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Size | 2.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 750 items) |
Abstract | Fairley, McIver, and Roberson family members included Presbyterian minister David Fairley (1831-1912) and his wife Janie Euphemia McIver Fairley (1839-1927). The couple was married in 1861 and lived in Manchester, Cumberland County, N.C. Janie McIver Fairley was born in Duplin County, N.C., and was the daughter of Rev. Alexander McIver (1801- 1839) and Catherine Wright McIver, who, after Alexander's death, married Duncan Murchison. Catherine was the daughter of Isaac and Jane Gillespie Wright. David and Janie Fairley's children included Rev. Watson M. Fairley (1873-1955) and Janie McIver Fairley (1877-1961) of Tarboro, N.C., who married Edward Leon Roberson (1876-1910), merchant of Tarboro. Their children were David Fairley Roberson (1906-1910) and Edward Leon Roberson (1909-1987), surgeon, who married Mary Agnes Marks (1916-1990) in 1947. Edward and Mary were the parents of Isabel, Edward Leon III, and Katherine. Correspondence, pictures, and other materials. Materials 1805 and into the 1830s relate to Isaac and Jane Gillespie Wright of Bladen County, N.C., and treat mostly social topics. In the 1830s, there are many items relating to Rev. Alexander and Catherine McIver of Duplin County, N.C. Many of these letters document Alexander's church activities, including his participation in weekly services and at marriages, births, and deaths. Letters to Catherine are chiefly about routine family affairs. Fairley family materials begin in 1861, when Janie McIver married David Fairley and took up residence in Mancester, Cumberland County, N.C. During the Civil War, there are many letters from David to his mother telling her of his church work and religious instruction with troops who passed through Manchester. Letters to David and Janie from their children begin in the 1880s, many of them relating to Watson M. Fairley, who traveled extensively in the West in the early 1900s. Roberson family letters begin in 1909, when Janie and Edward Leon Roberson were living in Tarboro. Letters are sparse from the mid- 1920s to the early 1940s. Materials 1941-1946 are chiefly related to Edward L. Roberson, Jr.'s service with the U.S. Navy's Medical Corps during World War II in Georgia, the Bahamas, Cuba, Miami, and, as the war ended, on a ship in the Pacific. Other materials include clippings; a few sermons and other writings; genealogical items; and photographs of members of the Fairley, Roberson, and related families. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
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Many of the persons important in this collection are descendants of Rev. David (1831-1912) and Janie Euphemia McIver Fairley (1839-1927), who married in 1861 and lived in Manchester, Cumberland County, N.C. David Fairley was born in Jackson County, Miss., and educated at Davidson College and Columbia Theological Seminary. He entered the Fayetteville, N.C., Presbytery in 1859, where he preached for 52 years. Janie McIver Fairley was born in Duplin County, N.C., and was the daughter of Rev. Alexander McIver (1801-1839) and Catherine Wright McIver, who, after Alexander's death, married Duncan Murchison. Catherine Wright McIver Murchison's father was Isaac Wright and her mother was Jane Gillespie Wright, daughter of James and Dorcas Mumford Gillespie.
The children of David and Janie Fairley included:
John Murchison Fairley (1862-1865);
Alexander McIver Fairley (1864-1946), who married Eugenia Caroline Williams in 1894 and whose children included Alexander McIver Fairley (1895-1958), Eugenia Williams Fairley (1900- ), and Martha Coffield Fairley (1902- );
Kate Wright Fairley (1866-1948), who did not marry;
Daniel Percy Fairley (1868-1879);
Duncan Murchison Fairley (1870-1937), who married Mary Davis in 1897;
Rev. Watson M. Fairley (1873-1955), who married Alice Rollwage McRae in 1909;
Isabel Gillespie Fairley (1875- ), who married Samuel Newbern Harrell in 1900;
Janie McIver Fairley (1877-1961) of Tarboro, N.C., who married Edward Leon Roberson (1876-1910), merchant of Tarboro, in 1905 and whose children included David Fairley Roberson (1906-1910) and Edward Leon Roberson (1909-1987), surgeon, who married Mary Agnes Marks (1916-1990) in 1947. Edward and Mary were the parents of Isabel Roberson, Edward Leon Roberson III, and Katherine;
Nannie Williams Fairley (1879-1907), who married Eugene Grissom Davis in 1906;
and Ida Murchison Fairley (1882- ), who married Archibald Galloway Carter in 1912.
Back to TopCorrespondence, pictures, and other materials. Materials 1805 and into the 1830s relate to Isaac and Jane Gillespie Wright of Bladen County, N.C., and treat mostly social topics. In the 1830s, there are many items relating to Rev. Alexander and Catherine McIver of Duplin County, N.C. Many of these letters document Alexander's church activities, including his participation in weekly services and at marriages, births, and deaths. Letters to Catherine are chiefly about routine family affairs. Fairley family materials begin in 1861, when Janie McIver married David Fairley and took up residence in Mancester, Cumberland County, N.C. During the Civil War, there are many letters from David to his mother telling her of his church work and religious instruction with troops who passed through Manchester. Letters to David and Janie from their children begin in the 1880s, many of them relating to Watson M. Fairley, who traveled extensively in the West in the early 1900s. Roberson family letters begin in 1909, when Janie and Edward Leon Roberson were living in Tarboro. Letters are sparse from the mid- 1920s to the early 1940s. Materials 1941-1946 are chiefly related to Edward L. Roberson, Jr.'s service with the U.S. Navy's Medical Corps during World War II in Georgia, the Bahamas, Cuba, Miami, and, as the war ended, on a ship in the Pacific. Other materials include clippings; a few sermons and other writings; genealogical items; and photographs of members of the Fairley, Roberson, and related families.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Earliest materials relate to Isaac Wright of Bladen County, N.C., father of Catherine Wright McIver Murchison, and to her mother Jane Gillespie, also in Bladen County. These letters, which treat mostly social topics, continue into the 1820s, by which time Isaac and Jane were married, and on into the 1830s with much correspondence relating to routine family affairs between Jane and daughter Catherine.
A letter of 26 April 1831 introduces Rev. Alexander McIver of Fayetteville Presbytery to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. In the mid-1830s, there are many materials relating to Catherine and Alexander, living in Duplin County, N.C. Many of these letters document Alexander's church activities, including his participation in weekly services and at marriages, births, and deaths. Letters to Catherine are chiefly about routine family affairs. Of note is a perpetual calendar she received enclosed in a letter dated 10 October 1838. Undated letters to Catherine are filed with materials from 1839.
A letter of 7 December 1840 documents Alexander's death in 1839. On 15 August 1848, the first letter from Janie McIver (Fairley) appears.
Fairley family materials begin in 1861, when Janie McIver married David Fairley and took up residence in Manchester, Cumberland County, N.C. During the Civil War, there are many letters from David to his mother Isabella Fairley in Jackson, Miss., telling her of his church work and religious instruction with troops who passed through Manchester. In a letter dated 18 August 1863, David wrote, "Our entire brigade seems ripe for the Gospel." In these letters, there are also comments about life on the homefront and coping with the enemy.
In the late 1860s, letters deal chiefly with David and Janie's life in Manchester. Included is the bill for a "Tableaux and Concert by the Young Ladies of the Presbyterian Church, February 28, 1866."
Letters to David and Janie from their children begin in the 1880s. Most of these letters relate either to Kate Wright Fairley or to Watson M. Fairley, who traveled extensively in the West in the early 1900s. Some correspondence is with Janie McIver Fairley. The first Roberson family letter appears in 1909, when Janie and Edward Leon Roberson were living in Tarboro. An item dated 26 July 1910 documents Edward's death on 19 July 1910.
In March 1911, letters show that David Fairley was ill, and, in October 1912, there are letters and telegrams expressing sympathy on the occasion of his death. By 1911, Watson M. Fairley was preaching in Fayetteville and Alexander McIver Fairley was employed by the Scotland Cotton Mill, Laurinburg, N.C. In the late 1910s, Watson was pastor of the Westminister Presbyterian Church, El Paso, Tex. There are no letters relating to World War I.
Many letters in the 1920s are to Janie McIver Fairley, living with daughter Janie McIver Fairley Roberson in Tarboro, from her children, especially Watson M. Fairley and Ida Murchison Fairley Carter of Sanford, N.C. Letters are sparse from the mid-1920 to the early 1940s.
Materials 1941-1946 are chiefly related to Edward L. Roberson, Jr.'s service with the United States Navy's Medical Corps during World War II. Most of these items are letters from Edward to his mother Jane McIver Fairley Roberson from Edward's postings in Georgia, the Bahamas, Cuba, Miami, and, as the war ended, on a ship in the Pacific.
Letters dated 1962-1964 are mostly routine family letters, many of them from Isabel Gillespie Fairley Harrell to Ida Murchison Fairley Carter, then a resident of the Presbyterian Home in High Point, N.C.
Folder 1 |
1805-1829 |
Folder 2 |
1831-1833 |
Folder 3 |
1834-1837 |
Folder 4 |
1838 |
Folder 5 |
1839 |
Folder 6 |
1840-1854 |
Folder 7 |
1860-1865 |
Folder 8 |
1866-1868 |
Folder 9 |
1870-1879 |
Folder 10 |
1882-1889 |
Folder 11 |
1891-1900 |
Folder 12 |
1901-1916 |
Folder 13 |
1918-1920 |
Folder 14 |
1923-1926 |
Folder 15 |
Fairley, Janie McIver, undated |
Folder 16 |
1929-1942 |
Folder 17 |
1943-1947; 1956 |
Folder 18 |
1962-1964 |
Folder 19 |
Undated |
Image P-4725/1 |
Fairley, Daniel Percy |
Image P-4725/2-5
P-4725/2P-4725/3P-4725/4P-4725/5 |
Fairley, David |
Image P-4725/6 |
Fairley, George |
Image P-4725/7-10
P-4725/7P-4725/8P-4725/9P-4725/10 |
Fairley, Kate |
Image P-4725/11 |
Fairley, Nannie |
Image P-4725/12 |
Fairley, Oscar |
Image P-4725/13 |
Fairley, Rachel |
Image P-4725/14-21a |
Fairley family |
Image P-4725/22 |
Fason, Isham |
Image P-4725/23-24
P-4725/23P-4725/24 |
Gilmer family |
Image P-4725/25-28
P-4725/25P-4725/26P-4725/27P-4725/28 |
Harrell family |
Image P-4725/29 |
Hicks, Rachel McIver |
Image P-4725/30 |
Knight, Arthur |
Image P-4725/31 |
[Lindsey?], Jesse |
Image P-4725/32-33
P-4725/32P-4725/33 |
McDiamid family |
Image P-4725/34 |
McQueen, Angus |
Image P-4725/35 |
McRae, Thadeus |
Image P-4725/36 |
Monroe, Eliza |
Image P-4725/37-42
P-4725/37P-4725/38P-4725/39P-4725/40P-4725/41P-4725/42 |
Murchison family |
Image P-4725/43-52
P-4725/43P-4725/44P-4725/45P-4725/46P-4725/47P-4725/48P-4725/49P-4725/50P-4725/51P-4725/52 |
Roberson family |
Image P-4725/53 |
Dr. Sprunt |
Image P-4725/54 |
Tucker, Susie (with Sophie [Buster?]) |
Image P-4725/55-58
P-4725/55P-4725/56P-4725/57P-4725/58 |
Williams family |
Image P-4725/59-60
P-4725/59P-4725/60 |
Wright family |
Image P-4725/61 |
Holly Hill, Manchester, N.C. |
Image P-4725/62-63
P-4725/62P-4725/63 |
Montreat, N.C. |
Image P-4725/64 |
Unidentified building |