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Size | 3 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 1600 items) |
Abstract | William Preston Bynum (1820-1909), Republican, lawyer, prosecutor, and associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. The collection includes papers of William Preston Bynum (1820-1909) and members of the Bynum family. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, legal papers, and financial papers relating to legal matters, 1850s through 1910s. Civil War and political correspondence is slight. Papers chiefly concern land and estate settlements, mortgages, paying of notes, sale of land in Virginia and North Carolina, the business of the High Shoals Manufacturing Company, the Adams Mining and Reduction Company, and the King's Mountain Gold Mine. Also in the collection are letters, essays, and financial papers of Bynum's brother, John Gray Bynum (d. 1857), and John Gray Bynum's record book, April-June 1838, kept when he was serving as a colonel commanding North Carolina volunteers assisting in Cherokee removal in western North Carolina. Papers of the family of Moses Ashley Curtis include journals of Armand DeRosset Curtis (1839-1856) as a boy traveling with his father from North Carolina to Massachusetts in 1851 and to Charleston in an unknown year, as well as an account book and an unidentified volume that appear to have belonged to Moses Ashley Curtis. The addition of June 2002 includes additional material relating to legal matters, to the High Shoals Manufacturing Company, and to personal matters, as well as a few papers of Curtis A. Bynum. The addition of July 2012 includes letters to Bynum written by Archibald Henderson and W. M. Bond, 1913-1915. The addition of August 2022 includes a handwritten ledger,1849-1861, of John Gray Bynum, William Preston Bynum's brother; a loose sheet of paper with sums and amounts calculated; a loose copy of a 1928 promissory deed for furniture and 500 dollars to Mr. Curtis Bynum of Asheville, N.C.; and a slip of paper with a handwritten inventory of the journal's contents, presumably written by the donor Hank Barnet. |
Creator | Bynum, William Preston, 1820-1909. |
Curatorial Unit | Southern Historical Collection |
Language | English. |
Processed by: Southern Historical Collection staff, 1936-1990
Encoded by: Linda Sellars, February 2002
Updated by: Linda Sellars, July 2002; Nancy Kaiser, September 2020; Dawne Howard Lucas, February 2023
This collection was rearranged and rehoused under sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1993.
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 Preston Bynum (1820-1909), jurist, prosecutor, and lawyer, was born on his father's plantation on Town Fork, one mile south of Germanton, in Stokes County, N.C. Bynum's parents were Hampton Bynum, son of Margaret Hampton and Gray Bynum, and Mary Coleman Martin, daughter of Nancy Shipp and John Martin. Bynum received a log-school education near Germanton before he entered Davidson College in 1837. Being graduated as valedictorian of his class on 4 August 1842, Bynum next read law under Richmond M. Pearson and was admitted to the bar in Rutherfordton, N.C.
After practicing law in Rutherfordton, Bynum moved to Lincoln County, where he married Ann Eliza Shipp, a cousin, on 2 December 1846. Bynum practiced law in Lincolnton until the Civil War erupted.
Although he came from a Federalist-Whig family of strong nationalist convictions and although he opposed secession, Bynum was elected lieutenant of the Beatties Ford Rifles and later was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Second North Carolina Regiment, effective 8 May 1861. Bynum saw military action with the Second Regiment at the Seven Days' Battle, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, and Sharpsburg, and the regiment was in reserve at Fredericksburg. When the First Regiment lost all regimental officers at Malvern Hill, Bynum temporarily commanded it. When the Second's commander, Colonel Charles Courtenay Tew, was killed at Sharpsburg, Bynum commanded the Second. Bynum's military career ended on 21 March 1863, when he resigned after the North Carolina state legislature elected him solicitor of the Seventh Judicial District on 2 December 1862.
Bynum's political career spanned the years 1863 to 1879. In 1865, he was elected a delegate from Lincoln County to the North Carolina Constitutional Convention. He helped to draft important amendments to the North Carolina Constitution, some of which the voters rejected. In 1866, he was elected to one term in the state senate to represent Lincoln, Gaston, and Catawba counties. In 1868, both political parties nominated him for a second term as solicitor, and he was elected. In the election of 1868, he threw his support to General U.S. Grant and the Republican Party.
On 20 November 1873, Bynum resigned his solicitorship to accept appointment from Governor Tod R. Caldwell to the unexpired term of Associate Justice Nathaniel Boyden of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Before he left the court on 6 January 1879, Bynum wrote some 346 opinions, including dissents.
In 1878, the Republican Party urged Bynum to run for another term on the Supreme Court, but he refused that and all future entreaties to return to politics. In 1879, he took up residence in Charlotte, where he remained and pursued his legal career until his death.
Bynum had two children, Mary Preston Bynum (1849-1875) and William Shipp Bynum (1848-1898), a lawyer and Episcopal clergyman of Lincolnton. William Shipp Bynum married Mary Louisa Curtis, daughter of Moses Ashley Curtis, and had eight children.
On the death of his grandson, William Preston Bynum (1871-1891) at the University of North Carolina in 1891, William Preston Bynum (1820-1909) built a gymnasium in his memory. He also constructed Episcopal chapels at the Thompson Episcopal Orphanage and in Greensboro.
William Preston Bynum (1861-1926) was the son of Benjamin Franklin Bynum and the nephew of William Preston Bynum (1820-1909). He graduated from Trinity College in 1883 and received an honorary degree from the University of North Carolina in 1922. He was a trustee of the University of North Carolina from 1909 until his death in 1926. He was a Republican lawyer in Greensboro and served as solicitor, judge, and special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General.
Adapted from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography.
Back to TopThe collection includes papers of William Preston Bynum (1820-1909), lawyer, planter, and judge, and of members of the Bynum family. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, legal papers, and financial papers relating to legal matters, 1850s through 1910s. Civil War and political correspondence is slight. Papers chiefly concern land and estate settlements, mortgages, paying of notes, sale of land in Virginia and North Carolina, the business of the High Shoals Manufacturing Company, the Adams Mining and Reduction Company, and the King's Mountain Gold Mine. Also in the collection are letters, essays, and financial papers of Bynum's brother, John Gray Bynum (d. 1857), and John Gray Bynum's record book, April-June 1838, kept when he was serving as a colonel commanding North Carolina volunteers assisting in Cherokee removal in western North Carolina. Papers of the family of Moses Ashley Curtis (1808-1872) in the collection include journals of Armand DeRosset Curtis (1839-1856) as a boy traveling with his father from North Carolina to Massachusetts in 1851 and to Charleston, S.C., in an unknown year, as well as an account book and an unidentified volume that appear to have belonged to Moses Ashley Curtis.
The addition of June 2002 chiefly contains letters and other documents concerning legal matters, 1850s through early 1900s, in North Carolina and Louisiana. Letters, deeds, wills, and other papers concern land and estate settlements, mortgages, paying of notes, sale of land in North Carolina, and the business of the High Shoals Manufacturing Company. Also included are letters and notebooks of Curtis A. Bynum. The arrangement of the addition parallels that of the original collection.
The addition of July 2012 includes letters to Bynum written by Archibald Henderson and W. M. Bond, 1913-1915.
The addition of August 2022 includes a handwritten ledger,1849-1861, of John Gray Bynum, William Preston Bynum's brother; a loose sheet of paper with sums and amounts calculated; a loose copy of a 1928 promissory deed for furniture and 500 dollars to Mr. Curtis Bynum of Asheville, N.C.; and a slip of paper with a handwritten inventory of the journal's contents, presumably written by the donor Hank Barnet.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Chiefly letters and legal documents concerning legal matters, 1850s through 1890s, in North Carolina, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New York. There is little Civil War or political correspondence. Letters, deeds, wills, and other papers filed in this series chiefly concern land and estate settlements, mortgages, paying of notes, sale of land in Virginia and North Carolina, the business of the High Shoals Manufacturing Company, the Adams Mining Company, and the King's Mountain Gold Mine.
There are 30 letters, 1898, written to Bynum at the death of his son, William Shipp Bynum, and 13 letters, 1904-1905, from Francis P. Venable, concerning the building of the Bynum Gymnasium at the University of North Carolina.
Also found here are letters to and from Bynum's brother, John Gray Bynum (d. 1857) and essays written by John Gray Bynum. Letters of William Preston Bynum (1861-1926) in this collection include three letters, 1894, about North Carolina politics and three letters, 1905, about the history of North Carolina during Reconstruction.
Folder 1 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1778, 1829-1835 |
Folder 2 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1836-1849 |
Folder 3 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1850-1856 |
Folder 4 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1857-1859 |
Folder 5 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1860-1866 |
Folder 6 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1867-1869 |
Folder 7 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1870-1874 |
Folder 8 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1875-1879 |
Folder 9 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1880-1883 |
Folder 10 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1886-1889 |
Folder 11 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1884-1895 |
Folder 12 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1896-1897 |
Folder 13 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1898 |
Folder 14 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1900-1908 |
Folder 15-17
Folder 15Folder 16Folder 17 |
Correspondence and legal papers, undated |
Folder 18 |
Letterpress copy book of the Adams Mining Company, undated |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 99268
Arrangement: chronological.
Chiefly letters and legal documents concerning legal matters, 1850s through early 1900s, in North Carolina and Louisiana. There is no Civil War or political correspondence. Letters, deeds, wills, and other papers filed in this series chiefly concern land and estate settlements, mortgages, paying of notes, sale of land in North Carolina, and the business of the High Shoals Manufacturing Company. Included are a number of items relating to the estate of George A. Phifer, and to legal matters involving James A. Lusk and his wife, Marion Tomkies Lusk. Also included are letters from U.S. Senator H. W. Blair about a legal case involving Blair, Senator William Windom (1827-1891), and the Adams Mining and Reduction Company.
Personal correspondence includes letters of sympathy on the death of Bynum's wife in 1885.
Beginning in 1902, there are some letters of Curtis A. Bynum, the earliest being letters requesting information about former students for a catalog of the University of North Carolina's Dialectic Society.
Papers of the 1940s are mostly letters from a mother to a daughter (possibly Mrs. William Bynum) written in the fall of 1944.
Folder 30 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1854-1868 |
Folder 31 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1871-1874 |
Folder 32 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1875-1879 |
Folder 33 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1880-1883 |
Folder 34 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1884 |
Folder 35 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1885 |
Folder 36 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1886-1889 |
Folder 37 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1890-1895 |
Folder 38 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1896-1899 |
Folder 39 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1900 |
Folder 40 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1902 |
Folder 41 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1903-1914 |
Folder 42 |
Correspondence and legal papers, 1941-1944 |
Folder 43 |
Correspondence and legal papers, undated |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 101885
Arrangement: chronological.
Includes letters to Bynum written by Archibald Henderson and W. M. Bond, 1913-1915..
Folder 53 |
Letters from Archibald Henderson and W. M. Bond, 1913-1915 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Receipts, bills, accounts, inventories, drafts, notes, and other financial papers, including material relating to settlement of the estates of Hampton Bynum and John Gray Bynum. Also filed here are papers relating to the King's Mountain Gold Mine and to High Shoals Manufacturing Company, Lincoln County, N.C., including a stockholder journal, 1840-1869.
Folder 19-23
Folder 19Folder 20Folder 21Folder 22Folder 23 |
Financial papers |
Folder 24 |
Stockholder journal of High Shoals Manufacturing Company, 1840-1869 |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 99268
Arrangement: chronological.
Receipts, bills, accounts, inventories, drafts, notes, and other financial papers, including material relating to settlement of the estate of A. Hoyt. Also filed here are papers relating to the High Shoals Manufacturing Company, Lincoln County, N.C.
Folder 44 |
1856-1867 |
Folder 45 |
1875-1883 |
Folder 46 |
1884-1889 |
Folder 47 |
1890-1895 |
Folder 48 |
1896-1902 |
Folder 49 |
1903-1916 |
Folder 50 |
Undated |
Record book of John Gray Bynum, colonel commanding North Carolina volunteers assisting in the Cherokee removal in western North Carolina, 1838; journals, 1850s, of Armand DeRosset Curtis (1839-1856); account book, 1861, apparently of Moses Ashley Curtis; genealogical papers, including information about the Cox, Bynum, Martin, Sumner, Shipp, Hampton, and other families in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia; and an unidentified volume, possibly from Moses Ashley Curtis.
The record book of John Gray Bynum, colonel commanding North Carolina volunteers assisting in the Cherokee removal in western North Carolina, contains copies of reports to his superiors, orders he received, and orders to his subordinates from April to June 1838.
The four pocket journals of Armand DeRosset Curtis, describe travels with his father. Three of these describe a trip beginning on 11 June 1851, traveling from Wilmington, N.C., to Richmond, Va., then through the mountains of Virginia and on to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Massachusetts, ending on 2 September. The fourth, written to Rev. Jared Curtis, describes a journey from Wilmington, N.C., to Charleston, S.C., and return, 12 February-1 March [no year].
Folder 25 |
Record book of John Gray Bynum, 1838 |
Folder 26 |
Journals of Armand DeRosset Curtis, 1851 |
Folder 27 |
Curtis Account Book, 1861 |
Folder 28 |
Genealogy |
Folder 29 |
Unidentified volume |
Image Folder PF-117/1 |
Photograph of William Preston BynumBlack-and-white photograph |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 99268
Notebook of Curtis A. Bynum containing notes on psychology, biology, and French, and a photograph of two men with an automobile.
Folder 51 |
Notebook of Curtis A. Bynum |
Folder 52 |
Photograph |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 20221024.6
Contains a handwritten ledger,1849-1861, of John Gray Bynum, William Preston Bynum's brother; a loose sheet of paper with sums and amounts calculated; a loose copy of a 1928 promissory deed for furniture and 500 dollars to Mr. Curtis Bynum of Asheville, N.C.; and a slip of paper with a handwritten inventory of the journal's contents, presumably written by the donor Hank Barnet.
Folder 54 |
Ledger of John Gray Bynum, 1849-1861 |
Folder 55 |
Other papers |
Reel M-117/1 |
Microfilm |