Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

#3708
LEONIDAS LA FAYETTE POLK PAPERS
Summary

NOTE: A more complete finding aid for this collection is available at the Southern Historical Collection.
Contact staff at: (919)962-1345 (telephone); (919)962-4452 (FAX); mss@email.unc.edu.

Polk, Leonidas La Fayette, 1837-1892.
Papers, 1857-1919.
4,625 items (8.0 linear feet).

Anson County, N.C., planter, editor, merchant, Confederate officer in the
26th and 43rd North Carolina regiments, Democrat and Populist, first North
Carolina commissioner of agriculture, 1877-1880, founder of the
"Progressive Farmer," and vice president and president of the National
Farmers' Alliance, 1887-1892.

The collection can be divided into the following time periods:
correspondence and other items, 1862-1864, relating to events leading up to
Polk's two courts-martial during the Civil War, plus his small diary;
letters, 1865, from Raleigh, N.C., where he was serving in the North
Carolina legislature; papers documenting the years Polk and his family
lived in Anson County, N.C., 1870-1877, where he operated a general
merchandise store; papers concerning Polk's term as North Carolina's first
commissioner of agriculture, 1877-1880; papers concerning various business
ventures, 1880-1885, including efforts to sell a diphtheria cure in Boston
and New York; papers, 1886-1892, dealing with the founding of the
"Progressive Farmer," Polk's work with the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial
Union, his election to national offices of the Union, and his death; and
papers, 1892-1919, of Polk's son-in-law, James W. Denmark, and of Clarence
Poe relating to the "Progressive Farmer" and Poe's ultimate purchase of the
paper in 1903, and a few Denmark family items.

Purchases, 1965, 1970.

SEE ALSO:  Stuart Noblin Papers (#3738) in the Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

ONLINE CATALOG TERMS:
   Agriculture--North Carolina--History--19th century.
   Agriculture and politics--United States--History--19th century.
   Anson County (N.C.)--Economic conditions--19th century.
   Boston (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century.
   Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment,
      26th.
   Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment,
      43rd.
   Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Correspondence.
   Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Diaries.
   Courts-martial and courts of inquiry--Confederate States of America.
   Denmark family.
   Denmark, James William, fl. 1879-1910.
   Diphtheria--United States--History--19th century.
   Merchants--North Carolina--History--19th century.
   National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union.
   New York (N.Y.)--Economic conditions--19th century.
   North Carolina--Politics and government--1861-1865.
   North Carolina--Politics and government--1865-1950.
   Poe, Clarence Hamilton, 1881-
   Polk family.
   Polk, Leonidas La Fayette, 1837-1892.
   The Progressive farmer.
   Trade-unions--Agricultural laborers--United States--History--19th
      century.

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