Restrictions to Access

Manuscript materials, or their reproductions, from this collection may not be published in print without permission from the director of the Southern Historical Collection.

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 John Houston Bills Papers #2245, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

All or part of this collection is available on microfilm.

Additional microfilm: All or part of this collection is also available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. George H. Hillman, June 1940, and Leonidas Polk, July 1940, and purchased from W. H. Lowdermilk & Co., May 1966, and George E. Webb, February 1986.

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: Scott Philyaw, June 1991

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

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.

• Agriculture--Tennessee--History--19th century.
• American diaries--Tennessee--History--19th century.
• Bills, John Houston, 1800-1871.
• Canada--Description and travel.
• Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
• Democratic Party (Tenn.)--History--19th century.
• Europe--Description and travel.
• Freemasons--Tennessee--History--19th century.
• Hardeman County (Tenn.)--Social life and customs.
• Northeastern States--Description and travel.
• Plantation life--Tennessee.
• Plantations--Tennessee--Hardeman County.
• Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849.
• Shiloh, Battle of, Tenn., 1862.
• Slavery--Tennessee.
• Temperance--Tennessee--Societies, etc.--History--19th century.
• Tennessee--Climate--History--19th century.
• Tennessee--Social life and customs.

• John H. Bills Letterbook, (#M2245). John H. Bills Family Papers, Tennessee State Library and Archives.

John Houston Bills (1800-1871), Tennessee planter, merchant, and friend of president James Knox Polk (1795-1849), was born in Iredell County, North Carolina, and migrated to Tennessee in 1818. He was active in the Democratic Party, the Freemasons, the temperance movement, and the religious life of his community.

The collection consists primarily of Bills's diary, which contains entries dated 1843-1871. There are also a few letters and miscellaneous accounts, 1841-1878. Typed transcriptions of the diary are located in Series 3 of the collection. The transcriptions contain a few minor errors.