Hentz Family Papers, 1782-1932

Summary

Creator:

Hentz (Family : Hentz, Nicholas Marcellus, 1797-1856)

Abstract:

The Hentz Family Papers document four generations of white family members from France, Alabama, and Florida, chiefly after they removed from France to the United States in 1815. There are also many Black people who are identified briefly by family members, especially Charles A. Hentz (1827-1894). Materials include personal, medical, financial, and legal papers, diaries and autobiographies, and photographs. Correspondence and diaries describe activities of family and friends in Alabama and Florida, teaching at a female academy in Alabama, medical and dental practices, citrus-farming, a Confederate soldier's camp life and experiences as a prisoner of war, and travel of a Confederate ex-patriate family in Rio de Janeiro. Of note is the autobiography of Charles A. Hentz, who expanded on his diaries with more extensive description of inhabitants of and life in Louisville, Ky., Cincinnati, Ohio, New Orleans, La., Mobile and Tuskegee, Ala., and Jackson and Gadsden counties, Fla.; travels in the southern United States; the Mexican War; his medical education and practice; alcoholism, recreational drug use, and drug addicts in the community; the flora and fauna of the Panhandle region of Florida; treatment of the wounded at the battles of Marianna and Natural Bridge, Fla.; the execution of Confederate deserters; and his citrus and vegetable farms in City Point, Brevard County, Fla. Hentz wrote chiefly about white people's lived experiences, but he also identified and provided contextual information about many Black people with whom he interacted. He also described more broadly attitudes toward enslaved people and racial violence, including lynchings. His medical notebooks document his most interesting cases, as well as more routine obstetrical care, for both white and Black patients. Hentz recorded case descriptions, geographic locations, and names of patients, and in many cases their enslavers. Other items include military records of an officer in the French Imperial Army; notes and writings on yellow fever and grave-robbing for dissection purposes, descriptions of fish and plants, and drafts of plays and stories; drawings and pictures of human, botanical, and animal subjects; biographical and genealogical sketches; a phrenological character analysis; photographic portraits; and a Hentz Family Bible.

Extent:

300 items (2.5 linear feet)

Language:

Materials in English

Library Catalog Link:

View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Nicholas Arnould Hentz (1756-1832) was a native of Coblentz in Lorraine, France, and a member of the Revolutionary National Convention of 1789. He was forced to flee France under the assumed name of Charles Arnould with his family after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1815. He and his wife, Therese d'Aubree, had at least two sons: Nicholas Richard Hentz (1786-1850), who served as a captain in the French Imperial Army from 1806 to 1815, and Nicholas Marcellus Hentz (1797-1856), a painter, professor, entomologist, and author of a famous monograph on the spiders of the United States.

Nicholas M. Hentz taught at the University of North Carolina from 1826 to 1830. He married Caroline Lee Whiting (1800-1856), a native of Lancaster, Mass., a playwright and novelist popular during the 1850s. Together they ran a succession of female academies in Covington, Ky., Cincinnati, Ohio, Florence, Ala., Columbus, Ga. and Tuskegee, Ala. The Hentz family finally settled in Marianna, Fla., where Caroline Lee Hentz concentrated on her writing and the care of her invalid husband. They had four children: Charles Arnould Hentz (1827-1894), who was a physician and citrus grower; Thaddeus William Harris Hentz (1830-1878), a dentist; Julia Louisa Hentz Keyes (1828-1877); and Caroline ("Callie") Therese Hentz Branch (b. 1833).

Charles A. Hentz (1827-1894) was born in Chapel Hill, N.C. and was a doctor near Quincy, Fla. In 1854 he married Elizabeth (Bettie) Hentz. They had five children: Sallie Lee Hentz (1855-1888), William Booth Hentz (b. 1860), Julia Keyes Hentz Dumbar (b. 1862), Rebecca ("Bexie") Hentz (b. 1865), and Charles Arnould Hentz Jr. (b. 1870). During the Civil War in 1862, Charles A. Hentz worked at the military hospital in Quincy, Fla. Following Bettie Hentz's death in 1871, Charles A. Hentz married Cornelia Fitzgerald Munroe (1852-1894). The family moved in 1881 to City Point, Fla., and operated a citrus farm on the Indian River. In 1890 they returned to Quincy, Fla.

William Booth Hentz (b. 1860) emigrated in 1890 to Rio De Janiero, Brazil, with his siblings Charles Arnould Hentz Jr. (b. 1870) and Julia Keyes Hentz Dumbar (b. 1862). He married Ella Hentz, who died in 1899. He later married Anita Vianna Hentz (b.1882).

Scope and content:

The Hentz Family Papers document four generations of white family members, chiefly after they removed from France to the United States in 1815. There are also many Black people who are identified briefly by family members, especially Charles A. Hentz (1827-1894). The collection includes personal, medical, financial, and legal papers, and diaries and autobiographies of members of the Hentz family of France, Alabama, and Florida. Correspondence and diaries describe activities of family and friends in Alabama and Florida, teaching at a female academy in Alabama, medical and dental practices, citrus-farming, and a Confederate soldier's camp life and experiences as a prisoner of war. Of note is the autobiography of Charles A. Hentz (1827-1894), who expanded on his diaries with more extensive description of the inhabitants of and life in Louisville, Ky., Cincinnati, Ohio, New Orleans, La., Mobile and Tuskegee, Ala., and Jackson and Gadsden counties, Fla.; travels in the southern United States; the Mexican War; his medical education and practice; alcoholism, recreational drug use, and drug addicts in the community; the flora and fauna of the Panhandle region of Florida; a journey on horseback to Tampa Bay, Fla.; treatment of the wounded at the battles of Marianna and Natural Bridge, Fla.; the execution of Confederate deserters; and his citrus and vegetable farms. Hentz wrote chiefly about white people's lived experiences, but he also identified and provided contextual information about many Black people with whom he interacted. He also described more broadly attitudes toward enslaved people and racial violence, including lynchings. His medical notebooks document his most interesting cases, as well as more routine obstetrical care, for both white and Black patients. Hentz recorded case descriptions, geographic locations, and names of patients, and in some cases their enslavers.

Other papers include military records of an officer in the French Imperial Army; an agricultural notebook; notes and writings on yellow fever and grave-robbing for dissection purposes, descriptions of fish and plants, and drafts of plays and stories; drawings and pictures of human, botanical, and animal subjects; biographical and genealogical sketches of the Hentz and Keyes families; a phrenological character analysis; a carte de visite; newspaper catalogs; medical catalogs; and a violin.

Several letters, the phrenological character analysis, some genealogical material, a Civil War journal, and the carte de visite were filmed in 1950, and the original documents were returned to the donor.

The Addition of June 2000 consists of two early framed photographs, and one cased ambrotype. The photographs are childhood portraits of Julia Keyes Hentz Dumbar (b. 1862) and William Booth Hentz (b. 1860), probably taken circa 1865. The ambrotype is an undated portrait of Charles A. Hentz (1827-1894).

The Addition of May 2005 contains two documents relating to the medical practice of Charles A. Hentz. The first is Charles A. Hentz's medical doctorate from the University of Louisville, Ken., received in 1848. The second document is Hentz's medical practice license for the state of Florida, awarded in 1889.

The Addition of September 2005 consists of the Hentz Family Bible, published in 1821. There is very little if any annotation, but there are a few scattered pieces of genealogical material interspersed throughout the volume.

The Addition of May 2009 includes eight diaries. The 1862 diary documents Charles A. Hentz's daily activities as a practicing doctor in the area of Quincy, Fla., and his work at the military hospital established there. The diaries dated from 1880 to 1901 describe Charles A. Hentz's everyday activities as a doctor in Quincy, Fla., and as a citrus farmer in City Point, Fla. Notable entries include 17 May 1880, describing a trephining operation performed by Hentz to remove part of the skull of Joe Long, a Black man who had suffered a fractured skull. There is also an 1899 diary kept by Ella Hentz describing a journey she took with William Booth Hentz to a family wedding in City Point, Fla., and back to their home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Finally, there is a diary kept by William Booth Hentz during a visit to City Point, Fla., and Quincy, Fla, from March to May 1901.

Acquisition information:

Gifts, 1940 1998, received from William B. Hentz of Winter Haven, Fla.; Mrs. G. N. Hatch of West Palm Beach, Fla.; Baldwin L. Keyes, Philadelphia, Pa.; Margaret Ruth Hentz Crocker, Rio de Janerio, Brazil; Mrs. William A. Sturgis, Belmont, Mass.; and Desmond and Charity Cole, Durham, N.C.; material lent for filming and returned to Mrs. Cecil Rhyne, Marianna, Fla., 1950; and purchased from Howard S. Mott, Sheffield, Mass., 1980. Additions received from Charity Cole in June 2000 (Acc. 98639), May 2005 (Acc. 100052), September 2005 (Acc. 100222); and from Thomas P. Cole in May 2009 (Acc. 101110).

The Addition of November 2012 (Acc. 101701), a gift of Thomas P. Cole, is the writing desk of Caroline Lee Whiting Hentz. It has been transferred to the North Carolina Collection Gallery.

Processing information:

Processed by: Elizabeth Pauk, September 1991

Encoded by: Eben Lehman, March 2006

Revised by: Martin Gengenbach, December 2010, June, 2011; Nancy Kaiser, May and November 2020

Remediation by: Nancy Kaiser, May 2020: updated abstract, subject headings, and scope and content note; Nancy Kaiser, November 2021: updated abstract, subject headings, collection overview, container list.

In 2017, we began using "white" as an ethnic and racial identity for individual and families, in addition to "Black," "African American," "Jewish," and other familiar identity terms that we have used for decades in collection descriptions. We use this identity term so that whiteness is no longer the presumed default of the people represented in our 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.

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.

Related

Related material:

• Julia Louisa Hentz Keyes Reminiscence (#01762-z), Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Separated material:

• Photographs (P-332/1-3, SF-P-332/1-3)
• Museum item (MU-332/1)
• Oversize papers (R-332/1-2)
• Oversize volumes (SV-332/1-2)

Alternative form available:

All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of Southern women and their families in the 19th century, Series A.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Confederate States of America. Army--Medical care.
France. Armee--Officers--History--19th century.
Agriculture--Florida--History--19th century.
Body snatching--Kentucky--History--19th century.
Citrus fruit industry--Florida--History--19th century.
Alcoholism--History--19th century.
Drug abuse--History--19th century.
Families--Alabama.
Families--Florida.
Medical students--Kentucky--History--19th century.
Natural Bridge, Battle of, Fla., 1865.
Naturalists--History--19th century.
Obstetrics--Case studies--History--19th century.
Physicians--History--19th century.
Plantation life--Florida.
Plantations--Florida.
Phrenology.
Schools--Alabama--History--19th century.
Slavery--Florida.
Slavery--United States--History--19th century--Sources
Mexican War, 1846-1848--Public opinion.
Women--Diaries.
Women--Alabama--Social conditions.
Women authors, American--19th century.
Women--Education--Alabama--History--19th century.
Southern States--Description and travel.
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Medical care.
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives, Confederate.
Brazil--Emigration and immigration--History--19th century.
American Confederate voluntary exiles--Brazil.
African Americans--Medical care--History--19th century.
Lynching--Florida--History--19th century.
Diaries (Blank-books)

Names:

Hentz family.
Hentz, Caroline Lee, 1800-1856.

Places:

Alabama--Social life and customs.
Florida--Social life and customs.
Florida--Race relations--History--19th century.
Quincy (Fla.)--History--19th century.
Gadsden County (Fla.)--History--19th century.
Brevard County (Fla.)--History--19th century.
Jackson County (Fla.)--History--19th century.

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Hentz Family Papers #332, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:

Southern Historical Collection

Louis Round Wilson Library

200 South Road

Chapel Hill, NC 27515

Contact:

(919) 962-3765

wilsonlibrary@unc.edu