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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
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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Collection Overview
| Size | 11.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2000 items) |
| Abstract | Bessie Heath Daniel, a white farmer, teacher, and amateur historian, of Person County, N.C. She attended the State Normal and Industrial College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in Greensboro, N.C., and worked there in the office of the president. She also held positions as the treasurer of the Kanuga Club near Hendersonville, N.C., and as an administrative assistant in the Agricultural Extension Service of Roxboro, N.C., and Person County. Daniel held numerous clerical positions, taught at Roxboro High School and the Hillcrest School in Flat River, and from 1923 to her retirement managed the family tobacco farm. From 1957 to 1975, she hosted a weekly radio program on WRXO in Roxboro, N.C., devoted to Person County history. The collection includes correspondence, financial and legal materials, and other items relating to Bessie Heath Daniel and others. Personal and business correspondence is mostly among Bessie Heath Daniel, Sallie Barnett Daniel, Lewis Heath Daniel, Bertha Daniel Cloyd, and their friends and family. Topics include tobacco farm management, rural household affairs, and the daily life of young female college students in the early 1900s. Financial materials including financial and legal documents from the 19th and 20th centuries; documents relating to Lewis Heath Daniel's employment at the distillery warehouse in Roxboro, N.C.; bank books; account books (one of which includes a muster roll for Company A, 35th Battalion of Home Guards and a list of names and birth dates of slaves born 1813-1864); documents relating to the Daniel homestead and tobacco farm in Flat River, N.C.; and receipts. There are also materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel's weekly radio program; school materials including a cipher book, possibly of J. A. Lunsford; an "Album of Remembrance" of Carrie Scott while attending the Warrenton Female Collegiate Institute; materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel and Bertha Daniel Cloyd's education, such as notebooks, essays, tests, and grade reports; historical and genealogical materials including pages of a family record including birth, death, and marriage dates for the Ward, Bacon, Lamkin, Gregory, Edwards, and Scott family members, 1753-1886; printed materials; photographs, including a daguerreotype of Ann Lunsford Daniel; and other items. |
| Creator | Daniel, Bessie Heath, 1886-1976. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
Processed by: Margaret Dickson, June 2006
Encoded by: Margaret Dickson, June 2006
Revisions by: Jodi Berkowitz, August 2017; Nancy Kaiser, January 2019
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
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Subject Headings
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.
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Related Collections
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Biographical Information
Bessie Heath Daniel (1886-1976), was a white farmer, teacher, and amateur historian of Person County, N.C. She was born to parents Lewis Heath Daniel (1850-1934) and Sallie Barnett Daniel (1860-1916) at the family homestead and farm in Flat River, N.C. She had one sister, Bertha Daniel, also known as Bertha Daniel Cloyd. Daniel's parents were tobacco farmers, farming the land that her paternal grandfather purchased in 1847. In addition to tobacco farming, Lewis Heath Daniel was employed at a distillery warehouse in Roxboro, N.C., from 1890 to 1900.
Bessie Heath Daniel attended the State Normal and Industrial College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in Greensboro, N.C., and graduated in 1905. From 1905 to 1909, her sister Bertha attended the Normal College as well. During Daniel's undergraduate years and for four years after graduation, Daniel worked in the office of the college president, as an assistant to the campus librarian, and as a teacher in the business department. Upon leaving her position at the college, Daniel worked as the treasurer of the Kanuga Club near Hendersonville, N.C.; a teacher at Roxboro High School and the Hillcrest School; an administrative assistant in the Agricultural Extension Service in Roxboro and Person County; and held clerical positions in Statesville, N.C., Asheville, N.C., Rutherfordton, N.C., and Washington D.C. (during World War I). From 1923 to her retirement, Daniel managed the family farm at Flat River.
Bessie Heath Daniel's sister Bertha married Edward Lamar Cloyd, who served as dean of students at North Carolina State University for nearly forty years. They had two children, Edward Lamar Cloyd Jr., called "Son," and Ann Daniel Cloyd, in whose lives Bessie Daniel was an active participant.
Daniel was an avid local historian and collected materials relating to the history of Person County and the genealogy and history of the her family. From 1957 to 1975, she hosted a weekly radio program on WRXO in Roxboro, N.C., which was devoted to Person County history and other items of relevance to the region.
Bessie Heath Daniel died at the age of 89 in February 1976.
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Scope and Content
The collection includes personal and business correspondence, mostly among Bessie Heath Daniel, a white farmer, teacher, and amateur historian, of Person County, N.C.; Sallie Barnett Daniel; Lewis Heath Daniel, Bertha Daniel Cloyd, and their friends and family. Topics include tobacco farm management, rural household affairs, and the daily life of young female college students in the early 1900s. Financial materials including financial and legal documents from the 19th and 20th centuries; documents relating to Lewis Heath Daniel's employment at the distillery warehouse in Roxboro, N.C.; bank books; account books (one of which includes a muster roll for Company A, 35th Battalion of Home Guards and a list of names and birth dates of slaves born 1813-1864); documents relating to the Daniel homestead and tobacco farm in Flat River, N.C.; and receipts. There are also materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel's weekly radio program; school materials including a cipher book, possibly of J. A. Lunsford; an "Album of Remembrance" of Carrie Scott while attending the Warrenton Female Collegiate Institute; materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel and Bertha Daniel Cloyd's education, such as notebooks, essays, tests, and grade reports; historical and genealogical materials including pages of a family record including birth, death, and marriage dates for the Ward, Bacon, Lamkin, Gregory, Edwards, and Scott family members, 1753-1886; printed materials; photographs, including a daguerreotype of Ann Lunsford Daniel; and other items.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Correspondence, 1831-1980 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological by year.
Correspondence relating to the personal and business activities of Bessie Heath Daniel, her family, and her forbears. The bulk of the correspondence is personal. Business correspondence is much sparser.
A small portion of the correspondence was received by the Southern Historical Collection already having suffered significant mold or physical damage or having deteriorated to fragments. These items have been placed in folder 80.
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Subseries 1.1. Personal Correspondence, 1831-1980 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological by year.
Personal correspondence consists predominantly of letters written to and from Bessie Heath Daniel and other members of the Daniel family. Letters written prior to 1900 are chiefly those written to or from Sallie Barnett Daniel, and describe daily life in rural Person County. Folder 1 contains a letter of August 1831 from Dr. Currie Barnett, Bessie Heath Daniel's great-grandfather, to his daughter, Elizabeth Bolton, advising her as to how to be a good wife and run a household.
Correspondence from 1900 to around 1910 is generally between Bessie, her sister Bertha, and their parents while one or both children was attending the State Normal and Agricultural College in Greensboro. Letters from Bessie and Bertha describe the daily life of a young female college student, while letters from their parents, chiefly from Sallie Barnett Daniel, describe the daily life and business of running a farm.
Many letters from the first quarter of the 19th century are addressed to "Miss Daniel" and are from former or current students of Bessie Heath Daniel while she was teaching.
The bulk of the correspondence after about 1930 is generally from Bertha Daniel Cloyd, after she married Edward Lamar Cloyd, her son, Edward Lamar Cloyd Jr., daughter, Ann Daniel Cloyd, their children, and Bessie Daniel.
See Folder 133 in Subseries 5.2 for letters written from Bessie Heath Daniel to Hester and Charles Jackson during the years 1972-1976.
Some folders are noted as containing transcripts of letters. These transcripts were donated as a part of the collection and were possibly created by Hester Jackson as part of her effort to write a book about the Daniel family.
| Folder 1 |
Letter from Dr. Currie Barnett to his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Bolton, August 1831, plus transcript and photocopy. |
| Folder 2 |
1870-1879 |
| Folder 3 |
1880 |
Folder 4-5
Folder 4Folder 5 |
1881 |
| Folder 6 |
1882-1889 |
| Folder 7 |
1890-1898 |
| Folder 8 |
1900-1901 |
Folder 9-13
Folder 9Folder 10Folder 11Folder 12Folder 13 |
1902Folder 9 contains transcripts of some letters. |
Folder 14-18
Folder 14Folder 15Folder 16Folder 17Folder 18 |
1903Folder 14 contains transcript of one letter. |
Folder 19-22
Folder 19Folder 20Folder 21Folder 22 |
1904Folder 19 contains transcripts of some letters. |
Folder 23-28
Folder 23Folder 24Folder 25Folder 26Folder 27Folder 28 |
1905Folder 23 contains transcripts of some letters. |
Folder 29-31
Folder 29Folder 30Folder 31 |
1906Folder 29 contains transcripts of some letters. |
Folder 32-36
Folder 32Folder 33Folder 34Folder 35Folder 36 |
1907Folder 32 contains transcripts of some letters. |
Folder 37-43
Folder 37Folder 38Folder 39Folder 40Folder 41Folder 42Folder 43 |
1908Folder 37 contains transcripts of some letters. |
Folder 44-47
Folder 44Folder 45Folder 46Folder 47 |
1909Folder 44 contains transcripts of some letters. |
Folder 48-50
Folder 48Folder 49Folder 50 |
1910 |
| Folder 51 |
1911Contains transcripts of some letters. |
| Folder 52 |
1912 |
| Folder 53 |
1913-1915 |
| Folder 54 |
1916-1919 |
| Folder 55 |
1920 |
| Folder 56 |
1921-1922 |
| Folder 57 |
1923-1925 |
| Folder 58 |
1926-1929 |
| Folder 59 |
1930-1936Contains transcript of one letter. |
| Folder 60 |
1937-1939 |
| Folder 61 |
1940-1948 |
| Folder 62 |
1952-1959 |
| Folder 63 |
1961-1963 |
| Folder 64 |
1967-1969 |
| Folder 65 |
1970-1971 |
Folder 66-67
Folder 66Folder 67 |
1972-1973 |
| Folder 68 |
1974-1975, 1980 |
| Folder 69 |
Handwritten transcripts |
Folder 70-79
Folder 70Folder 71Folder 72Folder 73Folder 74Folder 75Folder 76Folder 77Folder 78Folder 79 |
Undated |
| Folder 80 |
Fragments of letters |
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Subseries 1.2. Business Correspondence, 1876-1970.
Arrangement: chronological by year.
Business correspondence is chiefly that of Lewis Heath Daniel and Bessie Heath Daniel, and generally relates to the business of running a dairy and tobacco farm. Other business correspondence relates to Bessie Daniel's work as a teacher, a typist, and a secretary.
| Folder 81 |
1876-1899 |
| Folder 82 |
1900-1909 |
| Folder 83 |
1910-1911 |
| Folder 84 |
1912-1919 |
| Folder 85 |
1920-1970 |
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Series 2. Financial and Legal Materials, 1838-1976 and undated.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Financial materials include account books, bank books, materials relating to the ownership of the Daniel farm and homestead, and receipts.
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Subseries 2.1. Financial and Legal Documents, 1854-1976 and undated.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Account books, bank books, and financial and legal documents relating to the business activities of Bessie Heath Daniel, her father, Lewis Heath Daniel, and their forbears. Of special interest is an account book in Folder 86, which includes a muster role for Company A, 35th Battalion of Home Guards and a list of names and birth dates for slaves born 1813-1864. Folder 93 contains documents relating to Lewis Heath Daniel's employment at a distillery warehouse in Roxboro, N.C., 1890-1900.
Account books in folders 86-87 are also available on microfilm.
| Folder 86 |
Account book, 1856-1862Apparently of Campbell Barnett, Bessie Heath Daniel's grandfather, of Person County, N.C., listing merchandise sold and payments received. Arrangement of entries is by name of customer. Also included are a muster role (1862?) for Company A, 35th Battalion of Home Guards and a list of names and birth dates for slaves born 1813-1864. (Also available on microfilm.) |
| Folder 87 |
Account book, 1854, 1858-1860Of J. A. Lunsford, and Bros., dry goods merchants of High Hill, Person County, N.C. Entries, for suppliers from whom merchandise was purchased, are arranged chronologically. (Also available on microfilm.) |
| Folder 88 |
Account book, July 1855-December 1860Of J. A. Lunsford and Bros., High Hill, Person County, N.C. Entries, for customers, are arranged chronologically. |
| Folder 89 |
Account book, 1878-1880 |
| Folder 90 |
Account book, 1877-1886 |
Folder 91-92
Folder 91Folder 92 |
Financial and legal documents |
| Folder 93 |
Distillery warehouse documents |
| Folder 94 |
Bank books |
| Reel M-4187/1 |
Microfilm copy of account books in Folders 86-87 |
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Subseries 2.2. Daniel Farm and Homestead Materials, 1945-1976 and undated.
Papers documenting the changing ownership of the Daniel farm and homestead throughout time, inventories of Bessie Heath Daniel's possessions, and documentation of a legal dispute occuring in the 1950s between Bessie Heath Daniel and one of her neighbors regarding their adjoining property line.
Folder 95-99
Folder 95Folder 96Folder 97Folder 98Folder 99 |
Daniel Farm and Homestead Materials |
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Subseries 2.3. Receipts, 1838-1975 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological by year.
Receipts documenting the business transactions of Lewis Heath Daniel, Bessie Heath Daniel, and their forbears.
| Folder 100 |
1838-1879 |
| Folder 101 |
1880-1899 |
| Folder 102 |
1901-1929 |
| Folder 103 |
1930-1975 |
| Folder 104 |
Undated |
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Subseries 2.3A. Receipts and Fragments, 1770-1870 (Addition of July 2017).
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103112
Receipts and fragments for business transactions and accounts related to the Lunsford and Daniel family. Early material (1770-1810s) is related to Joseph and Samuel Lunford. Some later material (1850s-1860s) is related to George and Bessie Daniel.
| Folder 151 |
Receipts and fragments, 1770-1870 |
| Box 21 |
Receipts and fragments, 1770-1870 |
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Series 3. Radio Program Materials, 1957-1974 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological by year.
Materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel's weekly radio program about Person County and its history on WRXO in Roxboro, N.C., running from 1957 to 1975. Papers include notes she made for her programs along with pertinant clippings and articles, and an annual report for the radio station for the year 1973.
| Folder 105 |
1957-1960 |
| Folder 106 |
1961-1963 |
| Folder 107 |
1964-1967 |
Folder 108-109
Folder 108Folder 109 |
1969-1970 |
Folder 110-111
Folder 110Folder 111 |
1971 |
| Folder 112 |
1972-1973 |
| Folder 113 |
1973-1974 |
Folder 114-115
Folder 114Folder 115 |
Undated |
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Series 4. School Materials, 1829-1905 and undated.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel and Bertha Daniel's education at the Roxboro Institute, a public school they attended, and the State Normal and Industrial College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro), including notebooks, essays, tests, and grade reports. Also included is a cipher book, circa 1829-1841, possibly belonging to J. A. Lunsford, in and an "Album of Remembrance," belonging to Carrie Scott while she attended the Warrenton Female Collegiate Institute in Warrenton, N.C., in 1857-1858. Folder 122 contains a handwritten copy of Bessie Heath Daniel's senior speech at the State Normal and Industrial College, entitled "Southern Women as Breadwinners, and folder 123 contains Daniel's senior class yearbook and class pin."
| Folder 116 |
Math exercise notebook |
| Folder 117 |
Cipher book, circa 1829-1841Possibly belonging to J. A. Lunsford, Person County, N.C. About 350 pages. |
| Folder 118 |
"Album of Remembrance," 1857-1858Of Carrie Scott, Warrenton Female Collegiate Institute, Warrenton, N.C., consisting of brief messages from teachers and fellow students. |
| Folder 119 |
Roxboro Institute |
| Folder 120 |
School notebooks: Bertha Daniel |
| Folder 121 |
School notebooks: Bessie Daniel |
| Folder 122 |
North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College |
| Folder 123 |
Yearbook and senior class pin, 1905 |
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Series 5. Historical and Genealogical Materials, 1753-1987 and undated.
Arrangement: by type of material.
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Subseries 5.1. Materials Compiled by Bessie Heath Daniel, 1753-1976 and undated.
Materials relating to Bessie Heath Daniel's quest for information regarding the history of Person County and the Daniel family genealogy, which were closely linked. Folder 124 contains pages of a family record, possibly taken from Bibles. Folders 125-129 contain information on the Daniel, Lunsford, and other Person County families, information on the history of the Daniel Homestead and Person County in general, and parts of a transcript which appears to be autobiographical accounts of events by Lewis Heath Daniel. Folders 130-131 contain information on the history of post offices and early mail routes of Person County.
| Folder 124 |
"Family Record" pagesPresumably removed from family Bibles. There are two sets, each consisting of four pages. Family names include Ward, Bacon, Lamkin, Gregory, Edwards, and Scott. Dates of births, marriages, and deaths recorded range from 1753 to 1886. |
Folder 125-129
Folder 125Folder 126Folder 127Folder 128Folder 129 |
Historical and genealogical materials |
Folder 130-131
Folder 130Folder 131 |
Post office history materials |
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Subseries 5.2. Materials Compiled by Hester Jackson, 1976-1987 and undated.
Arrangement: by subject.
Materials compiled by Hester Jackson, a close friend and neighbor of Bessie Heath Daniel's, to whom she willed her papers at the time of her death. These papers represent Jackson's efforts to further Daniel's genealogical and historical research with the intention of writing a book.
| Folder 132 |
Two lettersContains a presumably unmailed letter from Hester Jackson to Carolyn Wallace, then director of the Southern Historical Collection, regarding the donation of the Bessie Heath Daniel Papers, dated 5 September 1979, and a letter received by Hester Jackson from the North Carolina Genealogical Society approving her proposal for a book on the Sallie Barnett Daniel letters (never written), dated 8 April 1987. |
| Folder 133 |
Letters from Bessie Heath Daniel to Hester and Charles Jackson, 1972-1976 |
Folder 134-136
Folder 134Folder 135Folder 136 |
Barnett family materials |
| Folder 137 |
Bessie Daniel MaterialsTwo photographs (one of Bessie Heath Daniel with her mother, father and sister and one of two unidentified women standing in front of the Washington Monument) have been separated from this folder and can be found in P-4187/6. |
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Series 5A. Historical and Genealogical Materials, 1964-1966 (Addition of January 2019).
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103519
Research notes compiled by Bessie Heath Daniel about the Dr. John Terrell Schools of Person County, N.C. Her handwritten notes compile names of students, teachers, and alumni of these schools, which were in operation in the early twentieth century. There are also newspaper clippings with photographs of classes of students from these schools; one black and white photographic print of Hillcrest High School teachers in 1913; and a 1964 typewritten invitation from Annie Belle Crowder, president of the Person County Historical Society, for a reunion of teachers of the Terrell Schools.
| Box 21 |
Papers, 1964-1966 |
| Image Folder PF-04187/8 |
Photograph, circa 1900s-1910s |
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Series 6. Printed Materials.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Printed materials include clippings, programs and invitations, postcards, greeting cards, and calling cards, printed ephemera, and a few periodicals.
| Folder 138 |
Clippings |
| Folder 139 |
Programs and invitations |
| Folder 140 |
Postcards, greeting cards, and calling cards |
Folder 141-143
Folder 141Folder 142Folder 143 |
Printed ephemera |
Folder 144-145
Folder 144Folder 145 |
Periodicals |
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Series 7. Other Papers, circa 1900-1980 and undated.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Other papers include writings of undetermined authorship, often hand-written and fragmented; Bessie Heath Daniel's last will and testament; photocopies of articles about Bessie Heath Daniel; fragments of papers; and Bessie Heath Daniel's 1974 and 1975 day planners.
| Folder 146 |
Writings |
Folder 147-148
Folder 147Folder 148 |
Other papers |
| Folder 149 |
Fragments |
| Folder 150 |
Day planners, 1974 and 1975 |
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Series 7A. Other Papers, 1976-1977 (Addition of February 2015).
Acquisitions Information: Accession 102170
Duplicates of official documents regarding the estate and land of Bessie Daniel, who died in 1976. Includes a letter about the case and other matters, disbursements as of July 15, 1976 (list of payments with to whom, for what, and how much), a 90-day inventory of personal property and their value, answer to interrogatories, and the judgment with attached outline of land inherited.
| Box 21 |
Papers, 1976-1977 |
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Series 8. Photographs, 1895-1976 and undated.
Arrangement: by subject.
| Image Folder PF-4187/1 |
Identified people |
Image Folder PF-4187/2-3
PF-4187/2PF-4187/3 |
Unidentified people |
| Image Folder PF-4187/4 |
Bessie Daniel house, 1976 |
| Image Folder PF-4187/5 |
Daniel homestead and farm |
| Image Folder PF-4187/6 |
Hester Jackson materials |
| Image Folder PF-4187/7 |
Negatives |
| Special Format Image SF-P-4187/1 |
Daguerreotype of Ann Lunsford Daniel |
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Series 9A. Papers, undated (Addition of August 2012).
Acquisitions Information: Accession 101635
Sixteen maps of parts of Person Country, N.C., many hand-annotated with details of land ownership.
Oversize Paper Folder OPF-04187/1-2
OPF-04187/1OPF-04187/2 |
Maps, undated |
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Series 9A. Papers, 1850s-1972 (Addition of February 2009).
Acquisitions Information: Accession 102616
This addition includes material related to Bessie H. Daniel and her family's finances, business, and land ownership. The bulk of the addition includes receipts for items purchased by her mother and father as well as other family members in the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Receipts include payment to State Normal and Industrial School, and more general items. Other material includes correspondence between family members, deeds for the Daniel homestead dating from the 1850s and into the 20th century as it passed between generations, the last will and testament Allen H. Lunsford, an account written by Bessie Heath Daniel of the history of the homestead in 1970, and a contract written 1866 between one of her ancestors and a freedman. There are four photographs, one of the homestead and three of Bessie Heath Daniel with students.
| Box 21 |
Papers, 1850s-1972 |
| Image Folder PF-04187/8 |
Photographs, circa 1900s-1910s |
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Items Separated