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Size | 22 items |
Abstract | Mary McNeill McEachern (1847-1933) grew up near Fayetteville, N.C., and moved in 1894 to Red Springs, N.C. While attending school in the antebellum South, McEachern became friends with many transplanted northerners. The collection consists primarily of letters written by Mary McNeill McEachern during an 1876 visit to an old friend from the Episcopal Rectory School at Rockfish Factory, N.C., who was living in the Hudson River Valley in New York. Once McEachern arrived in Fishkill-on-Hudson, N.Y., she wrote to her family with details about her trip. She described traveling by train through Baltimore and New York City, explaining problems with the railroad and expressing her feelings about buildings and cities in the North. McEachern provided vivid pictures of life and customs in the post-war North as compared to those of the South, noting sectional differences in language, food, women's clothing, and the household. She also described visits to Vassar College, West Point, and George Washington's Revolutionary War headquarters in Newburgh, N.Y. Letters from one of McEachern's former teachers and one of her old classmates are also included. |
Creator | McEachern, Mary McNeill, 1847-1933. |
Curatorial Unit | Southern Historical Collection |
Language | English. |
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Mary McNeill McEachern was born 1 July 1847, the eighth of 15 children of Hector and Mary McNeill of Ardulusa, N.C. She attended the Episcopal Rectory School at Rockfish Factory, N.C., where she met teacher Caroline Benton and close friend Edna Van Amburgh, both of whom were transplanted northerners. With the beginning of the Civil War, the Benton and Van Amburgh families returned to the North. The McNeill family remained in North Carolina and strongly supported the Confederacy. Mary McNeill attended Floral College in 1866-1867 and then became a teacher. Escorted by her brother James, she visited her old friend Edna Van Amburgh in Fishkill-on-Hudson, N.Y., in July 1876.
Mary McNeill married Daniel Purcell McEachern (9 May 1836-19 October 1917), a Confederate veteran and graduate of the University of North Carolina, on 26 August 1880. The couple had three children: Beatrice (1881-1970), Mary (1883-1974), and Archibald (1885-1886), and lived in Red Springs, N.C., south of Fayetteville.
Biographical information provided by Judith B. Nisbet.
Back to TopThe collection consists primarily of letters written by Mary McNeill McEachern of Fayetteville, N.C., during an 1876 visit to an old friend from the Episcopal Rectory School at Rockfish Factory, N.C., who was living in the Hudson River Valley in New York. Once McEachern arrived in Fishkill-on-Hudson, N.Y., she wrote to her family with details about her trip. She described traveling by train through Baltimore and New York City, explaining problems with the railroad and expressing her feelings about buildings and cities in the North. McEachern provided vivid pictures of life and customs in the post-war North as compared to those of the South, noting sectional differences in language, food, women's clothing, and the household. She also described visits to Vassar College, West Point, and George Washington's Revolutionary War headquarters in Newburgh, N.Y. Letters from one of McEachern's former teachers and one of her old classmates are also included. There are typed transcriptions for all of the letters.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
The collection consists primarily of letters written by Mary McNeill McEachern of Fayetteville, N.C., during an 1876 visit to an old friend from the Episcopal Rectory School at Rockfish Factory, N.C., who was living in the Hudson River Valley in New York. Once McEachern arrived in Fishkill-on-Hudson, N.Y., she wrote to her family with details about her trip. She described traveling by train through Baltimore and New York City, explaining problems with the railroad and expressing her feelings about buildings and cities in the North. McEachern provided vivid pictures of life and customs in the post-war North as compared to those of the South, noting sectional differences in language, food, women's clothing, and the household. She also described visits to Vassar College, West Point, and George Washington's Revolutionary War headquarters in Newburgh, N.Y. Letters from one of McEachern's former teachers and one of her old classmates are also included. There are typed transcriptions for all of the letters.
Folder 1 |
Letters |