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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 FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 32.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 20,000 items) |
| Abstract | Johnston and Wood family members owned and operated Hayes Plantation on the Albemarle Sound near Edenton, N.C. Members of the Johnston family include Gabriel Johnston (1699-1752), royal governor of the colony of North Carolina and planter; his brother Samuel Johnston (1702-1757), surveyor-general of the colony of North Carolina and planter; Samuel Johnston's son, Samuel Johnston (1733-1816), North Carolina governor, state and federal legislator, delegate to the Continental Congress, judge, lawyer, politician, and planter; and James Cathcart Johnston (1782-1865), son of Samuel Johnston (1733-1816), planter and businessman. Members of the Wood family include Edward Wood (1820-1872), planter and businessman; his wife Caroline Moore Gilliam Wood (1824-1886); and their sons, Edward Wood (1851-1898) and John Gilliam Wood (1853-1920). The Hayes Collection, named after Hayes Plantation, documents the lives of three generations of the Johnston family and two generations of the Wood family whose members owned and operated the plantation. The collection consists of correspondence, diaries, financial materials (account books, receipts, bonds), legal materials (wills, agreements, indentures, deeds of property and land, petitions, judgments, and suits), and photographs that reflect the varied interests and activities of Johnston and Wood family members. These included politics, particularly of the colonial era, the American Revolution, and the early United States; the development and management of several plantations, including Hayes in Chowan County, Caledonia in Halifax County, and Poplar Plains in Pasquotank County, as well as several fisheries, of which Greenfield in Chowan County was most prominent; the slave labor system, including the sale, purchase, and hiring-out of slaves, and the use of slaves as overseers; runaway slaves; merchants and mercantilism; banking and finance; trade and shipping; the homefront during the Civil War; the fishing industry during the Civil War; Reconstruction and the transition to a tenant labor and sharecropping system; contemporary family life and social customs; men's education, including higher education at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina; women's education; health, mental illness, and medical treatments; travel; the economy; and the law, particularly estate administration. Pictures include photographs of portraits of Johnston and Wood family members and others, as well as images of the Hayes plantation house. |
| Creator | Johnston family.
Wood family. |
| Language | English |
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Subject Headings
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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Biographical
Information
Gabriel Johnston (1699-1752) was born in Scotland, but moved to North Carolina in 1734 following his appointment as royal governor to the colony. He married Penelope Golland, step-daughter of Governor Charles Eden and widow of William Maule, John Lovick, and George Phenney. They had one daughter, Penelope, who in 1758 married John Dawson, son of the president of William and Mary College. Gabriel Johnston also had children named Polly, Caroline, Isabel, and Henry, although their mother's identity is unclear. Following his wife Penelope's death, Gabriel Johnston married Frances Button, who after Gabriel's death would later marry John Rutherford. During his political career Gabriel Johnston worked to improve the collection of quitrents and negotiated a partial settlement of the boundary dispute between North and South Carolina. He also accumulated over a thousand acres of land, including the Possum Quarter and Fishing Creek plantations in Granville County, N.C.; Conahoe in Tyrell County, N.C.; and Mount Gallant in Northampton County, N.C. He lived at Eden House on the Chowan River in Bertie County, N.C., where he died in 1752.
Gabriel Johnston's brother, Samuel Johnston (1702-1757), moved to North Carolina in 1735 after having been appointed surveyor-general of the colony. At his death, he owned over 10,000 acres of land in Craven County, N.C., and Onslow County, N.C. He grew corn and indigo and made tar. Prior to leaving Scotland, Samuel Johnston married Helen Scrymsoure and with her had several children: Jean, who married George Blair, an Edenton merchant; Hannah, who married James Iredell, Edenton lawyer and later United States Supreme Court justice; and Isabella, who was engaged to Joseph Hewes, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, but died before the marriage took place.
Samuel and Helen's son, Samuel Johnston (1733-1816), a lawyer, politician, and planter, was born in Dundee, Scotland, on 15 December 1733 and came with his parents to North Carolina when he was two years old. He left the colony in 1750 to study in New Haven, Conn., and was later admitted to the law school at Yale College in 1751. He returned to Edenton in the fall of 1753 to read law under Thomas Barker. In May 1755, Johnston was appointed clerk of the Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery for the Edenton district, and, on 16 October 1756, he was admitted to the bar. He was elected to the Colonial Assembly in 1759 and purchased the post of deputy naval officer of the colony in 1770. He served in both positions until 1775. During the Revolutionary War, Samuel Johnston served in a number of political capacities. He was a member of the First and Second Provincial Congresses, served as president for the Third and Fourth Provincial Congresses, and acted as treasurer of the Northern District between 1775 and 1777. Johnston was consulted in the drafting of the state constitution and served as paymaster of troops for the Edenton district. In 1779, he served as state senator for Chowan County, but left the position in 1780 to serve as one of North Carolina's delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pa. In 1782, Johnston returned to his law practice, which he had closed prior to the war, and again served as state senator for Chowan County from 1783 to 1784. He was elected governor of North Carolina in 1787, and served in that capacity until 1789. As president of North Carolina's constitutional conventions of 1788 and 1789, he assisted in the ratification of the United States Constitution. In 1790, he moved to Philadelphia, Pa., where he served in Congress for three years. Between 1800 and 1803, he was a judge on the North Carolina Superior Court of Law and Equity. Johnston had extensive landholdings, most significant were his three plantations: Hayes in Chowan County, Caledonia in Halifax County, and Hermitage in Martin County. He also owned acreage in Pasquotank, Currituck, Tyrell, and Bertie counties. He married Frances Cathcart, daughter of Dr. William Cathcart, in May 1770. He and his wife had nine children, only four of whom survived to adulthood: Penelope, who married John Swann; Frances; Helen; and James Cathcart.
James Cathcart Johnston (1782-1865), planter and businessman, was born 25 June 1782, in Edenton, N.C. He studied at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), from which he graduated in 1799. He returned to North Carolina to read law under his father's direction, and received a license to practice on 11 April 1804. Politics and law, however, did not interest him as it did his father, and Johnston elected to forge his livelihood in agriculture and trade, becoming one of the most prosperous North Carolina planters, cultivating his familial lands at Hayes, Caledonia, and Poplar Plains, as well as others that he purchased over the years. His main cash crop was corn, but he also grew wheat and cotton. The first plantation that Johnston managed was Poplar Plains, his father's Pasquotank County plantation on the Pasquotank River four miles below Elizabeth City. In 1804, he began extended visits to the plantation to oversee its development and by 1813 had built a two-story house, a kitchen, a smokehouse, and three barns. In all, he farmed 2740 acres at Poplar Plains and at adjoining Pasquotank plantations called Body and Salem, the latter purchased from Joseph Blount in 1819. The largest of Johnston's plantations was Caledonia, located in Halifax County along the Roanoke River and inherited from his father. By 1860, he had increased its size to 7834 acres worked by 271 slaves. The plantation was managed by a succession of overseers, among them William B. Hathaway and Henry J. Futrell.
James Cathcart Johnston received Hayes Plantation by deed of gift dated 29 December 1814 from his father, who in his will instructed James to build a residence there for himself and his sisters. Johnston commissioned William Nichols, an English architect living in Edenton, to design the plantation house. Construction began in the fall of 1815, and the Johnstons were living in it two years later. In 1860, James C. Johnston owned 1374 acres of land at Hayes and 103 slaves. Johnston lived at Hayes, but spent much of his time traveling to Caledonia and Poplar Plains to oversee personally their operation. His largest money crop was corn, and he also grew cotton and wheat. He raised some livestock, mostly hogs, sheep, and cattle. The plantation products to be sold were floated downriver on his own boats to storage firms at Plymouth, Elizabeth City, or Edenton. Then they were shipped, often by James's own schooners or canal boats to markets in New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, or Savannah. Commission merchants in these cities handled James' profits, buying supplies for the plantations or investing the money in bank stocks and treasury notes for him. Johnston was keenly interested in agricultural reform and experimented with many inventions in agricultural machinery. At Hayes, he constructed a windmill that he later dismantled and replaced with steam engine-powered saw, grist, and flour mills. These proved to be worthwhile investments, producing lumber, flour, and corn meal. He experimented with the Cornell machine that made barrel staves, bought cotton gins and steam-powered threshing machines, and used fertilizers. He supported construction of canals as inland waterways over which to ship his products to market. He also had a vested interest in the shipping and ship building industries, owning many of the boats and schooners used to move his product to market. In addition to the profits made from his plantations, he invested heavily in bank stocks and treasury notes. Johnston never married and had no children, though his nephew, James Cathcart Johnston, and his nephew's wife lived with him at Hayes for some time, and he financially supported a number of other relatives. Johnston doubted that any of his relatives could adequately run the plantations, and therefore bequeathed his properties to three friends: Christopher W. Hollowell, Henry J. Futrell, and Edward Wood.
Edward Wood (1820-1872), planter and businessman, ran several steam mills and fisheries prior to inheriting Hayes Plantation. In 1843, he opened a sawmill in Gatesville, N.C., where he made barrel headings and staves in addition to shingles. In 1844, he established Montpelier, a fishery on the Albemarle Sound. A year later, he had accumulated enough capital to purchase several town lots in Gatesville, 800 acres of land belonging to his father-in-law's estate, and several slaves. During the 1840s, Wood moved to Greenfield Plantation in Chowan County where he grew wheat, corn, and oats, and raised cattle, hogs, and sheep. In 1850, he acquired partial ownership in a steam mill at Hertford. In 1856, he bought town lots in Edenton and became a co-partner in the mercantile firm of J. M. Cox and Company of Hertford. Wood also was president of the Albemarle Sound Navigation Company, which owned steamboats and schooners that carried freight and passengers. During the Civil War, Wood was arrested and held hostage pending the release of a Confederate prisoner. It was during this time that he made met James Cathcart Johnston, who participated in negotiations to free him. Shortly thereafter, Johnston selected Wood to be one of his heirs and co-executor of his estate. Following James Cathcart Johnston's death on 9 May 1865, Wood obtained the Hayes Plantation, including its plantation house and furnishings; Johnston's stock; and all the money Johnston had at his death. Towards the end of his life, Wood managed over 5000 acres at Hayes, Belvedere, Mulberry Hill, Atholl, Greenfield, Somerset, Ashland, Winslow, and Spruill farms, and had major crops in cotton, corn, wheat, orchard fruits, and vegetables. He also owned successful fisheries at Skinner Point, Greenfield, Montpelier, Frying Pan, and Drummond Point. Wood married Caroline Moore Gilliam (1824-1886) and with her had ten children: Mary Francis (born and died in 1845), Sarah Elizabeth (1846-1876), who married Octavius Coke, a North Carolina secretary of state, in 1906; Mary Moore (1848-1893); Edward (1851-1898); John Gilliam (1853-1920); James (1856-1876); Francis (1858-1926); Annie Augusta (b. 1861); Julian Gilliam (b. 1863); and Henry Gilliam (b. 1868).
At Wood's death in 1872, his wife Caroline and his brother William C. Wood took over the management of his properties. Caroline was active in running the Hayes Farm and had extensive correspondence with the wholesalers in the northern markets. Following the death of William C. Wood, Caroline was assisted by her sons, Edward and John Gilliam, who were educated at the University of Virginia, and Frank, who attended the University of North Carolina. Edward and Frank were instrumental in running the fisheries, while John Gilliam spent most of his time administering to the farms. Upon the decline of the fishing industry in the Albemarle Sound region, John Gilliam and Frank enlarged the farms to grow cotton, peanuts, and fruits. They were involved in the establishment of the Edenton Peanut Company, the Chowan Cotton Oil and Fertilizer Company, and the Edenton Cotton Mill Company, of which Frank became the president. He also served on the Chowan County Board of Commissioners and on the North Carolina Board of Agriculture. He and John Gilliam were directors of the Bank of Edenton, founded in 1894 by their brother Julian Gilliam.
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Scope and Content
The collection consists of correspondence, diaries, financial materials (account books, receipts, bonds) and legal materials (wills, agreements, indentures, deeds of property and land, petitions, judgments, and suits) that reflect the varied interests and activities of Johnston and Wood family members at Hayes, as well as Caledonia in Halifax County, Poplar Plains in Pasquotank County, and other plantations. Topics include politics, particularly of the colonial era, the American Revolution, and the early United States; the development and management of several plantations, with reference to agricultural reform, crop yields, market conditions and cost of goods necessary to run the plantation, hiring of overseers, and general concerns regarding livestock health and planting; fisheries, of which Greenfield in Chowan County was most prominent; the slave labor system including the sale, purchase, and hiring-out of slaves, and the use of slaves as overseers; merchants and mercantilism; banking and financial concerns, such as investments in bank stock and treasury notes, and the decline of banks and currency particularly in times of social upheaval; trade and shipping, including the hiring of trading vessels, insurance and damaged goods, interruptions in trade, market conditions and prices; Reconstruction and the transition to a tenant labor and sharecropping system; contemporary family life and social customs, including marriage and men's and women's education; health, mental illness, and medical treatments; travel; the economy; and the law, particularly estate administration. Pictures include photographs of portraits of Johnston and Wood family members and others, as well as images of the Hayes plantation house.
Parts of the collection were microfilmed in the 1980s, at which time the collection was divided into two subgroups identified as microfilmed or unmicrofilmed materials. Each subgroup is divided into Johnston or Wood family series. Materials donated after the microfilming of the collection can be found in the unmicrofilmed series.
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Series Quick Links
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Subgroup 1. Microfilmed materials.
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Series 1. Johnston Family, 1694-1865 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence and financial and legal materials of three generations of the Johnston family of North Carolina and others. Of note are materials relating to Gabriel Johnston (1699-1752), royal governor of the colony of North Carolina; and his brother, Samuel Johnston (1702-1757), planter and surveyor-general of the colony of North Carolina; Samuel Johnston's son, Samuel Johnston (1733-1816), lawyer, governor, United States senator, judge, and planter; and Samuel Johnston's (1733-1816) son, James Cathcart Johnston (1782-1865), planter and businessman.
Materials provide insight into North Carolina and United States history from the colonial period through the Civil War. Researchers will find the series rich in information on government and politics at both a state and national level; antebellum plantation management, including crop production and agricultural reform, sales and trade, overseers' roles, and the slave labor system; contemporary family life and social customs; education and school life; health, mental illness, and medical treatment; law, particularly estate administration; merchants and mercantilism; and banking and finance.
This series has been divided into two subseries based on material type. The first subseries contains loose papers while the second contains bound volumes, both of which have been arranged chronologically.
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Subseries 1.1. Johnston Family Papers 1694-1865.
Arrangement: chronological.
Personal, business, and political correspondence, and financial and legal materials documenting the lives of three generations of the Johnston family of Edenton, N.C., as well as early North Carolina and United States history. Researchers will find the series rich in information on government and politics at both a state and national level during the Colonial period, the Revolutionary War, and the early United States; antebellum plantation management including crop production and agricultural reform, shipping and trade, overseers' roles, and the slave labor system; contemporary family life and social customs; education and school life; health, mental illness, and medical treatment; law, particularly estate administration; merchants and mercantilism; and banking and finance. Legal and financial materials include indentures, deeds, surveys, wills, judgments and suits, bills of lading, receipts, slave bills of sale, account sheets and ledgers, and inventories.
The series has been divided into three descriptive sections based on significant shifts that signal a change in the cast of characters and/or the subjects treated during a specific time span.
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Subseries 1.1.1. Johnston Family Papers, 1694-1759.
Arrangement: chronological.
Financial papers and legal documents include agreements and indentures, deeds of land, legal suits, and wills that relate to Gabriel Johnston and his wife Penelope, step-daughter of Governor Charles Eden and the widow of William Maule, John Lovick, and George Phenney. The bulk of the materials relate to estate settlements for all of Penelope's previous husbands. However, there are a few land surveys that may have been prepared by Samuel Johnston (1705-1757). Materials relating to Gabriel Johnston's political career are few, although there are papers relating to the collection of quitrents, the dispute over the North and South Carolina border, and a 1748 address to the House of Burgesses. Some land grants date from the 1850s.
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Subseries 1.1.2. Johnston Family Papers, 1750-1810.
Arrangement: chronological.
Papers relating chiefly to Samuel Johnston (1733-1816) including personal, business, and political correspondence; financial papers, including account sheets, bills and receipts, inventories, and merchandise ledgers; and legal documents, such as judgments and suits, agreements and indentures, deeds of land and property, and wills. Papers highlight a broad spectrum of subjects, including early North Carolina and United States politics and government; social, economic, and military developments during wartime; law, especially estate administration; family life and social customs; health; education and school life; plantation administration, including slavery; and mercantilism.
From 1750 to 1757, letters from Samuel Johnston (1702-1757) to his son, deal with the younger Johnston's financial situation, his law education, and his procurement of a superior court clerkship. A 1757 letter concerns the death of the older Johnston's wife in child birth.
Following Governor Gabriel Johnston's death in 1752, there is extensive correspondence, legal notes and petitions, receipts, and land surveys and deeds pertaining to the settlement of his estate. Starting in 1756, there was a long series of court disputes over the settlement of the estate. In the first one, his executors brought Gabriel's widow Frances Rutherford to court for having failed to release Gabriel's land and personal effects to his daughter and Frances' stepdaughter Penelope. Penelope lived with her stepmother until 1854, when Frances married John Rutherford. Shortly thereafter, Penelope was removed from the guardianship of the Rutherfords and sent to live with Dr. William Cathcart. Later she lived with Governor Robert Dinwiddie in Williamsburg, Va., where she met John Dawson, whom she married in 1758. These events are well documented in the correspondence of this series.
The remainder of the settlement disputes involve the distribution of money that Gabriel left to his relatives. Henry Laurens was extensively involved in obtaining the money for the executors, and his letters reveal the difficulties in fulfilling the stipulations of Gabriel's will. Other individuals involved in the settlement were Gabriel Johnston's other daughter, Isabel Johnston, and members of the Ferrier (sometimes spelled Ferriar) family in Largo, Scotland.
Correspondence with the Ferrier family, chiefly Elizabeth "Eliza" Ferrier, Gabriel Johnston's sister, her husband John Ferrier, and their sons James Ferrier and Robert Ferrier, begins in 1757. Although many of the letters refer to developments in the Gabriel Johnston estate settlement, a broad range of topics also are discussed, including Ferrier/Ferriar and Johnston family genealogy, local politics and social attitudes towards government, economic concerns, business and trade, and health issues, including a letter describing the death of Gabriel Johnston's son Henry from the "bloody flux" in Edinburgh on 6 December 1771.
Correspondence with Penelope Johnston Dawson, Samuel Johnston's (1733-1816) cousin, begins in the late 1750s and continues throughout this subseries. Her letters detail family and social life, social customs such as marriage and courtship, education of children, and health concerns, particularly the ague fever and an outbreak of small pox at Hayes in 1773. Following the death of her husband, Penelope also sought Johnston's advice in regards to plantation business, such as the selling of tar and livestock and the purchase of sundry goods. In 1772, she wrote several letters criticizing an overseer's ill treatment of slaves and asked Johnston to intercede.
Correspondence with business partners and friends also discuss plantation management. Letters provide insight into the functioning of Samuel Johnston's three major plantations--Hayes in Chowan County, Caledonia in Halifax County, and Hermitage in Martin County--and mention subjects such as the sale, purchase, and hiring-out of slaves; overseer recommendations; and general concerns regarding livestock and planting. Samuel Johnston's personal financial materials, including account sheets, receipts, inventories, and surveys for his various plantations, are also a rich source of information on plantation management. Beginning in the early 1780s there are annual statements of taxable property for Johnston's land holdings, which often include lists of slave names. Other slave materials include bills of sale and receipts for medical treatment.
Political and military developments of the 18th century are frequently discussed within the correspondence. Several letters mention events surrounding the French and Indian War. Also included are a description of a bill for the protection of the colonies against the French (October 1755) and Henry Johnston's recount of Major James Grant's battle at Fort Duquesne, Pa. (20 September 1758).
Later correspondence documents events leading up to the American Revolution and include a letter regarding the repeal of the Stamp Act (1765) and a 10 June 1771 account of an engagement during the War of the Regulation (possibly the Battle of Alamance). Additionally, correspondence, particularly that with Thomas Barker, Samuel Johnston's agent in England during the 1760s and 1770s, discuss the escalating tension between Great Britain and the colonies and provide insight into how the general population, both in America and Great Britain, viewed the declining relations.
During the Revolutionary War period, letters document the establishment and training of militia troops, particularly the Independent Company of Edenton and the activities of Colonel Andrew Knox; the procurement of gun powder, turpentine, tar, arms and other supplies, particularly drums and fifes and a flag with the words "Liberty or Death" (29 June 1775); and covert intelligence activities. Letters also describe events in North Carolina, such as resistance from the Regulators and others living in the western part of the state, defense of the coast and port closures, and public backlash against individuals who were not friendly to the American cause, including several instances of tar and feathering.
Political developments of this era are documented, including the election of officials to the Provincial Congress and the General Congress in Philadelphia, Pa., and the drafting of the Constitution. Following the war, correspondence provides insight into Johnston's activities while acting as the governor, and later, senator of North Carolina.
Following his term in the senate Johnston returned to Hermitage Plantation in Martin County, N.C. He continued to correspond with Joseph Anthony and John Maybin, his business contacts in Philadelphia, and their letters give accounts of the plantation products sold for Johnston; of commodities, foodstuffs, and bank stock bought for him; and of political and economic developments throughout the nation. Similar letters also were received from the merchant and investor Robert Lenox and his philanthropist son, John Lenox, both of New York City. Materials related to George Blair and Hindley and Needham, a large mercantile firm, reveal much about merchants and trade at that time.
After the war, Johnston's correspondence with relatives and business agents in Great Britain, particularly Alexander Elmsley and Peter Elmsley of England, discuss foreign market news, the growing conflict between England and France, the French Revolution, and American anxiety over the Louisiana Territory (14 August 1802).
Also of note are estate and bankruptcy settlements handled by Johnston. Of particular interest are those materials related to Sir Nathaniel Duckenfield and his mother Margaret Pearson, for whom Samuel tried to recover land confiscated during the Revolutionary War.
Materials of James Cathcart Johnston (1782-1865) begin around 1793 and consist of letters written to his father while attending the College of New Jersey. Between 1799 and 1805, correspondence between James Cathcart Johnston and his classmates touches on such topics as business, courtship, dueling, and suicide.
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Subseries 1.1.3. Johnston Family Papers, 1811-1865.
Arrangement: chronological.
Chiefly business and personal correspondence and financial and legal papers concerning the operation of James Cathcart Johnston's plantations and his involvement in the shipping industry. Financial materials include account sheets; inventories; slave bills of sale; bills of lading; receipts for overseers wages and medical treatments for both Johnston's family and his slaves; and tax information. Legal documents include land surveys and deeds, agreements and indentures, judgment and suits, and wills.
Letters of overseers, shippers, and merchants to Johnston reveal many details of plantation administration, such as farming procedures, planting and harvesting of crops, the volume of production each season, delivery of crops to various local storage firms, payments of accounts, and the supplies needed to run the plantation. Materials also document the health and discipline of slaves and give some insights into slave life. Johnston's slaves, for example, were allowed to raise and sell crops from their own garden plots and some were entrusted with positions of leadership and left with little or no supervision while Johnston was on vacation or trips to his other plantations. Records also document the provision of shoes, hats, blankets, and medical care. There are also some letters and bills concerning run away slaves that were caught and held in local jails.
Johnston's letters also discuss the successes and failures of many of his agricultural and machinery experiments. Construction projects, such as buildings at Poplar Plains (1811-1815), a new residence at Hayes, and a windmill at Hayes that was later dismantled and replaced with steam engine-powered saw, grist and flour mills, are also well documented.
Letters document the hiring of trading vessels and shipping contracts, insurance and compensation for damaged goods, interruptions in trade, market conditions and prices, and investment of profits. Other financial concerns include Johnston's investments in bank stock and treasury notes, the decline of banks and currency during the 1820s and 1830s, and the success of Johnston's lumber mill and the sale of timber.
Notable business correspondents include the following people and firms: John Wilkes, Zachariah Howell, William B. Hathaway, Henry J. Futrell, James Palmer, John Spears, and C. W. Hollowell, all overseers or managers on the plantations; Peter, a slave who acted as an overseer's assistant; Angelo Garibaldo, Johnston's private river captain and shipper; Clark, Carnal and Co., John Popelston, John C. Ehringhaus, Clark, Cox and Co., James Gordon and Jacob N. Gordon, Bryan Clark Co., J. and O. Fearing, Samuel Kissam, Bryan Maitland Co., all wholesale houses in Plymouth, Elizabeth City and Edenton, N.C., that stored and shipped products to market; Hardy Brothers Maitland, Kennedy and Co., commission merchants in Norfolk, Va.; Whedbee Dickinson, commission merchants in Baltimore, M; Robert Lenox Son, Blount Jackson Co., Bryan Maitland Co., Sawyer Whedbee Co., Hicks and Smith Co., Brown and DeRosset Co., Williams, Bee and Co., John S. Bryan and Co., J.G. Hicks Co., commission merchants in New York City.
Johnston's family life is most evident in letters relating to the financial support and education provided for various relatives. Johnston paid for the education of many relatives and friends, particularly the Iredell grandchildren of his aunt Hannah Iredell and the Alston and Johnston grandchildren of his uncle John Johnston. Letters from Thomas Johnston detail the life of a student at the University of North Carolina between 1819 and 1821 and his apprenticeship to study medicine in Hillsborough. In 1820, Wooton Wright Hawkes wrote about his education and his impression of the people in Paris. Annie Iredell wrote several letters in 1831 describing her courses of study while in Philadelphia, Pa.
Beginning in 1838 correspondence focuses on Joseph Blount, who suffered from mental illness. Letters provide insight into the medical treatment of and social attitudes towards mental illness during this period. Charles Evans of the Friends Asylum in Philadelphia, Pa., details Blount's mental health and treatments, and provides recommendations for his future well-being. Blount wrote many letters concerning his health and daily activities, and Johnston received reports from family members and friends that express concern regarding Blount's outward behavior.
Other notable personal correspondents include members of the Alston and John T. Johnston families, who migrated to Tennessee and Mississippi in the 1830s and wrote of their experiences; Ebenezer Pettigrew and William S. Pettigrew, who often wrote of their opinions on local politics, plantation management, and slavery; and James Johnston Pettigrew, who gave detailed accounts of his European tour and his opinions on antebellum Charleston society.
During his leisure hours, Johnston traveled a great deal. He frequently journeyed to New York City and Saratoga Springs to visit friends. In 1845, he leased a cabin at White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County, Va., and thereafter became a regular summer and fall visitor to this and other fashionable mountain resorts in Virginia. In 1859, he bought a farm at Cedar Creek in Bath County, Va., built a house and log cabins, and began planting crops. However, the outbreak of the Civil War curtailed his plans to create a mountain retreat.
Beginning in 1860, correspondence documents the social unrest caused by political tensions between the North and the South. As early as June, James Johnston Pettigrew wrote of his fear that this discord would eventually erupt in war. Letters from correspondents in New York and Baltimore reflect the state of politics and the disruptions in trade as early as November. Johnston's letters to friends and business partners are highly critical of the Secession Movement of 1860-1861.
In 1861, letters concern banks and banking, stocks and bonds, and the fluctuations in the value of currency. Frequent letters from Captain Angelo Gariboldo document the state of trade and shipping during the early years of the war.
Letters from overseers continue to document the management of Johnston's various plantations throughout the war, with references to runaway slaves and slaves' unwillingness to work. Later correspondence mentions the drafting of slaves to fight in the Confederate States Army. Johnston's letters to Henry Futrell and C. W. Hollowell give his opinions on slavery and the war.
There are very few letters from soldiers, but letters from business associates and family members describe military engagements and reflect on the effects of the war on society. Letters from William Hardy of Norfolk, Va., document the burning of the Naval yard, blockade of the harbor, and arrival of troops in 1861. Letters from women, particularly of the Iredell family, often relay news received from sons on the battlefield.
Throughout the Civil War, James C. Johnston lived at Hayes with his cousin, James Cathcart Johnston Jr., and his wife, who helped with the management of the plantation. Edenton, like many other southern towns, suffered from pillaging by "buffaloes," Yankees, and Confederate guerrillas, and fear of these attacks lead James Cathcart Johnston Jr. and his wife to flee the plantation on three separate occasions. In 1863, following the third such incident, Johnston hired a man to help him manage his mills, farmed with the help of friends, and bought small lots of land to get rid of his worthless paper securities. He also wrote his will, in which he gave his real and personal property to three friends and made them co-executors of his estate. Edward Wood, an Edenton businessman, received his Chowan County property, including Hayes. Christopher W. Hollowell, a resident of Pasquotank County who had managed Johnston's farms in that area was given Poplar Plains and the other Pasquotank properties. Caledonia's manager, Henry J. Futrell, inherited the property in Halifax and Northampton counties.
In th summer of 1864, Union forces raided Hayes. Johnston subsequently demanded protection and the military government issued him a safeguard. It stated that Johnston was a "loyal and well disposed citizen" and that the Union forces were to respect his person and property. At the end of the war, most of Johnston's properties emerged relatively unscathed.
Johnston died in 1865. His cousins challenged the legitimacy of his will and its accompanying letters of instruction written to the executors, claiming that Johnston had been mentally unstable when he had written the will and the letters. The will was finally established as legal in 1867, but the estate was not settled until 1871 because additional suits were brought against its executors. For more information on the settling of the Johnston estate see the Wood family papers (Series 2.1.1).