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 stiputlated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Mary Margaret McLeod Papers #04908, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from James Vann Comer of Sanford, N.C., in January 1998 (Acc. 98022).

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: Jennifer Rawlings, April 1998

Encoded by: Linda Sellars, 1999

Updated by: Laura Hart, March 2021

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.

• Account books--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Buie family.
• Campbell family.
• Dye family.
• Family--North Carolina--History.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Gaster family.
• Genealogists--North Carolina.
• Genealogy.
• Graham family.
• Lee County (N.C.)--History.
• McBryde family.
• McDonald family.
• McGregor family.
• McLeod family.
• McLeod, Duncan, ca. 1761-1838.
• McLeod, James A.
• McLeod, James Burgess.
• McLeod, John Archibald.
• McLeod, Mary Margaret, 1910- .
• McLeod, Thomas C.
• Moore County (N.C.)--History.
• Physicians--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Real property--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Sanford (N.C.)--History.
• Shaw family.
• Smith family.
• Soldiers--United States--Correspondence--History--World War, 1914-1918.
• Thomas family.
• Williams family.
• Women in the professions--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Women pediatricians--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Women physicians--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• World War, 1914-1918--Pictorial works.

Mary Margaret McLeod was born 13 September 1910 in Lee County, N.C. She expressed an interest very early in life in becoming a "baby doctor." McLeod graduated from Sanford High School in 1928 as valedictorian and graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1932 with a B.S. in medicine. She received an M.D. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1935. McLeod interned at Passavant Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pa., 1935-1936, and at the Children's Hospital at the University of Iowa, 1936-1937. She did her residency at the California Babies' and Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, Cal., 1937-1938.

McLeod practiced as an industrial pediatrician at Riegel Hospital in Trion, Ga., and then as assistant to Dr. Mercer Blanchard in private practice in Columbus, Ga., 1941-1942. After this, she served as Chief of Pediatrics at Little Traverse Hospital in Petoskey, Mich., 1942-1946, at a time when very few hospitals would hire female doctors.

When her father died in 1946, McLeod returned to Sanford, N.C., and started the first pediatric practice in Sanford. This was the only pediatric practice between Raleigh and Wilmington. At its peak, her practice served 21,290 children. The Sanford Herald named McLeod Citizen of the Year in 1979 for her devoted service to the community. After 50 years of practicing medicine, McLeod retired in 1987.

During her retirement, McLeod pursued her interest in genealogy. She researched many branches of her family tree, particularly focusing on her Scottish ancestry. She compiled much of her research into a monograph, Duncan McLeod and Barbara Kelly and Their Descendants, which contains charts, pictures, reproductions of documents, and explanatory notes.

This collection contains chiefly material collected by Mary Margaret McLeod in the course of researching her family history. Some of McLeod's personal correspondence and material concerning her career and her civic activities are also included. Letters, 1888-1994, and postcards, 1908-1994, are from family members about household matters and activities and to McLeod from friends and patients. Among the postcards are some from Private Thomas C. McLeod in Europe during World War I. New Hope correspondence, 1972-1974, relates to the closing of New Hope Shelter Home, a center for at-risk juveniles, when McLeod was chair of the Lee County Youth Development Center. Autobiographical materials include notes about the early part of McLeod's life and also some information about her professional and civic activities. Genealogical materials, 1875-1994, relate to the McLeod family of Moore County (later Lee County), N.C. (Lee County was formed in 1907 from Moore and Chatham counties), including materials that went into McLeod's Duncan McLeod and Barbara Kelly and Their Descendants, and to the Buie, Dye, Gaster, McBryde, McDonald, McGregor, Shaw, Smith-Campbell-Graham, Thomas, and Williams families. Pictures, ca. 1880-1994, are chiefly of McLeod family members.

Also included are financial documents, 1856-1908, mostly bills and receipts, some relating to Duncan McLeod; summons for debts owed to Duncan McLeod, 1855-1860; deeds and land records, 1842-1939, of the McLeod family; tax receipts, 1869-1915; and account books, 1871-1886, including store and farm records.

Image folders (PF-4908/1-16)

Special format images (SF-P-4908/1-11)

Picture album (PA-4908/1).