Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#3264
NORTON, CHILTON, AND DAMERON FAMILY PAPERS
Inventory
Abstract: Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families, planters of Louisiana
and Mississippi.
Chiefly letters, 1815-1910, relating to members of the Norton,
Chilton, and Dameron families. Topics include farming,
activities of relatives and friends, business matters, and
household routine. Antebellum letters are chiefly between Norton
family members in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans, and
Mississippi, especially in Vicksburg, about farming and family
matters. Letters written during the Civil War are chiefly from
William H. Dameron at the Confederate Commissary Department at
Meridian, Miss., to his wife, Courtenay Norton Dameron, in New
Orleans, mostly about family matters, but with references to
commissary work. While most post-Civil War letters are about
family matters, a few discuss the 1875 race riots relating to
elections in Clinton, Miss., and some discuss spiritualism,
especially Sarah Norton Chilton's attempts in the mid-1870s to
contact dead relatives and friends. Other papers include
financial and legal documents, including a few records of slave
sales in Mississippi; clippings; cures and remedies; genealogical
data, including information about the Cusachs family as well
as the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families; notebooks;
and family pictures.
Online Catalog Terms:
Chilton family.
Chilton, Sarah Norton, d. 1905.
Clinton (Miss.)--Race relations.
Confederate States of America. Army--Supplies and stores.
Cusachs family.
Dameron, Courtenay Norton, d. 1910.
Dameron family.
Dameron, William H., d. 1872.
Family--Louisiana--Social life and customs.
Family--Mississippi--Social life and customs.
Medicine--Formulae, receipts, prescriptions.
Mississippi--Race relations--19th century.
New Orleans--Social life and customs.
Norton family.
Plantation life--Louisiana.
Plantation life--Mississippi.
Slave bills of sale--Mississippi.
Spiritualism.
Vicksburg (Miss.)--Social life and customs.
Size: About 520 items (1.0 linear feet).
Provenance: Received from Charles E. Dameron of Asheville, N.C.,
in February 1957, and Margot Baldwin of New York, N.Y.,
in May 1999 (Acc. 98371).
Access: No restrictions.
Items Separated: OP-3264/1-11; C-3264; P-3264/1-36
Copyright: Retained by authors of items in these papers or their
descendants as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Series Descriptions
Series 1. Correspondence
Series 2. Financial and Legal Papers
Series 3. Other Papers
Series 4. Volumes
Series 5. Pictures
Addition of May 1999
INTRODUCTION
The collection consists chiefly of correspondence and other items
relating to members of the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families of
Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia. The relationships among some of
the family members represented in the collection are shown in the chart
below. (Chart Available in the Southern Historical Collection)
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1. Correspondence
1773-1923. About 225 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Early letters are chiefly from Norton family members in Louisiana to
relatives in Mississippi about farming and family matters. In the 1820s,
correspondences revolves around Charles Mynn Norton, who lived in Natchez,
Mississippi, and who seems to have been active in political and civic
affairs. After Charles Mynn Norton's death in 1824, his widow, Mary
Pointer (Terrell) Norton, moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and there are
many letters, chiefly dealing with family matters, to and from her there.
In the late 1820s and into the 1830s, there are letters relating to John H.
Norton, a merchant in Monticello, Mississippi, and infrequent letters from
Norton relatives in Ontario, New York.
In the 1840s, there are many letters among Mary Pointer Norton and her
two daughters, Sarah Norton Chilton and Louisa Norton Brown, both of whom
lived in New Orleans. In the late 1850s, letters to and from Sarah's son,
Charles Norton Chilton, begin.
Most of the Civil War period letters are from William H. Dameron to his
wife, Courtenay Mynn Norton, also known as Lah, in New Orleans. Dameron
was employed at the Confederate Commissary Department in Meridian,
Mississippi. His letters, while chiefly dealing with family news, also
mention caring for wounded friends and the workings of the commissary.
After the war, letters center on Charles Norton Chilton, who was in dry
goods in Clinton, Mississippi. His correspondence with his aunt, Louisa
Norton Brown, is particularly heavy. At some point, Charles's mother,
Sarah Norton Chilton, moved to Clinton. From there, she wrote many
letters to Louisa, who remained in New Orleans. Of particular interest are
letters from Sarah to Louisa in 1875 that describe Charles's death in the
midst of race riots relating to the 1876 local elections. After Charles's
death, there are many letters from Sarah to Louisa in which Sarah described
her new life as a spiritual medium and documented the messages she received
from Charles and other dead relatives. Letters in the 1880s through the
1910s show that various family members were becoming interested in
genealogy. Most of the letters from this period are genealogical inquiries
or deal with routine family matters.
Folder 1 1773-1818
2 1823-1824
3 1825-1829
4 1834-1839
5 1840-1849
6 1850-1855
7 1856-1859
8 1862-1865
9 1866-1869
10 1870-1874
11 1875
12 1876-1889
13 1890-1923
14-15 Undated and fragments
Series 2. Financial and Legal Papers
1760, 1805-1926. About 100 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Wills, deeds, household accounts, receipts, bills, and other items
relating to members of the Norton, Chilton, Dameron, and related families.
From 1842 through 1854, there are a few bills of sale for slaves,
apparently traded in Clinton, Mississippi.
Folder 16 1760, 1805-1828
17 1830-1837
18 1842-1859
19 1861-1862
20 1863-1865
21 1867-1888
22 1892-1896, 1926
23 Undated
Series 3. Other Papers
1840s-1910s. About 150 items.
Clippings are chiefly about the activities of family members and
friends, but also include an account of the 1875 race riot in Clinton,
Mississippi. Cures and remedies are both printed and handwritten and
relate to treatments for complaints from scrapes to cancers. Genealogical
materials consist of notes and charts relating to family history; floor
plans relate to an unidentified house; and miscellaneous items include
instructions for making "Ladies' Girdles" and two tickets that were chances
in a lottery on a house and lot in Natchez, Mississippi, probably dating
from the 1910s.
Folder 24 Clippings
25 Confederate bonds and currency
26 Cures
27 Genealogical materials
28 Maps and floor plans
29 Miscellaneous
Series 4. Volumes
1805-1885. About 15 items.
Folders 30-31 Volume 1 and enclosures. Notebook containing slight
accounts, 1804-1805. Enclosures include fragments of loose
leaves relating to the illness and death of Shepherd Brown.
Owner unknown.
Folders 32-33 Volume 2 and enclosures. Notebook containing entries,
1820-1832, relating to planting and to household purchases.
Also included are a few references to slaves. Owner
unknown.
Folders 34-36 Volumes 3, 4, and 5. Notebooks containing entries,
1856-1865, relating to births and deaths of Norton family
members and friends, travel, supplies purchased, letters
received, and the occupation of New Orleans by federal
forces.
Folder 37 Volume 6. Small volume presented to Courtenay Norton
Dameron on the occasion of the death of her husband,
William H. Dameron in 1872. Contains newspaper clippings
relating to William H. Dameron's life.
Folder 33-39 Volumes 7 and 8. Notebooks, probably from the 1880s,
containing notes on historical English personages, a list
of items seen at the Exhibition of 1885, home remedies, and
a building plan for an unidentified house.
Series 5. Pictures
27 items.
P-3264/1 Dameron, Jeanne Cusachs, undated.
/2-4 Dameron, Mary Lou, undated.
/5-6 Dameron, Norton C., undated.
/7-8 Norton, Charles M., 1876 (photographic prints of
silhouettes).
/9-18 Unidentified individuals, probably family members.
/19-21 Holly Hill, Dameron family residence near Naples, North
Carolina, 1909.
/22 Cusachs family home, Barcelona, Spain, undated.
/23-24 Gravestones of Charles Edward Dameron and Nita Cusachs
Dameron, undated.
/25-27 Household items, 1912-1915.
ADDITION OF MAY 1999 (Acc. 98371)
Size: 14 items.
Dates: 1995 and undated.
Provenance: Received from Margot Baldwin of New York, N.Y.
Access: No restrictions.
Description:
Reminiscences, pictures, and other materials about the
history of the Cusachs and related families. Included is
"Vignettes: An Informal History of the Cusachs Family of
New Orleans," written in 1936 by Inez Cusachs Crenshaw and
re-typed and edited in 1995 by Crenshaw's niece, Margot
Desiree Kelley Baldwin. Most of the other family history
material is in French.
Folder 41 "Vignettes: An Informal History of the Cusachs Family"
Folder 42 Family history
Pictures:
P-3264/28 Almirall, Marguerite Desiree Cusachs as an
infant with her nanny, Desiree ("La Reine"). Copy
of photograph.
/29 Almirall, Marguerite Desiree Cusachs. Copy of photograph.
/30 Crenshaw, Ines Cusachs with Louise Celeste Allain
Cusachs ("La Doyenne"). Copy of photograph.
/31 Crenshaw, William Graves, III. Copy of photograph.
/32 Cusachs, Jeanne Allain. Copy of photograph.
/33 Cusachs, Louise Celeste Allain ("La Doyenne"). Copy of
photograph.
/34 Cusachs, Pierre Leon. Copy of photograph.
/35 Cusachs family of New Orleans: Pierre Leon Cusachs,
Armantine Pitot Allain, Celeste Allain Cusachs
("La Doyenne") and children. Copy of photograph.
/36 Allain, Valerien (1775-1844). Photograph of portrait.