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Size | 1.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 725 items) |
Abstract | Joseph Brown was born in Columbus County, NC, on 9 July 1863. In 1890, he became interested in agriculture, and was chiefly responsible for the development of the strawberry-growing industry in North Carolina. Brown was elected to the North Carolina State Senate in 1893 and served there until 1928. During his first term as senator, Brown met Minnie McIver; the couple was married on 9 June 1898. Joseph Brown died 26 June 1937. Minnie McIver, born 1 January 1874 in Moore County, NC, taught music at high schools in Henrietta and Whitehall, NC, until she married Joseph Brown. Minnie Brown was active in many organizations and clubs in Columbus County, NC, and as a result, she was appointed to the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare; she served in that position from 1925 to 1937. In 1925 she became a member of the consolidated University of North Carolina's Board of Trustees. Minnie Brown died on 21 January 1957. The collection includes letters, speeches, short stories and other writings, and photographs of Joseph Addison Brown (1863-1937) of Chadbourn, North Carolina, an agriculturalist and state senator; and of his wife, Minnie McIver Brown (1874-1957), a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina, and an active civic leader. |
Creator | Brown (Family : Brown, Joseph Addison, 1862-1937) |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Keith Pritchard, Cynthia Crouch, Laura O'Keefe, June 1985
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Back to TopThe 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.
Joseph Addison Brown
Joseph Addison Brown was born in Columbus County, North Carolina on 9 July 1863. In 1890, he became interested in agriculture, and was chiefly responsible for the development of the strawberry-growing industry in North Carolina. He also served on the national executive committee of the Southern Cotton Association, and was one of the nine original members of the interstate Tobacco Growers Advisory Committee.
Joseph Brown was first elected to the North Carolina State Senate in 1893, and served seven other terms, ending in 1928. He was also chairman for a time of the Columbus County Democratic Executive Committee.
During his first term as senator, Brown met Minnie McIver, who was teaching school in Whiteville. The couple was married on 9 June 1898. They had one daughter, Gladys McIver Brown (later Proctor). Joseph Brown died on 26 June 1937.
Minnie McIver Brown
Minnie McIver was born in Moore County, N.C., on 1 January 1874. She attended the Southern Female College in La Grange, Ga., and spent a year at North Carolina's State Normal and Industrial School in Greensboro (now UNC-G). From 1896 to 1898 she taught music at high schools in Henrietta and Whiteville, N.C. After their marriage, she and Joseph Brown lived in Chadbourn, where she lived until her death on 21 January 1957.
Minnie Brown was active in many organizations in Columbus County, helping to found its first literary club in 1901, and its chapter of the D.A.R. Music continued to be important in her life; she was an organist at the Chadbourn Presbyterian Church, and worked for the inclusion of music in the public school curriculum while serving as chairman of the State Federation of Women's Clubs.
Brown's club activities emphasized social service, and as a result, Governor Angus McLean appointed her to the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare, on which she served from 1925 to 1937. She was also a member of the State Education Commission, the first woman member of the Board of Trustees of the State Normal and Industrial College (appointed in 1917), and in 1925, she became a member of the consolidated University of North Carolina's Board of Trustees.
Brown spoke before numerous North Carolina civic groups on a variety of topics, and wrote and published locally some short stories and historical sketches, mostly about people and events in southeastern North Carolina.
Back to TopApproximately three-fourths of this collection consists of letters to and from Joseph and Minnie Brown. About 240 of them were exchanged between Joseph and Minnie during their courtship and engagement in 1897-1898. Correspondence from other years is less voluminous (an average of five items per year), and is a mixture of personal and business mail, mostly incoming.
The rest of the papers consist of legal documents, texts of Minnie's speeches and short stories, typed copies of sermons, apparently transcribed by Minnie for her pastor, the typescript of a diary kept by Gladys Brown Proctor's mother-in-law, writings by others, and biographical material on the Brown and McIver families. There are also eight photographs, mostly unidentified.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Letters exchanged between Joseph and Minnie Brown, and incoming personal and business correspondence. Very little of the latter deals with Joseph Brown's political career or with Minnie's academic and social welfare work; it pertains chiefly to agricultural issues and to routine financial transactions.
Folder 1 |
1891 |
Folder 2 |
1893 |
Folder 3 |
1894 |
Folder 4 |
1896 |
Folder 5 |
1897 |
Folder 6 |
1893-1897 |
Folder 7-12
Folder 7Folder 8Folder 9Folder 10Folder 11Folder 12 |
1898 |
Folder 13 |
1899 |
Folder 14 |
1900 |
Folder 15 |
1903 |
Folder 16 |
1904 |
Folder 17 |
1905 |
Folder 18 |
1906 |
Folder 19 |
1907 |
Folder 20 |
1908 |
Folder 21 |
1909 |
Folder 22 |
1910 |
Folder 23 |
1911 |
Folder 24 |
1912 |
Folder 25 |
1913 |
Folder 26 |
1914 |
Folder 27 |
1915 |
Folder 28 |
1916 |
Folder 29 |
1917 |
Folder 30 |
1918 |
Folder 31 |
1919 |
Folder 32 |
1920 |
Folder 33 |
1922 |
Folder 34 |
1923 |
Folder 35 |
1924 |
Folder 36 |
1925 |
Folder 37 |
1926 |
Folder 38 |
1927 |
Folder 39 |
1928 |
Folder 40 |
1929 |
Folder 41 |
1930 |
Folder 42 |
1931 |
Folder 43 |
1932 |
Folder 44 |
1933 |
Folder 45 |
1934 |
Folder 46 |
1935 |
Folder 47 |
1936 |
Folder 48 |
1937 |
Folder 49 |
1938 |
Folder 50 |
1939 |
Folder 51 |
1940 |
Folder 52 |
1942 |
Folder 53 |
1943 |
Folder 54 |
1946 |
Folder 55 |
1947 |
Folder 56 |
1948 |
Folder 57 |
1949 |
Folder 58 |
1950 |
Folder 59 |
1951 |
Folder 60 |
1953 |
Folder 61 |
Undated |
Arrangement: by format.
Speeches (mostly undated) given by Minnie Brown before various civic groups, short stories by her, songs, poems, and prose pieces by other writers, and sixteen sermons by a Dr. Gibson (probably the minister of the Chadbourn Presbyterian Church in the early 1950s).
Folder 62 |
Speeches by Minnie Brown Agriculture |
Folder 63 |
Speeches by Minnie Brown Education and social reform |
Folder 64 |
Speeches by Minnie Brown Books; fine and decorative arts |
Folder 65 |
Speeches by Minnie Brown Religious and inspirational |
Folder 66 |
Speeches by Minnie Brown World and U.S. history |
Folder 67 |
Speeches by Minnie Brown State and local history |
Folder 68 |
Speeches by Minnie Brown Club activities |
Folder 69 |
Short Stories and Articles by Minnie Brown |
Folder 70 |
Writings by Other Authors (identified) |
Folder 71 |
Writings by Other Authors (unidentified) |
Folder 72 |
Dr. Gibson's Sermons |
Arrangement: by format.
Biographical information on Joseph and Minnie Brown and their families; typed transcription of a diary kept sporadically by Elizabeth Gray Proctor about the births and deaths of her ten children; and assorted legal documents and financial materials.
Folder 73 |
Brown and McIver Families: Biographical and genealogical materials |
Folder 74 |
Elizabeth Gray Proctor's Diary, 1897-1903 |
Folder 75 |
Miscellaneous Materials |
Image P-4349/1 |
Middle-aged black man standing on street, identified as "Uncle John Sutton," circa 1926. |
Originally attached to Minnie Brown's short story, "Uncle John Sutton - A Romance of Slavery Days," in Folder 69. |
|
Image P-4349/2 |
Two young women, possibly Siamese twins, circa 1900. Cabinet card. |
Image P-4349/3 |
Unidentified young man, circa 1900-1910. |
Image P-4349/4-7
P-4349/4P-4349/5P-4349/6P-4349/7 |
Bear-hunting scenes from British Columbia and Alaska, circa 1910-1920. |
Image P-4349/8 |
The Chadbourn, NC, Presbyterian Church, circa 1910-1920. |