Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional born digital and photographic materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

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 Craig, Ferris, and Flowers Family Papers #5323, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Shelby Flowers Ferris of Vicksburg, Miss., in March, April, and June 2007 (Acc. 100618, 100643, 100708); March 2008 (Acc. 100888); August 2010 (Acc. 101345); and June 2013 (Acc. 101800); and by William Ferris in April 2016 (Acc. 102571), January 2019 (Acc. 103531), and June 2023 (Acc. 20230630.1).

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: Sarah Peterson and Nancy Kaiser, December 2007

Encoded by: Sarah Peterson and Nancy Kaiser, December 2007

Revisions by: Nancy Kaiser, April 2019; Patrick Cullom, June 2019; Davia Webb and Laura Smith, August 2023

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.

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.

• Agriculture--Mississippi.
• Commission merchants--New York.
• Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
• Cotton trade--Mississippi.
• Craig family.
• Craig, William C.
• Craig, William R., 1870-1931.
• Diaries.
• Family--Mississippi--Social life and customs.
• Farm life--Mississippi.
• Ferris family.
• Ferris, Shelby Flowers.
• Ferris, William R.
• Flowers family.
• Flowers, Edward Gibbs.
• Flowers, Hester Craig, 1885-1987.
• Flowers, Seraphina Brooks, 1824-1868.
• Flowers, Uriah Grey, 1883-1947.
• Gardeners--Mississippi.
• Gardening--Societies, etc.
• Heritage tourism--Louisiana.
• Heritage tourism--Mississippi.
• Insurance companies--Mississippi.
• Ohio--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Older people--Family relationships--History--20th century.
• Older people--Family relationships--Southern States.
• Plantation owners--Mississippi.
• Plantations--Mississippi--Warren County.
• Scrapbooks.
• Sugar trade--Mississippi.
• Travelers--Diaries--History--20th century.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Prisoners and prisons.
• University of Mississippi. Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
• Vicksburg (Miss.)--History.
• Vicksburg (Miss.)--Social life and customs.
• Women travelers--Diaries--History--20th century.
• Yazoo City (Miss.)--History.
• Yazoo City (Miss.)--Social life and customs.

• Edmiston, Kelley, and Flowers Family Papers (#5230-z)
• William R. Ferris Collection (#20367)

In the 1820s, the Flowers family moved from North Carolina to Warren County, Miss., where Uriah Flowers (1761-1845) and his wife, Elizabeth Watson Flowers (1779-1846), settled what came to be known as Ceres Plantation at Oakland. Their son, Ignatius Flowers (1806-1862), married Seraphina Brooks (1824-1868) in 1840, and they also made their home at Ceres. Their sons, Oliver Brooks Flowers (1841-1884) and Uriah Flowers (1846-1890), joined the Confederate Army as members of Harvey's Scouts, composed chiefly of men from Madison County, Miss. In the summer of 1864, Oliver was captured near Rome, Ga., and sent to the Union prison at Rock Island, Ill. In 1877, Uriah Flowers married his second wife, Shelby Gibbs, daughter of Edward and Jane Gibbs of Vicksburg, Miss. They had two daughters, Helen and Jane, both of whom died young, and two sons, Edward Gibbs Flowers (1880-1945) and Uriah Grey Flowers (1883-1947).

Uriah Grey Flowers ("U.G." or "Grey") was a prominent businessman in Vicksburg, Miss. After attending a year at Mississippi College and two years at the Virginia Military Institute, he became involved in the merchandise brokerage business, handling lines bought and sold in the grocery trade. In 1905, he and his brother Edward established the Flowers Bros. Insurance Co. The brothers also were involved with real estate as well as stocks, bonds, and securities trading. In 1915, Grey married Hester Isabel Craig (1885-1987), daughter of William C. and Harriet Rabb Craig ("Hattie"), and with her had three children: Shelby Flowers, Hester Flowers, and Uriah Grey Flowers Jr. In 1935, Grey retired from his business because of ill health and turned his attention to operating the Ceres plantation until his death in 1947. After her husband's death, Hester became one of the founders of the Vicksburg Garden Club and served two years as president of the Mississippi Council of Garden Clubs.

Grey and Hester's daughter Shelby married William R. Ferris and with him had five children: William R. Ferris Jr. ("Bill"), Shelby Ferris, Hester Ferris, Grey Ferris, and Martha Ferris. Bill Ferris (1942- ) is an author, folklorist, filmmaker, professor, photographer, administrator, and scholar. He co-founded the Center for Southern Folklore in Mississippi and was its director from 1972 to 1984. From 1979 to 1997, he was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. He has recorded blues albums, produced documentary films, authored a number of books, and co-edited The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.

Hester Craig Flowers's brother, William R. Craig (1870-1931), was a cotton and sugar broker in New York. Born in Yazoo City, Miss., he graduated from Southwestern Presbyterian University and then entered his father's firm, W. C. Craig & Co., a cotton and general merchandise business. In 1905, he moved to New York and created his own business, W. R. Craig & Co., that brokered commodities in the cotton and sugar trade. He married Margaret Cunningham of Yazoo City, Miss., in 1913. Hester's other brother, Robert E. Craig (1872-1942), also attended Southwestern Presbyterian University and was a cotton broker. He married Margaret Henry, the daughter of Judge and Mrs. W. A. Henry, and lived in Vicksburg, New York, and New Orleans.

Papers documenting the white Craig, Flowers, and Ferris families of Vicksburg, Miss., and Yazoo City, Miss., and New Orleans, La., especially William C. Craig, Harriet Rabb Craig, William R. Craig, Robert E. Craig, Philip S. Craig, Hester Craig Flowers, Uriah Grey Flowers, Seraphina Flowers, Shelby Flowers Ferris, and William R. Ferris Jr. (Bill Ferris). Materials include business and personal correspondence, including a copybook containing the outgoing letters of Seraphina Flowers, who successfully petitioned federal officers to allow her to visit her son imprisoned at Rock Island, Ill., during the Civil War; financial and legal papers; newspaper clippings; scrapbooks; journals; travel diaries and photographs; creative writing; genealogical materials; family correspondence and photographs. Topics include family news; the Flowers Bros. Insurance Agency; real estate; farm life; intergenerational relationships; divorce; international travel; garden clubs; the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi; family history; the Allen Cooperage Company in Nanachehaw, Miss.; and heritage tourism in Louisiana andMississippi. Pictures are chiefly portraits and candid photographs of various members of the Craig, Flowers, and Ferris families and their dogs, livestock, houses, gardens, and travel.

• Photographs (P-5323, OP-P-5323, SF-5323, IB-5323/1-8, PA-5323/1-4, SF-P-5323/1-2)
• Scrapbooks (SV-5323/1-4)