Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional materials that are not processed and are currently not available to researchers. For information about access to these materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff. Please be advised that preparing unprocessed materials for access can be a lengthy process.

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 David Schenck Papers #652, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Typed transcriptions of diaries, September 1849-March 1881, available.

Volumes 1-19 available on microfilm.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Paul W. Schenck of Greensboro, N.C., in February 1949.

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.

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.

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.

• Democratic Party (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Diaries (Blank-books)
• Greensboro (N.C.)--Politics and government.
• Guilford Battleground Co.--Records and correspondence.
• Guilford Courthouse, Battle of, N.C., 1781.
• Judges--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Ku Klux Klan (19th cent.)--North Carolina.
• Lawyers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Lincoln County (N.C.)--Politics and government.
• Lincoln County (N.C.)--Social conditions.
• North Carolina--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Battlefields.
• North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Civilian relief.
• North Carolina--Politics and government.
• North Carolina--Social conditions.
• Practice of law--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Railroads--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--North Carolina.
• Richmond and Danville Railroad Company--History.
• Schenck, David, 1835-1902.

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.

The 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.

• Transcription volumes (TV-652/1-9)
• Microfilm (M-652/1-5)