This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities; this finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.
Size | 1 (90 pages) items |
Abstract | William Kennedy Blake was a teacher in Texas, 1848-1850, and in North Carolina, 1850-1859. He was president of a Methodist women's college in Spartanburg, S.C., from 1859 until shortly after the Civil War. He was a merchant in Spartanburg, S.C., after the Civil War. The collection includes recollections of Blake's family and boyhood in Fayetteville, N.C.; education at the University of North Carolina; teaching and frontier life in Leon County, Tex., 1848-1850; teaching at schools in Fayetteville, N.C., Greensboro, N.C., and Ansonville, N.C., in the 1850s; and serving as president of a Methodist women's college in Spartanburg, S.C., from 1859 until shortly after the Civil War. He described life in Spartanburg during the Civil War and briefly mentioned his mercantile business in Spartanburg after the war. |
Creator | Blake, William Kennedy, 1824-1897. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: SHC Staff
Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007
Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, January 2009; Nancy Kaiser, August 2020
This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.
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.
William Kennedy Blake (1824-1897) was born in Fayetteville, N.C., where he spent most of his childhood. He attended Randolph Macon College in Boydton, Va., 1843, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1846. In October 1848 Blake married Ella Lavainia Hawley and moved to Leon County, Tex., where he worked as a teacher and lawyer until 1850. In 1850, he returned to North Carolina and continued to work as a teacher until 1859. He became president of a Methodist women's college in Spartanburg, S.C., in 1859 where he remained until shortly after the Civil War, at which point he began a mercantile business.
Back to TopThe 90-page typescript copy of "Pen Sketches of My Life, Written for the Gratification of my Children," is an unordered collection of William Kennedy Blake's recollections written by Blake between 1893 and 1895. Included are descriptions of Blake's family and boyhood in Fayetteville, N.C.; his education at Randolph Macon College in Boydton, Va., and the University of North Carolina; teaching and frontier life in Leon County, Tex., 1848-1850; teaching at schools in Fayetteville, N.C., Greensboro, N.C., and Ansonville, N.C., in the 1850s; and serving as president of a Methodist women's college in Spartanburg, S.C., from 1859 until shortly after the Civil War. He describes life in Spartanburg during the Civil War and briefly mentions his mercantile business in Spartanburg thereafter.
Also mentioned in the narratives are Lorenzo Dow, the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry, a comet of 1836, scarlet fever and cholera outbreaks, and other tangential events and persons.
Back to TopFolder 1 |
RecollectionsIncludes original finding aid. |
Reel M-00071/1 |
Microfilm |