Back to TopDescriptive Summary
- Repository
-
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
- Creator
-
Lewis Family.
- Title
- Lewis Family Papers, 1730-1979, 1996-1998
- Call Number
- 427
- Extent
-
- About 500 items (1.5 linear feet)
Abstract
Lewis family members include Exum Lewis (d. ca. 1839), planter, postmaster, and county court justice of Mount Prospect Plantation,
Edgecombe County, N.C. Prominent in the papers are Exum Lewis; his son Kenelm Harrison Lewis (1816-1866) and Kenelm's wife,
Elizabeth Heritage Bryan Lewis (fl. 1842-1884), and her father, John Heritage Bryan (1798-1870); and Exum's other sons, Richard
Henry Lewis (1806-1857), and William Figures Lewis (1819-1910). Included are materials of the related Bryan family. There
are also papers of the Bradley family of Mount Prospect, whose relation to the other families is unknown.
The collection includes family correspondence, financial and legal papers, and other items of the extended family of Exum
Lewis. Most of the papers relate to eastern North Carolina, but there are a number of letters from family members in Alabama
and Mississippi. Topics discussed include health, births and deaths, clothing, agriculture, and other routine matters. There
are a number of letters from family members and friends that discuss 19th-century student life at the University of North
Carolina. Political matters are only mentioned occasionally, and Civil War letters dwell chiefly on concerns of the homefront.
There are also records relating to land sales, purchases, and ownership; items relating to plantation business, including
the condition of slaves; an 1857 travel diary, perhaps belonging to Ivey Foreman Lewis (1833-1884), describing a trip to Europe;
and notes for lectures, 1883-1887, on physiology and hygiene by Richard Henry Lewis (1832-1917). There are also photograph
albums and scrapbooks relating to Richard Henry Lewis's grandson McDaniel Lewis (1894-1978) and his first wife Lynnwood Cook
Lewis (1896-1964), their daughters Margaret (b. 1920) and Mary Lynn (b. 1926), and their grandchildren.
- Language
-
English.
Back to TopAdministrative Information
- Restrictions to Access
- No restrictions.
- Provenance
- Received from Anna Lewis of Raleigh, N.C., before 1940; Robert Mills of Richmond, Va., April 1956; Margaret Whitaker Horne
of Warrenton, N.C., April 1958; McDaniel Lewis of Greensboro, N.C., 1956 and 1963; Mary Lynn Beil of Greensboro, N.C., in
1998 (Acc. 98160, 98188); and Mary Lynn Lewis DeLany of Greensboro, N.C., in May 2007 (Acc. 100670).
- Processing Information
- The Mount Prospect Papers (#3211) have been merged with this collection.
- This collection was rehoused under the sponsorhsip of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation,
Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
- Preferred Citation
- [Identification of item], in the Lewis Family Papers #427, 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.
- Bradley family.
- Bryan family.
- Bryan, John Heritage, 1798-1870.
- Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
- Diaries.
- Edgecombe County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
- Europe--Description and travel.
- Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
- Lewis family.
- Lewis, Elizabeth Heritage Bryan, fl. 1842-1884.
- Lewis, Exum, d. circa 1839.
- Lewis, Ivey Foreman, 1833-1884.
- Lewis, Kenelm Harrison, 1816-1866.
- Lewis, Lynnwood Cook, 1896-1964.
- Lewis, McDaniel, 1894-1978.
- Lewis, Richard Henry, 1806-1857.
- Lewis, Richard Henry, 1832-1917.
- Medicine--Study and teaching--North Carolina--History--19th century.
- Mount Prospect Plantation (Edgecombe County, N.C.)
- Plantations--North Carolina--Edgecombe County.
- Real property--North Carolina--History--19th century.
- Slavery--North Carolina.
- University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Photographs.
- University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--Social life and customs.
- Women travelers--History--19th century.
- Women traverlers--Diaries.
Back to TopRelated Collections
John Francis Speight Papers (#3914);
Bryan Family Papers (#96);
Lewis Plantation Records (#2528);
William Gaston Lewis Papers (#2314).
Greensboro Historical Museum Archives (#41)
Back to TopBiographical Note
These papers are of the Lewis, Battle, Bryan, and Bradley families of Edgecombe, Orange, and Wake counties, N.C. Note that
it is often difficult to identify individuals because of the repetition of given names in succeeding generations and among
contemporaries in different Lewis lines. There are, for example, at least four Exum Lewises and the same number of Richard
Henry Lewises represented in this collection.
Exum Lewis (d. circa 1839), son of Col. Exum Lewis (d. 1796) of the Edgecombe militia, was postmaster and county court justice
for Edgecombe County, N.C. He married Ann Harrison (fl. 1804-1819), with whom he had eight children, including John Wesley
(1804-1842), Exum (fl. 1839-1875), Richard H. (1806-1857), Kenelm Harrison (1816-1866), William Figures (1819-1910), and Emma
(fl. 1836-1895), later Emma Speight. Two other daughters, Mary, wife of Thomas Hunter of Halifax County, N.C., and Elizabeth
(fl. 1839-1882), wife of Col. Spier Whitaker, are rarely mentioned in the collection. Exum's brother Figures (fl. 1796-1808)
and his nephew Robert (fl. 1808-1813) also appear in the collection.
John Wesley Lewis (1804-1842), a physician, married Catherine Ann Battle (1809-1879), daughter of Joel and Mary Battle, around
1829. After John's death in 1842, Catherine moved the family to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she operated a boarding house. Their
children included physician Joel Battle Lewis (1830-1870); physician and teacher, Richard Henry Lewis (1832-1917); civil engineer
and Confederate veteran William Gaston Lewis (1835-1901); Exum Lewis (1837-1888); Christopher Columbus "Lum" Lewis (1840-1914); and Anna Harrison Lewis (1841-1920).
Exum Lewis (fl. 1835-1875), a physician, married Jane Cotton. Their daughter, Clio Cotton Lewis, married her cousin, John
Francis Speight, Jr. (1841-1885).
Richard Henry Lewis (1806-1857), a planter, first married Mary E. Foreman (fl. 1833). Their children included the Alabama
planter and Confederate veteran Ivey Foreman Lewis (1833-1884) and Mary Foreman Lewis (fl. 1850-1863), wife of Confederate
General W. J. Hardee (1815-1873) (see Lewis Plantation Papers, #2528). Lewis next married Martha Elizabeth Hoskins Foreman,
widow of John Foreman, Lewis's first wife's brother. Their son, Richard Henry Lewis (1850-1926), a physician, first married
Cornelia Viola Battle (fl. 1877-1886) with whom he had four children. His second wife was Mary Long Gordon of Charlottesville,
Va. Their only daughter was newswoman and feminist Nell (Cornelia) Battle Lewis (1893-1956).
Kenelm Harrison Lewis (1816-1866), a planter in Edgecombe County, N.C., married Elizabeth Heritage Bryan (fl. 1832-1858).
They had at least two children, John Bryan Lewis (fl. 1858-1899) and Anna Lewis. Kenelm's father-in-law, John Heritage Bryan
(1798-1870), was a prominent Whig congressman and Episcopal layman of New Bern and Raleigh, N.C. He and his wife, Mary Williams
Shepard (1801-1881), had fourteen children, including Francis Theodore Bryan (b. 1823), Confederate Captain George Pettigrew
Bryan (1841-1864), Frederick Richard Bryan (1846-1863), Mary Shepard (Bryan) Speight (1824-1894), and Elizabeth ("Bettie") Heritage Bryan (b. 1832).
Richard Henry Lewis (1832-1917) of Kinston, N.C., married Eleanor Mildred Betts (1844-1914) in 1863. Among their children
was Elisha Betts Lewis (1867-1935), who married Dora McDaniel (1869-1919) in 1890. Elisha and Dora Lewis had five sons and
one daughter, among whom was investment banker McDaniel Lewis (1894-1978), active both socially and politically in Greensboro,
N.C. Lewis was a 1916 graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and worked as an English teacher before being
commissioned into the United States Army at the end of World War I. He eventually served two years. In 1917 he married Lynnwood
Adams Cook (1896-1964) of Danville, Va.; their children were Margaret Betts Lewis (b. 1920) and Mary Lynn Lewis (b. 1926).
Margaret married Hugh Beard (b. 1919), and had two sons. Mary Lynn married Marshall Johnson (1923-1977) in 1947 and had one
son and two daughters. After Johnson's divorce, Mary Lynn married Frederic Beil (1923-1987) in 1980. After Beil's death,
Mary Lynn once again remarried, this time to Capt. Walter S. Delany Jr, USN (Ret.).
Planter William Figures Lewis (1819-1910) lived at the Mount Prospect Plantation in Edgecombe County. He married Annie Barlow
Foxhall in 1872. Emma Lewis (fl. 1836-1895) married John Francis Speight (fl. 1804-1860), pastor and president of the North
Carolina Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church in 1840 (see John Francis Speight Papers, #3914).
Stephan Bradley (fl. 1814-1842) lived at Mount Prospect in the early 19th century. He and his Tennessee relations were apparently
farmers. The relationship of the Bradleys with the other families mentioned above is unclear.
Back to TopCollection Overview
The collection includes family correspondence; financial and legal papers, including, bills, receipts, accounts, land records, inventories, wills, powers
of attorney, and the presidential pardons of William F. Lewis and Kenelm H. Lewis; and other items of the extended family of Exum Lewis (d. 1839). Most of the papers relate to eastern North Carolina. There are, however, a number of letters from other southeastern states, particularly Alabama and Mississippi. Correspondence has been divided by family into Lewis, Bryan, and Bradley subseries. Topics discussed include health, births and deaths, clothing, agriculture, and other routine matters. There are
a number of letters from family members and friends that discuss 19th-century student life at the University of North Carolina. Political matters are only mentioned occasionally (see Subseries 1.1 letters of 22 May 1833, 7 May 1837, 1854, and 7 July
1858; Subseries 2.1). Civil War letters dwell chiefly on concerns of the homefront: moving slaves into the interior of the state to prevent their escape to Union lines, hiring substitutes, and fears of invading armies. Although there were several physicians in the family, there are only occasional references to that profession or its practice.
Records relating to land sales, purchases, and ownership have been grouped together in land records. Lewis letters limited
to business or legal matters are filed in financial and legal papers. Other papers include a list of revolutionary era militia
officers for Edgecombe County; a 19th-century copy of the act incorporating Edgecombe County; 19th-century notes on the North Carolina military of 1764;
a map of the lower Mississippi Territory, 1798-1812; sermon notes; the words to two folk songs; 19th-century college essays and notes; an 1840 "Catalogue of the Trustees, Faculty, and Students of the University of North Carolina," with an attached handwritten oration by W. F. Lewis; a European travel diary dated 1857; and notes for lectures, 1883-1887, on physiology and hygiene. There are also genealogical notes and biographies of various family members. Finally, there are eight photo albums and scrapbooks and a small collection of
photographs, which relate to the lives of McDaniel Lewis, his wife Lynnwood Cook Lewis, their daughters Margaret Betts Lewis
Beard and Mary Lynn Lewis Johnson (later Beil and DeLany), and their five grandchildren.
Back to TopOrganization of Collection
1. Correspondence
1.1. Lewis Family
1.2. Bryan Family
1.3. Bradley Family
2. Land Records
3. Financial and Legal Papers
4. Other Papers
5. Family History
Addition of May 2007 (Acc. 100670)
Back to TopItems Separated
Items separated include photographs (P-427), a rolled item (R-427/1), and eight photograph albums/scrapbooks (SV-427/1-8).
Detailed Description of the Collection
1. Correspondence, 1809-1900 and undated.
About 200 items.
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1.1. Lewis Family, 1809-1895 and undated.
About 100 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Most of the early letters are to Exum Lewis (fl. 1796-1839) and concern family matters and news. In the 1830s, the correspondents are increasingly his children and their families. The majority of the
letters relate to eastern North Carolina. There are, however, a number of letters from other southeastern states, particularly
Alabama and Mississippi, where Figures Lewis (fl. 1796-1808) was a justice of the peace in 1803, and where Ivey Foreman Lewis (1833-1884) owned several plantations. Topics discussed include family health, births and deaths, religion, clothing, agriculture, and other routine matters. Political issues are only occasionally mentioned (see letters of 22 May 1833, 7 May 1837, 1854, and 7 July 1858). Civil War letters dwell chiefly on concerns of the homefront: moving slaves into the interior of the state to prevent their escape to Union lines, hiring substitutes, and fears of invading armies.
Although there were several physicians in the family there are only occasional mentions of that profession or its practice.
There are a number of letters from family members and friends that discuss student life at the University of North Carolina during the 19th century. Family members who attended the University include Richard Henry Lewis, (1806-1857), A.B. 1827; Kenelm Harrison Lewis (1816-1866), A.B. 1838; William Figures Lewis (1819-1910), A.B. 1842; Richard Henry Lewis (1832-1927), A.B. 1852; Ivey Foreman Lewis (1833-1884), A.B. 1854; William Gaston Lewis (1835-1891), A.B. 1855; Christopher Columbus Lewis (1840-1914), attended 1855-1856; Exum Lewis (1837-1888), A.B. 1857; and Richard Henry Lewis (1850-1926), attended 1866-1868. Later items include two 1876 letters from William Figures Lewis to his nephew John Bryan Lewis, regarding his plans to write a history of the University of North Carolina.
In addition to members of the Lewis, Bryan, and Bradley families, correspondents include: Robert Donaldson (1809), George W. Ruffin (1842), Alexander H. Moore and Exum L. Whitaker (1843-1844), Richard T. Jones (1843), William Macnair (1854), D. R. McRae (1858), J. G. Fort (1860s), William S. Pettigrew (1863), B. F. Moore (1863), James S. Green and Henry R. Bryan (1864), R. H. Speight (1867), and Fred W. Jones (1867).
Also included are photocopies of a field message from General Stonewall Jackson to Col. Gaston Lewis and of a piece of the tail of Old Sorrel, General Jackson's war horse.
Folder
1
1809-1829
Folder
2
1830-1839
Folder
3
1840-1849
 |
Digital version: Letter from Exum Whitaker to William F. Lewis, 1 April 1843 |
Folder
4
1850-1855
Folder
5
1856-1860
Folder
6
1861-1865
Folder
7
1866-1895 and undated
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1.2. Bryan Family, 1822-1900 and undated..
42 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Early Bryan family correspondence consists of letters to John Heritage Bryan from associates regarding financial matters, the application of his son Francis Theodore Bryan to the United States Military Academy, Whig politics, and the National Bank. After 1848, correspondence is chiefly that of Elizabeth ("Bettie") Bryan, including several letters from her mother, Mary Williams Shepard Bryan, discussing family and neighborhood news, the conversion of Episcopal Bishop Levi Ives to Roman Catholicism and the community's negative reaction, and news of Lincoln's election. She also received letters from friends and other members of the Bryan family, mostly concerned with social events and everyday
life, and a letter from her future husband, Kenelm Harrison Lewis, informing her of the death of his brother Richard H. Lewis. There are also letters between other members of the Bryan family, including one letter from Mary Shepard Bryan Speight in 1852, describing a voyage to Mobile, Ala., on a steamer, a spectacular murder case in that city, and social and family news, and several letters concerning the death
of Captain George Pettigrew Bryan in battle in 1864.
There are few items after 1866. These include a letter dated 16 February 1868 to Bettie from her mother advising her to hire
a "good white woman" to help her and giving her financial advice, an 1884 agreement between Bettie Bryan Lewis and several freedmen to rent her land, and two 1886 letters regarding Captain George Pettigrew Bryan's miliary career.
Undated items include Bryan family letters regarding family and social news, wedding and other social invitations, letters
of condolence on the death of Fred Bryan, and a letter from Francis T. Bryan to his father John H. Bryan describing his work in Washington, D.C., and his army career in Mexico.
Folder
8
Bryan Family, 1822-1900 and undated..
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1.3. Bradley Family, 1817-1854 and undated.
12 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Chiefly correspondence of Stephan Bradley (fl. 1814-1842) of Mount Prospect in Edgecombe County, N.C., from his family in Gibson County, Tenn. The relationship of the Bradleys to the Lewises and the Bryans is unknown.
Folder
9
Bradley Family, 1817-1854 and undated.
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2. Land Records, 1730-1868.
51 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
The majority of the deeds and land grants in this series are for property in northeastern North Carolina. In many cases, however, the relationship of the grantors and/or grantees or their significance to the Lewis family is unclear.
Folder
10
1730-1775
Folder
11
1776-1799
Folder
12
1800-1868
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3. Financial and Legal Papers, 1796-1884.
About 300 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
The earliest material belongs to Exum Lewis (fl. 1796-1839) and includes documents granting power of attorney to Lewis from various family members and resolutions of thanks adopted
by the Edgecombe County court upon his resignation as presiding justice. Also included are scattered receipts for food, ale, cigars, clothing, books, and other household items; a receipt for papering two rooms; and doctor's bills for slaves. Several slight account books and account fragments are interfiled with the documents. Undated slave documents are located at the end of folder 22.
Folder
13
1796-1804
Folder
14
1805-1810
Folder
15
1811-1819
Folder
16
1820-1829
Folder
17
1830-1839
Folder
18
1840-1849
Folder
19
1850-1858
Folder
20
1859-1860
Folder
21
1856-1861
Folder
22
1861-1865
Folder
23
1866-1867
Folder
24
1868-1884
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4. Other Papers, 1754-1883, 1998, and undated.
About 20 items.
Included are: a list of revolutionary era militia officers for Edgecombe County; a 19th-century copy of the act incorporating Edgecombe County; 19th century notes on the North Carolina military of 1764;
a brief description (largely illegible) of a trip from North Carolina to Tennessee (circa 1796-); a map of the lower Mississippi Territory (1798-1812); sermon notes; and the words to two folk songs, "O Brandy" and "Nelly." On the reverse of "O Brandy" is a crude map, possibly of Indian trading paths, including translations of several Indian phrases. Also included are 19th-century college essays and notes on subjects as diverse as "Life," "The U.S. Navy," and theories of heat; a cure for the dropsy; a dye recipe; an 1857 European travel diary; and a small notebook containing notes for lectures on physiology and hygiene.
The travel diary, covering 20 June 1857-August 1857, describes a trip to Europe including descriptions of leaving New York, arriving in Liverpool, major tourist sights in London, Paris, and Belgium, and a boat trip down the Rhine River. There are also descriptions of social life and sights of Baden Baden and descriptions of the prison associated with the castle there and the Roman baths. Also described are trips in Switzerland and back through France and England. The writer is unidentified, and the diary itself does not indicate whether the writer was a man or a woman, but it is known
that Ivey Foreman Lewis (1833-1884) took his bride and his sister Mary on a European trip. It is probable that one of this group kept the diary.
The notes of lectures on physiology and hygiene belonged to Richard Henry Lewis (1832-1917), Kinston, N.C. Notations on the title page indicate that these lectures were given at the University Normal School in 1883
and 1884 and several other places in North Carolina, 1883-1887.
There are five late 19th-century photographs: an 1888 photograph of Spier Whitaker; two photographs, 1894 and 1897, of William Lewis Hunter; and two undated photographs, one of Mrs. E. Whitaker and the other of Lavator Brainard Lewis. Also included are two photographs [1998?], of "A map of North Carolina for Nature Lovers," published by the Garden Club of North Carolina in 1937.
Folder
25
1757-1841 and undated
Folder
26
Travel diary
Folder
27
Notes of Lectures: Physiology and Hygiene
Folder
P-427/1
Photographs
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5. Family History, 1884-1956, 1996, and undated.
18 items.
Miscellaneous genealogical notes; a large genealogical chart compiled from available information as of Christmas 1953 by Meriwether Lewis and Marianna LaRoque
Lewis, Kinston, N.C., updated May 1990 by Marianna LaRoque Lewis and Marjorie Lewis Bryan, charted by Mary Lynn Lewis Beil,
with additional notations as late as 1996; "Genealogy of the Moore, Lowe, and Lewis families of North Carolina," compiled by Edward A. Claypool, circa 1905; and an autobiographical sketch of the life of Richard Henry Lewis (1832-1917), written around 1893 and transcribed by McDaniel Lewis in 1956. This volume includes the Kinston College annual commencement concert program for 1884. Also included is a photocopy of an undated article from the Kinston newspaper,
"The old Lewis School," about the educational career of Richard Henry Lewis (1832-1917).
Folder
28-30
Family History
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Addition of May 2007 (Acc. 100670), 1896-1979.
About 30 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Contains one folder of photographs, eight photo albums and scrapbooks containing mainly photographs of the McDaniel Lewis
family and friends, but also letters, telegrams, tickets, invitations, announcements, newspaper articles, birthday and greeting
cards, certificates, and awards. The bulk of the materials focus on the 1910s, especially materials from McDaniel Lewis's
stay at UNC and as an officer at the end of World War I.
Folder
31
Other Papers
Contains three typed accounts--one by Mary Lynn Lewis DeLany about Carolina Football in her youth, a history of the etchings
on North Carolina by Louis Orr by Robert Lee Humber, and biographical information on McDaniel Lewis from 1978.
Image Folder
P-00427/2
Photographs, undated
Photograph Album
SV-00427/1
Photograph Album, circa 1910s
Photograph album created by McDaniel Lewis of family and friends.
Photograph Album
SV-00427/2
Photograph Album, 1911-1913
Photograph album created by McDaniel Lewis of family and friends.
Photograph Album
SV-00427/3
Photograph Album, 1911-1916
Photograph album created by McDaniel Lewis during his University of North Carolina career, containing several hundred photographs
of campus, sports teams, especially the baseball team and intramural sports, family photos, photos of Lynnwood Cook, along
with tickets, invitations, and announcements. Many of the photographs are labeled and dated.
Photograph Album
SV-00427/4
Photograph Album, 1914-1916
Photograph album collected by Lynnwood Cook Lewis, containing images of the University of North Carolina and Meredith College.
Photograph Album
SV-00427/5
Photograph Album, 1917-1919
Photograph album assembled by McDaniel Lewis containing photographs of Officers Training Camp at Chickamauga and photographs
of Paris.
Photograph Album
SV-00427/6
Photograph Album, 1918-1979
Binder containing certificates, awards, and large photographs relating to the life of McDaniel Lewis.
Photograph Album
SV-00427/7
Photograph Album, 1896-1963
Red scrapbook assembled by Lynnwood Cook Lewis for her daughter, Mary Lynn Lewis Johnson, containing letters, photographs,
telegrams, greeting cards, articles, and announcements relating to the lives of McDaniel Lewis, Lynnwood Lewis, Margaret and
Hugh Beard and their children, and Mary Lynn Lewis and Marshall Johnson and their children.
Photograph Album
SV-00427/8
Photograph Album, 1912-1978
Brown binder assembled by McDaniel Lewis containing photographs, registration cards and report cards, and telegrams.
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