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 Charles Dewey Papers #216, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Typed transcription of diary available.

All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of Southern women and their families in the 19th century, Series A.

Acquisitions Information

Gift of Mrs. Francis Chadwick and Mrs. W. L. Woodson before 1940; Mrs. B. E. Moore in 1957; transfer from the William Cain Books (#124) in 1968; and gift of Maria J. M. Griffin of Virginia Beach, Va., in 1984.

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, December 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.

• Bank of North Carolina.
• Bankers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Banks and banking--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Cameron family.
• Cameron, Duncan, 1777-1853.
• Cameron, Paul C., 1808-1891.
• Dewey, Charles, 1798-1880.
• Dewey, Charles, b. 1825.
• Dewey, Julia Ann Haylander.
• England--Description and travel.
• Families--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Investments, European--United States--History--19th century.
• Naples (Italy)--Description and travel.
• Raleigh National Bank (N.C.)
• State Bank of North Carolina.
• Women travelers--Diaries--History--19th century.
• Women--Diaries--History--19th century.

• Cameron Family Papers (#133);
• Drury Lacy Papers (#3641);
• Daniel A. Penick Papers (#2641).

Charles Dewey (1798-1880) was born in New Bern, N.C., the son of John Dewey (1767-1830), born in Stonington, Conn., an architect who built the Masonic temple and theater in New Bern. Charles Dewey's mother was Mary Mitchell Dewey, a native of Elizabeth, N.J., who died in 1839 at the age of 67.

Virtually nothing is known about Dewey's early life. He began his career in 1820 as a clerk with the New Bern branch of the State Bank of North Carolina. In 1826, he was appointed cashier of the Fayetteville branch of the bank. The following year, he was elected cashier of the main branch in Raleigh. In Raleigh, Dewey served as cashier of the Bank of North Carolina and its successor, the Bank of the State of North Carolina. After the Civil War, when the Bank of the State of North Carolina was closed, he was elected cashier and later president of the Raleigh National Bank. He served as president until his death.

Dewey married three times. In 1822, he married Catherine M. Hall of New Bern. His second wife, Ann Letitia Webber, was born in New Bern in 1803 and died in Raleigh in 1835; the date of their marriage is not known. On 5 January 1837, Dewey married Julia Ann Haylander (1804-1886), a native of Philadelphia, who had moved to Raleigh at an early age. Charles Dewey was survived by four children. One son was Charles Francis Dewey (b. 1825), an 1844 graduate of the University of North Carolina who became a physician in Goldsboro, N.C. Another son, Thomas W., married Bessie Lacy, daughter of Drury Lacy, pastor of Raleigh's First Presbyterian Church. Charles Dewey was a faithful member of that church for over 50 years, serving as superintendent of its Sunday school and as a ruling elder.

Although he owned a few slaves and a moderate amount of property, Dewey never accumulated great wealth. He left a house and lot in Charlotte, N.C., to Anna Maria Dewey, wife of his son Frank H., who resided there. Bonds, notes, stocks, and other property were willed to his wife and his daughters Mary Ann and Rachel D. Wilder.

(Adapted from the entry by Memory F. Mitchell in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, volume 2, 1986.)

The collection is chiefly correspondence, miscellaneous papers, and two volumes relating to Charles Dewey and members of his family. Many of the items are business papers, 1828-1879, of Charles Dewey while he was a banker in Raleigh with the State Bank of North Carolina, the Bank of North Carolina, and the Raleigh National Bank. Among these are papers, 1839-1866, concerning the finances of the Cameron family, including letters from Paul C. and Duncan Cameron, and other papers relatingto European investments in the United States. There is also family correspondence, 1854-1886, chiefly between Julia Ann Haylander Dewey and her children, nieces, and nephews. In 1886, there are letters describing a trip to Naples, Italy. Volumes are an 1833 travel diary of Julia Ann Haylander on a journey to England to visit her ill sister, and a book containing lists of books read, quotations, and copies of writings by Shakespeare, Byron, and others that Charles Francis Dewey compiled in 1842-1843.