Collection Number: 03149

Collection Title: Hairston and Wilson Family Papers, 1750-2017

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.


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Size 19.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 7100 items)
Abstract Family correspondence and financial and legal materials dating from the mid-eighteenth century through the early twentieth century comprise the bulk of the collection, which documents several branches of the white Hairston, Wilson, and extended families of Virginia and Mississippi. Financial and legal documents include bills, receipts, accounts, tax assessments, wills, deeds, indentures, agreements, contracts, ledgers, and slight, scattered business correspondence. Eighteenth and nineteenth-century financial and legal materials document the Hairston family's enslavement of hundreds of human beings, agricultural and other business interests, and extensive land holdings in Virginia and Mississippi, including Beaver Creek Plantation in Henry County, Va. Numerous documents, including bills of sale, tax assessments, and extracts from wills, reflect the antebellum plantation economy in the American South and illustrate the families' use of and reliance on enslaved labor from the colonial period until emancipation. Post emancipation documents include tenant agreements with African American farmers. Other materials include documents related to schools and churches which family members attended, lodges and clubs, Virginia militias in the fist decades of the nineteenth century, and the Beaver Creek Plantation household in the early twentieth century. A small number of photographs depict extended family members including Rorer James, Sr., a Virginia state senator. However, most individuals who are pictured are not identified. Genealogical information, family charts, family histories, and transcriptions of nineteenth-century documents were compiled in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries by members of the white Hairston family and related families.
Creator Hairston (Family : Hairston, George, 1750-1827)

Wilson (Family : Danville, Va.)
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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Restrictions to Access
No restrictions. Open for research.
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 Hairston and Wilson Family Papers #3149, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alternate Form of Material
All or part of the original deposit is 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. James E. Covington, daughter of Ann M. Wilson and R. A. James of Richmond and Martinsville, Va., in June 1955. Additions received in May 2015 (Acc. 102223), from Anne Wilson Covington Thompson in June 2015 (Acc. 102246) and October 2016 (Acc. 102652), and from Jane E. Covington in November 2016 (Acc. 102686) and May 2017 (103057).
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.
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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Processing Information

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in 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.

Processed by: Lisa Tolbert, January 1992 and Laura Hart, May 2017.

Updated by: Laura Hart, June 2018; Amy Morgan and Jodi Berkowitz, March 2019; Laura Hart, January 2020

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subject Headings

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.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Colonel George Hairston (1750-1825) built Beaver Creek Plantation in 1776 just outside Martinsville in Henry County, Va. In 1781, he married Elizabeth Perkins Letcher (d. 1819), widow of William Letcher. They had eleven children together.

Elizabeth also had a daughter by her first husband, William Letcher (1750-1780). Bethenia Letcher married David Pannill and was the maternal grandmother of Jeb Stuart (1833-1864).

Marshall Hairston married his cousin, Ann Hairston (1802-1888), and they lived at Beaver Creek with their four children John A. Hairston (d. 1862), Elizabeth "Bettie" Perkins Hairston (1836-1922), Ann Marshall Hairston, and Ruth Stovall Hairston (1837-1886). In 1837, Marshall Hairston rebuilt Beaver Creek, which had been destroyed in a fire.

In 1873 Bettie Perkins Hairston married her cousin J.T.W. Hairston (1835-1908), son of Harden and Sallie Staples Hairston, of Crawfordsville in Lowndes County, Miss. J.T.W. Hairston was a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, a major in the Confederate States Army, and a planter in Lowndes County, Miss.

Bettie Perkins Hairston and J.T.W. Hairston had two children, Marshall, who died in infancy, and Watt H. Hairston (1876-1916), who never married. After the death of her husband, Bettie Perkins Hairston returned to Beaver Creek and cared for the home until her death.

Ruth Stovall Hairston married Robert A. Wilson (b. 1825). Robert Wilson was the son of Robert Wilson and Catherine Pannill Wilson of Danville, Va. Ruth Stovall Hairston and Robert Wilson's daughter Annie Marshall Wilson (1869-1938) married Virginia state senator Rorer James, Sr. (1859-1921). They had three children Robert James, Rorer "Buddy" James, Jr. (1897-1937), and Annie James (1901-1966).

Annie James married James Edward Covington (1891-1977), who made frequent trips to China for the tobacco trade.

Annie Marshall Wilson James, daughter of Robert A. Wilson and Ruth Hairston Wilson, inherited Beaver Creek after Bettie Perkins Hairston died in 1922.

Marshall's brother, John Adams Hairston, married Malinda Corn. They lived with their five children in Yalabusha County, Miss.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

Original deposit:

The bulk of the original deposit consists of letters to Elizabeth "Bettie" Perkins Hairston. Correspondents include her mother Ann Hairston, who wrote chiefly from the family plantations near Martinsville, Va. between the 1850s and 1890s; her sister, Ruth Stovall Hairston Wilson, who wrote from Danville, Va.; her brother, John A. Hairston, who wrote from school in Staunton, Va., from 1855 to 1857; and her cousin, Jeb Stuart (1833-1875), who wrote from West Point, from 1853 to 1854, and while fighting against the Comanches in Texas, 1855.

During the Civil War, Bettie lived with relatives in Yalabusha County, Miss., where she received letters from her family about life on the home front. There are also letters to Bettie, written after her marriage in 1873, from her husband, J.T.W. Hairston in Lowndes County, Miss., where he was trying to run a cotton plantation without enslaved labor. Other significant family correspondence documents the westward movement of various Hairston family members and includes some papers of George Hairston of Halifax County, Va., from circa 1800 to 1820.

In addition to correspondence, several account books document family life, including the involvement of family members in at least two stores in Henry County and Danville, Va., from 1800 to 1829. A household account book, dated 1831 to 1869, provides detailed information about weaving, livestock raising, gardening, and other household production. Other financial and legal materials include scattered bills, receipts, depositions, lists and other records of enslaved people, and labor contracts with freedpeople.

Additions of 2015:

The 2015 additions consist of letters of Anne Wilson, from Dan's Hill (1887-1892); farming contracts, indentures, and assorted sales records; 5 ledgers from the 19th century, at least three of which pertain to the Beaver Creek Plantation in Martinsville, Va.; and other related family papers.

Additions of 2016:

The bulk of the 2016 additions consists of financial and legal documents, including bills, receipts, accounts, tax assessments, wills, deeds, indentures, agreements, contracts, and slight, scattered correspondence. Materials pertain largely to Hairston and Wilson families' agricultural business interests and their extensive land holdings in Virginia and Mississippi. Numerous documents, including bills of sale, tax assessments, and extracts from wills, reflect the antebellum plantion economy and illustrate the families' use of and reliance on enslaved labor from the colonial period to emancipation. Post emancipation documents include tenant agreements with "colored" farmers. Documents related to land transactions often include surveys of property bought and sold.

The bulk of the family correspondence in the additions dates from the 1870s to the 1920s. Bettie Perkins Hairston and Annie Marshall Wilson James are the chief recipients of the letters from this time period. Other papers relate to schools attended by family members, Virginia militias in the early national period, churches, funerals, lodges and clubs, genealogy, and Beaver Creek Plantation. A small number of photographs depict extended family members including Rorer James, Sr. However, most individuals who are pictured are not identified.

Addition of 2017:

The addition contains genealogical information; family charts; family histories and anecdotes; and transcriptions of nineteenth-century family letters and a household ledger. Most materials were compiled by members of the white Hairston family and related extended families in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Also includes letters written by members of the family that pertain to the book The Hairstons An American Family in Black and White by Henry Wiencek (1999).

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Contents list

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse A. Hairston and Wilson Family Papers, 1800-1906 and undated (Original deposit).

About 500 items.

Acquisitions information: Received from Mrs. James E. Covington, daughter of Ann M. Wilson and R. A. James of Richmond and Martinsville, Va., in June 1955.

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Correspondence, 1806-1846.

About 20 items.

This series was part of the original deposit.

Correspondence of Colonel George Hairston with various business associates and family members, and correspondence of Marshall and Ann Hairston at Beaver Creek near Martinsville, Henry County, Va. Subjects are chiefly land and enslaved people, problems of farming, kinds of crops raised, and the westward migration of various family members.

Folder 1

Colonel George Hairston correspondence

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Correspondence, 1847-1873.

About 150 items.

This series was part of the original deposit.

Chiefly letters to Elizabeth (Bettie) Perkins Hairston Hairston. These include an 1853 letter offering motherly advice from Ann Hairston Hairston at Sassafras Grove, near Martinsville, Va., while Bettie attended school in Salem, N.C.; affectionate and descriptive letters from her cousin Jeb Stuart at West Point, 1853-1854, and fighting Comanches in Texas, 1855; news from her brother, Jack A. Hairston, at Eastwood School near Staunton, Va., 1855-1857; and letters, 1866, from Danville, Va., where her sister, Ruth Stovall Wilson lived with husband, Robert Wilson.

After 1854, Bettie spent much time at her Uncle John Adams Hairston's in Yalabusha County, Miss. There she received letters from a few family members fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War, but most correspondence concerns civilian issues--family news, war hopes and fears, accounts of contacts with troops, and problems of refugees--especially in Virginia and Mississippi. Letters after the war were written chiefly by Ann Hairston Hairston and Ruth Stovall Wilson, focusing on labor issues and adjustments to new political and economic realities with the end of slavery. Letters indicate that Ann apparently worked closely with a man named Townes to operate the Virginia plantations. Bettie continued to live alternately with family in Yalabusha County, Miss., and in Martinsville, Va. There are no courtship letters from J. T. W. Hairston, whom Bettie married in 1873.

Folder 2

1847-1848

Folder 3

1852

Folder 4

1853 January-March

Folder 5

1853 April-December

Folder 6

1854-1855

Folder 7

1856-1857

Folder 8

1858-1859

Folder 9

1860-1862

Folder 10

1863-1865

Folder 11

1866-1868

Folder 12

1869

Folder 13

1870-1873

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Correspondence, 1874-1906.

About 200 items.

This series was part of the original deposit.

The marriage of Bettie and J. T. W. Hairston marks a definite shift in correspondence. Thereafter, letters are chiefly from J. T. W. Hairston, of Crawfordville, Miss., to Bettie (usually in Martinsville, Va.) and their son, Watt. Hairston typically wrote about local events around Crawfordville and the Lowndes County seat, Columbus, Miss. He was preoccupied with farming and the problems of raising cotton without enslaved labor. Letters suggest that he supplemented the family income by working as a land agent renting out property. His letters continue through 1906. Also of note are 1885 letters from Ann Hairston Hairston at the World's Fair in New Orleans and from Europe. Although most of the letters from Europe are undated, Ann seems to have spent an extended period there, perhaps from about 1888 to about 1898.

Folder 14

1874

Folder 15

1875

Folder 16

1876

Folder 17

1877

Folder 18

1879

Folder 19

1882-1884

Folder 20

1885-1886

Folder 21

1887-1888

Folder 22

1889 January-March

Folder 23

1889 April-December

Folder 24

1893

Folder 25

1894-1898

Folder 26

1904-1906

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Correspondence, undated.

About 30 items.

This series was part of the original deposit.

Letters from J. T. W. Hairston in Hairston, Miss., to his wife, and letters of other family members spanning the various generations represented throughout this collection.

Folder 27-28

Folder 27

Folder 28

J. T. W. Hairston

Folder 29

Other family members

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Financial and legal materials: Loose papers.

About 60 items.

This series was part of the original deposit.

Lists of enslaved people, bills, receipts, agreements, depositions, and other documents. Of note are Robert Wilson's labor contracts with freedpeople formerly enslaved on his plantations, Danshill and Sandy River, 1865-1871.

Folder 30

1810-1849

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/1

"Bill of A hous for Mr Saml. Hairston," circa 1823

Includes floor plan, specifications, and bill for labor and materials.

Folder 31

1851-1864

Folder 32

1865-1871

Folder 33

1872-1895 and undated

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Financial and legal materials: Account books, 1800-1869.

6 items.

This series was part of the original deposit.

Oversize Volume SV-3149/1

1800-1804

Accounts with individuals for liquor, merchandise, and labor, perhaps at Beaver Creek. The volume was also used as a scrapbook, and many pages have been pasted over with newspaper clippings and poems.

Oversize Volume SV-3149/2

1803-1807

Accounts with individuals showing labor performed and miscellaneous purchases. Also included is a "Cash account Halifax County," 1804-1805, and an "Inventory of the plantation utensils, household and kitchen furniture, and Stock of all kind delivd. to Washington Rowland by Parrish Green at Booker's ferry on the 19th day December 1804."

Oversize Volume SV-3149/3

1804-1807

Halifax County. Accounts with individuals for liquor, merchandise, and labor.

Oversize Volume SV-3149/4

1804-1816

"G. H. Ledger, Halifax." Entries made by George Hairston and Henry Hairston. In addition to ledger accounts with individuals with few itemized charges, the volume also contains "A statement of weights Tobo. made by James Elder at Bookers ferry in the year 1806" and "A Statement of Crop Tobo. made by Daniel Perkins in the year 1806."

Oversize Volume SV-3149/5

1811-1829

Account, 1811-1812, for Caswell County showing merchandize purchased and labor performed and daily accounts, 1818-1829, for the Goblen Town Store, Danville, Va.

Oversize Volume SV-3149/6

1831-1869

Household accounts for Beaver Creek and other plantations, possibly kept by Ann Hairston Hairston. A wide variety of entries document spinning and weaving, sewing, care of livestock, vegetable gardening, recipes, candle and butter making, and miscellaneous items purchased for the household. There is much information about enslaved people on the two plantations, including work performed, birth records, and clothing distributed. Many entries describe provisions lent or bartered to neighbors.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse B. Hairston and Wilson Family Papers, 1750-1957 and undated (Additions of 2016).

About 6500 items

Acquisition information: Accessions 102652 and 102686

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Correspondence, 1778-1957 and undated.

About 800 items.

Arrangement: Loose chronological order by year, not by day or month.

Processing information: This series has not been fully analyzed or described. Selected quotations from letters are provided to suggest the content of the letters.

Chiefly family letters written from Mississippi and Virginia. Also included are post cards, greeting cards, telegrams, and invitations to weddings and graduations. Topics discussed in the letters include religion and religious devotion; family business interests including tobacco and cotton; enslaved people before the Civil War; employees including plantation overseers, tenant farmers, agricultural laborers, and household servants; health and illness; deaths of friends and family and bereavement; charity; children; neighbors; African Americans; American Indians; and local news. Correspondents occasionally mention national and international events, such as the progression of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the possible impact of the Russo-Japanese War on Russia's place in the world, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the armistice. Correspondence during the Civil War is slight and scattered.

Folder 34

1778

Folder 35

1800

Folder 36

1808

Folder 37

1811

Folder 38

1812

Folder 39

1813

Folder 40

1814

Folder 41

1816

Folder 42

1819

Folder 43

circa 1810s

Folder 44

1821

Folder 45

1822

Folder 46

1825

Folder 47

1826

Folder 48

1829

Folder 49

circa 1820s

Folder 50

1832

Folder 51

1833

Folder 52

1834

Folder 53

1835

Folder 54

1836

Folder 55

1837

Folder 56

1838

Folder 57

1839

Folder 58

circa 1830s

Folder 59

1840

Folder 60

1842

Folder 61

1843

Folder 62

1844

Folder 63

1847

Folder 64

1848

Chiefly letters to Marshall Hairston from his daughter Bettie P. Hairston and his wife Ann Hairston.

Folder 65

1849

Letters received by Ann Hairston.

Folder 66

circa 1840s

Folder 67

1850

Folder 68

1851

Letters received by Ann Hairston.

Folder 69-70

1852

Folder 71

1853

Folder 72

1854

Folder 73

1855

Folder 74-75

1856

Folder 76-77

1857

Folder 78

1858

Folder 79

circa 1854-1858

Letters written by J.T.W. Hairston from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI).

Folder 80

1859

Folder 81-82

circa 1850s

Folder 83

1860

Folder 84

circa 1861

Contains a letter from Alfred Ely to "General" that may have been written when Ely was a prisoner of war (POW) in Richmond, Va.

Folder 85

1862

Folder 86

1863

Folder 87

1864

Folder 88

1865

Folder 89

1866

Folder 90

1867

Folder 91

1868

Folder 92

1869

Folder 93

1870

Folder 94

1871

Folder 95

1872

Folder 96

1873

Folder 97

1874

Folder 98

1875

Folder 99

1877

Folder 100

1878

Folder 101

1879

Folder 102

circa 1870s

Folder 103

1880

Folder 104

1881

Folder 105

1882

Folder 106

1884

Folder 107

1885

Folder 108

1886

Contains a letter written by a child.

Folder 109-112

1887

Contains many letters written on bereavement stationery.

Folder 113-114

1888

Folder 115-116

1889

Contains letters written from cities in Italy.

Folder 117-118

circa 1880s

Folder 119-120

1890

Folder 121-126

1891

Most letters are from Rorer James, Sr., writing from Richmond, Va., to his wife Annie Marshall Wilson James.

Folder 127-134

1892

Most letters are from Rorer James, Sr., writing from Richmond, Va., to his wife Annie Marshall Wilson James.

Folder 135

1893

Contains letters written from cities in Italy.

Folder 136

1894

Folder 137

1895

Folder 138

1896

Folder 139

1897

Folder 140

1898

Folder 141

1899

Folder 142

circa 1890s

Folder 143

1900

Includes a letter from archaeologist Clarence Bloomfield Moore, who studied and excavated American Indian sites. "We hope to visit your place this coming winter…Our present plans are to begin work at the lower end of the river and do all the work we can on our way up."

Folder 144

1901

Contains a letter written by a child.

Folder 145

1902

Folder 146

1903

Folder 147

1904

Folder 148

1905

Folder 149

1906

Folder 150

1907

Folder 151-153

1908

Folder 154

1909

Contains letters written by a child.

Folder 155

circa 1900-1910

Folder 156-157

1910

Folder 158-159

1911

Contains a letter written by a child.

Folder 160-161

1912

Contains a letter written by a child.

Folder 162-163

1913

Folder 164-165

1914

Folder 166

1915

Folder 167-169

1916

Contains a letter written by a child.

Folder 170-171

1917

Folder 172-173

1918

Folder 174-176

1919

Folder 177

circa 1910s

Folder 178-179

1920

Folder 180-185

1921

Includes many letters expressing sympathy following the death of Rorer A. James, Sr.

Folder 185a

Telegrams, 1921

Processing information: These telegrams represent a sample of those donated to this collection. Approximately 100 telegrams were discarded because they had become too brittle to handle and fell apart at the touch.

Expressions of sympathy following the death of Rorer A. James, Sr.

Folder 186

1922

Folder 187

1923

Folder 188

1924

Folder 189

1926

Folder 190

1927

Folder 191

1928

Folder 192-204

circa 1900-1920s

Folder 205-207

Greeting cards, circa 1900-1920s

Folder 208

1930

Folder 209

1936

Folder 210

1937

Folder 211

circa 1930s

Folder 212

1951-1954

Contains a letter written by a child.

Folder 213

1957

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Financial and legal materials, 1750-1936 and undated.

About 5000 items.

Arrangement: Loose chronological order by year, not by day or month.

Processing information: The series has not been fully analyzed or described. In the initial culling of the financial and legal materials, items with a direct and readily apparent connection to enslavement were filed separately within a given year. Please note that the items filed separately do not represent an exhaustive analysis or the comprehensive identification of documents related to enslaved persons or the institution of slavery.

Bills, receipts, accounts, tax assessments, wills, land grants, deeds, indentures, agreements, contracts, and slight, scattered correspondence pertain to Hairston and Wilson family business interests including cotton and tobacco and to their extensive land holdings in Virginia and Mississippi. Early documents, including bills of sale and extracts from wills, illustrate the families' use of and reliance on enslaved labor from the colonial period to emancipation. Many documents related to land transactions include surveys of property bought and sold.

Folder 214

1750-1754

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/2

Land grants, 1756-1761

3 items.

Counties of Lunenburg and Pittsylvania, Va.

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/3

Deeds and indentures, 1756-1804

4 items.

Counties of Halifax and Franklin, Va.

Folder 215

1767

Contains records of enslavement.

Folder 216

1768-1769

Folder 217

1770-1772

Folder 218-219

1773

Folder 220

1774

Folder 221-222

1775

Folder 222 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 223

1776

Folder 224

1777

Folder 225-226

1778

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/4

Deeds and indentures, 1778-1857 (bulk dates 1790s)

18 items.

Henry County, Va.

Folder 227-228

1779

Folder 228 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 229

Circa 1770s

Contains records of ensalvement.

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/5

Land grants, 1779-1783

8 items.

Counties of Patrick and Henry, Va.

Folder 230

1780

Folder 231

1781

Folder 232

1782

Folder 233-235

1783

Folder 235 contains records of eslavement.

Folder 236-237

1784

Folder 238-240

1785

Folder 240 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 241-243

1786

Folder 243 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 244-247

1787

Folder 247 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 248-250

1788

Folder 250 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 251-254

1789

Folder 354 contains records of enslavement.

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/6

Land grants, 1789-1799

3 items.

Counties of Franklin and Henry, Va.

Folder 255-258

1790

Folder 258 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 259-261

1791

Folder 261 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 262-265

1792

Folder 265 contains records of enslavement.

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/7

Deeds and indentures, 1792-1819

6 items.

Patrick County, Va.

Folder 266-269

1793

Folder 269 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 270-273

1794

Folder 273 contains reocrds of enslavement.

Folder 274-279

1795

Folder 279 contains records on enslavement.

Folder 280-282

1796

Folder 282 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 283-286

1797

Folder 286 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 287-290

1798

Folder 290 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 291-294

1799

Folder 294 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 295-296

circa 1790s

Folder 297-299

1800

Folder 299 contains records of enslavement.

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/8

Land grants, 1800-1855

5 items.

Counties of Patrick and Henry, Va.

Folder 300-303

1801

Folder 303 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 304-308

1802

Folder 308 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 309-312

1803

Folder 312 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 313-315

1804

Folder 315 contains records of enalvement.

Folder 316-319

1805

Folder 319 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 320-323

1806

Folder 323 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 324-328

1807

Folder 328 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 329-331

1808

Folder 331 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 332-336

1809

Folder 336 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 337

Correspondence, circa 1770-1810

Folder 338

circa 1800-1810

Folder 339-345

1810

Folder 345 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 346-350

1811

Folder 350 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 351-355a

1812

Folder 354 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 355b-357

1813

Folder 358

1813

Tax receipt.

Folder 359-363

1814

Folder 363 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 364-367

1815

Folder 367 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 368-370

1816

Folder 370 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 371-375

1817

Folder 375 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 376-380

1818

Folder 380 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 381-384

1819

Folder 385-391

circa 1770s-1820s

Folder 391 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 392-396

1820

Folder 396 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 397

Extract from the last Will + Testament of Geo Hairston, circa 1820

Folder 398-403

1821

Folder 403 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 404-409

1822

Folder 409 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 410-415

1823

Folder 415 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 416-419

1824

Folder 419 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 420-423

1825

Folder 423 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 424-426

1826

Folder 426 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 427-428

1827

Folder 428 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 429-431

1828

Folder 431 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 432-433

1829

Folder 433 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 434

1830

Folder 435-436

1831

Folder 436 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 437-439

1832

Folder 440-442

1833

Folder 442 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 443-444

1834

Folder 444 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 445-447

1835

Folder 447 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 448-449

1836

Folder 449 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 450-451

1837

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/9

Maps and surveys, 1837-1901

7 items.

Counties of Henry, Patrick, and Pittsylvania, Va.

Extra Oversize Paper Folder XOPF-3149/1

Survey, 1900

1 item.

Henry County, Va.

Folder 452-453

1838

Folder 454-456

1839

Folder 457

1840

Folder 458

1841

Folder 459-461

1842

Folder 461 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 462-464

1843

Folder 464 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 465-467

1844

Folder 467 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 468-470

1845

Folder 470 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 471-473

1846

Folder 473 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 474-476

1847

Folder 476 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 477-479

1848

Folder 479 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 480-485

1849

Folder 485 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 486-489

1850

Folder 489 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 490-493

1851

Folder 493 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 494-498

1852

Folder 498 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 499-503

1853

Folder 503 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 504-507

1854

Folder 507 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 508-511

1855

Folder 512

1855

Tax receipts.

Folder 513-515

1856

Folder 515 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 516-518

1857

Folder 518 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 519-522

1858

Folder 522 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 523-531

1859

Folder 531 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 532

Personal account book and travel journal, circa 1851-1860

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/10

Indenture and plats, 1859 and circa 1900

3 items.

Mississippi.

Folder 533-535

1860

Folder 535 contains records of enslavement.

Includes a receipt for "midwifery."

Folder 536-537

1861

Folder 537 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 538-540

1862

Folder 540 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 541-542

1863

Folder 542 contains records of enslavement.

Includes accounts with references to soldiers.

Folder 543-546

1864

Folder 546 contains records of enslavement.

Includes a treasury note for fifty dollars for "support of indigent families of soldiers."

Folder 547-548

1865

Folder 548 contains records of enslavement.

Folder 549

1866

Folder 550-551

1867

Folder 552-554

1868

Folder 555

1869

Folder 556-558

circa 1820s-1860s

Folder 559-560

1870

Folder 561-564

1871

Folder 565-567

1872

Folder 568

Household accounts, 1866-1872

Part of the volume appears to have been used as a school notebook (1847).

Folder 569-571

1873

Folder 572-574

1874

Folder 575-577

1875

Folder 578-580

1876

Folder 581-583

1877

Folder 584-586

1878

Folder 587-590

1879

Folder 591

circa 1870s

Folder 592-593

1880

Folder 594-595

1881

Folder 596-597

1882

Folder 598-599

1883

Folder 600-601

1884

Folder 602

1885

Folder 603-604

1886

Folder 605-606

1887

Folder 607-609

1888

Folder 610-613

1889

Folder 614

Account book, 1886-1889

Folder 615-617

1890

Folder 618-619

1891

Folder 620-621

1892

Includes tenant agreements and a letter requesting a rental agreement for "a two horse farm."

Folder 622

"Memorandum Book," 1891-1892

Folder 623-624

1893

Includes a tenant agreement.

Folder 625-626

1894

Includes a tenant agreement.

Folder 627-629

1895

Includes a tenant agreement.

Folder 630-631

1896

Folder 632

1897

Folder 633-634

1898

Folder 635-636

1899

Folder 637

1900

Folder 638

1901

Folder 639

1902

Folder 640

1903

Folder 641

1904

Folder 642

1905

Folder 643

1906

Folder 644

1907

Folder 645

1908

Folder 646-647

1909

Folder 648

1910

Folder 649

1911

Folder 650

1913

Folder 651

1914

Folder 652

1916

Folder 653

1918

Folder 654

1925

Folder 655

circa 1870s-1920s

Includes a tenant agreement.

Folder 656

1934

Folder 657-659

1935

Folder 660

1936

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Other papers, 1794-1957 and undated.

About 700 items.

Processing information: This series has not been fully analyzed or described.

Chiefly items related to schools attended by members of the Hairston and Wilson families. Of note are presidential pardons for Marshall Hairston and J.T.W. Hairston signed by President Andrew Johnson in 1865. Other materials are related to the Virginia militias in the early national period, churches, funerals, lodges and clubs, and genealogy of the white members of the Hairston, Wilson, and related families. Also included are a household inventory and library catalog for Beaver Creek Plantation in Virginia from the early twentieth century and an 1898 broadside advertising the sale of the Danville Register.

Folder 661-666

Virginia militias, 1802-1829

Folder 667

Cipher book, circa 1794-1820

Folder 668

Recipe for malt beer, undated

Folder 669

Dance instructions, undated

Folder 670

Election results in Patrick County, Va., 1824

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/11

Certificate from the State of Mississippi, 1861

Folder 671

Confederate States of America, 1861-1865

Includes general orders from Northern Virginia and an oath of allegiance following the war's end.

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/11

Presidential pardons, 1865

Folder 672-674

Funerals and memorials, circa 1819-1921

Folder 675-677

Genealogical information

Folder 678

Household inventory of Beaver Creek, circa 1920s

Folder 679

Library catalog for Beaver Creek, circa 1920s

Folder 680

Lodges and clubs, 1911-1952

Folder 681-685

Church, circa 1900-1930

Episcopal, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches.

Folder 686-710

School, circa 1850s-1910s

Includes report cards, compositions, notes, and requests for the removal of demerits. Many of the school items are related to Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., where Launcelot Minor Blackford was the headmaster.

Folder 711-712

Passports

Folder 713-716

Clippings

Folder 717

Railroad tickets, 1901-1910

Folder 718-720

Printed items

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3149/12

Printed items, 1898-1921 and undated

Broadside advertising the sale of the Danville Register (1898).

Commission for W.H. Hairston as a delegate to the Good Roads Convention (1909).

Resolution from the United States House of Representatives concerning the death of Rorer A. James (1921).

Pedigree chart for dogs, undated.

Folder 721-726

Miscellaneous items

Box 35

Empty envelopes and calling cards

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Photographs, undated circa 1900-1920s.

15 items.

Processing information: This series has not been fully analyzed or described.

A small number of photographs depict family members including Rorer James, Sr. However, most individuals who are pictured are not identified.

Image Folder PF-3149/1

Rorer James, circa 1910s

3 images

Image Folder PF-3149/2

unidentified woman in a photographer's studio, circa 1910s

Image Folder PF-3149/3

unidentified woman outdoors, circa 1910s

Image Folder PF-3149/4

Unidentified woman with infant outside of a house, circa 1920s

Image Folder PF-3149/5

Unidentified man standing outside a dilapidated cabin, circa 1910s

Image Folder PF-3149/6

Unidentified man and woman standing next to an automobile, circa 1910s

Image Folder PF-3149/7

Unidentified woman with a small child in a photographer's studio, circa 1910s

Image Folder PF-3149/8

Unidentified young girl outdoors, circa 1910s

Image Folder PF-3149/9

Unidentified place, circa 1910s

Appears to be the covered entranceway of a hotel.

Image Folder PF-3149/10

Three unidentified women and one unidentified man in a photographer's studio, circa 1900

Tintype.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse C. Papers, 1887-1895 (Addition of May 2015)

Acquisitions information: Accession 102223

The addition of May 2015 consists of letters of Anne Wilson, from Dan's Hill (1887-1892); farming contracts, indentures, and assorted sales records; 2 ledgers, 1893, 1895; and other related family papers.

Box 36

Papers

Letters, farming contracts, indentures, and assorted sales records; ledgers, and related family papers.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse D. Ledgers, 1800s (Addition of June 2015)

Acquisitions information: Accession 102246

The addition of June 2015 consists of 3 account ledgers of Beaver Creek Plantation in Martinsville, Va., 1800s.

SV-03149/7-9

SV-03149/7

SV-03149/8

SV-03149/9

Ledgers, 1800s

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse E. Genealogy and Family History Materials, circa 1970s-2017 (Addition of 2017).

About 15 items

Acquisition information: Accession 103057

Series contains genealogical information; family charts; family histories and anecdotes; and transcriptions of nineteenth-century family letters and a household ledger. Most materials were compiled by members of the white Hairston family and related extended families in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Also includes letters written by members of the family that pertain to the book The Hairstons An American Family in Black and White by Henry Wiencek (1999).

Box 37

Folder 727

"Hairston Family Genealogy 1695-1980s"

Box 37

Folder 728

"Genealogy of the Wilson Family of Pittsylvania County Virginia"

Box 37

Folder 729

"Some Data on Rorer family and James family"

Box 37

Folder 730

"Collection of materials" about Beaver Creek Plantation

Box 37

Folder 731

"The Stories of Beaver Creek"

Box 37

Folder 732

"Chart Showing Ancestors and Descendants of William Letcher Pannill and Maria Bruce Banks"

Box 37

Folder 733

Transcription of "Account Book of Ann Hairston Hairston (Mrs. Marshall Hairston) c 1830-1853"

Box 37

Folder 734

Volume with transcriptions of family letters, 1869-1876

Transcribed letters of members of the white Hairston family written chiefly from Hairston, Miss., and Martinsville, Va., during Reconstruction. Topics of letters include family news, farming, land purchases and sales, elections, African Americans ("the negroes"), and meetings of a local Mississippi chapter ("Grange") of the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Items Separated

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