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Collection Number: 04169

Collection Title: Eleanore Eulalie Cay Fleming Papers, 1836-1920

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.


This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.

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Size About 325 items (1 reel of microfilm)
Abstract Eleonore Eulalie Cay Fleming, was the daughter of white plantation owner Raymond Cay (1805-1880), who operated Salter's Creek Plantation in Liberty County, Ga. Includes records containing descriptions and recollections of some of the enslaved people who comprised the workforce at the plantation. The collection chiefly consists of business correspondence, 1851-1855, of Raymond Cay, personal and family correspondence, 1865-1920, of Eleonore Eulalie Cay Fleming of Liberty and Harris counties, Ga.; as well as family records of Raymond and Eliza Ann Stetson Cay and their descendants. In addition to correspondence, the collection includes records copied from a Cay family Bible; Civil War reminiscences of Raymond Cay, who served with the 5th Georgia Regiment in Georgia and Tennessee. MICROFILM ONLY.
Creator Fleming, Eleanore Eulalie Cay, 1848-1934.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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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 Eleanore Eulalie Cay Fleming Papers #4169, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Lent for filming by Louis A. Fleming of Madison, Fla., in March 1979.
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.
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Processed by: Suzanne Ruffing, September 1996

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.

Updated because of conscious editing of title, abstract, and scope content by Patrick Cullom.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

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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.

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Raymond Cay was born at Barricas, Cuba, in 1805, the son of Jean Sauvern and Julia Pezant Cay, refugees from Santo Domingo. In 1809, the family moved to Savannah, Ga., and in 1814, to Charleston, S.C. On the recommendation of a Charleston merchant, Raymond Cay came to Riceboro, Liberty County, Ga., to manage the store of David Stetson, (1786-1836) who, with his wife Betsy Butler Stetson (1796-1834), had moved to Riceboro from New Bedford, Mass., in 1816. In 1834, Raymond Cay married their daughter, Eliza Ann Stetson. Following the death of David and Betsy Stetson, he became owner of their store and plantation.

On 19 December 1866, Eleonore Eulalie Cay married Thomas Quarterman Fleming, the son of John Sidney and Jane Quarterman Fleming of Liberty County, Ga. Lalie Cay Fleming had been a life-long friend of many of T. Q. Fleming's cousins, especially Susan Olivia "Livie" Fleming. Following their marriage, T. Q. Fleming ran a general store and farmed in Liberty County, Ga., and worked on railroad construction in Harris County, Ga.

[For additional biographical information, see the list of correspondents compiled by Joseph Martin filed at the beginning of the collection and the family history compiled by Raymond Cay, Jr., filed near the end.]

Cay Family

Jean Sauvern Cay + Julia Pezant

Josephine (b. 1781) + Charles Nicholas DeCosta

Mary Julia Eleanor "Nennen" (1817-1890)

Alexine (b. 1787)

Eulalie (b. 1790)

John Eugene (b. 1802)

Raymond (1805-1883) + Eliza Ann Stetson (1812-1896)

Julia Elizabeth (1835-1864) + McLeod King

Josephine Mariah (b. 1838) + Thomas M. Stuart

John David (1840-1916) + Georgia Winn

Louis Eugene (1843-1857)

Raymond Jr. "Raymie" (1846-1937) + Jeannette W. McCall

Eleonore Eulalie "Lalie" (1848-1934) + Thomas Quarterman "Que" Fleming (1841-1917)

Lawrence Julian (1868-1923)

Louis Alfred (1869-1898)

Mary Eulalie "Mamie" (1871-1957)

Ernest Fortson (1874-1965)

Charles Cay (1876-1963)

Thomas Quarterman "Quzie" (1878-1972)

Sidney Stetson "Stets" (1881-1954)

Tallulah DeCosta (1886-1960)

Charles Alfred (1851-1935) + Minna Montgomery

Nathalie Alexine (1854-1949) + Phillip H. Hall

Fleming Family

William Fleming + ?

Thomas W. + Susan E. (1819-1888)

Susan Olivia "Livie" (d. 1878) + F. M. Blount

Peter Winn

William Bennett (1803-1886) + Eliza Ann Maxwell

William Oliver (1835-1881) + Georgia Williams

Mary Catherine

John Sidney (1812-1847) + Jane Quarterman (1813-1874)

Thomas Quarterman (1841-1917) + Eleonore Eulalie Cay

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The collection includes descriptions and recollections of some of the enslaved people who comprised the workforce at Salter's Creek plantation in Liberty County, Ga., found in the "Family Record of Raymond Cay and his wife Eliza Ann Stetson," which was compiled by Raymond Cay Jr. (1846-1937) in Tallahassee, Fla., in 1918. The volume also includes records copied from the Cay family Bible; records of David and Betsy Butler Stetson; a record of Cay descendants serving in World War I; notes on each of the children of Raymond and Eliza Ann Cay; brief Civil War reminiscences of his service and his brother David's with the 5th Georgia regiment in Georgia and Tennessee; and a family record of Cay descendants. Enclosed is a typed list of the descendants of John David (1840-1916) and Georgia Winn (b. 1874) Cay. This volume is found at after the correspondence on the microfilm reel.

Papers, 1836-1855 (about 160 items) relating to Raymond Cay, a white general merchant and cotton factor of Riceboro, Ga., are primarily letters from merchants, especially R. and W. King, of Savannah, Ga., about the cotton market and the sale of Cay's cotton shipments; purchase of goods for Cay's stores; Cay's accounts with the merchants; and other notes handled by the merchants for Cay. There are also accounts and receipts for merchandise purchased by Cay, many with detailed lists of cloth, books, furniture, and other goods; scattered accounts of merchandise sold by or for Cay; a copy of Savannah Shipping and Commercial List, December 1836; and a receipt, 1855, for payment of an overseer.

There is one letter, 1860, from William Howe, Columbia, S.C.(?), about political affairs and the degeneracy of the country's leadership, and a retrospective account (original and transcription) of the 1864 raid by Wheeler's cavalry on Sherman's army near Dalton, Ga., written by Raymond Cay Jr., then a private with the 5th Georgia Cavalry.

Papers, 1865-1879 (about 110 items), are primarily personal and family correspondence of Eulalie "Lalie" Cay before and after her marriage to T. Q. Fleming in 1866. Lalie Cay, a white woman, lived in Walthourville, Liberty County, Ga., 1865-June 1872 and February 1873-June 1879, and in Hamilton, Harris County, Ga., July 1872-January 1873, and July-December 1879. Thomas Q. Fleming during this period appears to have been a merchant and a farmer while they lived in Walthourville and a contractor with a railroad (North-South?) while in Hamilton.

Lalie Cay Fleming's most frequent correspondents were her mother Eliza Ann Cay; Mary Julia Eleanor DeCosta (called Nennen), a much older cousin, who appears to have helped raise Lalie; and her sister Nathalie, who married Phillip H. Hall in 1873. These three women, all in Walthourville, wrote of their daily lives, especially detailed descriptions and sketches of clothes being made; their health and that of others; family and neighborhood affairs, including visits to Savannah and elsewhere; visitors including a traveling photographer, August 1872; and their work as milliners and seamstresses. There is also occasional mention of novels read, church affairs, management of their farm and property, and job-hunting by family members.

There are also a number of letters to Lalie Fleming before and after her marriage from her friend Susan Olivia "Livie" Fleming, Red Bluff, Baker County, Ga. Livie Fleming's letters are similar to those described above, but she also writes of visiting Confederate prisoners in Savannah, Ga., in 1865; Yankee depredations in her area in 1865; sewing for hire for Black people in 1872; her courtship by F. M. Blount and plans for their marriage in 1876; and her extensive dental work in 1876. Livie Blount died in January 1878; there are two letters from her father, Thomas W. Fleming, to his brothers William and Peter describing her illness and death and an obituary.

Also included in papers, 1865-1879, are letters to Lalie Fleming from her other siblings, especially letters, 1872, about the illness of their mother, and a letter, 1873, from Charles Cay about his work in railroad camps; scattered letters to Eliza Ann Stetson Cay from her son Raymond about his farm and crops; a song and poem, 1872, used in the Walthourville May Day festival; and a brief school essay, 1879, on fishing by Lawrence Fleming, son of Lalie and T. Q. Fleming.

From May to August 1879, there is considerable business correspondence and papers of T. Q. Fleming including letters from Raymond Cay, Jr., about his management of the Flemings' farm and store during their absence; bills for supplies and mule rental; a letter giving reduced rates for Fleming's laborers on the Macon and Brunswick Railroad; and three payrolls for his crew.

From 1882 to 1920, there is scattered family correspondence (about 30 items), including letters to Lalie Fleming from her sons Lawrence and Louis about life at Georgia Military Academy, Savannah, 1882-1884; her daughter Mamie about her social life; and her son Lawrence, 1919, about his military career at Fort Sam Houston, Tex. There are also letters, 1883, to Lalie Fleming from her mother and Nennen similar to those described above; an 1888 death notice of Susan E. Fleming (b. 1819); letters, 1890, from Lawrence Fleming to his sibling about his life with the U.S. Cavalry at Fort Bayard, N.M.; letters, 1893, to Mamie Fleming from F. E. C., a suitor whose proposal she rejected; a letter, 1915, from Sidney Fleming to his nephew Ernest Fleming about a Confederate pension for T. Q. Fleming, Sr.; and letters, 1919-1920, from Josephine Cay to her brother Raymond and her sister Lalie Fleming.

Undated material (about 25 items) consists of family correspondence similar to that described above, primarily letters to Lalie Fleming from her mother, Nennen, and her siblings; two social notes to T. Q. Fleming and "Mr Cay"; and an unsigned poem.

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Contents list

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