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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 10.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 1200 items) |
| Abstract | The Jesse E. Oxendine Papers, 1860s-2015, consist of letters, scrapbooks, photographs, and other materials of Jesse E. Oxendine (1926-2017), a Lumbee Indian from Pembroke, N.C. Letters, 1944-1954, were written by family and friends from Pembroke, Charlotte, Detroit, and Richmond, chiefly during Oxendine's World War II military service. Other topics include boy scout troop 27 in Pembroke; the history of the 82nd Airborne, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, including their participation in the liberation of Wobbelin concentration camp near Ludwigslust, Germany; Holocaust education; Cherokee Indian Normal School and Pembroke State University; Pembroke local history during the 1940s; Civil War and Reconstruction era recipes and home concoctions; the W. M. Lowry General Merchandise Store; and a 1958 incident in which Lumbee Indians expelled the Ku Klux Klan from Maxton, N.C. |
| Creator | Oxendine, Jesse E., 1926-2017. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
Processed by: Nancy Kaiser, Patrick Cullom, and Bryan Giemza, August 2018
Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, August 2018
Revisions by: Nancy Kaiser, October 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.
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Subject Headings
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.
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Biographical Information
Jesse Edward Oxendine (1926-2017) was born and raised in Pembroke, N.C. As a youth, Oxendine was active in scouting. He graduated from Pembroke High School in 1944 and was drafted into the military the same year. A member of the 82nd Airborne Division, 325th Glider Infantry, he helped to liberate the Wobbelin concentration camp near Ludwigslust, Germany on 2 May 1945. Following the war, Oxendine graduated from Pembroke State College where he was the quarterback of their first football team. He next attended the Medical College of South Carolina Pharmacy School and became the first licensed Native American pharmacist in North Carolina. He founded, owned, and operated King Drugs in Charlotte for over 40 years. In retirement, Oxendine organized reunions for the 82nd Airborne, served on the Board of Trustees at Pembroke State University, and spoke to school, synagogue, and church groups about his wartime experience and Wobbelin. His interest in the preservation and study of history extended to his Lumbee heritage. He donated treasured artifacts from his service in World War II to the Native American Resource Center in Pembroke and he wrote a memoir titled Memories of Pembroke, N.C. (2016).
Oxendine was married to Jewel Harmon Oxendine and had four children: Pamela Oxendine, Michelle Oxendine Banks, Jenny Oxendine D'Entremont, and Mark Edward Oxendine.
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Scope and Content
The Jesse E. Oxendine Papers, 1860s-2015, consist of letters, scrapbooks, photographs, and other materials of Jesse E. Oxendine (1926-2017), a Lumbee Indian from Pembroke, N.C. Family and friends wrote letters, 1944-1954, from Pembroke, Charlotte, Detroit, and Richmond, to Oxendine, chiefly from 1944-1946, while he served in the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. He also received letters, 1953-1954, from his wife, Jewell Harmon. Scrapbooks document Oxendine as a member of Boy Scout Troop 27 from Pembroke, Cape Fear Area Council; the history of the 82nd Airborne, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, including their participation in the liberation of Wobbelin concentration camp near Ludwigslust, Germany on 2 May 1945; and Oxendine's work as a Holocaust educator in later life. Photographs depict the Oxendine family; Cherokee Indian Normal School and Pembroke State University; 82nd Airborne, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment; pre-war Berlin; and a Little Miss Lumbee parade float. Other items of note include a map, hand drawn on a window shade, with an accompanying index of local history annotations for the town of Pembroke at the time of Oxendine's childhood; a Civil War and Reconstruction era cookbook with recipes and home concoctions; two ledgers of the W. M. Lowry General Merchandise Store, 1920s-1930s; and clippings relating to a 1958 incident in which Lumbee Indians expelled the Ku Klux Klan from Maxton, N.C.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Papers, 1860s-2015.
Papers consist of letters, scrapbooks, and other materials. Family and friends wrote letters, 1944-1954, from Pembroke, Charlotte, Detroit, and Richmond, to Oxendine, chiefly from 1944-1946, while he served in the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. He also received letters, 1953-1954, from his wife, Jewell Harmon. Scrapbooks document Oxendine as a member of Boy Scout Troop 27 from Pembroke, Cape Fear Area Council; the history of the 82nd Airborne, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, including their participation in the liberation of Wobbelin concentration camp near Ludwigslust, Germany on 2 May 1945; and Oxendine's work as a Holocaust educator in later life. Other items of note include a map, hand drawn on a window shade, with an accompanying index of local history annotations for the town of Pembroke at the time of Oxendine's childhood; a Civil War and Reconstruction era cookbook with recipes and home concoctions; two ledgers of the W. M. Lowry General Merchandise Store, 1920s-1930s; and clippings relating to a 1958 incident in which Lumbee Indians expelled the Ku Klux Klan from Maxton, N.C.
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Series 2. Photographs, 1910s-2000s.
Images depict the Oxendine family; Cherokee Indian Normal School and Pembroke State University; 82nd Airborne, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment; pre-war Berlin; and a Little Miss Lumbee parade float.
| Image Box IB-05779/1 |
Family photographs, 1920s-1950s, 1980s |
Cherokee Indian Normal School, Pembroke, N.C., 1910s-1940s |
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Pembroke State University, |
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Pembroke State University: Basketball |
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Little Miss Lumbee parade float, 1970s |
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82nd Airborne reunion events, 1990s-2000s |
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82nd Airborne reunion in Europe, 1994 |
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BerlinPostcard book. |
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| Image Box IB-05779/2 |
82nd Airborne, 325th Glider Infantry, Company B, Fort Bragg, N.C., 13 April 1946 |
Soldiers in uniform, circa 1945One image may be of Jessie E. Oxendine in Berlin. |
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Series 3. Video Recording, 2008
Video recording of Henry Hirschmann and Jesse Oxendine speaking at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, Salisbury, N.C. on 15 April 2008. Jesse Edward Oxendine (1926-2017), a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, was born and raised in Pembroke, N.C. A member of the 82nd Airborne Division, 325th Glider Infantry, he helped to liberate the Wobbelin concentration camp near Ludwigslust, Germany on 2 May 1945. Henry Hirschmann (1920-), born a Jew in Grossauheim, Germany, survived six months (Nov 1938 - May 1939) in the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany. After receiving sponsorship from an aunt and uncle in New York, Hirschmann was released from the camp and arrived in New York City in May 1939.
| Digital Folder DF-05779/1 |
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College History guest speaker series, 2008 |
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Items Separated