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 | 1.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 600 items) |
Abstract | John Willis Ellis of Salisbury, N.C., was a white lawyer, Democratic Party leader, and governor of North Carolina, 1858-1861. The collection consists of personal, professional, and official correspondence; a brief personal diary, October 1860-February 1861; and other papers, including notes and speeches on internal improvements, and volumes, 1844-1861, containing manuscript notes and clippings of materials used in campaigns for the North Carolina state legislature and for governor. Also of note are a series of letters, 1853-1858, from Philo White, United States minister in Ecuador, discussing social life in Ecuador and diplomatic relations with the United States; correspondence pertaining to Secession and the beginning of the American Civil War; and letters relating to the reburial of Francis Nash. Materials related to Ellis's extended family include bills of sale for people enslaved by Josephine Hyer Knowles and Peter Knowles, the in-laws of his daughter Mary Ellis Knowles, and the 20th-century papers of his grandson, John Ellis Knowles of Connecticut, concerning a biography of Ellis. A small part of the collection consists of microfilm, photoprints, and manuscript copies of manuscripts in other repositories, gathered by Noble J. Tolbert for The Papers of John Willis Ellis (Raleigh, 1964). |
Creator | Ellis, John Willis, 1820-1861. |
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, July 2009; Nancy Kaiser, January 2024
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.
Conscious Editing by Nancy Kaiser, January 2023: Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, scope and content note, and contents list.
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.
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.
John Willis Ellis (1820-1861) of Salisbury, N.C., was a white lawyer, Democratic Party leader, and governor of North Carolina, 1858-1861. He was married to Mary McKinley Daves Ellis. Their daughter Mary Daves Ellis married William Hyer Knowles, the son of Josephine Hyer Knowles and Peter Knowles.
Back to TopThe collection of John Willis Ellis of Salisbury, N.C., white lawyer, Democratic Party leader, and governor of North Carolina, 1858-1861, consists of personal, professional, and official correspondence; a brief personal diary, October 1860-February 1861; and other papers, including notes and speeches on internal improvements, and volumes, 1844-1861, containing manuscript notes and clippings of materials used in campaigns for the North Carolina state legislature and for governor. Also of note are a series of letters, 1853-1858, from Philo White, United States minister in Ecuador, discussing social life in Ecuador and diplomatic relations with the United States; correspondence pertaining to Secession and the beginning of the American Civil War; and letters relating to the reburial of Francis Nash. Materials related to Ellis's extended family include bills of sale for people enslaved by Josephine Hyer Knowles and Peter Knowles, the in-laws of his daughter Mary Ellis Knowles, and the 20th-century papers of his grandson, John Ellis Knowles of Connecticut, concerning a biography of Ellis. A small part of the collection consists of microfilm, photoprints, and manuscript copies of manuscripts in other repositories, gathered by Noble J. Tolbert for The Papers of John Willis Ellis (Raleigh, 1964).
Back to TopFolder 1a |
Original finding aid |
Folder 1 |
Papers, 1846 |
Folder 2 |
Papers, 1847 |
Folder 3 |
Papers, 1848 |
Folder 4 |
Papers, 1849-1850 |
Folder 5 |
Papers, 1851 |
Folder 6 |
Papers, 1852-1854 |
Folder 7 |
Papers, 1855-1858 |
Folder 8 |
Papers, 1859 |
Folder 9 |
Papers, 1860 |
Folder 10-11
Folder 10Folder 11 |
Papers, 1861 |
Folder 12 |
Papers, 1863-1865 |
Folder 13 |
Papers, 1927 |
Folder 14 |
Papers, 1928-1929 |
Folder 15 |
Papers, 1930-1932 |
Folder 16 |
Papers, 1933-1940 |
Folder 17 |
Papers, 1943-1948 |
Folder 18 |
Papers, 1953-1958 |
Folder 19-20
Folder 19Folder 20 |
Papers, Undated |
Folder 20 |
Photographs |
Oversize Paper Folder OPF-242/1 |
Oversize papersDiplomas and commission as judge of Superior Court of North Carolina. |
Folder 21 |
Genealogical materialAcquisition information: Addition of June 1979 Compiled by John Ellis Knowles Wisner. |
Folder 22 |
Volume 1: Notebook, 1844-1846 |
Folder 23 |
Volume 2: Notebook, 1844-1861 |
Folder 24 |
Volume 3: Scrapbook, 1854-1860 |
Folder 25 |
Volume 4: Lettercopy book and diary, 1855, 1860-1861 |
Folder 26 |
Volume 5: Notebook, undated |
Folder 27 |
Volume 6: "John W. Ellis, Governor of North Carolina, 1859-1861," by Annie Walker Garrard |
Folder 28 |
Letters relating to reburial of Francis Nash, 1859Acquisition information: Accession 91037 |
Folder 29 |
Bills of sale for enslaved people, 1848, 1863Acquisition information: Accession 102260 10 August 1848: bill of sale for Ceres, an enslaved woman about 19 years old, who was trafficked by sale from Henry Hyer of Pensacola, Fla. to his daughter Josephine Hyer Knowles, New Orleans, La. Josephine and her husband Peter Knowles had a son William Hyer Knowles, who married Mary Daves Ellis, the daughter of John Willis Ellis and Mary McKinley Daves. 22 May 1863: bill of sale for an unidentified enslaved couple, a man about 27 years old who was a blacksmith and his wife, who were trafficked from John L. Hart to Peter Knowles in Charleston, S.C. (photocopy) 22 August 1863: bill of sale for Richard, about 34 years old, Adam, about 15 years old and Julia about 11 years old, all of whom were enslaved people trafficked from John G. Abercrombie to Josephine Hyer Knowles in Muscogee County, Ga. (photocopy) 21 October 1863: bill of sale for Isaac, Ann and 3 children, Little Beny, Jonas, Hager and 3 children, Charity, Maria, Frances, Dilla, Louisa, Burrow, Nancy, Little Easter, all of whom were trafficked by James Abercombie, an executor, to Peter Knowles, in Boiling Springs (photocopy) |