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Collection Number: 03227

Collection Title: Mebane Family Papers, 1815-1948 (bulk 1870-1900).

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 rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities; this finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

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Size 1.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 950 items)
Abstract Members of the Mebane family and their connections lived in Mebaneville, Leaksville-Spray, Greensboro, Graham, and Asheville, N.C., and Danville, Va. The collection contains family correspondence, chiefly 1870-1900, of Frances (Kerr) Mebane (1840-1912), of Mebaneville, N.C., wife of Benjamin Franklin Mebane (1823-1884), physician and originator of the Taraxacum tonic. Letters are from her husband and from her five children while away at schools, including the Nash and Kollock School in Hillsborough, N.C., the University of North Carolina, the University of Virginia, and the Bingham School in Orange County, N.C.; and while traveling and raising their own families in North Carolina, Virginia, and New York. Also included are some business papers of a son-in-law, James Edwin Scott (died 1888), tobacco manufacturer; and 20th-century business letters concerning the tonic originally prepared by Dr. Mebane. Volumes include physicians' daybooks, 1849-1882; student notebooks; and a brief woman's journal, circa 1881.
Creator Mebane (Family : Mebane, N.C.)
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Information For Users

Restrictions to Access
No restrictions. Open for research.
Restrictions to Use
No usage restrictions.
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 Mebane Family Papers, #3227, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Acquired from Mrs. Mebane Ross Taylor of Pennsylvania, 1956.
Additional Descriptive Resources
A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.
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: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Adam Fielding, Kate Stratton, and Jodi Berkowitz, November 2010; Nancy Kaiser, January 2021

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse 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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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Members of the Mebane family and their connections lived in Mebaneville, Leaksville-Spray, Greensboro, Graham, and Asheville, N.C., and Danville, Va. The Mebane line concerned in the collection is David Mebane (1760-1844), George Allen Mebane (1791-1877), and Dr. Benjamin Franklin Mebane (1823-1884). Benjamin Franklin Mebane was a physician who invented the Taraxacum tonic.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The collection contains family correspondence, chiefly 1870-1900, of Frances (Kerr) Mebane (1840-1912), of Mebaneville, N.C., wife of Benjamin Franklin Mebane (1823-1884), physician and originator of the Taraxacum tonic. Letters are from her husband and from her five children while away at schools, including the Nash and Kollock School in Hillsborough, N.C., the University of North Carolina, the University of Virginia, and the Bingham School in Orange County, N.C.; and while traveling and raising their own families in North Carolina, Virginia, and New York. Also included are some business papers of a son-in-law, James Edwin Scott (died 1888), tobacco manufacturer; and 20th-century business letters concerning the tonic originally prepared by Dr. Mebane. Volumes include physicians' daybooks, 1849-1882; student notebooks; and a brief woman's journal, circa 1881.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Mebane Family Papers, 1815-1948 and undated.

Folder 1a

Original finding aid

Folder 1

1815-1840; genealogical chart

Folder 2

1853-1857

Folder 3

1858-1859

Folder 4

1860-1869

Folder 5

1870-1872

Folder 6-8

Folder 6

Folder 7

Folder 8

1873

Folder 9-10

Folder 9

Folder 10

1874

Folder 11

1875-1876

Folder 12

1877-1879

Folder 13

1880

Folder 14

1881

Folder 15

1882

Folder 16

1883

Folder 17

1884

Folder 18

1885

Folder 19-20

Folder 19

Folder 20

1886

Folder 21

1887

Folder 22-24

Folder 22

Folder 23

Folder 24

1888

Folder 25

1889

Folder 26

1890-1891

Folder 27

1892

Folder 28-30

Folder 28

Folder 29

Folder 30

1893

Folder 31

1894

Folder 32

1895-1897

Folder 33

1898-1899

Folder 34

1900-1902

Folder 35

1903-1906

Folder 36

1907-1909

Folder 37

1913-1948

Folder 38-40

Folder 38

Folder 39

Folder 40

Undated letters

Folder 41-42

Folder 41

Folder 42

Undated letter fragments

Folder 43

Undated writings

Folder 44

Undated miscellaneous

Extra Oversize Paper XOP-3227/1

Diploma of Benjamin Franklin Mebane, A.B., University of North Carolina, 1847

Extra Oversize Paper XOP-3227/2

Dialectic Society, University of North Carolina, 1847

Extra Oversize Paper XOP-3227/3

Diploma of Benjamin Franklin Mebane, M.D., Universtiy of Pennsylvania, 1850

Extra Oversize Paper XOP-3227/4

Diploma of Benjamin Franklin Mebane, M.A., University of North Carolina, 1856

Folder 45

Volume 1: Album of Frances Ann (McNeill) Kerr Graves, 1834-1868

Folder 46

Folder number not used

SV-3227/2

Volume 2: Physician's accounts of Dr. Benjamin Franklin Mebane, 1849-1863

Folder 47

Folder number not used

SV-3227/3

Volume 3: Physician's accounts of Dr. Benjamin Franklin Mebane, 1854-1882

Folder 48

Folder number not used

SV-3227/4

Volume 4: Mechandise accounts of George Allen Mebane and son, 1856-1863, 1866

Folder 49

Folder number not used

SV-3227/5

Volume 5: Account book of Dr. Benjamin Franklin Mebane, 1858-1863; physician's accounts, June 1863-October 1865

Folder 50

Folder number not used

SV-3227/6

Volume 6: Daybook of Dr. Benjamin Franklin Mebane, 1865-1871

Folder 51

Volume 7: George Allen Mebane's notes on zoology, 1880

Folder 52

Volume 8: Woman's notebook, personal entries, quotations, and poems, circa 1881, 1884

Folder 53

Volume 9: Student notebook, notes on lecture on physical science, chemistry, and physics, undated

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