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 Borden, Broadhurst, and Taylor Family Papers #5578, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Marvin Taylor on behalf of Ellen Borden Broadhurst (who collected and transcribed the documents) in August 2013 (Acc. 101877).

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.

This summary description was created in June 2019 to provide information about unprocessed materials in Wilson Special Collections Library.

Encoded by: Laura Hart, June 2018

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, February 2021; Davia Webb and Laura Smith, May 2023

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.

• Borden family.
• Broadhurst family.
• Broadhurst, E. B. (Edwin Borden), 1915-1965.
• Broadhurst, Mabel Borden, 1876-1969.
• Families--North Carolina.
• Gardening--Societies, etc.
• Historic preservation.
• North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Roadside improvement.
• Taylor family.
• Taylor, Ellen Broadhurst, 1913-2000.
• Urban beautification.
• Weil, Gertrude, 1879-1971.
• Women--Societies and clubs--20th century.

Mabel Borden Broadhurst (1876-1969) of Goldsboro, N.C., attended Randolph-Macon College in Virginia in the 1890s, and in 1912, she married Jack Johnson Broadhurst (1873-1939) and moved with him to Smithfield, N.C. The couple had three children Ellen Borden, Edwin Borden, and Jack Johnson, Jr. Through much of her adult life, Broadhurst was engaged in civic activities and women's clubs in Smithfield. She was a contemporary of Jewish American suffragist and social activist Gertrude Weil, also of Goldsboro, N.C., and the two women knew each other and corresponded.

Edwin Borden Broadhurst (1915-1965) attended the Citadel in Charleston, S.C., and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1937. A commissioned officer in the United States Army Air Corps and later the United States Air Force, he flew bombing missions in the Pacific theater during the Second World War. After the war and before his death in 1965, he reached the rank of lieutenant general.

Ellen Broadhurst Taylor (1913-2000) married Marvin Edward Taylor in 1936. The couple and their sons Marvin, Jack, William, and Edwin lived in Smithfield, N.C., where Taylor was engaged in civic activities including historic preservation, urban beautification, and roadside improvement. She was also a club woman belonging to several garden societies and was a charter member of the Smithfield Garden Club. In 1969, she was elected president of the club. In the 1970s, Taylor attended conferences sponsored by the Action Committee for the Environment.

The collection of the Borden, Broadhurst, and Taylor families of Wayne and Johnston Counties, N.C., contains correspondence, typed transcriptions of handwritten letters in the collection, and miscellaneous papers of the three related white families. The majority of correspondence dates from the first half of the twentieth century and includes letters sent from family members serving in the military during the Second World War and the Vietnam War. Primary correspondents are Mabel Borden Broadhurst (1876-1969), her son Edwin Borden Broadhurst (1915-1965), who served in the United States Army Air Corps and later the Air Force, and her daughter Ellen Broadhurst Taylor (1913-2000), who assembled this collection and transcribed most of the correspondence. Mabel Borden Broadhurst's correspondence includes letters exchanged with members of the Weil family of Goldsboro, N.C., including Jewish American suffragist and social activist Gertrude Weil. Letters from Edwin Borden Broadhurst were written from the Citadel where he attended school for a year, from the United States Military Academy where he graduated in 1937, and from various locations where he was stationed with the Air Force including the Pacific theater during World War II. Ellen Broadhurst Taylor's correspondence includes letters from her son Jack Taylor, an officer in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. Other papers pertain chiefly to Ellen Broadhurst Taylor's civic activities, garden society memberships, and interest in environmental protection, and to Edwin Borden Broadhurst's military career and tributes on the occasion of his death including U.S. Senator Sam Ervin's statement which was read into the Congressional record. Also included are documents related to Jack Taylor's military service and to the estates of Mabel Borden Broadhurst's father Edwin Borden (1831-1918) and her husband businessman Jack Johnson Broadhurst (1873-1939).