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.
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.
Size | 2.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 1,500 items) |
Abstract | Bagley family members included William Henry Bagley (1833-1886), clerk of the North Carolina Supreme Court, 1868-1887; his wife Adelaide, daughter of Jonathan Worth; Worth Bagley, a United States naval cadet and ensign, who was killed in the Spanish- American War; William Henry Bagley (1877-1936), a newspaper executive in Raleigh, N.C.; Adelaide (Bagley) Daniels and her husband, Josephus Daniels, secretary of the Navy, United States ambassador to Mexico, and Raleigh newpaper publisher; and George C. Worth (1867-1937), a Presbyterian missionary in China. The collection is primarily letters about family, personal, and social life received by William Henry Bagley and his wife Adelaide, including letters written by Adelaide to her future husband, 1864-1866, and correspondence of other members of the Worth and Bagley families in North Carolina. Other correspondence includes letters from the Bagley children and their families, chiefly 1889-1898. Represented are Worth Bagley; William Henry Bagley at Havanna in 1899 and as a newspaper executive in Raleigh, N.C., 1900-1915; Adelaide (Bagley) Daniels and Josephus Daniels, including letters from Washington, D.C., while Daniels was secretary of the Navy, and from Mexico, 1933-1939, while he was United States ambassador; and letters, 1931-1936, from George C. Worth (1867-1937) in China, which contain descriptions of the Japanese invasion. |
Creator | Bagley (Family : Raleigh, N.C.) |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Timothy A. Long, December 1992
Encoded by: Eben Lehman, January 2007
Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, July 2010
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.
Back to TopThe 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.
William Henry (W. H.) Bagley, 1833-1886, was the son of Colonel Willis H. Bagley of Perquimans County, N.C. Willis Bagley was, for many years, the sheriff of Perquimans County and was active in politics there. W. H. Bagley obtained his education at the Hertford Academy. After graduation, he edited the Elizabeth City Sentinel, then studied law, and was licensed in 1859. He originally opposed secession, but joined the 8th Regiment, North Carolina Troops at the start of the war. After being captured and released, he was promoted to Major of the 68th Regiment, North Carolina Troops. He served in that capacity until 1864. During the war, the voters of Perquimans and Pasquotank counties twice elected him to represent them in the North Carolina Senate. After the war, he became the private secretary of Governor Jonathan Worth, a position he held until he was elected Clerk of the State Supreme Court in 1868. He remained clerk until his death in 1886.
In 1866, W. H. Bagley married Adelaide Worth, daughter of Governor Jonathan Worth. They lived in Pittsboro, Chatham County, N.C., and, during legislative or court sessions, in Raleigh, N.C. They had six children: Adelaide Worth (1869-1943); Belle (1872-1936); Worth (1874-1898); Ethel (1875-1939); William Henry Jr. (1877-1936); and David (b. 1883).
Adelaide Worth Bagley lived her early life in Pittsboro and Raleigh and received her education at Peace College in Raleigh. In 1888, she married Josephus Daniels, who was editor of the Raleigh News and Observer, secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson, and ambassador to Mexico under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Adelaide Bagley Daniels was active throughout her life in benevolent organizations and served on the board of directors at Rex Hospital in Raleigh in the 1920s and 1930s.
Belle and Ethel Bagley both received their early education in Raleigh. They lived together much of their lives and settled in Washington, D.C., where they were employed by the federal government. They lived on Dupont Circle for much of their time in Washington and were active in church and social activities in the city.
Worth Bagley received his early education at Centennial Graded School and the Raleigh Male Academy until, at age 15, he received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. After leaving for academic reasons in 1892, he was reappointed and graduated in 1896. He served on several vessels in the Atlantic until the start of the Spanish-American War, when his ship was sent to Cuba. On 11 May 1898, Ensign Bagley was killed at Cardenas, Cuba, the only American naval officer killed during the war. His body was returned to Raleigh and a monument to him was erected on the Capitol grounds.
W. H. Bagley Jr. received his education at a private academy in Mebane, N.C. For much of his life he worked as a reporter for newspapers around the country. He also assisted his brother-in-law, Josephus Daniels, with business aspects of the News and Observer.
David Bagley received his early education in North Carolina, then was appointed to the United States Naval Academy. After graduation, he became an officer in the Navy and served in the two world wars, rising to the rank of admiral.
(Sources: John H. Wheeler, Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina (1884) and Grady Lee Ernest Carroll Sr., The City of Raleigh, North Carolina, and the Civil War Experience (1979).)
Back to TopThe collection is primarily letters about family, personal, and social life received by William Henry Bagley and his wife Adelaide Bagley, including letters written by Adelaide Bagley to her future husband, 1864-1866, and correspondence of other members of the Worth family and Bagley family in North Carolina. Other correspondence includes letters from the Bagley children and their families, chiefly 1889-1898. Represented are Worth Bagley; William Henry Bagley at Havana, Cuba, in 1899 and as a newspaper executive in Raleigh, N.C., 1900-1915; Adelaide Bagley Daniels and Josephus Daniels, including letters from Washington, D.C., while Josephus Daniels was secretary of the Navy, and from Mexico, 1933-1939, while he was United States ambassador; and letters, 1931-1936, from George C. Worth (1867-1937) in China, which contain descriptions of the Japanese invasion.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Chiefly letters to or from members of the Worth and Bagley families of North Carolina. Items detail events in the lives of W. H. Bagley, his wife Adelaide Worth Bagley, and their six children, as well as news from other closely related family members.
Materials, 1848-1888, are chiefly letters to or from W. H. Bagley concerning his business, fraternity, and personal relations. Materials, 1889-1908, chiefly concern the children of W. H. and Adelaide Worth Bagley, including dozens of letters from Worth Bagley to his mother while he was a student at the United States Naval Academy, and several letters from W. H. Bagley Jr., to various family members from Cuba. Items, 1909-1939, relate primarily to the surviving children of W. H. and Adelaide Worth Bagley and their families, including letters to and from Josephus Daniels, husband of Adelaide Bagley Daniels; to Belle Bagley from her suitor, W. E. Christian; and from George C. Worth, Presbyterian missionary in China, to members of the Bagley family. Miscellaneous items include photographs, bills, receipts, and a few other scattered items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Materials chiefly concerning the business, fraternal, and personal relations of W. H. Bagley. Items include letters, receipts, bills, and other miscellaneous materials. Most of the letters are either from or to W. H. Bagley. They include several letters to Benjamin Townsend of Catonsville, Md., 1853; many detailed letters from Adelaide Worth during her courtship with W. H. Bagley, 1864-1866; many letters exchanged by W. H. Bagley and Adelaide Worth Bagley and their children when one or more of the family members was away from home, 1869-1888; and several letters to W. H. Bagley relating to his activities on behalf of the International Order of Odd Fellows and the National Union of Mansfield, Ohio, 1874-1888.
Items of particular interest include letters from Adelaide Worth during her courtship with Bagley, in which she describes life in Raleigh at the close of the Civil War and during the first months of Reconstruction and emancipation, 1864-1866; several letters from W. H. Bagley's father and brother, Willis and Willis Jr., chiefly concerning Reconstruction era politics in eastern North Carolina, 1866-1876; letters exchanged by members of the immediate Bagley family detailing the health of family members and friends, discussing social activities in Raleigh and Pittsboro, and describing new places seen during trips, 1869-1888; letters from W. H. Bagley to his wife Adelaide from Rockbridge Alum Springs, Va., describing the poor health and treatment of her father, Governor Jonathan Worth, immediately prior to his death, August 1869; letters from family members to Adelaide Worth Bagley during the illness and after the death of her husband, 1885-1886; and several letters indicating the engagement of Adelaide Worth Bagley's oldest daughter, also named Adelaide Worth Bagley, to Josephus Daniels, 1888.
Folder 1 |
1848-1863 |
Folder 2 |
1864 |
Folder 3 |
1865 |
Oversize Paper OP-3457/1 |
Certificate, 1 July 1865Signed by President Andrew Johnson, the certificate declares William H. Bagley Superintendent of the Charlotte, N.C. branch of the United States Mint. |
Folder 4 |
1866-1867 |
Folder 5 |
1868 |
Folder 6 |
1869-1870 |
Folder 7 |
1871-1873 |
Folder 8 |
1874 |
Folder 9 |
1875 |
Folder 10 |
1876 |
Folder 11 |
1877 |
Folder 12 |
1878-1879 |
Folder 13 |
1880 |
Folder 14 |
1881 |
Folder 15 |
1882 |
Folder 16 |
1883 |
Folder 17 |
1884 |
Folder 18 |
1885 |
Folder 19 |
1886-1888 |
Folder 20 |
Undated 1848-1888 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Chiefly letters to or from the children and widow of W. H. Bagley. Most of the letters were written either by Worth Bagley while he was a student at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md., and an officer in the Navy, 1889-1898, or by W. H. Bagley Jr., in Havana, Cuba, 1899. Items of particular interest include the dozens of letters Worth Bagley sent to his mother detailing his activities as a student in the Naval Academy, 1899-1895. Worth's many topics include the academic rigors of the Academy, his participation in athletics, his frequent homesickness, and, especially from 1893 to 1895, his increasingly busy social life. Also interspersed with these letters are several report cards Worth received while he attended the Naval Academy. His later letters, 1895 to May 1898, focus on his experiences as an officer in the United States Navy. Several letters and telegrams of May and June 1898 express the sympathy of family, friends, and acquaintances, including William Jennings Bryan, over the death of Ensign Worth Bagley during the Spanish-American War.
Other items of interest include detailed letters from W. H. Bagley Jr., to various family members while he was on assignment in Havana, Cuba, 1899. Among the topics he describes are the people and climate of Cuba, military activities related to the occupation of the island, and the murder of an American soldier by a Cuban policeman, 2 April 1899.
Folder 21 |
June-October 1889 |
Folder 22 |
November-December 1889 |
Folder 23 |
January-May 1890 |
Folder 24 |
June-December 1890 |
Folder 25 |
January-June 1891 |
Folder 26 |
July-December 1891 |
Folder 27 |
January-June 1892 |
Folder 28 |
July-December 1892 |
Folder 29 |
1893 |
Folder 30 |
1894 |
Folder 31 |
1895 |
Folder 32 |
1896 |
Folder 33 |
1897-1898 |
Folder 34 |
1899-1908 |
Folder 35 |
Undated, 1889-1908 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Chiefly letters of Adelaide Worth Bagley Daniels, her husband Josephus Daniels, William E. Christian, and George C. Worth to various members of the Bagley family. The Daniels' letters, 1909-1939, concern events that occurred while they were in Raleigh working with the News and Observer, 1909-1913 and 1921-1933; in Washington, D.C., while Josephus served as secretary of the Navy for Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921; and in Mexico City while Josephus served as ambassador under Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1939. Letters written by W. E. Christian, addressed primarily to Belle Bagley, who lived in Washington, D.C., mostly concern his courtship of Ms. Bagley, 1924. Also included are letters George C. Worth wrote from China where he was a Presbyterian missionary, 1931-1937.
Items of interest include W. E. Christian's extensive love letters to Belle Bagley, in which he outlined his efforts to write short stories and a novel, excerpts of which he sent to her. Christian apparently was recovering from some type of mental collapse and wrote fiction and his letters to Bagley as a form of therapy. Also included are the diary-letters of Josephus Daniels while he was ambassador to Mexico. These letters contain much information about Daniels's official duties, as well as references to the active social life he and his wife shared in Mexico City. Daniels also enclosed newspaper clippings with his letters, many of which refer to his activities in Mexico City. Of particular interest in the George C. Worth letters are his references to conditions in China and details about the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
Folder 36 |
1910-1912 |
Folder 37 |
1913-1917 |
Folder 38 |
1918-1919 |
Folder 39 |
1920-1924 |
Folder 40 |
W. E. Christian correspondence, 1890- February 1924 |
Folder 41 |
W. E. Christian correspondence, March-10 April 1924 |
Folder 42 |
W. E. Christian correspondence, 11-17 April 1924 |
Folder 43 |
W. E. Christian correspondence, 18-30 April 1924 |
Folder 44 |
W. E. Christian correspondence, May 1924 |
Folder 45 |
W. E. Christian correspondence, June 1924 |
Folder 46 |
W. E. Christian correspondence, July 1924 |
Folder 47 |
W. E. Christian correspondence, August-December 1924; 9 December 1925 |
Folder 48 |
W. E. Christian correspondence, undated |
Folder 49 |
1925-1926 |
Folder 50 |
1927-1932 |
Folder 51 |
March-June 1933 |
Folder 52 |
July-December 1933 |
Folder 53 |
1934 |
Folder 54 |
1935 |
Folder 55 |
1936 |
Folder 56 |
January-June 1937 |
Folder 57 |
July-October 1937 |
Folder 58 |
November-December 1937 |
Folder 59 |
January-September 1938 |
Folder 60 |
October-December 1938 |
Folder 61 |
1939 |
Folder 62 |
1939 |
Folder 63 |
1939 |
Folder 64-65
Folder 64Folder 65 |
Undated, 1909-1939 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Materials related to the genealogy of the Worth and Bagley families of North Carolina.
Folder 66 |
Worth-Bagley genealogy |
Folder 67 |
Volume 1: 1891This volume has two sections. Pages 1-44 contain records kept by W. H. Bagley Jr., as clerk to the Committee on Judiciary of the House of Representatives in the North Carolina General Assembly, 10 January-20 February 1891. The records include bills considered and recommendations made at each committee meeting. Pages 47-67 and 91 contain items of W. H. Bagley's "Memory Book," compiled chiefly May-August 1891, in which he pasted souvenirs, social cards and brief notes, invitations, pressed flowers, and leaves. For each item, he wrote short sentimental captions. This section also contains manuscript memoranda written by him during the same season. 91 pages. |
Folder 68 |
Volume 2: 1902Journal and notes of David Worth while on a United States Naval Academy cruise, 19 July-22 August 1902. The small volume is entitled "A Cruise on the USS Chesapeake." 50 pages. |
Folder 69 |
Volume 3: 1929Printed pamphlet with contents of speech delivered by Charles Whedbee upon the presentation of W. H. Bagley's portrait to the Supreme Court of North Carolina, 14 May 1929. The pamphlet contains biographical information on W. H. Bagley and background about the history of the North Carolina Supreme Court during the late 1800s. 15 pages. |