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Size | 1.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 800 items) |
Abstract | Mary Margaret McLeod was a pediatrician, who in 1946 started the first pediatric medical practice in Sanford, N.C. After practicing for 50 years, McLeod retired in 1987 and began serious study of her family's history. This collection chiefly contains material collected by Mary Margaret McLeod in the course of researching her family history. Some of McLeod's personal correspondence and material concerning her career and her civic activities are also included. Letters, 1888-1994, and postcards, 1908-1994, are from family members about their activities and to McLeod from friends and patients. Included in the correspondence are letters from John Archibald McLeod and James Burgess McLeod to their mother, Evvie Thomas McLeod, and postcards from Private Thomas C. McLeod in Europe during World War I. Autobiographical materials include notes about McLeod's early years and also some information about her professional activities. Genealogical materials, 1875-1994, relate to the McLeod family of Moore and Lee counties, N.C. (Lee County was formed in 1907 from Moore and Chatham counties), including materials that went into McLeod's Duncan McLeod and Barbara Kelly and Their Descendants, and materials relating to James A. McLeod and to the Buie, Dye, Gaster, McBryde, McDonald, McGregor, Shaw, Smith-Campbell-Graham, Thomas, and Williams families. Pictures, ca. 1880-1994, are chiefly of McLeod family members. Also included are bills, receipts, and notes, 1855-1908, some relating to Duncan McLeod; McLeod family deeds and land records, 1842-1939, tax receipts, 1869-1915, and account books, 1871-1886, including some store and farm records; newspaper clippings about McLeod, McLeod family members, and Lee and Moore county history; and other materials. |
Creator | McLeod, Mary Margaret, 1910- . |
Curatorial Unit | Southern Historical Collection |
Language | English. |
Processed by: Jennifer Rawlings, April 1998
Encoded by: Linda Sellars, 1999
Updated by: Laura Hart, March 2021
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.
Mary Margaret McLeod was born 13 September 1910 in Lee County, N.C. She expressed an interest very early in life in becoming a "baby doctor." McLeod graduated from Sanford High School in 1928 as valedictorian and graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1932 with a B.S. in medicine. She received an M.D. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1935. McLeod interned at Passavant Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pa., 1935-1936, and at the Children's Hospital at the University of Iowa, 1936-1937. She did her residency at the California Babies' and Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, Cal., 1937-1938.
McLeod practiced as an industrial pediatrician at Riegel Hospital in Trion, Ga., and then as assistant to Dr. Mercer Blanchard in private practice in Columbus, Ga., 1941-1942. After this, she served as Chief of Pediatrics at Little Traverse Hospital in Petoskey, Mich., 1942-1946, at a time when very few hospitals would hire female doctors.
When her father died in 1946, McLeod returned to Sanford, N.C., and started the first pediatric practice in Sanford. This was the only pediatric practice between Raleigh and Wilmington. At its peak, her practice served 21,290 children. The Sanford Herald named McLeod Citizen of the Year in 1979 for her devoted service to the community. After 50 years of practicing medicine, McLeod retired in 1987.
During her retirement, McLeod pursued her interest in genealogy. She researched many branches of her family tree, particularly focusing on her Scottish ancestry. She compiled much of her research into a monograph, Duncan McLeod and Barbara Kelly and Their Descendants, which contains charts, pictures, reproductions of documents, and explanatory notes.
Back to TopThis collection contains chiefly material collected by Mary Margaret McLeod in the course of researching her family history. Some of McLeod's personal correspondence and material concerning her career and her civic activities are also included. Letters, 1888-1994, and postcards, 1908-1994, are from family members about household matters and activities and to McLeod from friends and patients. Among the postcards are some from Private Thomas C. McLeod in Europe during World War I. New Hope correspondence, 1972-1974, relates to the closing of New Hope Shelter Home, a center for at-risk juveniles, when McLeod was chair of the Lee County Youth Development Center. Autobiographical materials include notes about the early part of McLeod's life and also some information about her professional and civic activities. Genealogical materials, 1875-1994, relate to the McLeod family of Moore County (later Lee County), N.C. (Lee County was formed in 1907 from Moore and Chatham counties), including materials that went into McLeod's Duncan McLeod and Barbara Kelly and Their Descendants, and to the Buie, Dye, Gaster, McBryde, McDonald, McGregor, Shaw, Smith-Campbell-Graham, Thomas, and Williams families. Pictures, ca. 1880-1994, are chiefly of McLeod family members.
Also included are financial documents, 1856-1908, mostly bills and receipts, some relating to Duncan McLeod; summons for debts owed to Duncan McLeod, 1855-1860; deeds and land records, 1842-1939, of the McLeod family; tax receipts, 1869-1915; and account books, 1871-1886, including store and farm records.
Back to TopArrangement: by type of document.
Arrangement: chronological.
Letters, 1888-1908, from Mary Margaret. McLeod's uncles John Archibald McLeod and James Burgess McLeod to their mother, Evvie Thomas McLeod. Most of the letters concern household matters and news about their jobs and activities. folder 3 contains letters to Mary Margaret McLeod from friends and patients spanning many years. folder 4 contains letters from McLeod's close friend Norris Hartley.
Folder 1 |
1888, 1894 |
Folder 2 |
1895, 1908 |
Folder 3 |
1953-1994 |
Folder 4 |
Letters and cards from Norris Hartley |
Folder 5 |
Undated letters |
Postcards in folder 6 are to a variety of McLeod family members from locations in North Carolina and all around the country. The postcards in folder 7 are from Private Thomas C. McLeod in Europe during World War I to his brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. G. McLeod. The album contains many cards, ca. 1905, from North Carolina and other states, along with some greeting cards.
Folder 6 |
Postcards |
Folder 7 |
Postcards from World War I Europe |
Photograph Album PA-4908/1 |
Album of postcards |
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence about the closing of New Hope Shelter Home, a center for at-risk juveniles. Mary Margaret McLeod was the chair of the Lee County Youth Development Center at this time.
Folder 8 |
New Hope Correspondence |
Material McLeod collected for her autobiography, including handwritten notes about the early part of her life, focusing mostly on her memories of her family and their lives when she was a child. She also made notes about her school career: subjects studied, punishments for misdeeds, games played, and chores after school.
McLeod also compiled a more formal summary of her life, apparently information needed for an award, describing her professional activities up until 1985. Also included is an unsigned biography of about two pages summarizing the main events of McLeod's life. This includes some information designated as "trivia": McLeod diagnosed the first case of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in Georgia and she invented a cream for babies' buttocks. There are also clippings about McLeod, information about her volunteer work for the Constitutional Bicentennial, and information about her 60th high school reunion.
Folder 9 |
Autobiography |
Folder 10 |
Awards |
Folder 11 |
Constitutional Bicentennial |
Folder 12-13
Folder 12Folder 13 |
Clippings |
Folder 14 |
Sanford High School Class of '28, 60th Reunion |
In her genealogical research, Mary Margaret McLeod focused on the McLeod family. Duncan McLeod and Barbara Kelly and Their Descendants is a book she put together out of genealogical charts, photos, and additional notes. The folder labeled James A. McLeod contains photocopies from the Davidson College Yearbooks, 1898-1901, showing his class pictures and activities. This folder also contains a speech that James A. McLeod gave in 1909 while he was Superintendent of Schools. The Sunday School Minute Book folder contains photocopies of an attendance book used by Duncan McLeod when he taught Sunday School. The photocopied cover is labeled 1877, but the folder contains photocopies of materials dated 1875-1886. For each Sunday, he recorded the number of students, male and female; the number of officers and teachers, male and female; the readings used to open and close the session; and the text upon which the lesson was based.
Mary Margaret McLeod's genealogical research led her to people in many other families. Most folders contain a family tree and notes about connections to the McLeods. The Buie and McGregor files contain photocopies of books or articles written about those families' genealogy.
Folder 15 |
McLeod documents and notes |
Folder 16 |
Newspaper articles: Family and Moore County |
Folder 17 |
Duncan McLeod and Barbara Kelly |
Folder 18 |
Duncan McLeod Sunday School Minute Book |
Folder 19 |
James A. McLeod |
Folder 20 |
McLeods since the Civil War |
Folder 21 |
Buie family |
Folder 22 |
Dye family |
Folder 23 |
Gaster family |
Folder 24 |
McBryde family |
Folder 25 |
McDonald family |
Folder 26 |
McGregor and Jacksonfamilies |
Folder 27 |
Shaw family |
Folder 28 |
Smith Campbell Graham families |
Folder 29 |
Thomas family |
Folder 30 |
Williams family |
Folder 31 |
Sanford Herald Bicentennial |
Arrangement: estimated chronological.
Pictures of family members and family homes collected by Mary Margaret McLeod. Some of the unidentified people might be friends or patients. Some of the unlabeled photographs may be identified in McLeod's book, Duncan McLeod and Barbara Kelly and Their Descendants.
Special Format Image SF-P-04809/1-2
SF-P-04809/1SF-P-04809/2 |
Ambrotypes |
Special Format Image SF-P-04809/3-11
SF-P-04809/3SF-P-04809/4SF-P-04809/5SF-P-04809/6SF-P-04809/7SF-P-04809/8SF-P-04809/9SF-P-04809/10SF-P-04809/11 |
Tintypes |
Image Folder PF-4908/1 |
Copies of daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes |
Image Folder PF-4908/2 |
Identified people, circa 1880-1940 |
Image Folder PF-4908/3 |
Identified groups, circa 1880-1940 |
Image Folder PF-4908/4 |
Unidentified people, circa 1880-1940 |
Image Folder PF-4908/5 |
Unidentified groups, circa 1880-1940 |
Image Folder PF-4908/6 |
Identified people, circa 1940-1970 |
Image Folder PF-4908/7 |
Identified groups, circa 1940-1970 |
Image Folder PF-4908/8 |
Unidentified people, circa 1940-1970 |
Image Folder PF-4908/9 |
Unidentified groups, circa 1940-1970 |
Image Folder PF-4908/10 |
Identified people and groups, circa 1970s-1990s |
Image Folder PF-4908/11 |
Unidentified people and groups, circa 1970s-1990s |
Image Folder PF-4908/12 |
Pictures of places |
Image Folder PF-4908/13-16
PF-4908/13PF-4908/14PF-4908/15PF-4908/16 |
Slides of family members |
Mostly the financial and legal documents of Duncan McLeod. Included are account books from his store, summons for debts incurred in his store, and daily ledgers containing information about crop planting, animal butchering, and other significant events. Also included are the deeds for property owned by various family members.
Folder 32 |
Account books |
Folder 33 |
Deeds and land records, 1842-1939 |
Folder 34 |
1856-1866 |
Folder 35 |
1870-1885 |
Folder 36 |
1886-1898, 1908 |
Folder 37 |
Summons for debt, A-C |
Folder 38 |
Summons for debt, D-L |
Folder 39 |
Summons for debt, M-R |
Folder 40 |
Summons for debt, S-Z |
Folder 41 |
Tax receipts, 1869-1915 |
Image folders (PF-4908/1-16)
Special format images (SF-P-4908/1-11)
Picture album (PA-4908/1).
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