Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 Hays Books, #1174, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy (filmed 1978) available.

• Reel 1: Carpenter's day book, 1803-1810

Acquisitions Information

Received from Francis B. Hays of Oxford, N.C., in 1946 and Liz Vermillion in October 2014 (Acc. 102124).

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.

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: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Adam Fielding and Jodi Berkowitz, April 2011

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.

Updated: May 2019

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.

• Account books.
• Blacksmiths--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Carpenters--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Duty, Samuel, fl. 1803-1865.
• Estates (Law)--North Carolina.
• Granville County (N.C.)--History.
• Hays, Benjamin K., fl. 1887-1918.
• Hays, John Willis, 1834-1901.
• Henderson (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Lawyers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Mathematics--Problems, exercises, etc.--History--19th century.
• Merchants--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Oxford (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Physicians--North Carolina--History.
• Public health--North Carolina--History.
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--North Carolina.
• School notebooks--History--19th century.
• Schools--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Shoemakers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Tobacco--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Vance County (N.C.)--History.
• Ku Klux Klan (19th century)--History.

• John Willis Hays Papers, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University, Durham, N.C.

Samuel Duty (fl. 1803-1865) lived in Vance County, N.C. John Willis Hays (1834-1901) of Oxford, N.C., was a lawyer. Benjamin K. Hays (fl. 1887-1918) of Oxford, N.C., was a physician and public health officer.

The collection contains business account books, scrapbooks, notebooks, and other volumes kept by white residents of Granville County and Vance County, N.C., and the surrounding area. The account books of Samuel Duty (fl. 1803-1865) include carpenter, blacksmith, and general merchandise transactions. The scrapbooks and legal notebook of lawyer John Willis Hays (1834-1901), chiefly consist of material dated circa 1887-1900 on notable individuals, including American and English jurists. The school notebooks and papers of physician and public health officer Benjamin K. Hays (fl. 1887-1918) include material related to education, health, history, science, religion, and the status of African Americans in the South. Other account books dating from 1835 to 1883 document transactions for general merchandise, a shoe shop, tobacco sales, estate settlements, blacksmith work, an academy, and other businesses in Oxford and Henderson, N.C. The collection also includes an arithmetic book of William B. Brandon and a family history and genealogical journal with reminiscences by John Willis Hays II, John Willis Hays III, and F.B. Hays. In his narrative writing, John Willis Hays III discusses Reconstruction in Oxford, N.C., including the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the hiring of African American laborers.