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 Hugh MacRae Papers #5656, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received Hugh MacRae II in October 2015 (Acc. 102328); and from the Pender County Library via Michael Taylor in October 2015 (Acc. 102330).

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.

A summary description was created in August 2017 to provide information about unprocessed materials in Wilson Special Collections Library.

Encoded by: Laura Smith, August 2017

This finding aid compiles archival collecting, description, and preservation work performed by Biff Hollingsworth, Meaghan Alston, and Nancy Kaiser, May 2021

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.

• Agricultural colonies--North Carolina.
• Agriculture--North Carolina.
• Carolina Trucking Development Company.
• Castle Hayne (N.C.)
• Farms--North Carolina.
• Hugh MacRae & Company (Wilmington, N.C.)
• Invershiel Dairy Farm (N.C.)
• MacRae, Hugh, 1865-1951
• North Carolina--Eastern section--Agriculture.
• North Carolina--Emigration and immigration.
• Rural development projects--North Carolina--Wilmington.
• Tourism--North Carolina--History.
• Traditional farming--North Carolina--Wilmington.
• Wilmington (N.C.)--History--20th century.

Hugh MacRae (1865-1951) was a white industrialist and agriculturalist in twentieth-century North Carolina, as well as a leading figure in the 1898 massacre and coup in Wilmington, and grandfather to conservationist photographer Hugh Morton. MacRae began his career mining in western North Carolina, eventually purchasing tens of thousands of acres of land for tourist development. In the 1890s through early 1900s, MacRae moved to Wilmington and developed numerous consolidated transportation, power, real estate, and land development companies. MacRae played a central role in planning and executing the overthrow of the Republican-led government in Wilmington in November of 1898, by holding meetings at his home, drafting grievances, and organizing gatherings. During the twentieth century, he was most noted for developing a modern tourism economy in southeastern North Carolina beaches, and for spearheading experimental farming colonies geared toward attracting European immigrants to North Carolina.

The collection documents the business dealings of white supremacist, industrialist, and agriculturalist Hugh MacRae, specifically through the Carolina Trucking Development Company, Hugh MacRae and Company, Oleander Development Company, and the Carolina Real Estate Trust Company. Collection materials include correspondence, ledgers, contracts, maps, and deeds, 1940s-1970s. Also included are items related to the neighborhoods and farming colonies established by MacRae in southeastern North Carolina, including Artesia, Audubon, Castle Hayne, Marathon, New Berlin, Long Bridge Bay, Noble Lands, Oleander, Penderlea, St. Helena, Van Eeden, Winter Park Heights, and Woodburn, and a small amount of material related to the Linville Land, Manufacturing, and Mining Company (later the Linville Improvement Company), Invershiel Farm, and the development of Wrightsville Beach.

• Oversize papers (OPF-5656/1-5, XOPF-5656/1)
• Photographs (PF-5656/1-4)