Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 Clegg Family Papers #05503, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from William Russell Clegg in August 2011 (Acc. 101479).

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: Laura Hart, June 2019; Meaghan Alston and Nancy Kaiser, September 2021

Encoded by: Laura Hart, June 2019

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.

• Chatham County (N.C.)--Commerce--History--19th century.
• Clegg family.
• Clegg, Isaac N., 1823-1864.
• Clegg, Marie Lee, 1872-1960.
• Clegg, Thomas J., 1828-1862.
• Clegg, William Baxter, 1834-1912.
• Enslaved persons--Employment--North Carolina.
• Farmers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Forsyth County (N.C.)--Commerce--History--19th century.
• Freedmen--North Carolina.
• Gold mines and mining--North Carolina.
• Lawrence Grange No. 463 (Moore County, N.C.)
• Merchants--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Moore County (N.C.)--Commerce--History--19th century.
• National Grange.
• North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Slavery--North Carolina.
• Slavery--United States--History--19th century--Sources.
• Soapstone.

• Chatham County (N.C.) miscellaneous account books (02909)
• Henry Adolphus London papers (02011)

Clegg family members represented in the collection include brothers Isaac N. Clegg (1823-1864), Thomas J. Clegg (1828-1862), and William Baxter Clegg (1834-1912). The brothers owned farms and mercantile stores and other businesses in Chatham, Forsyth, and Moore Counties, N.C. Marie Lee Clegg (1872-1960) and William Russell Clegg are also represented.

Enslaved people and (likely) formerly enslaved people who worked on the Clegg farms and in the mills are also represented in the collection, but often by first name only. Included are Horace, Henry, and John, who worked on Clegg farms. Others represented in various account books are Gillis, Lorenzo, Dempsey, Silas, Solomon, Henderson, Jerry, Macolm [sic], Alfred, Bob, Dan, Manuel, Simon, Willis, Wesley, George, Isaac, Dave, Ben, Percy, Mary, Kidd, Cato, Bill, Cooper Alston, Harman Alston, James Brewer, Isabella Clegg, Emeline Clegg, Brantley Cheek, Redin Davis, Green Dowdy, Elias Hayes, Joseph Harrington, George Lane, Joseph Lane, George McRea, John Petty, Henry Peoples, Elias Phillips, Arch Rieves, William Rieves, John Roberts, Levy Tyson, Elisha Tyson, James Tyson, Essex Womble, Daniel Womble, Blake Womble, and John White.

Also included is an entry for a worker who was Indigenous: John Taylor.

The collection documents the white Clegg family and people who were enslaved and (likely) formerly enslaved at the family's farms, mercantile businesses, and gold and mineral mines in Moore, Chatham, and Forsyth Counties, N.C. Materials include account ledgers and time books kept by brothers Isaac N. Clegg (1823-1864), Thomas J. Clegg (1828-1862), and William Baxter Clegg (1834-1912) for Rock Springs Steam Saw Mill and Soapstone Mills, with entries for enslaved people and (likely) formerly enslaved people, usually listed with only a first name; a copy of a January 1865 letter concerning conscription of people enslaved at the farm of William Baxter Clegg to work on fortifications for the Confederate States of America Army; scattered financial documents; documents from the mid-1870s pertaining to the establishment of a Moore County, N.C., chapter of the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry; copies of an 1890s political newsletter titled "The Shooting Stick"; correspondence received by Marie Lee Clegg (1872-1960) in the late 1890s; and William Russell Clegg's University of North Carolina law school notebooks from circa 1905. Other white Clegg family members represented in the collection include Isaac N. Clegg (1823-1864) and Thomas J. Clegg (1828-1862).

• Oversize volumes (SV-5503/1-4)