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 Harrison and Smith Family Papers #5144, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from William B. Harrison of Rocky Mount, N.C., in January 2004 (Acc. 99694) and from Katherine G. Harrison in March 2005 (Acc. 100037), September 2005 (Acc. 101887), and in January 2006 (Acc. 100311).

Sensitive Materials Statement

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.

Processed by: Jessica Tyree, 2004; Jodi Berkowitz, 2006; Nancy Kaiser, September 2023

Encoded by: Jessica Tyree, 2004

Conscious Editing by: Nancy Kaiser, September 2023. Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, collection overview, contents list.

The Additions of 2005 and 2006 are arranged in the same way as, but have not been incorporated into, the original deposit of materials.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

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.

• Agriculture--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Agriculture--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Arkansas--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Clergy--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Colorado--Gold discoveries.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Curtis family.
• Curtis, George B. (George Bradburn), 1834-1920.
• Diaries.
• Education--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Enfield (N.C.)--Commerce.
• Enfield (N.C.)--History.
• Enfield (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Episcopal Church--Clergy--History--19th century.
• Families--Maryland.
• Families--North Carolina.
• Families--Virginia.
• Garrett, Paul, 1863-1940.
• Garrett, Sarah Wallton Harrison, 1868-1891.
• Gold mines and mining--Colorado.
• Harrison family.
• Harrison, Ellen Alice Smith, 1840-1909.
• Harrison, George, 1829-1879.
• Louisiana--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Malvern Hill, Battle of, Va., 1862.
• Maryland--Social life and customs.
• Mathematics--Problems, exercises, etc.--History--19th century.
• Monuments--Washington (D.C.)
• North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Presbyterian Church--Virginia--History--19th century.
• School principals--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Sermons.
• Slavery--United States--History--19th century--Sources.
• Slavery--Virginia.
• Smith family.
• Smith, Aristides Spyker, 1809-1892.
• Smith, Jonathan Reynolds, 1836-1862.
• Smith, Leonidas Wilkinson, 1835-1864.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Correspondence.
• Texas--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Virginia--Social life and customs.
• Washington (D.C.)--Description and travel.
• Wine and wine making--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Wine industry--United States--History--19th century.
• Women--Education--Mississippi--History--19th century.
• Women--Education--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Women--North Carolina--Social life and customs.

• Mary Garrett Harrison Papers (#3921)

Aristides Spyker Smith (1809-1892) was born in Abindgon, Va. After earning degrees at Yale College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in 1832. That same year, he married Elizabeth (Eliza) Wilkinson (d. 1855). Smith accepted an invitation to establish a school for young girls in Columbus, Miss., in 1847. Two years later, he opened the Norfolk Female Institute in Norfolk, Va., which he ran until 1861. For nearly two years during the American Civil War, Smith rented out the school and served as a Confederate army chaplain with the 11th North Carolina Regiment. When the war was over, he opened a private school in Baltimore, Md. He later served as rector for an Episcopal church in Centreville, Md., and then in Ringwood, N.C., beginning in 1873.

Aristides Spyker Smith and Eliza Wilkinson Smith had seven children, but lost two to early illnesses. Then in 1855, Norfolk was hit by an outbreak of yellow fever, which killed some 2,000 residents of the city, including Eliza Wilkinson Smith and two more of their children, a daughter, and a son. Aristides Spyker Smith and son Jonathan Reynolds (Johnnie) Smith (1836-1862) also fell sick but survived. The war added to the family's losses. Johnnie, serving with the 6th Virginia Regiment, was killed at Malvern Hill on 1 July 1862. His older brother, Leonidas Wilkinson Smith (1835-1864), a Captain of Ordnance, died 22 August 1864 in Houston, Tex., of a disease contracted in camp. Aristides Spyker Smith was then left with one surviving child, daughter Ellen Alice Smith (b. 1840).

In December 1863, Ellen Alice Smith married widower George Harrison (fl. 1852-1875) in Petersburg, Va. He was a former captain of the 5th Virginia Battalion, Company A, a farmer, and an enslaver of at least one person. Bartlett, who was enslaved by Harrison, was 18 years old in 1864 when he was pressed into service by circular no. 69 of the Confederate conscript office. Harrison had two children, Mary Harrison and H. Spooner (Henry Spooner) Harrison (1852-1937), with his first wife, Sarah Walton Harrison. With Ellen he had at least four children: Aristides Smith Harrison, George Harrison, Thomas Cramner Harrison, and Sarah Walton Harrison (1868?-1891). The family moved to Ringwood, N.C., from Brunswick County, Va., by 1884, possibly after the death of George Harrison.

On 30 October 1889, Sarah Walton Harrison (1868?-1891) married Paul Garrett (1863-1940), who worked as an apprentice and then salesman for C. W. Garrett and Company, his uncle's wine business in Halifax, N.C. "Sadie," as Garrett referred to his wife, died just over two years later, on 3 December 1891, after a long bout with influenza. For several years, Garrett kept in touch sporadically with his former mother-in-law, Ellen Alice Smith Harrison. In the meantime, he was busy starting his own wine business, Garrett and Company. The operation grew to encompass wineries and vineyards from North Carolina to New York and as far west as California. By the time of his death in 1940, he was a billionaire referred to by some as the "dean of American wine-makers."

George B. Curtis (1834-1920) of Biddeford, Maine, traveled to Colorado in search of gold and adventure ca. 1856, returning east and settling in Enfield, N.C., where his sister, Ann, was living with her husband, Nat Dunn. He opened a general store, and later a bank and a cotton business. Curtis married Frances Zuckerman of Portsmouth, N.H., who died during the birth of their fourth child after bearing three daughters. Curtis then married his deceased wife's adopted sister Clara, of Brooklyn, N.Y. One of George Curtis' daughters, Katie Wilson Curtis, married Dr. Aristides Smith Harrison, grandson of the Reverend Aristides Spyker Smith.

William, who was enslaved by Sally C. Heartwell, was trafficked through hiring out to John P. Avery and living in Petersburg in 1865. His relationship to the Harrison and Smith families is unknown.

The collection is arranged by family groupings and format. The original deposit and accessions have not been integrated together.

Series 1. Smith Family Papers consist chiefly of letters written to Aristides Spyker Smith (1809-1892), minister and principal of women's schools in Virginia and Mississippi. One is from son Jonathan Reynolds Smith (1836-1862) (Johnnie) and several are from son Leonidas Wilkinson Smith (1835-1864), who died in Houston, Tex., during the American Civil War. Letters are about spiritual concerns in the face of war and death; Leonidas's work securing ordnance materials; fighting in April 1864 near DeSoto Parish, La.; and observations on the inhabitants and customs of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. Other letters discuss supply raids in 1865 by Union soldiers near Petersburg, Va., and the possible mixup of Johnnie's remains with those of another man after their deaths at the Battle of Malvern Hill in 1862 in Virginia. Miscellaneous items belonging to Aristides Spyker Smith include notebooks with astronomy lessons and math problems and a southern business directory used as a scrapbook. A small number of newspaper clippings and autobiographical information written for Princeton Theological Seminary and Yale College alumni surveys provide most of the scant references to Aristides Spyker Smith's career as an educator. Also included are a cabinet card of Jonathan Reynolds Smith and another of Columbia College president Frederick A. P. Barnard (1809-1889), a friend of Aristides Smith.

Series 2. Harrison Family Papers include at least two records of enslavement: an 1864 receipt for the impressment of Bartlett, who was 18 years old and enslaved by former Confederate Army Captain and farmer George Harrison (active 1852-1875), by the Advisory Board of Brunswick County, Va., and an 1865 receipt for the hiring out of William, who was enslaved by Sally C. Heartwell, to John P. Avery in Petersburg, Va. Other Civil War era materials include official assessments dated 1863-1865 for tax-in-kind and agreements on the housing and care of unserviceable Confederate Army horses and a letter, 10 June 1862, from the surgeon of the 5th Virginia Battalion recommending that George Harrison be discharged due to health reasons. The bulk of the letters in this series are addressed to Aristides Smith's daughter, Ellen Alice Smith (b. 1840), who was married to George Harrison. The principle writers were daughter Sarah Walton Harrison (1868?-1891) and her husband Paul Garrett (1863-1940). Garrett's early letters discuss his love for Sarah and life on the road as a salesman for his uncle's wine business. Sarah's letters after her marriage report persistent health problems and domestic matters, such as social calls, the arrival of a new sewing machine, and the search for a cook. There are also two years' worth of diaries used by George Harrison to record purchases and crop progress, photographs, and a Garrett and Company catalog.

Series 3. Engraved Metal Plates is a set of 16 plates of unclear ownership that are engraved with scenes of both actual and planned Washington, D.C., landmarks, based on Albert Boschke's 1857 "Map of the City of Washington - Seat of Federal Government".

The addition of June 2006 includes Smith, Harrison, and Curtis family materials and a number of museum items.

Series 1A. Smith Family Materials include correspondence of Aristides Spyker Smith, among them an 11 September 1855 letter to his daughter, Ellen Alice Smith, informing her of the death of her mother and the grave health of other family members; a wallet with enclosures belonging to Aristides Spyker Smith; a diary and a journal belonging to Jonathan Reynolds Smith; about 300 sermons prepared by Aristides Spyker Smith; land surveys; and other materials. Also included are unidentifed daguerreotypes and an undated, extensively illustrated cipher book with mathematical content created by Benjamin Spyker, grandfather of Aristides Spyker Smith.

Series 2A. Harrison Family Materials include two diaries (1868, 1869) belonging to George Harrison that document activities on the family's farm; papers from University School in Petersburg, Va., which was attended by Aristides S. Harrison; and a minutes book of Enfield Graded School District (Enfield, N.C.) documenting the financial activities of the district, 1901-1909. Other materials include land surveys and obituaries of William B. Harrison (Billy), 1913-2005, and annotated cabinet cards. Of particular note is a 16mm home movie of an African American baptism that took place in Enfield, N.C. or Weldon, N.C. in Halifax County. The film, which was shot by William B. Harrison's sister circa 1946, includes footage of an African American baptism, as well as scenes of Black men and women posing in front of homes and businesses in Halifax County and footage of Black men, women, and children at a train station.

Series 4A. Curtis Family Materials are primarily letters from George B. Curtis to his brother Wilson Miles Curtis (Willie). Also included are letters from Ann Curtis Dunn, sister of George and Wilson Curtis and wife of Nat Dunn, to her brothers, husband, and sister-in-law. Letters from George Curtis reflect time spent in Colorado panning for gold up to his establishment and residence in Enfield, N.C. Several letters offer detailed accounts of conditions in Colorado.

Series 5A. Museum Items include a graduation sash, levels, and small tools.

Cabinet cards (PF-5144/1-2)

Engraved metal plates (P-5144)

Oversize papers (OP-5144/1-7)

Special format images (SF-P-5144/1-5)

Museum items (MU-5144/1-6)

Film (F-5144/1)