation,
Mecklenburg County, 1867-1875; and Dixon Plantation,
Gaston County, 1872-1893. Among the correspondents
are Adam Brevard Davidson (1808-1896); his wife Mary
Laura Springs Davidson (1813-1872) of York County,
S.C.; and her father, John Springs. There are also
letters to and from Adam Brevard Davidson's brothers
John Matthew Winslow Davidson, a physician; Robert H.
M. Davidson (d. 1841), a lawyer; and William S. M.
Davidson, all of whom appear to have lived in Florida
and tried repeatedly to get their brother to relocate
there. There are also a few letters in the 1830s to
and from relatives in Alabama and from E. Constantine
Davidson, a student at Harvard Law School in the
1840s. Most letters are about family news, social
life, travels, financial matters, plantation and slave
affairs, and Presbyterian Church activities.
Interfiled with the letters are a few financial and
legal papers and two 1854 essays by Adam Brevard
Davidson on innovative agricultural techniques.
Volumes consist of plantation ledgers and other family
business records, 1833-1911. Beginning in the 1870s,
many of the volumes relate to the financial affairs of
Adam Brevard Davidson's son Eli Leroy Baxter Davidson.
Online Catalog Terms:
Accounting--Books of account.
Agricultural innovation--History--19th century.
Davidson, Adam Brevard, 1808-1896.
Davidson, E. Constantine, fl. 1840s.
Davidson, Eli Leroy Baxter.
Davidson family.
Davidson, John Matthew Winslow, fl. 1825-1875.
Davidson, Mary Laura Springs, 1813-1872.
Davidson, Robert H. M., d. 1841.
Davidson, William S. M.
Dixon Plantation (Gaston County, N.C.).
Family--Alabama--Social life and customs--19th century.
Family--Florida--Social life and customs--19th century.
Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs--19th century.
Florida--Social life and customs--19th century.
Gaston County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
Harvard Law School--Students--Social life and customs--19th
century.
Ingleside Plantation (Mecklenburg County, N.C.).
Mecklenburg County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--19th
century.
Plantation life--North Carolina.
Plantations--North Carolina--Gaston County.
Plantations--North Carolina--Mecklenburg County.
Rural Hill Plantation (Mecklenburg County, N.C.).
Slavery--North Carolina.
Springs, John.
Size: About 110 items (2.5 linear feet).
Provenance: Received from E. L. Baxter Davidson, 1937-1958,
and Chalmers Davidson, 1977.
Access: No restrictions.
Processing Note: This collection was rehoused under the
sponsorship of a grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities, Office of
Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
Related Collection: Springs Family Papers (#4121).
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or
their descendants, as stipulated by United States
copyright law.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Adam Brevard Davidson (1808-1896), planter and developer, a
son of John Davidson, Jr., and his wife Sarah Harper Brevard
Davidson, was born at Rural Hill Plantation in Mecklenburg
County, N.C., built by Adam Brevard's grandfather, John Davidson
(d. 1832). Together with his father, Adam Brevard Davidson owned
about five thousand acres and fifty or sixty slaves in the
Hopewell section of Mecklenburg. When construction of Davidson
College was begun in 1836, on land belonging to his cousin and
uncle-in-law William Lee Davidson, Adam Brevard contracted for
and supplied the lumber for the early buildings. All lumber was
sawed at his own mills.
On 20 April 1836, in Springfield, York County, S.C., Adam
Brevard Davidson married Mary Laura Springs (1813-1872), daughter
of John Springs III. She had attended the Moravian Academy at
Salem, N.C., and the select school of Madam Sarazin in
Philadelphia. Adam Brevard and Mary had fifteen children. Mary
died in 1872, and Davidson married Cornelia C. Elmore (1835-1921)
of Columbia, S.C., daughter of U.S. Senator Franklin Harper
Elmore, in 1876.
Davidson was elected trustee of Davidson College in 1844 and
served with few interruptions until 1877. Two of his sons were
educated at the college: Robert, who died as a result of
mistreatment in a northern prison during the Civil War, and
Baxter, who was, at his death, the largest single donor in the
college's history.
Adam Brevard Davidson was a conspicuously successful planter.
He was president of the Mecklenburg Agricultural Society for
fifteen years before the Civil War and served the Society
intermittently in various capacities until the organization
society was disbanded after the Confederate defeat.
(Adapted from the entry on Adam Brevard Davidson by Chalmers G.
Davidson in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, volume 2,
1986.)
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1. Loose Papers
1827-1935. About 80 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Family and business correspondence, chiefly 1835-1856, and a
few financial and legal papers of members of the Davidson family
of Mecklenburg and Gaston counties, N.C., who lived at Rural Hill
Plantation, Mecklenburg County, 1833-1890; Ingleside Plantation,
Mecklenburg County, 1867-1875; and Dixon Plantation, Gaston
County, 1872-1893. Among the correspondents are Adam Brevard
Davidson (1808-1896); his wife Mary Laura Springs Davidson (1813-
1872) of York County, S.C.; and her father, John Springs. There
are also letters to and from Adam Brevard Davidson's brothers
John Matthew Winslow Davidson, a physician; Robert H. M. Davidson
(d. 1841), a lawyer; and William S. M. Davidson, all of whom
appear to have lived in Florida and tried repeatedly to get their
brother to relocate there. There are also a few letters in the
1830s to and from relatives in Alabama and from E. Constantine
Davidson, a student at Harvard Law School in the 1840s. Most
letters are about family news, social life, travels, financial
matters, plantation and slave affairs, and Presbyterian Church
activities. Interfiled with the letters are a few financial and
legal papers and two 1854 essays by Adam Brevard Davidson on
innovative agricultural techniques.
Subseries 1.1. 1827-1864
About 60 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Included are the following:
1827 10 September: William Davidson in Charlotte, N.C., to
Isaac T. Avery in Morganton, N.C., about the Catawba
Navigation Company.
1830 29 September: typed copy of letter from Mary Laura
Springs (later Davidson) to her parents, describing a trip
from her home in York County, S.C., to Salem, N.C., where
she attended school, and then on to Washington, D.C.,
which she described in some detail, and, later, to
Baltimore and Philadelphia, where she was a student at the
Bethel Academy.
1833 3 November: from M. Brevard in Alabama about general
conditions and land sales by the Cherokees.
1835 Letters from Rebecca E. Forney, a Davidson cousin in
Tuscaloosa, Ala., about conditions there.
1836 6 November: from Robert H. M. Davidson in Florida to Adam
Brevard Davidson, chiefly about the high price of slaves
in Florida and suggesting that the brothers invest in
North Carolina slaves to sell in Florida.
1837 Letters from Robert H. M. Davidson in Florida to Adam
Brevard Davidson, mentioning the end of the Seminole War
and anticipating growth in the region as a result of the
cessation of hostilities.
1838 Letters to Adam Brevard Davidson from Robert H. M.
Davidson en route to Niagara, N.Y., via West Point, where
their brother Augustus was buried.
1841 30 August: from Robert H. M. Davidson in New York about
his travels and ill health.
30 August: from E. Constantine Davidson at Harvard Law
School, describing his activities.
22 October: from John Matthew Winslow Davidson to his
mother about the death of Robert H. M. Davidson on 17
October.
1854 Two essays on agricultural innovations that Adam Brevard
Davidson appears to have prepared for the Mecklenburg
Agricultural Society. One is a discussion of deep plowing
and the other is on clover planting.
There are only a few Civil War era items, and only one, a printed
circular, is directly related to the war.
Folder 1 1827-1838
2 1839-1840
3 1841-1844
4 1845-1857
5 1854-1864
Subseries 1.2. 1868-1935
About 20 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Materials from the 1880s are chiefly form letters transmitting
annual Southern Railway passes to Adam Brevard Davidson; those
dated after the turn of the century are routine letters from such
organizations as the North Carolina Good Roads Association and
the North Carolina Folk-lore Society to various family members.
Folder 6
Series 2. Volumes
1833-1911. 42 items.
Arrangement: roughly chronological.
Account books, ledgers, and day books of members of the
Davidson family. Most of the volumes relate to the management of
the family's plantations--Rural Hill and Ingleside in Mecklenburg
County, and Dixon in Gaston County. Ingleside Plantation appears
to have been home to William S. M. Davidson; Dixon Plantation was
the property of Laura Springs Davidson, but managed by John
Springs and Richard A. Davidson. Beginning in the 1870s, many
of the volumes relate to the financial affairs of Adam Brevard
Davidson's son Eli Leroy Baxter Davidson.
Subseries 2.1. 1833-1867
10 items.
Folder 7 Volume S-1: 1833-1841, 160 pp. Adam Brevard
Davidson book with farm accounts for the Rural
Hill Plantation.
Volume S-2: 1837-1844, 118 pp. Rural Hill
Plantation ledger.
Volume 3: 1837-1854, 43 pp. (front to back) and
77 pp. (back to front). Rural Hill Plantation
farm and lumber accounts.
Folder 8 Volume 4: 1842-1851, 225 pp. Rural Hill farm
accounts.
Volume S-5: 1842-1853, 297 pp. Rural Hill book
with farm accounts, including blacksmith accounts.
Folder 9 Volume 6: 1845-1850, 268 pp. Unidentified
accounts. Binding is inscribed "Bank of Cape
Fear."
Folder 10 Volume 7: 1843, 9 pp. Records of births and
other family data and short journal entries about
plantation activities.
Folder 11 Volume 8: 1845-1857, 35 pp. Rural [Retreat] book
with farm accounts.
Volume S-9: 1853-1866, 179 pp. Rural Hill farm
ledger.
Volume S-10: 1853-1867, 244 pp. Rural Hill farm
ledger.
Subseries 2.2. 1867-1911
32 items.
Beginning in the 1870s, many of the volumes relate to the
financial affairs of Adam Brevard Davidson's son Eli Leroy Baxter
Davidson.
Folder 12 Volume 11: 1867-1875. Rural Hill farm ledger.
Folder 13 Volume 12: 1867-1876. Rural Hill day book.
Folder 14 Volume 13: 1872-1893. Dixon Plantation ledger.
Folder 15 Volume 14: 1868-1874. Ingleside Plantation farm
accounts. Also included are medical fee records.
Folders 16-20 Volumes 15-19: 1876-1896. Records of daily
expenses for Adam Brevard Davidson and his family.
After Adam Brevard Davidson's death in 1896, Eli
Leroy Baxter Davidson used parts of Volume 17 to
track his father's estate.
Folders 21-27 Volumes 20-27: 1872-1911. Records of rent
collections by Adam Brevard Davidson, Eli Leroy
Baxter Davidson, and the firms of Davidson and
Springs and Davidson and Beall, both located in
Charlotte, N.C.
Folders 28-32 Volumes 28-40: 1872-1900. Bank books of Adam
Brevard Davidson. Volume 40 also contains records
of his estate.
Folder 33 Volume 41: 1895-1896. Account book with entries
for the estate of Adam Brevard Davidson and
records of labor and crops received from his
tenants.
Folder 34 Volume 42: 1896-1904. Inventory and accounts
relating to the estate of Adam Brevard Davidson,
including the records of the final distribution of
the estate.
Series 3. Pictures
1872 and undated. 4 items.
P-204/1-2 Two printed photographic portraits of Eli Leroy
Baxter Davidson, 1872 and undated.
/3-4 Two postcards of the ruins of a plantation
belonging to the Davidsons, undated (after 1886).
Shelf List
Series 1. Loose Papers
Box 1 Subseries 1.1. 1827-1864 (folders 1-5)
Subseries 1.2. 1868-1935 (folder 6)
Series 2. Volumes
Subseries 2.1. Volumes 1-10 (folders 7-11)
Box 2 Subseries 2.2. Volumes 11-14 (folders 12-15)
Box 3 Subseries 2.2. Volumes 15-18 (folders 16-19)
Box 4 Subseries 2.2. Volumes 19-21 (folders 20-23)
Box 5 Subseries 2.2. Volumes 22-42 (folders 24-34)
Items separated:
Volumes 204/S-1, S-2, S-5, S-9, S-10
P-204/1-4