James Clarence Harper Papers, 1840-1890

Summary

Creator:
Harper, James Clarence, 1819-1890.
Abstract:

James Clarence Harper was born in Pennsylvania and moved with his family to Patterson, Caldwell County, N.C., in 1840, where he engaged in farming, merchandising, the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods, stock raising, and teaching. He served as civil engineer, surveyor, and justice of the peace. He was a colonel in the state militia; member of the North Carolina legislature, 1865-1866; and U.S. representative, 1871-1873; and sat on the North Carolina Commission of Claims. He was active in road building projects and the Methodist Church and served on the building committee of Davenport Female College, Lenoir, N.C., and as president and building commission member for the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum in Morganton. Harper married Louisa C. McDowell in 1843; the couple had two children: John W. (1847-1865), a Confederate officer who was killed at Kinston, and Emma Sophia (1844-1922), who married Clinton A. Cilley, lawyer and judge of Lenoir and Hickory, N.C.

Correspondence and related items, 1857-1886, chiefly document business matters. Beginning in the late 1870s, most items relate to the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum. Harper's multi-volume diary, 1840- 1889, contains almost daily entries, most of which are very short. Entries usually begin with a weather report and go on to document family; community; and business activities, such as buying and selling land, surveying, farming, and teaching. He often gave brief reports of political campaigns and election results; his agricultural activities (little or no mention of slave laborers); names of Methodist sermons; activities in the state legislature (1865-1866) and Congress (1871-1873); and homefront activities during the Civil War. Diary entries in the early 1870s mention painter and preacher Johannes Oertel of Lenoir. There is also periodic mention of Harper's activities on behalf of the Davenport Female College and, after 1876, the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum. Also included are a few clippings and a printed copy of a speech Harper made in Congress against school integration.

Extent:
100 items (1.5 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Scope and content:

Correspondence and related items, 1857-1886, chiefly document business matters. Beginning in the late 1870s, most items relate to the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum. Harper's multi-volume diary, 1840- 1889, contains almost daily entries, most of which are very short. Entries usually begin with a weather report and go on to document family; community; and business activities, such as buying and selling land, surveying, farming, and teaching. He often gave brief reports of political campaigns and election results; his agricultural activities (little or no mention of slave laborers); names of Methodist sermons; activities in the state legislature (1865-1866) and Congress (1871-1873); and homefront activities during the Civil War. Diary entries in the early 1870s mention painter and preacher Johannes Oertel of Lenoir. There is also periodic mention of Harper's activities on behalf of the Davenport Female College and, after 1876, the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum. Also included are a few clippings and a printed copy of a speech Harper made in Congress against school integration.

Acquisition information:

Received from various sources, 1955-1953, and from Mrs. Donald Cilley in October 1995 (Acc. 95128).

Processing information:

Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, November 1995

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Revised by: Dawne Howard Lucas, July 2021

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.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the James Clarence Harper Papers #2776, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu