]
]
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.
Expand/collapse
Collection Overview
| Size | 1.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 520 items) |
| Abstract | Members of the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families were planters of Louisiana and Mississippi. The collection includes chiefly letters, 1815-1910, relating to members of the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families. Topics include farming, activities of relatives and friends, business matters, and household routine. Antebellum letters are chiefly between Norton family members in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans, and Mississippi, especially in Vicksburg, about farming and family matters. Letters written during the Civil War are chiefly from William H. Dameron at the Confederate Commissary Department at Meridian, Miss., to his wife, Courtenay Norton Dameron, in New Orleans, mostly about family matters, but with references to commissary work. While most post-Civil War letters are about family matters, a few discuss the 1875 race riots relating to elections in Clinton, Miss., and some discuss spiritualism, especially Sarah Norton Chilton's attempts in the mid-1870s to contact dead relatives and friends. Other papers include financial and legal documents, including a few records of slave sales in Mississippi; clippings; cures and remedies; genealogical data, including information about the Cusachs family as well as the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families; notebooks; and family pictures. |
| Creator | Chilton (Family : Chilton, Sarah Norton, 1823-1905)
Dameron (Family : Dameron, William H., -1872) Norton (Family : Natchez, Miss.) |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
Expand/collapse
Information For Users
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.
Expand/collapse
Scope and Content
The collection includes chiefly letters, 1815-1910, relating to members of the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families. Topics include farming, activities of relatives and friends, business matters, and household routine. Antebellum letters are chiefly between Norton family members in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans, and Mississippi, especially in Vicksburg, about farming and family matters. Letters written during the Civil War are chiefly from William H. Dameron at the Confederate Commissary Department at Meridian, Miss., to his wife, Courtenay Norton Dameron, in New Orleans, mostly about family matters, but with references to commissary work. While most post-Civil War letters are about family matters, a few discuss the 1875 race riots relating to elections in Clinton, Miss., and some discuss spiritualism, especially Sarah Norton Chilton's attempts in the mid-1870s to contact dead relatives and friends. Other papers include financial and legal documents, including a few records of slave sales in Mississippi; clippings; cures and remedies; genealogical data, including information about the Cusachs family as well as the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families; notebooks; and family pictures.
Back to Top
Expand/collapse
Series Quick Links
Expand/collapse
Series 1. Correspondence, 1773-1923.
Arrangement: chronological.
Early letters are chiefly from Norton family members in Louisiana to relatives in Mississippi about farming and family matters. In the 1820s, correspondences revolves around Charles Mynn Norton, who lived in Natchez, Mississippi, and who seems to have been active in political and civic affairs. After Charles Mynn Norton's death in 1824, his widow, Mary Pointer (Terrell) Norton, moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and there are many letters, chiefly dealing with family matters, to and from her there. In the late 1820s and into the 1830s, there are letters relating to John H. Norton, a merchant in Monticello, Mississippi, and infrequent letters from Norton relatives in Ontario, New York.
In the 1840s, there are many letters among Mary Pointer Norton and her two daughters, Sarah Norton Chilton and Louisa Norton Brown, both of whom lived in New Orleans. In the late 1850s, letters to and from Sarah's son, Charles Norton Chilton, begin.
Most of the Civil War period letters are from William H. Dameron to his wife, Courtenay Mynn Norton, also known as Lah, in New Orleans. Dameron was employed at the Confederate Commissary Department in Meridian, Mississippi. His letters, while chiefly dealing with family news, also mention caring for wounded friends and the workings of the commissary.
After the war, letters center on Charles Norton Chilton, who was in dry goods in Clinton, Mississippi. His correspondence with his aunt, Louisa Norton Brown, is particularly heavy. At some point, Charles's mother, Sarah Norton Chilton, moved to Clinton. From there, she wrote many letters to Louisa, who remained in New Orleans. Of particular interest are letters from Sarah to Louisa in 1875 that describe Charles's death in the midst of race riots relating to the 1876 local elections. After Charles's death, there are many letters from Sarah to Louisa in which Sarah described her new life as a spiritual medium and documented the messages she received from Charles and other dead relatives. Letters in the 1880s through the 1910s show that various family members were becoming interested in genealogy. Most of the letters from this period are genealogical inquiries or deal with routine family matters.
Expand/collapse
Series 2. Financial and Legal Papers, 1760,
1805-1926.
Arrangement: chronological.
Wills, deeds, household accounts, receipts, bills, and other items relating to members of the Norton, Chilton, Dameron, and related families. From 1842 through 1854, there are a few bills of sale for slaves, apparently traded in Clinton, Mississippi.
Expand/collapse
Series 3. Other Papers, 1840s-1910s.
Clippings are chiefly about the activities of family members and friends, but also include an account of the 1875 race riot in Clinton, Mississippi. Cures and remedies are both printed and handwritten and relate to treatments for complaints from scrapes to cancers. Genealogical materials consist of notes and charts relating to family history; floor plans relate to an unidentified house; and miscellaneous items include instructions for making "Ladies' Girdles" and two tickets that were chances in a lottery on a house and lot in Natchez, Mississippi, probably dating from the 1910s.
Expand/collapse
Series 4. Volumes, 1805-1885.
| Folder 30 |
Volume 1, 1804-1805 #03264, Series: "4. Volumes, 1805-1885." Folder 30Notebook containing slight accounts. Owner unknown. |
| Folder 31 |
Enclosures from Volume 1 #03264, Series: "4. Volumes, 1805-1885." Folder 31Enclosures include fragments of loose leaves relating to the illness and death of Shepherd Brown. |
| Folder 32 |
Volume 2, 1820-1832 #03264, Series: "4. Volumes, 1805-1885." Folder 32Notebook containing entries relating to planting and to household purchases. Also included are a few references to enslaved individuals. |
| Folder 33 |
Enclosures from Volume 2 #03264, Series: "4. Volumes, 1805-1885." Folder 33 |
| Folder 34 |
Volume 3 #03264, Series: "4. Volumes, 1805-1885." Folder 34Volumes 3, 4, and 5 are notebooks containing entries, 1856-1865, relating to births and deaths of Norton family members and friends, travel, supplies purchased, letters received, and the occupation of New Orleans by federal forces. |
| Folder 35 |
Volume 4 #03264, Series: "4. Volumes, 1805-1885." Folder 35 |
| Folder 36 |
Volume 5 #03264, Series: "4. Volumes, 1805-1885." Folder 36 |
| Folder 37 |
Volume 6 #03264, Series: "4. Volumes, 1805-1885." Folder 37Small volume presented to Courtenay Norton Dameron on the occasion of the death of her husband, William H. Dameron in 1872. Contains newspaper clippings relating to William H. Dameron's life. |
| Folder 38 |
Volume 7 #03264, Series: "4. Volumes, 1805-1885." Folder 38Volumes 7 and 8 are notebooks, probably from the 1880s, containing notes on historical English personages, a list of items seen at the Exhibition of 1885, home remedies, and a building plan for an unidentified house. |
| Folder 39 |
Volume 8 #03264, Series: "4. Volumes, 1805-1885." Folder 39 |
Expand/collapse
Series 5. Pictures.
Expand/collapse
Addition of May 1999 (Acc. 98371), 1995 and undated.
Reminiscences, pictures, and other materials about the history of the Cusachs and related families. Included is "Vignettes: An Informal History of the Cusachs Family of New Orleans," written in 1936 by Inez Cusachs Crenshaw and re-typed and edited in 1995 by Crenshaw's niece, Margot Desiree Kelley Baldwin. Most of the other family history material is in French.
Expand/collapse
Items Separated
Processed by: David Stickney, Roslyn Holdzkom, February 1991 with subsequent addtions
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, January 2010
Back to Top