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 Samuel Hairston Papers, #3820, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Bobby Steagall of Stuart, Va., 1969-1971.

Additional Descriptive Resources

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

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, June 2009

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.

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.

• Agriculture--Virginia--History--20th century.
• Banks and banking--Virginia--History--20th century.
• Building--Virginia--History--20th century.
• College students--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• College students--Virginia--Social life and customs.
• Columbia University--Students--History--20th century.
• Courtship--Virginia--History.
• Dairy farming--Virginia--History--20th century.
• Danville & Western Railroad.
• Democratic Party (Va.)--History--20th century.
• Duke University--Students--History--20th century.
• Family--Virginia--Social life and customs.
• First National Bank (Danville, Va.)
• Fishburne Military School--Students--History--20th century.
• Hairston, May Jopling.
• Hairston, Samuel, b. 1865.
• Jopling, James Rufus.
• Livestock--Virginia--History--20th century.
• Love-letters--19th century.
• Moravian Seminary and College for Women--Students--History--20th century.
• Oak Hill (Pittsylvania County, Va.)
• Pittsylvania County (Va.)--Social life and customs.
• Railroads--Virginia--History--20th century.
• Randolph-Macon Woman's College--Students--History--20th century.
• Real property--Virginia.
• Salem Academy and College (Winston-Salem, N.C.)--Students--History--20th century.
• Virginia Episcopal School--Students--History--20th century.
• Virginia Military Institute--Students--Social life and customs--20th century.
• Virginia--Politics and government--20th century.
• Virginia--Social life and customs.
• Virginia. Board of Agriculture.
• Women college students--Virginia--Social life and customs.

Samuel Hairston (born 1865) was a dairy farmer; director of the Danville and Western Railway, the Bank of Stokes County, Walnut Cove, N.C., and the Piedmont Trust Bank, Martinsville, Va.; and member of the Virginia Board of Agriculture. He also had business interests in Riverside and Dan River Cotton Mills and the Martinsville Land and Improvement Company. Hairston was born at "Oak Hill," Pittsylvania County, Va., to George Hairston and Anne Elizabeth Lash. He married May Jopling, daughter of James Rufus and Mollie P. Jopling of Danville, Va., in 1898. They had seven children: James Joplin, Samuel Junior, May, Anne Lash, Ruth Perkins, George, and Rufus.

The collection includes correspondence, business papers, and family letters of Hairston, his wife, May Jopling Hairston, and their seven children. Among the family letters are letters, 1897-1898, from Samuel Hairston to May Jopling, during their courtship; love-letters and personal correspondence, 1898-1931, between Samuel J. Hairston and his wife; and letters, beginning in 1918, many of which are undated, from the children of Samuel and May Hairston to their parents, while the children were at preparatory schools and colleges, including Salem Academy and College, Virginia Episcopal School, Fishburne Military School, Virginia Military Institute, Duke University, Randolph Macon Woman's College, Moravian Seminary and College for Women, and Columbia University. Business papers relate to Hairston's interests in dairy farming, livestock, real estate, the Democratic Party, the Danville and Western Railroad, and the Virginia Board of Agriculture. Also included are legal correspondence emanating from a number of suits especially Booth versus Hairston; papers, 1909-1911, of James Rufus Jopling, bank president, about the construction of the First National Bank, Danville County, Va.; and some miscellaneous family snapshots.