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 Adkins, Davis, and Fulton Family Papers #5203, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received by Daniel Mahar in April 2005 (Acc. 100039)

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: Kathryn Roth, March 2008

Encoded by: Kathryn Roth, March 2008

Finding aid updated for born digital processing by Laura Hart.

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.

• Adkins family.
• Business travel--North Carolina.
• Davis family.
• Family--North Carolina--Religious life and customs.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Family--Texas--Social life and customs.
• Fulton family.
• Insurance--North Carolina.
• Lumber trade--North Carolina.
• Stokes County (N.C.)--Commerce.
• Stokes County (N.C.)--History.
• Stokes County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.

James Davis Jr. of Stokes County, N.C., married Elizabeth McAnally in 1817. Together they had 13 children including Mary Ann Davis, Emily Caroline Davis, and James William Davis.

Mary Ann Davis, also known as "Polly," married Wilson Fulton in 1841, and they had nine children. The Fulton family moved to Texas shortly before the Civil War.

Emily Caroline Davis married Hiram Adkins, a tutor for the Davis family children, in 1858. Hiram became a preacher in the Davis family chapel and helped with its operations as well as running other businesses in Stokes County, including lumber mills. The children of Emily Caroline Davis and Hiram Adkins included J.P. "Jimmie" Adkins, Sarah Louretta "Lizzie" Adkins, Nancy Margaret Eliza "Nannie" Adkins, Henry Adkins, Edwin Miles "Ed" Adkins, Charles Hiram Adkins, William "Jay" Adkins, and Susan Emily Vines "Susie" Adkins.

The collection contains family papers of the related Adkins, Davis, and Fulton families. Correspondence includes letters to and from Hiram Adkins, Emily Caroline Davis Adkins, and their children. There is also correspondence of James William Davis and other Davis family members. Letters discuss family affairs; life in Stokes County, N.C.; finances; and travel. There is also correspondence among the children of Mary Ann Davis Fulton and Wilson Fulton, and letters to Mary Ann Davis Fulton, living in Texas, from her siblings James William Davis and Luretta Campbell Davis in Stokes County, mainly discussing family affairs. Other materials include deeds and probate materials; a 1921 notebook, author unknown, documenting business travel around North Carolina possibly selling insurance; an account book listing family names and insurance information; bills and receipts for lumber mills run by Adkins and Davis family members; and a list of parishioners and financial records of the chapel on Davis property. There are also annotated typed transcriptions of family letters and research notes compiled by J. Daniel Mahar in 2005, donor-generated compact discs that duplicate some items in the collection and may include additional items, and other items.

• SV-5203/1
• Digital Folder(DF-5203/1-9) available in the Carolina Digital Repository.