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 C. Clay Dillard Papers #05077, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Helen P. Anderson of Lafayette, La., in September 2001 (Acc. 99081).

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.

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.

• Courtship--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Diaries.
• Dillard, C. Clay, 1839-1863.
• Edgeworth Female Seminary (Greensboro, N.C.)--Students.
• Family--Southern States--Social life and customs--19th century.
• Plantation life--Tennessee
• Social classes--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Unrequited love.
• Women and religion--United States--History.
• Women travelers--Diaries--History--19th century.
• Women travelers--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Women--Diaries--History--19th century.
• Women--Education--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Women--Southern States--Social life and customs--19th century.

C. Clay Dillard (1839-1863) grew up in Lynchburg, Va. At about age 16, she was baptized and received into the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. As a young woman, she was enrolled at the Edgeworth Female Seminary in Greensboro, N.C. She graduated from the Seminary in May 1856 with 15 other girls from across the South. After leaving the Seminary, she spent time traveling around the South and visiting her sister and brother-in-law's plantation in Somerville, Tenn. Her brother in-law was General Thomas Rivers, who had been elected to Congress in 1855.

It was after her graduation that William Lafayette Scott, one of her teachers at Edgeworth and a graduate of the University of North Carolina, professed his love for her. She reciprocated these feelings. However, family members, particularly her brother-in-law, worked to terminate the relationship because they believed Scott was of inferior social status. By late spring 1857, the relationship was over, but Dillard never recovered from the affair. Her parents eventually bought and moved to a plantation in Rocky Mount, Tenn. After a protracted illness, Clay Dillard died in Leaksville, N.C., of bronchial consumption, on 12 July 1863 at the age of 24.

The collection consists chiefly C. Clay Dillard's journal entries detailing her personal life, 1856-1863. Dillard started the journal during her last year at the Edgeworth Female Seminary in Greensboro, N.C. In that year, she discussed her classes, friends, and teachers. After graduation, she chronicled her travels throughout the South, including stops in Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Saint Louis, Mo. She also wrote of visiting the plantation of her sister and brother-in-law, General Thomas Rivers, in Sommerville, Tenn.

Throughout the journal, Dillard discussed the tragedies of her life in terms of her Christian beliefs. The main focus of the journal is Dillard's romance with William Lafayette Scott, her teacher at Edgeworth. She often wrote of her feelings towards him even after the relationship was terminated by family members who considered him to be of inferior social status. In the journal, Clay pasted his calling card, a lock of his hair, and a Valentine. After Dillard died of bronchial consumption in July 1863, her sister wrote journal entries relating Dillard's last dreams and stating that the journal was transcribed from the original copy by Dillard during her illness. Two obituary notices were pasted in the journal.

The collection also contains a letter from William Lafayette Scott to one of his cousins discussing the romance; a picture of the plantation Dillard's father bought in Rocky Mount, Tenn.; a printed poem attributed to Dillard, and a newspaper clipping about one of Dillard's relatives during the Spanish American War in Cuba.

• Items separated include image folder (PF-5077/1).