Edmund Walter Jones Papers, 1789-1917

Collection Number: 03543

Collection Title: Edmund Walter Jones Papers, 1789-1917

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.

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Size	1.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 372 items)
Abstract	Edmund Walter Jones (1811-1876) was a planter at Clover Hill in Happy Valley in Caldwell County, N.C. Early items in the collection are chiefly business and surveying papers of Edmund Walter Jones's father-in-law, William Davenport. The bulk of the papers is business and family correspondence of Jones, including letters from Lenoir, Jones, Patterson, and Avery relatives commenting on personal and public affairs; papers related to E. W. Jones's speculation in military bounty lands in the Midwest; wartime letters from his sons, William Davenport (b. 1839), John Thomas (1842-1864) and Walter L. (d. 1863), both of whom served in the 26th North Carolina Regiment, and Edmund (1848-1920), written from various locations in North Carolina and Virginia; and a few letters from sons John Thomas and Edmund while students at the University of North Carolina. The postwar papers pertain to Edmund (1848-1920), planter in Happy Valley, lawyer in Lenoir, N.C., and state legislator. Volumes include land, surveying, and financial records of William Davenport, including a field survey book (typed transcript only), 1821, of the boundary line between North Carolina and Tennessee; a memorandum book kept by Edmund Jones (1771-1844), father of Edmund Walter Jones, on a trip to Alabama in 1816; miscellaneous accounts and memoranda of E. W. Jones, including accounts of the building of Clover Hill; and a clothing records for Company I, 26th North Carolina Regiment.
Creator	Jones, Edmund Walter, 1811-1876.
Curatorial Unit	Southern Historical Collection
Language	English

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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 Edmund Walter Jones Papers #3543, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information: Purchased from Mrs. George Dewey of Goldsboro, N.C., June 1961. (Mrs. Dewey is the great-granddaughter of Edmund Walter Jones.)

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.

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Processed by: Library Staff, August 1961

Encoded by: Bari Helms, April 2005

Updated by: Laura Hart, May 2021

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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.

Expand/collapse Related Collections

Lenoir Family Papers (#426)
Patterson and Jones Family Papers (#578)

Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Edmund Walter Jones of Clover Hill, situated about six miles north of Lenoir in Caldwell County, N.C., was the son of Edmund Jones and his wife Ann Lenoir Jones of Palmyra. His grandfathers were William Lenoir and George Jones. Edmund Walter Jones married his cousin Sophia Caroline Davenport, daughter of William Davenport and his wife Mary Lenoir Gordon Davenport of The Fountain (or Walnut Fountain). All of these homes were located in Happy Valley in Caldwell County, N.C. Edmund Walter and Sophia Jones had four sons and one daughter: Colonel John T. Jones, who was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness on 6 May 1864; Private Walter L. Jones, who was mortally wounded at Gettysburg; Captain William Davenport Jones, a member of General Collet Leventhorpe's staff who was also wounded; and Edmund Jones, legislator and lawyer. Colonel John Thomas Jones served in the 1st North Carolina Volunteers and then as an officer in the 26th North Carolina Regiment under Zebulon B. Vance and Henry K. Burgwyn, and in the brigade of James Johnston Pettigrew. He was a lieutenant colonel when he was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness. Walter L. Jones attended Hillsboro Military Academy in 1860, became a soldier, and was killed at Gettysburg. Edmund Jones (1848-1920), called Edmund Jones, Jr. and nicknamed Coot, studied at Bingham Academy, served briefly in the 3rd North Carolina Cavalry in 1865, and after the war studied at the University of North Carolina and the University of Virginia. In later years, he farmed at Clover Hill, practiced law in Lenoir, and served in the N.C. legislature.

Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The earlier papers are chiefly business and surveying papers of Edmund Walter Jones's father-in-law William Davenport. The bulk of the papers is business and family correspondence of Jones, including letters from Lenoir, Jones, Patterson, and Avery relatives commenting on personal and public affairs; papers related to E. W. Jones's speculation in military bounty lands in the Midwest; and wartime letters from his sons, William Davenport Jones, John Thomas Jones (1842-1864) and Walter L. Jones (d. 1863), both of whom served in the 26th North Carolina Regiment, and Edmund Jones (1848-1920), written from various locations in North Carolina and Virginia; and a few letters from sons John Thomas and Edmund while students at the University of North Carolina. The postwar papers pertain to Edmund (1848-1920), planter in Happy Valley, N.C., lawyer in Lenoir, N.C., and state legislator.

Volumes include land, surveying, and financial records of William Davenport, including a field survey book (typed transcript only), 1821, of the boundary line between North Carolina and Tennessee; a memorandum book kept by Edmund Jones (1771-1844), father of Edmund Walter Jones, on a trip to Alabama in 1816; miscellaneous accounts and memoranda of E. W. Jones, including accounts of the building of Clover Hill Plantation; and a clothing records for Company I, 26th North Carolina Regiment.

Contents list

Expand/collapse Series Quick Links

1. Correspondence, 1789-1914.
2. Other Papers and Pictures, 1798-1917 and undated.
3. Volumes, 1796-1895.

Expand/collapse Series 1. Correspondence, 1789-1914.

About 300 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Early items in the series are chiefly business and surveying papers of Edmund Walter Jones's father-in-law, William Davenport. From 1840 on, the papers are chiefly business items and correspondence of Edmund W. Jones, including letters from members of his family, his wife, children, and other relatives. The oldest son, William Davenport Jones, is frequently mentioned in the papers but is not a major correspondent. There are a number of letters from John Thomas Jones, written while he was a student at the University of North Carolina, 1860-1861, and during the Civil War. There are also letters to and from son Walter L. Jones while he was at the Hillsboro Military Academy, but there are few letters from him during the Civil War. The postwar papers pertain to Edmund Jones, planter at Clover Hill, lawyer, and state legislator.

Folder 1	1789-1802
Folder 2	1803-1808
Folder 3	1809-1819
Folder 4	1820-1839
Folder 5	1840-1849
Folder 6	1850-1852
Folder 7	1853-1855
Folder 8	1856-1859 Includes maps of Iowa townships.
Folder 9	1860
Folder 10	1861
Folder 11	1862-1863
Folder 12	1864-1865
Folder 13	1866-1867
Folder 14	1868-1869
Folder 15	1870-1872
Folder 16	1873-1879
Folder 17	1880-1914

Expand/collapse Series 2. Other Papers and Pictures, 1798-1917 and undated.

About 100 items.

Arrangement: by type.

Papers include typescripts of speeches and writings of Edmund Jones including biographical sketches of Colonel William Davenport, Henry Woodfin Grady, Zebulon Baird Vance, and General Collett Leventhorpe; documents dealing with the estates of Charles Gordon and William Humphrey; and survey notes of William Davenport.

Folder 18	Speeches and Writings of Edmund Jones
Folder 19	Undated and Miscellaneous
Folder 20	Surveyor's Notes: William Davenport, 1798-1836
Image Folder PF-3543/1	Pictures

Expand/collapse Series 3. Volumes, 1796-1895.

18 items.

Arrangement: Chronological.

Volumes include land, surveying, and financial records of William Davenport, including a field survey book (typed transcript only), 1821, of the boundary line between North Carolina and Tennessee; a memorandum book kept by Edmund Jones (1771-1844), father of Edmund Walter Jones, on a trip to Alabama in 1816; miscellaneous accounts and memoranda of E. W. Jones, including accounts of the building of Clover Hill; and a clothing records for Company I, 26th North Carolina Regiment.

Folder 21	V-3543/1: Surveyor's Field Book, Davenport, 1796-1797
Folder 22	V-3543/2: Surveyor's Field Book, Davenport, 1798
Folder 23	V-3543/3: Surveyor's Field Book, Davenport, 1799
Folder 24	V-3543/4: Memorandum Book related to land grants, 1799
Folder 25	V-3543/5: Surveyor's Field Book, Davenport, 1800-1801
Folder 26	V-3543/6: Surveyor's Field Book, Davenport, 1802
Folder 27	V-3543/7: Memorandum Book of Land Sold by Major A. Beard and Colonel W. Erwin, 1801-1802
Folder 28	V-3543/8: Field Book, August 1803
Folder 29	V-3543/9: Field Book, October 1803
Folder 30	V-3543/10: Field Book, 1804-1806
Folder 31	V-3543/11: Field Book, 1821 Typed copy only. This is a record of the running of the boundary line between North Carolina and Tennessee. William Davenport was a surveyor for the state of North Carolina.
Folder 32	V-3543/12: Account Book, William Davenport, 1823-1852 Miscellaneous accounts of Davenport with his neighbors, chiefly for farm produce sold on credit. In the back are a few pages of accounts of a blacksmith's shop.
Folder 33	V-3543/13: Memorandum Book, Edmund Jones, 1816 Book kept by Edmund Jones on a trip to Mobile, Ala., and Creek County, Ala., in company with Israel Pickins. Included are brief notes on events of their travel with comments on the lands they saw.
Folder 34	V-3543/14: Miscellaneous Account Book, Edmund W. Jones, 1842-1866 Included are personal and household expenditures, sales of farm produce, income for 1844, lumber received, accounts and records of building the house at Clover Hill in 1845-1847, accounts with his neighbors and others including references to lands in Iowa and Wisconsin, miscellaneous memoranda including lists of sheets and other linens at Clover Hill, weather records for 1854-1855, notes on fertilizer, grafting of apple trees, cost of construction of Caldwell and Ashe turnpike road in 1848, and accounts of the estate of Edmund Jones.
Folder 35	V-3543/15: Military and Personal Accounts, 1862-1868 The 1862 materials include a clothing account book of Company I, 26th Regiment North Carolina troops with list of members of the company accompanied by a record of clothing issued to each. Materials, dated 1866-1868, include accounts of Edmund W. Jones with his sons, relatives, and other individuals and records of the land owned by Jones in Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
Folder 36	V-3543/16: Family Account Book, 1860-1868 Included are an anthology of poetry and accounts of William D. Jones with Edmund W. Jones.
Folder 37	V-3543/17: Accounts of Edmund W. Jones, 1867-1876 Included are Jones's accounts with individuals, including some freedmen, and a copy of a 1877 letter written on behalf of a Mrs. Lowdermilk about Bradford family history.
Folder 38	V-3543/18: "General Lenoir," by A. L. Jones Biographical sketch of William Lenoir (1751-1839) written by Augustus Lewis Jones (1874-1907), son of Edmund Jones, written while he was a student at the University of North Carolina, probably in 1895.

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Image folder (PF-3543/1)

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Collection Number: 03543 Collection Title: Edmund Walter Jones Papers, 1789-1917