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Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Hargrave Family Papers #4865, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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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.

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.

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• Agriculture--North Carolina--Photographs.
• Families--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Freedmen--North Carolina.
• Hargrave family.
• Lexington (N.C.)--History.
• Lexington (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Photography--Equipment and supplies--History--19th century.
• Plantations--North Carolina--Davidson County.
• Premo Camera Company.
• Real property--North Carolina--History.
• Slave bills of sale--North Carolina.
• Slavery--North Carolina.
• Soldiers--United States--Correspondence--History--World War, 1914-1918.
• Taylor, Zachary, 1784-1850.
• Texas--Emigration and immigration--History--19th century.

The Hargraves emigrated from England to Virginia in 1635, eventually moving to Guilford County, N.C., where Jesse Hargrave was born in 1777. In 1804, he moved to what is now Davidson County, N.C.. He became a very successful merchant and purchased land that stretched from the town limits south to the Yadkin River, as well as land along what would become Main Street in Lexington.

In 1822, Jesse Hargrave worked to establish the county of Davidson and was elected, with William Bodenhamer, to represent the county in the North Carolina House of Representatives. In this position, the two representatives and Senator Alexander Cladcleugh sponsored legislation to make Lexington the center of the county and the county seat of government. Jesse Hargrave, Benjamin Rouseville, and Alexander Caldcleugh sold 25 acres to the state for the sum of fifty cents to serve as the site for the county courthouse.

Jesse Hargrave and his wife Elizabeth Jane Lindsay had seven children: Robert L., Samuel, Alfred, John, Franklin, Jesse Hamilton, and Susan. Samuel and Alfred both served in the North Carolina state legislature. Jesse Hamilton Hargrave managed to keep his property through the Civil War.

Hargrave family materials include letters, 1839-1918, some from family friends, one of whom moved to Texas; another who had witnessed Zachery Taylor's 1850 funeral in Washington, D.C., and wrote about the political climate in the capital; and another who was serving with American forces in France during World War I. Financial materials, 1787-1921, include deeds for plantation land near Lexington, Davidson County, N.C., and routine bills and receipts. Slave materials, 1824-1866, include bills and receipts relating to slaves and slave sales and a few items relating to freedmen becoming tenant farmers. Also included is an 1899 catalog from the Premo Camera Company and several photographs of the 1899 harvest at the Hargrave farm.

• Image folder (PF-4865/1)
• Oversize papers (OPF-4685/1-2)