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 Wishart Family Papers #4624, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Gift of Frank H. Wishart of Bonita Springs, Fla., in June 1992 (Acc. 92104). Addition of January 2012 received from William McKee Evans of Pomona, Calif., in December 2012 (Acc. 101528).

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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.

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.

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• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Families--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Gangs--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Lane, Annabel Wishart.
• Lowry Gang.
• Lumbee Indians--History--19th century.
• Lumberton (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• North Carolina--Genealogy.
• Robeson County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Vigilantes--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Vigilantes--Photographs.
• Wishart family.
• Wishart, Francis Marion, 1837-1872.
• Wishart, William Clifton, b. 1871.

Wishart family members include Francis Marion Wishart (1837-1872) of Shoe Heel (now Maxton), near Lumberton in Robeson County, N.C., who married Lydia Maria Pittman (1845-1899) in 1866. Wishart, known as Frank, had served in the Confederate army during the Civil War and came home to a Robeson County terrorized by a gang of Croatan Indians, led by Henry Berry Lowry, who, at 16, had witnessed the brutal execution of his father and brother, who had been falsely accused of theft. Wishart, known as a valiant fighter in the recent war, was persuaded to take up the fight against the Lowry gang after the county was terrorized to the point of deciding to employ military tactics to search for and destroy the gang. Wishart drafted a large number of men to serve as foot soldiers in the fight, but was himself the victim of an ambush that ended his life on 2 May 1872.

Before his death, Frank Wishart instructed his pregnant wife and two small children to take refuge from gang members' retaliation with relatives in Whiteville, Columbus County, N.C. There, William Clifton Wishart was born in 1871. He married Ann Armfield (b. 1874) in 1896 and fathered four children. William Clifton Wishart achieved prominence in the field of railroad accounting, serving for many years as a vice president of the New York Central Railroad.

Materials relating to Francis Marion Wishart's Civil War and Lowry gang activities and to Wishart family history. Civil War materials include Francis Marion Wishart's diary, circa 100 pages, containing brief entries, 1861-1862, chiefly reporting troop movements, camp life, and other aspects of Wishart's service. Lowry gang materials include correspondence, chiefly from July and August 1871, between Wishart and his recruits in the war against the Lowry gang; notes and writings relating to the Lowry gang; clippings; and pictures, including a tintype showing three men with shotguns and a dead Lowry gang member, circa 1871. Family history materials include correspondence, 1906-1963, chiefly of William Clifton Wishart and Annabel Wishart Lane, who were involved in gathering information on family history; notes and writings on the Wishart and related families; and pictures of family members. The Addition of January 2012 includes additional materials related to the Lowry gang, including photocopies of Francis Marion Wishart's journal, circa 1867-1872, documenting his pursuit of the Lowry gang; an unattributed account of the Lowry gang's activities circa 1864 to 1871; and other related research materials.

• Tintypes (SF-P-4624/1-2)
• Images (P-4624/1-7)