Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

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 Davidson Family Papers #204, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.

Acquisitions Information

Received from E. L. Baxter Davidson, 1937-1958, and Chalmers Davidson, 1977.

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.

Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, September 1992

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

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.

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.

• Account books.
• Davidson family.
• Davidson, Adam Brevard, 1808-1896.
• Davidson, John Matthew Winslow, fl. 1825-1875.
• Davidson, Mary Laura Springs, 1813-1872.
• Davidson, R. H. M. (Robert Hamilton McWhorta), 1832-1908.
• Davidson, William S. M.
• Dixon Plantation (N.C.)
• Families--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Florida--Social life and customs.
• Gaston County (N.C.)--History.
• Ingleside Plantation (N.C.)
• Mecklenburg County (N.C.)--History.
• Plantation life--North Carolina.
• Plantations--North Carolina.
• Rural Hill (N.C.)
• Springs, John.

• Springs family papers (#4121), John Matthew Winslow Davidson papers (#3104) at Southern Historical Collection
• Davidson family papers, 1756-1998 (MSS 188), J. Murrey Atkins Library, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Adam Brevard Davidson (1808-1896), planter and developer, a son of John Davidson, Jr., and his wife Sarah Harper Brevard Davidson, was born at Rural Hill Plantation in Mecklenburg County, N.C., built by Adam Brevard's grandfather, John Davidson (d. 1832). Together with his father, Adam Brevard Davidson owned about five thousand acres and fifty or sixty slaves in the Hopewell section of Mecklenburg. When construction of Davidson College was begun in 1836, on land belonging to his cousin and uncle-in-law William Lee Davidson, Adam Brevard contracted for and supplied the lumber for the early buildings. All lumber was sawed at his own mills.

On 20 April 1836, in Springfield, York County, S.C., Adam Brevard Davidson married Mary Laura Springs (1813-1872), daughter of John Springs III. She had attended the Moravian Academy at Salem, N.C., and the select school of Madam Sarazin in Philadelphia. Adam Brevard and Mary had fifteen children. Mary died in 1872, and Davidson married Cornelia C. Elmore (1835-1921) of Columbia, S.C., daughter of U.S. Senator Franklin Harper Elmore, in 1876.

Davidson was elected trustee of Davidson College in 1844 and served with few interruptions until 1877. Two of his sons were educated at the college: Robert, who died as a result of mistreatment in a northern prison during the Civil War, and Baxter, who was, at his death, the largest single donor in the college's history.

Adam Brevard Davidson was a conspicuously successful planter. He was president of the Mecklenburg Agricultural Society for fifteen years before the Civil War and served the Society intermittently in various capacities until the organization society was disbanded after the Confederate defeat.

(Adapted from the entry on Adam Brevard Davidson by Chalmers G. Davidson in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, volume 2, 1986.)

The collection includes family and business correspondence, chiefly 1835-1856, account books, ledgers, and day books of the Davidson family of Mecklenburg County, N.C., who lived at Rural Hill Plantation, 1833-1890; Ingleside Plantation, 1867-1875; and Dixon Plantation, Gaston County, N.C., 1872-1893. Among the correspondents are Adam Brevard Davidson (1808-1896); his wife Mary Laura (Springs) Davidson of York County, S.C.; her father, John Springs; John M. W. Davidson, a physician; Robert H. M. Davidson, a lawyer; and William S. M. Davidson. Also included is correspondence with members of the family in Florida. Volumes consist of ledgers and family business records, 1813-1874.

• Volumes 204/S-1, S-2, S-5, S-9, S-10
• P-204/1-4