Back to TopDescriptive Summary
- Repository
-
Southern Historical Collection
- Creator
-
Gwyn, James, 1812-1888.
- Title
- James Gwyn Papers, 1653-1946 (bulk 1830s-1880s)
- Call Number
- 298
- Language of Materials
- Materials in
English
- Extent
-
- Items: About 1000
- Linear Feet: 2.0
Abstract
James Gwyn I (1768-1850) married Amelia Lenoir (1765-1848). Their son James Gwyn II (1812-1888) was a planter, clerk of court,
and merchant of Wilkes County, N.C. He married Mary Anne Lenoir (1819-1899) in 1839, and, in 1852, they moved to Green Hill
Plantation near Ronda, in Wilkes County. Amelia Gwyn, daughter of James Gwyn I, married Major Lytle Hickerson (1793-1884),
a Wilkes County merchant, and lived at Roundabout. Hickerson and his brother-in-law James Gwyn II were business partners until
about 1848, when Gwyn left the business to take charge of the plantation at Green Hill and look after his aging parents.
The collection includes personal correspondence, chiefly 1830s to 1880s, financial and legal items, and other papers of the
family of James Gwyn and his wife, Mary Ann Lenoir Gwyn of Green Hill Plantation, Wilkes County, N.C., chiefly concerning
children's education at various schools, including the University of North Carolina; real estate; North Carolina politics;
and news of the Gwyn and related Lenoir and Hickerson families, particularly of Gwyn's brother-in-law Lytle Hickerson. Volumes
include diaries, 1852-1884, of James Gwyn and, 1850-1851, of his son Hugh, kept while he was a student at Emory and Henry
College, 1850-1851, and while he was teaching at Holly Springs, Miss., 1852; account books for various business activities;
and remedies and recipes for home and farm preparations.
Back to TopAdministrative Information
- Restrictions to Access
- No restrictions.
- Acquisitions Information
- Received from Thomas Felix Hickerson of Chapel Hill, N.C., 1939-1961 and 1970.
- Processing Information
- Processed by: Rebecca Hollingsworth, November 1992
- Encoded by: Peter Hymas, September 2004
- 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.
- Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the encoding of this finding aid.
- Preferred Citation
- [Identification of item], in the James Gwyn Papers #298, Southern Historical Collection, 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.
Back to TopOnline Catalog Headings
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
- Account books.
- College students--Diaries.
- Diaries.
- Education--North Carolina--History--19th century.
- Emory and Henry College.
- Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
- Green Hill Plantation (Wilkes County, N.C.).
- Gwyn family.
- Gwyn, Hugh A., fl. 1851-1852.
- Gwyn, James, 1812-1888.
- Gwyn, Mary Ann Lenoir, 1819-1899.
- Hickerson family.
- Hickerson, Lytle, 1793-1884.
- Holly Springs (Miss.)--Social life and customs.
- Lenoir family.
- Medicine--Formulae, receipts, prescriptions--History--19th century.
- Merchants--North Carolina--Wilkes County.
- North Carolina--Politics and government.
- Plantation life--North Carolina.
- Plantation owners--North Carolina.
- Plantations--North Carolina.
- Recipes.
- Teachers--Mississippi--History--19th century.
- University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--Social life and customs.
- Wilkes County (N.C.)--History--19th century.
Back to TopRelated Collections
Thomas Felix Hickerson Papers (#3809)
Lenoir Family Papers (#426)
Back to TopBiographical
James Gwyn I (1768-1850) married Amelia Lenoir (1765-1848). Their son James Gwyn II (1812-1888) was a planter, clerk of court,
and merchant of Wilkes County, N.C. He married Mary Anne Lenoir (1819-1899) in 1839, and, in 1852, they moved to Green Hill
Plantation near Ronda, in Wilkes County.
Amelia Gwyn, daughter of James Gwyn I, married Major Lytle Hickerson (1793-1884), a Wilkes County merchant, and lived at Roundabout.
Hickerson and his brother-in-law James Gwyn II were business partners until about 1848, when Gwyn left the business to take
charge of the plantation at Green Hill and look after his aging parents.
The fourteen Hickerson children included Dr. James Hickerson (1832-1918), who was the father of Thomas Felix Hickerson, the
donor of these papers.
Back to TopCollection Overview
The collection consists of correspondence, financial and legal papers, and other materials of descendants and relatives of
descendants of James Gwyn I (1768-1850) and his wife Mary Ann Lenoir Gwyn of Green Hill Plantation, Wilkes County, N.C. Papers chiefly concern children's education at various schools, including the University of North Carolina; real estate; North Carolina politics; and news of the Gwyn and related Lenoir and Hickerson families, particularly of Gwyn's brother-in-law Lytle Hickerson. A large part of the correspondence consists of family and social letters among members of the Gwyn, Lenoir, Hickerson, and related families, 1830s-1880s. The few 20th-century letters are family and social letters to Mary Gwyn and Laura Gwyn and to Annie Weaver Hickerson (Mrs. James Hickerson). Financial and legal papers include deeds, tax receipts, wills, bills and receipts, contracts, estate settlements, and other
items. Volumes include diaries, 1852-1884, of James Gwyn and, 1850-1851, of his son Hugh Gwyn, kept while he was a student at Emory and Henry College, 1850-1851, and while he was a teacher at Holly Springs, Miss., 1852; account books for various business activities; and remedies and recipes for home and farm preparations.
The earliest items, dated 1653 and 1661, are typed copies. There are a number of typescripts and photocopies among the manuscripts.
Back to TopArrangement of Collection
1. Loose Papers
1.1 1653-1860
1.2 1861-1946 and undated
2. Volumes
2.1. Account books, 1844-1904
2.2. Diaries, 1850-1878
2.3. Miscellaneous, 1856-1887
Back to TopItems Separated
Items separated include oversize volumes (V-298/S-1, S-2).
Back to TopDetailed Description of the Collection
1. Loose Papers, 1653-1946.
About 1000 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
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1.1. 1653-1860.
Early papers, 1653-1834, consist mostly of land grants, surveys, court summons, reports of tax fees, fines, forfeitures, and
other financial and legal items chiefly pertaining to Hugh Gwyn, William Lenoir, and James Gwyn I. Included are typed transcriptions
of Virginia court records dated 1653, 1661, 1748. Some of the papers from the 1820s are of Walter R. Lenoir as clerk of the Superior Court for Wilkes County. Later papers, 1834-1860, consist mostly of correspondence of James Gwyn II, his wife Mary Anne Lenoir Gwyn, and his brother-in-law
Major Lytle Hickerson.
Letters to Mary Anne Lenoir include many from James Gwyn, both before and after their marriage in 1839; from her cousin John Jones, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1836; and from several of her school friends. Letters to James Gwyn include several from his friend Roland Jones and from M. S. Stokes, who was in the United States Navy and wrote describing visits to Brazil and to St. Petersburg, Russia, 1837, including a description of a visit to his ship by Czar Nicholas I (1796-1855); letters containing references to various schools, including Emory and Henry College in Virginia and Salem Academy and the Bingham School in North Carolina; and many letters, beginning in 1835, concerning North Carolina politics.
Other items include scattered accounts of the merchant firm of Gwyn and Hickerson, 1843-1856; bills of sale for slaves, 1844-1846; statements, 1846, of taxes, fees, and fines received by James Gwyn as clerk of the Superior Court for Wilkes
County; a handwritten newspaper "The Nation State," Wilkesboro, N.C., 1856; accounts, 1859, pertaining to James Gwyn's activities as trustee for Philip Dowell; and other financial and legal items.
Folder
1
1653-1822
Folder
2
1823-1834
Folder
3
1835-1836
 |
Digital version: Letter from John T. Jones to Mary Ann Lenoir, 11 February 1836 |
Folder
4
1837-1838
Folder
5
1839
Folder
6
1840-1842
Folder
7
1843-1845
Folder
8
1846-1849
Folder
9
1850-1852
Folder
10a
1853-1857
Folder
10b
1858-1860
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1.2. 1861-1946.
Personal letters of various members of the Gwyn family, concerning the progress of the Civil War; Reconstruction politics in North Carolina and Louisiana; race relations in Tennessee and North Carolina, 1898; genealogical data on the Gwyn family, 1907-1909 and 1919; and a description of a trip to France and Germany, 1913. Undated items include a story, poems, household remedies, and several more papers about Gwyn family history.
Folder
11
1861-1865
Folder
12
1866-1869
Folder
13
1870-1876
Folder
14
1877-1878
Folder
15
1879-1880
Folder
16
1881-1886
Folder
17
1887-1889
Folder
18
1890-1895
Folder
19
1896-1903
Folder
20
1904-1908
Folder
21
1909-1911
Folder
22
1912-1946
Folder
23-25
Undated
Folder
26
Family histories
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9 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
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2.1. Account Books, 1844-1904.
Folder
27
Volume S-1, 1 December 1844, 29 pp.
Gwyn and Hickerson, Wilkesboro, N.C., inventory of notes, judgments, etc., belonging to Gwyn and Hickerson, with interest
to December 1, 1844
Folder
28
Volume S-2, 1 January 1846, 31 pp.
Gwyn and Hickerson, inventory of notes with interest to 1 January 1846.
Folder
29
Volume 3, 1854-1904, 25 pp.
Section 1: Inventory of property of James Gwyn, taken annually. January 1854-January 1863, 10 pp. Section 2 (in the back of
volume with book reversed): Miscellaneous accounts and financial records, the first dated 1839, but apparently entered 1858.
Also included is a list of property and money received by James Gwyn from his father-in-law, Thomas Lenoir, and a record of
property advanced to his children, 1868-1895, with a few other entries to 1904 by his executor.
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2.2. Diaries, 1850-1878.
Folder
30
Volume 4, 20 July 1850-31 August 1851, 284 pp.
Diary of Hugh A. Gwyn, Wilkes County, N.C., kept while he was a student at Emory and Henry College and on vacation at home.
The diary has rather full notes kept almost daily, dealing with college life and religious affairs and other activities of a young man.
Folder
31
Typed transcription of Volume 4, 205 pp.
Folder
32
Volume 5, March 1852-June 1852, 31 pp.
Typed transcription of diary (location of original unknown) of Hugh A. Gwyn while he was teaching at Holly Springs, Miss., and looking forward to his marriage to Sallie Dickenson, which took place at Berlin, Tenn., on 9 June. The diary contains details of Gwyn's daily life, including many conversations quoted.
Folder
33
Volume 6, 1852-1877, 274 pp.
Section 1: "Remarkable events and other memorandums," a diary kept intermittently by James Gwyn in Wilkes County, N.C., recording personal and farm activity, 20 April 1852-27
February 1877. Section 2 (in the back of the volume, with the book reversed): James Gwyn's account book, 1 January 1852-2
March 1877. Personal and plantation accounts, expenses, etc.
Folder
34
Volume 7, 9 April 1877-29 December 1884, 185 pp.
Diary of James Gwyn continued from Volume 6 above. The first entry reviews the events of March 1877, when Gwyn noted that
he did not keep his diary. Entries are frequent, but irregular, as in Volume 6.
Folder
35
Typed transcription of Volume 7, 98 pp.
Folder
36
Volume 8, 1877-1878, 29 pp.
Fragments of a "Sunday" diary, containing notes on religious and historical reading, commentary on sermons heard, and mention of members of the Gwyn
family, especially Walter B. Gwyn (1853-1911). It may have been written by one of Walter's sisters at Green Hill or it may
have been written by a friend of the family.
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2.3. Miscellaneous, 1856-1887.
Folder
37
Volume 9, 1856-1887, 51 pp.
Section 1, 33 pp.: Stock register kept by James Gwyn, April 1856-1867, 1886-1887. Also included are newspaper clippings giving
a chronology of military events of the Civil War, 1860-1861 and 1864. Section 2, 18 pp.: "Recipes and useful memoranda," cures for humans and animals, directions for making candles, wine, waterproofing, harness grease, and many other preparations
for home and farm.
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