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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 processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Size | 4.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 28 items) |
Abstract | David Schenck was a lawyer of Lincoln and Greensboro, N.C., Superior Court Judge of the Ninth Judicial District of North Carolina, 1874-1882, general counsel of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, and president of the Guilford Battleground Co. The collection consists of diaries, 1849-1901, and scrapbooks, 1883-1884 and 1888-1901, of David Schenck. The diaries give an extensive picture of Schenck's professional, political, and intellectual activities; family and religious life; and civic and social surroundings. They cover his youth and education, legal career, membership in the secession convention, public opinion and everyday life in North Carolina during the War while Schenck was associated with civilian war efforts, social conditions and activities of the Democratic Party in Lincoln County, N.C., during Reconstruction, including Klan activity, Schenck's term as superior court judge, and his later life in Greensboro, where he was involved in all phases of public life and concerned with education, race relations, and labor questions, and an active author and collector of state history. Occasional memoranda books overlap and supplement the diaries. Also included are records and minutes of the Guilford Battleground Co., 1887-1894 and 1911-1917. |
Creator | Schenck, David, 1835-1902. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Suzanne Ruffing, March 1996
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, June 2010; Dawne Howard Lucas, September 2021
This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
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.
David Schenck (1835-1902), son of a doctor and apothecary of Lincolnton, N.C., attended Judge Fearson's Law School in Rockford, N.C., and received his law license in 1856. He was elected solicitor for Gaston County and set up a practice in Dallas, N.C., before marrying Sallie Wilfong Ramseur in 1859 and moving back to Lincolnton in 1860.
Schenck was a member of the North Carolina Secession and an active participant in determining the conduct of the war. Exempted from army duty because of ill health, he held briefly a position in the Army Commissary Department at Raleigh. He then returned to Lincoln County, where he held the post of receiver under the Sequestration Act for the remainder of the war. In 1866, Schenck applied for a pardon and resumed his law practice.
From 1866 to 1882, while he remained in Lincolnton practicing law, Schenck became involved for political reasons with the Ku-Klux Klan and continued, as he had done since 1858, his public support of national and state candidates of the Democratic Party. In 1874, he was elected Superior Court judge of the Ninth Judicial District of North Carolina and traveled on the court circuits in both Eastern and Western North Carolina, holding this position until 1882 when he went to Greensboro as general counsel for the Richmond and Danville Railroad. He was defeated in his campaign to be chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
The last twenty years of Schenck's life were spent in Greensboro, N.C., where he continued his law practice and became a prominent leader in civic activities. He was alderman, city commissioner, and founder and president of the Guilford Battleground Co. In 1895, his job with the railroad was terminated and, after this time, ill-health forced him to retire from law practice.
Back to TopThe diaries begin when David Schenck was fifteen years old recording his childhood days in Lincolnton; his public life as lawyer, judge, and general counsel for the Richmond and Danville Railroad; and his family life. Comments, judgments, and opinions upon the events he documents reflect Schenck's strong religious convictions, which are also recorded from time to time throughout the diary. Court cases, personalties in the legal profession, and political interests are among the subjects discussed in regard to Schenck's public life. There is a great deal of material about the Civil War: activities of the North Carolina Secession Convention, the economic situation, the military situation, notations of desertion, union sentiment, destitution of among blacks, and other problems relating to the conduct of war. There is also discussion of political and economic aspects of the Reconstruction period. Included are references to national politics, a few references to international affairs, and accounts of civic activities in connection with the Guilford Battleground Co.
The diaries also record Schenck's home life; effects of war upon his personal economic and professional status; activities of his children--their education, social life, and careers; and family holiday celebrations, trips taken, visits from and to friends and relatives. The last volume reflects increasing worry about ill health and its effect upon the financial situation of the family.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Diaries, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous papers of David Schenck.
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 15 |
Volume 14: 1888-1894Records of relics belonging to the Guilford Battleground Co., 94 pages. |
Folder 16 |
Volume 15: 1887-1900Minutes of the directors of the Guilford Battleground Co., lists of stockholders, and clippings about meetings of directors and stockholders, 300 pages. |
Folder 17 |
Volume 16: 1911-1917Minutes of meetings of the directors of the Guilford Battleground Co., 300 pages. |
Folder 18 |
Volume 17: 1888-1893Scrapbook with clippings about the Guilford Battleground Co., 250 pages. |
Folder 19 |
Volume 18: 1893-1897Scrapbook with clippings about the Guilford Battleground Co., 300 pages. |
Folder 20 |
Volume 19: 1898-1901Scrapbook with clippings about the Guilford Battleground Co., 150 pages. |
Transcription Volume TV-652/1 |
Typed transcription of diary, 1 September 1849-31 December 1851 |
Transcription Volume TV-652/2 |
Typed transcription of diary, 1 January-31 December 1852 |
Transcription Volume TV-652/3 |
Typed transcription of diary, 1 January-30 December 1853 |
Transcription Volume TV-652/4 |
Typed transcription of diary, 1854-1863 |
Transcription Volume TV-652/5 |
Typed transcription of diary, 25 May-15 December 1861 |
Transcription Volume TV-652/6 |
Typed transcription of diary, 19 January 1864-31 December 1872 |
Transcription Volume TV-652/7 |
Typed transcription of diary, 15 January 1873-31 December 1876 |
Transcription Volume TV-652/8 |
Typed transcription of diary, 1 January 1877-31 December 1882 |
Transcription Volume TV-652/9 |
Typed transcription of diary, 13 August 1877-16 March 1881 |
Reel M-652/4-5
M-652/4M-652/5 |
Microfilm (Volumes 14-19) |