Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#4725
FAIRLEY, MCIVER, AND ROBERSON FAMILY PAPERS
Initial Inventory
Abstract: Fairley, McIver, and Roberson family members
included Presbyterian minister David Fairley (1831-
1912) and his wife Janie Euphemia McIver Fairley
(1839-1927). The couple was married in 1861 and lived
in Manchester, Cumberland County, N.C. Janie McIver
Fairley was born in Duplin County, N.C., and was the
daughter of Rev. Alexander McIver (1801-1839) and
Catherine Wright McIver, who, after Alexander's death,
married Duncan Murchison. Catherine was the daughter
of Isaac and Jane Gillespie Wright. David and Janie
Fairley's children included Rev. Watson M. Fairley
(1873-1955) and Janie McIver Fairley (1877-1961) of
Tarboro, N.C., who married Edward Leon Roberson (1876-
1910), merchant of Tarboro. Their children were David
Fairley Roberson (1906-1910) and Edward Leon Roberson
(1909-1987), surgeon, who married Mary Agnes Marks
(1916-1990) in 1947. Edward and Mary were the parents
of Isabel Roberson, Edward Leon Roberson III, and
Katherine.
Correspondence, pictures, and other materials.
Materials 1805 and into the 1830s relate to Isaac and
Jane Gillespie Wright of Bladen County and treat
mostly social topics. In the 1830s, there are many
items relating to Rev. Alexander and Catherine McIver
of Duplin County, N.C. Many of these letters document
Alexander's church activities, including his
participation in weekly services and at marriages,
births, and deaths. Letters to Catherine are chiefly
about routine family affairs. Fairley family
materials begin in 1861, when Janie McIver married
David Fairley and took up residence in Manchester,
Cumberland County, N.C. During the Civil War, there
are many letters from David to his mother telling her
of his church work and religious instruction with
troops who passed through Manchester. Letters to
David and Janie from their children begin in the
1880s, many of them relating to Watson M. Fairley, who
traveled extensively in the West in the early 1900s.
Roberson family letters begin in 1909, when Janie and
Edward Leon Roberson were living in Tarboro. Letters
are sparse from the mid-1920s to the early 1940s.
Materials 1941-1946 are chiefly related to Edward L.
Roberson, Jr.'s service with the United States Navy's
Medical Corps during World War II in Georgia, the
Bahamas, Cuba, Miami, and, as the war ended, on a ship
in the Pacific. Other materials include clippings; a
few sermons and other writings; genealogical items;
and photographs of members of the Fairley, Roberson,
and related families.
Online Catalog Terms:
Bladen County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
Confederate States of America. Army--Religious life.
Cumberland County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
Duplin County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
Fairley, David, 1831-1912.
Fairley family.
Fairley, Janie Euphemia McIver, 1839-1927.
Fairley, Watson M., 1873-1955.
Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
Manchester (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
McIver, Alexander McIver, 1801-1839.
McIver family.
Murchison, Catherine Wright McIver.
Presbyterian Church--Clergy--North Carolina--History.
Roberson, Edward Leon.
Roberson family.
Roberson, Janie McIver Fairley, 1877-1961.
Soldiers--United States--Correspondence--History--World War,
1935-1945.
Tarboro (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
United States. Army--Military life--History--World War,
1835-1945.
Wright, Isaac.
Wright, Jane Gillespie.
Size: About 750 items (2.0 linear feet).
Provenance: Received from Edward L. Roberson of Tarboro, N.C.,
in October 1994 (Acc. 94155) and January 1995
(Acc. 95012).
Access: No restrictions.
Related Collection: Gillespie and Wright Family Papers (#275).
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or
their descendants, as stipulated by United States
copyright law.
Table of Contents:
Biographical Note
Series Descriptions
Series 1. Correspondence and Related Materials
Series 2. Other Materials
Series 3. Pictures
Shelf List
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Many of the persons important in this collection are
descendants of Rev. David (1831-1912) and Janie Euphemia McIver
Fairley (1839-1927), who married in 1861 and lived in Manchester,
Cumberland County, N.C. David Fairley was born in Jackson
County, Miss., and educated at Davidson College and Columbia
Theological Seminary. He entered the Fayetteville, N.C.,
Presbytery in 1859, where he preached for 52 years. Janie McIver
Fairley was born in Duplin County, N.C., and was the daughter of
Rev. Alexander McIver (1801-1839) and Catherine Wright McIver,
who, after Alexander's death, married Duncan Murchison.
Catherine Wright McIver Murchison's father was Isaac Wright and
her mother was Jane Gillespie Wright, daughter of James and
Dorcas Mumford Gillespie.
The children of David and Janie Fairley included:
-- John Murchison Fairley (1862-1865);
-- Alexander McIver Fairley (1864-1946), who married Eugenia
Caroline Williams in 1894 and whose children included
Alexander McIver Fairley (1895-1958), Eugenia Williams Fairley
(1900- ), and Martha Coffield Fairley (1902- );
-- Kate Wright Fairley (1866-1948), who did not marry;
-- Daniel Percy Fairley (1868-1879);
-- Duncan Murchison Fairley (1870-1937), who married Mary Davis
in 1897;
-- Rev. Watson M. Fairley (1873-1955), who married Alice Rollwage
McRae in 1909;
-- Isabel Gillespie Fairley (1875- ), who married Samuel Newbern
Harrell in 1900;
-- Janie McIver Fairley (1877-1961) of Tarboro, N.C., who married
Edward Leon Roberson (1876-1910), merchant of Tarboro, in 1905
and whose children included David Fairley Roberson (1906-1910)
and Edward Leon Roberson (1909-1987), surgeon, who married
Mary Agnes Marks (1916-1990) in 1947. Edward and Mary were
the parents of Isabel Roberson, Edward Leon Roberson III, and
Katherine;
-- Nannie Williams Fairley (1879-1907), who married Eugene
Grissom Davis in 1906;
-- and Ida Murchison Fairley (1882- ), who married Archibald
Galloway Carter in 1912.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1. Correspondence and Related Materials
1805-1964. About 460 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Earliest materials relate to Isaac Wright of Bladen County,
N.C., father of Catherine Wright McIver Murchison, and to her
mother Jane Gillespie, also in Bladen County. These letters,
which treat mostly social topics, continue into the 1820s, by
which time Isaac and Jane were married, and on into the 1830s
with much correspondence relating to routine family affairs
between Jane and daughter Catherine.
A letter of 26 April 1831 introduces Rev. Alexander McIver of
Fayetteville Presbytery to the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church. In the mid-1830s, there are many materials
relating to Catherine and Alexander, living in Duplin County,
N.C. Many of these letters document Alexander's church
activities, including his participation in weekly services and at
marriages, births, and deaths. Letters to Catherine are chiefly
about routine family affairs. Of note is a perpetual calendar
she received enclosed in a letter dated 10 October 1838. Undated
letters to Catherine are filed with materials from 1839.
A letter of 7 December 1840 documents Alexander's death in
1839. On 15 August 1848, the first letter from Janie McIver
(Fairley) appears.
Fairley family materials begin in 1861, when Janie McIver
married David Fairley and took up residence in Manchester,
Cumberland County, N.C. During the Civil War, there are many
letters from David to his mother Isabella Fairley in Jackson,
Miss., telling her of his church work and religious instruction
with troops who passed through Manchester. In a letter dated 18
August 1863, David wrote, "Our entire brigade seems ripe for the
Gospel." In these letters, there are also comments about life on
the homefront and coping with the enemy.
In the late 1860s, letters deal chiefly with David and Janie's
life in Manchester. Included is the bill for a "Tableaux and
Concert by the Young Ladies of the Presbyterian Church, February
28, 1866."
Letters to David and Janie from their children begin in the
1880s. Most of these letters relate either to Kate Wright
Fairley or to Watson M. Fairley, who traveled extensively in the
West in the early 1900s. Some correspondence is with Janie
McIver Fairley. The first Roberson family letter appears in
1909, when Janie and Edward Leon Roberson were living in Tarboro.
An item dated 26 July 1910 documents Edward's death on 19 July
1910.
In March 1911, letters show that David Fairley was ill, and,
in October 1912, there are letters and telegrams expressing
sympathy on the occasion of his death. By 1911, Watson M.
Fairley was preaching in Fayetteville and Alexander McIver
Fairley was employed by the Scotland Cotton Mill, Laurinburg,
N.C. In the late 1910s, Watson was pastor of the Westminister
Presbyterian Church, El Paso, Tex. There are no letters relating
to World War I.
Many letters in the 1920s are to Janie McIver Fairley, living
with daughter Janie McIver Fairley Roberson in Tarboro, from her
children, especially Watson M. Fairley and Ida Murchison Fairley
Carter of Sanford, N.C. Letters are sparse from the mid-1920 to
the early 1940s.
Materials 1941-1946 are chiefly related to Edward L. Roberson,
Jr.'s service with the United States Navy's Medical Corps during
World War II. Most of these items are letters from Edward to his
mother Jane McIver Fairley Roberson from Edward's postings in
Georgia, the Bahamas, Cuba, Miami, and, as the war ended, on a
ship in the Pacific.
Letters dated 1962-1964 are mostly routine family letters,
many of them from Isabel Gillespie Fairley Harrell to Ida
Murchison Fairley Carter, then a resident of the Presbyterian
Home in High Point, N.C.
Folder 1 1805-1829
2 1831-1833
3 1834-1837
4 1838
5 1839
6 1840-1854
7 1860-1865
8 1866-1868
9 1870-1879
10 1882-1889
11 1891-1900
12 1901-1916
13 1918-1920
14 1923-1926
15 Fairley, Janie McIver, undated
16 1929-1942
17 1943-1947; 1956
18 1962-1964
19 Undated
Series 2. Other Materials
1857-1957. About 230 items.
Folder 20 Certificates: school and other certificates
issued to family members, 1858-1900, including
Watson Fairley's licensure in the Presbyterian
Church (about 10 items).
Folder 21 Clippings: miscellaneous newspaper clippings
relating to family members, including some about
Edward L. Roberson's World War II service (about
15 items).
Folder 22 Daughters of the American Revolution:
miscellaneous materials, 1930s, probably collected
by Isabel Gillespie Fairley Harrell (about 10
items).
Folder 23 Fairley, Alice Rollwage McRae: Sunday school
lessons and related materials (3 items).
Folders 24-25 Fairley, Watson M.: sermons and related materials
(about 20 items).
Folders 26-28 Family history materials: genealogical papers
relating to the Fairley, Gillespie, Harrell,
McIver, and other families (about 100 items).
Folder 29 Financial and legal materials: wills, deeds, and
other materials, including documentation of land
purchases in 1857 and in Buncombe County, N.C., in
1920 and a few accounting sheets relating to David
Fairley (about 10 items).
Folder 30 Roberson, Edward L.: records of service in the
United States Navy, 1941-1946, including orders,
vouchers, and other official documents (about 30
items).
Folder 31 United Daughters of the Confederacy:
miscellaneous items collection by Isabel Gillespie
Fairley Harrell (about 10 items).
Folder 32 Fairley, David: Sermons, undated.
Folders 33-34 Miscellaneous: an undated sermon of David
Fairley; a few grade reports; a school
composition; a few poems; and other items (about
20 items).
Series 3. Pictures
Ca. 1895-1939 and undated. 64 items.
P-4725/1 Fairley, Daniel Percy
/2-5 Fairley, David
/6 Fairley, George
/7-10 Fairley, Kate
/11 Fairley, Nannie
/12 Fairley, Oscar
/13 Fairley, Rachel
/14-21a Fairley family
/22 Fason, Isham
/23-24 Gilmer family
/25-28 Harrell family
/29 Hicks, Rachel McIver
/30 Knight, Arthur
/31 [Lindsey?], Jesse
/32-33 McDiamid family
/34 McQueen, Angus
/35 McRae, Thadeus
/36 Monroe, Eliza
/37-42 Murchison family
/43-52 Roberson family
/53 Dr. Sprunt
/54 Tucker, Susie (with Sophie [Buster?])
/55-58 Williams family
/59-60 Wright family
/61 Holly Hill, Manchester, N.C.
/62-63 Montreat, N.C.
/64 Unidentified building
SHELF LIST
Series 1. Correspondence and related materials
Box 1 1805-1889 (folders 1-10)
Box 2 1891-1964 and undated (folders 11-19)
Box 3 Series 2. Other papers (folders 20-26)
Box 4 Series 2. Other papers (folders 27-34)
Items separated:
OP-4725/1-6
P-4725/1-64