Manuscripts Department
           Library of the University of North Carolina
                         at Chapel Hill

                 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

                             #2785-z
                      WILLIAM PELHAM PAPERS
                            Inventory

Abstract:      William Pelham (1836-1889) of Alexandria, Ala.;
           his mother, Martha Montford McGehee Pelham (b. 1805),
           born in Person County, N.C.; his father, Atkinson
           Pelham (b. 1797), physician and cotton planter, who
           attended the University of North Carolina, ca. 1820,
           and later settled in Alabama.  William had many
           siblings, among them Peter, b. 1840, and Confederate
           hero Major John Pelham, "the gallant Pelham."
               Nine letters, 15 June 1856-32 March 1859, to
           William Pelham at school from his mother, and a few
           other items.  Pelham's mother wrote chiefly of family
           and neighborhood sicknesses and deaths, about her
           garden, and about feeling deserted by her children. 
           There is one letter, dated 24 May 1861, to William
           from his father, describing the destruction by hail of
           the corn and cotton crop and telling about local
           preparations for war.  Also included are Atkinson
           Pelham's 1820 certificate of membership in the
           Dialectic Society at the University of North Carolina
           and a typed transcription of an autobiographical
           fragment written by Peter Pelham.

Online Catalog Terms:
   Alabama--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
   Alexandria (Ala.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
   Family--Alabama--Social life and customs--19th century.
   Mothers and sons--Alabama--History--19th century.
   Pelham, Atkinson, b. 1797.
   Pelham, Martha Montford McGehee, b. 1805.
   Pelham, Peter, b. 1840.
   Pelham, William Pelham, 1836-1889.
   Plantations--Alabama.
   University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Dialectic Society.

Size:      12 items.

Provenance:    Received from Mrs. D. W. Sullivan of Atlanta,
               Georgia, in May 1944; Peter Pelham autobiography
               lent for transcribing by Mrs. J. D. Hank of
               Richmond, Virginia, in October 1941.

Access:        No restrictions.

Processing Note:   This collection was rehoused under the
                   sponsorship of a grant from the National
                   Endowment for the Humanities, Office of
                   Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or 
           their descendants, as stipulated by United States
           copyright law.