Inventory of the Digby Gordon Seymour Papers, 1893-1902
Collection Number 5372
Manuscripts Department, University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Contact Information:
- Manuscripts Department
- CB#3926, Wilson Library
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
- Phone: 919/962-1345
- Fax: 919/962-3594
- Email: mss@email.unc.edu
- URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/
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Descriptive Summary
- Repository
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
- Creator
- Seymour, Digby Gordon, 1855-1927.
- Title
- Digby Gordon Seymour Papers, 1893-1902
- Call Number
- 5372
- Language of Materials
- Materials in English
- Extent
-
- Items: About 200
- Linear Feet: 0.5
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Administrative Information
- Processing Information
- Processed by: Amanda Ross, December 2007
- Encoded by: Amanda Ross, December 2007
- Preferred Citation
- [Identification of item], in the Digby Gordon Seymour Papers #5372, Southern Historical Collection, The 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.
Online Catalog Headings
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
- Family--Southern States--Social life and customs.
- Fathers and sons--Southern States--Correspondence.
- Minstrel shows--United States--History--20th century.
- Railroad engineers--Southern States--History--19th century.
- Railroad engineers--Southern States--History--20th century.
- Railroads--Southern States--History--19th century.
- Railroads--Southern States--History--20th century.
- Sewanee Military Academy (Sewanee, Tenn.)--Students.
- Seymour, Charles Milne, 1882-1958.
- Seymour, Digby Gordon, 1855-1927.
- Seymour family.
- University of Tennessee (Knoxville campus)--Students.
Biographical Note
Digby Gordon Seymour (1855-1927) was a railroad engineer who lived and worked in the southeastern United States. He was born in Kentucky, but educated at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H. Throughout his career, he worked for a number of employers and, for a time, was engaged in a lawsuit with R. M. Quigley & Co., a Saint Louis contractor for which he had worked. Digby Seymour married Josephine Ermine Douglas, and the couple had several children, including Charles Milne Seymour and James Seymour.
Digby Seymour's eldest son, Charles Milne, was born on 17 July 1882. He attended Sewanee Military Academy, 1897-1899, and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1903. He later became a lawyer, businessman, and community leader in Knoxville, Tenn. Charles Seymour married Flora Nell Gloster in 1906, and they had seven children: Nell, James, Charles Milne, Arthur Gloster, Richard Caswell, Dorothy, and Digby Gordon. Charles Milne Seymour died in 1958.
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The collection chiefly includes letters, 1893-1902, written by railroad engineer Digby Gordon Seymour at his work locations in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee to his oldest son, Charles Milne Seymour. Also included are telegrams from Digby Seymour and a letter from him to another son, James Seymour. These communications contain fatherly advice, especially comments on and encouragement of Charles Seymour's studies. Digby Seymour wrote of borrowing money to pay for Charles Seymour's attendance at Sewanee Military Academy in Tennessee and at the University of Tennessee and for his family's monthly expenses; expenditures for rent, food, clothing, shoes, and travel; and a lawsuit with R. M. Quigley & Co., a Saint Louis contractor for which he had previously worked. In later letters, he discussed his political opinions, especially his support for Republican politicians. Items of note include a 22 March 1900 letter that provides directions for staging an eleven-act minstrel show.
Detailed Description of the Collection
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