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Collection Number: 00163

Collection Title: Cole and Taylor Family Papers, 1707-1914

This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.

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.


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Size 3.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2000 items)
Abstract Prominent Cole and Taylor family members include James C. Cole and his wife, Mary Catharine Cole (1799-1862), of New Bern, N.C., who were the parents of four daughters and two sons. Three of the daughters--Mary Catherine (d. 1900), Harriot G. (circa 1826-1921), and Sarah A. (d. 1900), wife of Alexander Taylor--lived together in Chapel Hill after about 1862 while running a boarding house. James Cole Taylor (b. 1855), surveyor, chemist, metallurgist, railroad superintendent, and banker, was the son of Sarah A. Cole Taylor. The collection includes business, legal, and personal papers of several generations of the Cole and Taylor families of New Bern and Chapel Hill, N.C. Most of the antebellum papers are deeds for land in Craven and Jones counties, N.C. Scattered business and personal correspondence begins to appear around 1812, and includes letters written from New Bern, Raleigh, and other North Carolina towns. Later letters were written from Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and New York City. Also included are letters, 1830-1860, addressed to relatives on an Alabama plantation, and overseer's letters from Tennessee plantations. Among the volumes are three account books of James Carney for general merchandise sold at New Bern, 1858-1860; guard reports, 1861-1862, of the 53rd New York Regiment; seven volumes of daily weather records at Chapel Hill, 1890-1909, kept by Mary C. Cole; an 1870 diary of James Cole Taylor; a notebook labelled "General Orders," probably dating from the Civil War; short drafts of letters written by Sarah Taylor; and a record book relating to the Coles' tenants in Chapel Hill and to marriages and births.
Creator Cole (Family : New Bern, N.C.)

Taylor (Family : Taylor, James Cole, 1855-1925)
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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Restrictions to Access
This collection contains additional 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 Cole and Taylor Family Papers #163, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Received from Mrs. James Vernon of Morganton, N.C., before 1940; Frederick R. Boyd of New Bern, N.C. in 1962; Marianne Hayworth of High Point, N.C., in 1995 (Acc. 95142); and Nancy Vernon in March 2013 (Acc. 101749)
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.
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Processed by: Linda Sellars, July 1997

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, November 2020

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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.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

James C. Cole and his wife, Mary Catharine Cole (1799-1862), of New Bern, N.C., were the parents of four daughters and two sons. Three of the daughters--Mary Catherine (d. 1909), Harriot G. (circa 1826-1921), and Sarah A. (d. 1900), wife of Alexander Taylor--lived together in Chapel Hill after about 1862 while running a boarding house. The fourth daughter was Lavinia, who married Frederick C. Roberts of New Bern, N.C. The sons were Hugh Laing Cole (1838-1898), a lawyer in New York, who married Helen Ellis in 1879, and James R. Cole, who died before 1893, leaving a widow, Mary C., daughter Mary C. Gardner, son James G. R. Cole , and daughter Sarah H. James R. Cole's family lived in California, except Sarah H., who lived in New York.

James Cole Taylor (b. 1855), surveyor, chemist, metallurgist, railroad superintendent, and banker, was the son of Sarah A. Cole Taylor and Alexander Taylor. Isaac Montrose Taylor (1857-1921), also a son of Sarah A. Cole Taylor and Alexander Taylor, was a physician and founder of Broadoaks Sanatorium. He was born in New Bern and lived in Morganton.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

This collection contains business, legal, and personal papers of several generations of the Cole and Taylor families of New Bern and Chapel Hill, N.C.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series Quick Links

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Correspondence and Legal Papers, 1707-1914.

About 1200 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Most of the antebellum papers are deeds for land in Craven and Jones counties, N.C. Scattered business and personal correspondence begins to appear around 1812, and includes letters written from New Bern, Raleigh, and other North Carolina towns. Later letters were written from Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and New York City. Also included are letters, 1830-1860, addressed to relatives on an Alabama plantation, and overseer's letters from Tennessee plantations.

Folder 1

1707-1779

Folder 2

1780-1789

Folder 3

1790-1799

Folder 4

1800-1804

Folder 5

1805-1810

Folder 6

1812-1815

Folder 7

1816-1819

Folder 8

1820-1821

Folder 9

1823-1824

Folder 10

1825-1826

Folder 11

1827-1829

Folder 12

1830-1831

Folder 13

1832-1834

Folder 14

1835-1839

Folder 15

1840-1845

Folder 16

1846-1849

Folder 17

1850-1855

Folder 18

1856-1859

Folder 19

1860-1863

Folder 20

1864-1865

Folder 21

1866-1867

Folder 22

1868-1869

Folder 23

1870-1872

Folder 24

1873-1874

Folder 25

1875-1877

Folder 26

1878-1879

Folder 27

1880

Folder 28

1881

Folder 29

1882

Folder 30

1883

Folder 31-32

Folder 31

Folder 32

1884

Folder 33-34

Folder 33

Folder 34

1885

Folder 35

1886

Folder 36

1887-1888

Folder 37

1889

Folder 38

1890-1891

Folder 39

1892-1893

Folder 40

1894-1895

Folder 41

1896-1897

Folder 42

1898-1899

Folder 43-44

Folder 43

Folder 44

1900

Folder 45

1910-1914

Folder 46-50

Folder 46

Folder 47

Folder 48

Folder 49

Folder 50

Undated

Box 6

James Cole Taylor Correspondence Copy Book

Acquisitions Informatin: Accession 101749

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 2. Other Papers, 1784-1904, 1995.

About 400 items.

Arrangement: by type, then chronological.

Bills and receipts, invitations, writings, newspaper clippings, and volumes. Among the volumes are three account books of James Carney for general merchandise sold at New Bern, 1858-1860; guard reports, 1861-1862, of the 53rd New York Regiment; seven volumes of daily weather records at Chapel Hill, 1890-1909, kept by Mary C. Cole; an 1870 diary of James Cole Taylor; a notebook labelled "General Orders," probably dating from the Civil War; short drafts of letters written by Sarah Taylor; and a record book relating to the Coles' tenants in Chapel Hill and to marriages and births. Also included are a volume of genealogical research by Hugh Laing Cole and Sarah Cole Taylor and a volume of Cole family genealogy and memoirs by Marianne Hayworth.

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-163/1

Legal papers, 1784, 1788

Folder 51

Bills and Receipts 1813-1829

Folder 52

Bills and Receipts 1830-1839

Folder 53

Bills and Receipts 1840-1849

Folder 54

Bills and Receipts 1850-1859

Folder 55

Bills and Receipts 1860-1869

Folder 56

Bills and Receipts 1870-1878

Folder 57

Bills and Receipts 1880-1892

Folder 58

Bills and Receipts Undated

Folder 59

Invitations

Folder 60

Writings

Folder 61-63

Folder 61

Folder 62

Folder 63

Newspaper clippings

Folder 64

Volume 1. 1810. Record book, Captain Good's Co., New Bern, N.C.

Folder 65

Volume 2. 1836. General account book with travel expenditures

Folder 66

Volume 3. 1849. Diary and almanac with no entries except pressed flowers, 1874, H. L. Cole

Folder 67

Volume 4. 1858-1859. Accounts: James B. Carny with Thomas Williams

Folder 68

Volume 5. 1859-1860. Accounts: James B. Carny with Zaccheus Brown

Folder 69

Volume 6. 1860. Accounts. James B. Carny with Zaccheus Brown

Folder 70

Volume 7. Undated Civil War record fragment

Folder 71

Volume 8. 1863-1865. Private accounts, F. C. Roberts, household, travel, farm, etc.

Folder 72

Volume 9. 1871. Diary of J. C. Taylor, school boy, New Brunswick, N.J.

Folder 73

Volume 10. 1899. Sarah A. Taylor's tablet: Cole genealogy and copies of letters

Folder 74

Folder not used

Oversize Volume SV-163/11

Volume 11. 1862. Post guard reports, N.Y.S. Volunteers, 53rd and scrap book

Notebooks of Mary Catharine Cole, containing her record, day by day, of the weather for Chapel Hill. She occasionally inserted brief notations about local deaths, marriages, visits, births, illnesses, etc.

Folder 75

Volume 12. I. 1890-1892

Folder 76

Volume 13. II. 1893-1894

Folder 77

Volume 14. III. 1895-1896

Folder 78

Volume 15. IV. 1897, 1898, part of 1899

Folder 79

Volume 16. V. 1899-1900

Folder 80

Volume 17. VI. 1901-1902

Folder 81

Volume 18. VII. 1903-1904

Folder 82

Volume 19. VIII. 1890-1899. Accounts and miscellaneous memoranda of Mary Catharine Cole

Includes record of receipts from her brother Hugh each month and from rent; expenditures for board, church, taxes; and money given, lent, and spent. Lists of books, periodicals, plants, etc. Dates of family births, marriages, etc., on pages 126-129. 140 p.

Folder 83

Volume 20. Journal of the genealogical research of Sarah Cole Taylor and Hugh Cole

Typed transcription of this volume included in volume 21 (Acc. 95142).

Folder 84

Volume 21. Hayworth, Marianne, "Cole Family Genelaogical Data and Lavinia Ellis Cole Memoirs"

Included are typed transcription of volume 20 and other family history writings and pictures (Acc. 95142).

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