Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 Thomas Settle Papers, #3345, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received 1958; and purchased from Ian Brabner, Bookseller of Wilmington, Del., in February 2012 (Acc. 101559)

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1.

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: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, March 2010

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.

Finding aid updated in June 2012 by Armando Suarez because of addition.

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.

• African Americans--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Democratic Party (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Florida--Politics and government--1865-1950.
• Greensboro (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Guilford County (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Jacksonville (Fla.)--History--19th century.
• Judges--Florida--History--19th century.
• Judges--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Ku Klux Klan (19th cent.)
• Lawyers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1865-1950.
• North Carolina. Constitution.
• Patronage, Political--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Populist Party (N.C.)
• Railroads--Florida--History--19th century.
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--North Carolina.
• Republican Party (Fla.)--History--19th century.
• Republican Party (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Rockingham County (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Scrapbooks--North Carolina.
• Settle, Thomas, 1831-1888.
• Settle, Thomas, 1865-1919.
• Sharpe, Mary Settle, fl. 1902-1924.
• United States--Politics and government--1865-1933.
• Women in politics--North Carolina.

• Thomas Settle (1789-1857) Papers (#656), Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.

Thomas Settle Jr. (1831-1888) of Greensboro, N.C., was a North Carolina Supreme Court justice, 1868-1871; chair of the Republican National Convention, 1872; and United States district judge at Jacksonville, Fla., 1877-1888. His son, Thomas Settle III (1865-1919), was a lawyer in Rockingham and Guilford counties, N.C.; state district solicitor, 1886-1893; and Republican United States representative, 1893-1897.

The collection includes political, personal, legal, and business papers of Thomas Settle Jr. and his son, Thomas Settle III. Correspondence with many individuals concerns the establishment of the Republican Party in North Carolina during Reconstruction, and thereafter party organization, activities, patronage, conventions, factions, finances, and campaigns and elections in North Carolina and nationally; political issues in North Carolina, Florida, and the nation, mainly 1872-1897, including amendments to the North Carolina state constitution of 1876, charges of election fraud, election law reform, taxes, tariff, currency, banking regulations, prohibition, suffrage, state and national activities of the Populist Party; federal legislation, 1892-1897; and African Americans. Also included are papers concerning personal business, finances, lands, and legal cases. Judge Settle's Florida letters concern both his interest in North Carolina politics and cases he tried in northern Florida involving railroads, shipping, and homestead entries. The papers of Thomas Settle III date from 1884 to 1897. Also included are four political scrapbooks, 1866-1912, and clippings and scattered papers relating to the political activities of Mary Settle (Mrs. B.C.) Sharpe, 1902-1904.

The Addition of February 2012 is a bound volume with manuscript notes attributed to Judge Thomas Settle. The notes relate to five political speeches delivered by Settle in support of post-Civil War Reconstruction and civil rights during his 1876 North Carolina gubernatorial campaign as Republican candidate. Settle's notes document Reconstruction politics and mention the Ku Klux Klan, African Americans, and anti-Union Democrats.