Biographical/historical information

Junius Daniel Grimes, son of Bryan and Charlotte Grimes, was born in Grimesland, NC (1878). He attended the Raleigh Male Academy, received a BA from the University of North Carolina (1899) and an LLB from Georgetown University (1902). He was admitted to the bar in 1902 and became solicitor in the First Judicial District. He practiced law in partnership with Hallett Sydney Ward in the firm of Ward and Grimes from 1905 until 1941 when his son, J. Bryan, joined the firm, which then became Grimes and Grimes. Secretary for Congressman John H. Small, Grimes was a member of the board of State Normal and Industrial College in Greensboro, NC (1919); and of the Washington, NC, Board of Education (1921-1923). He was also Beaufort County Attorney (1933); trustee of the NC College for Women (1932-1938); chairman of the Beaufort County Democratic Executive Committee (1935-1940); chairman of Committee One, Victory Liberty Loans (1942-1943); and a member of the Vestry at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Washington, NC.

Hallet Sydney Ward (1870-1956) attended public schools in Gates County, NC, the University of North Carolina, and was admitted to the bar in 1893. He was solicitor in the First Judicial District, a lawyer in Winton, NC (1893-1894) and in Plymouth, NC (1894-1904). He was mayor of Plymouth (1902-1903), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1921-1925), and a member of the NC State Senate (1931).

Scope and arrangement

The collection is arranged in seven series:

The general correspondence deals with a variety of topics and prominent among them is politics. While much of this material is related to state and local campaigns (1920-1940), presidential elections are also a major focus. Included are comments concerning President Harding and the fall in agricultural prices, William G. McAdoo's presidential ambitions (1924), propaganda of the Republican Party and Tammany Hall's defense of the Southerners' rights (1928), and the nationwide registration of and voting by Black men and women in Democratic primaries (1936). Files of the Beaufort County Democratic executive committee (1934-1940) concern the early Roosevelt presidential campaign and the state and local campaigns of Cameron Morrison (1932), Hallet Ward (1931), and others. Correspondents include Lindsay Warren, Robert R. Reynolds, Clyde Hoey, Thad Eure, John H. Small, James A. Farley, Josiah W. Bailey, Herbert C. Bonner, and C. L. Shuping.

Other correspondence pertains to education and Grimes's support of education both personally and professionally. Issues discussed include enrollments, bonds, resolutions, and school improvements for the Washington, NC, public school system (1920-1931; 1935-1936). Other topics include neighborhood-oriented schools (1920), school consolidation and the movement away from one-teacher school houses (June 1920), rural tuition payments (November 1925), class size and teacher salaries (January 1926), transportation (January 1927), and the cost of nine-month schools (June 1935). A file on the University of North Carolina consolidation includes executive committee minutes, resolutions, and a report of the Commission on University Consolidation (1936). Other materials include a concert program from the "North Carolina College for Negroes" (now known as North Carolina Central University) with an announcement of the event (July 1941).

Correspondence and case files pertain to Grimes's position as the attorney for the Little Swift Creek Drainage District (1920-1929). Information includes boundary line surveys; interpretation of drainage district laws; procedures for establishing districts and electing commissioners; ownership guidelines; taxes and other assessments; bond establishment; and construction, maintenance, and improvements. Similar files exist for other districts including Albemarle (1917-1920), Juniper Bay (1917-1918), Mattamuskeet (1924-1925), and Blakely Swamp (1923-1929). Associated interests include suits against district commissioners (1911), districts falling into receivership (1918-1919), acreage disputes (1919-1928), and the National Industrial Recovery Program claim on lands in Hyde County for a wildlife refuge (1935).

Further correspondence and records pertain to paving, building, and extending roads; petitions to have streets paved (1920); road plans to avoid railroad crossings (1921); the inspection, licensing and insurance of automobiles (1922); road condition surveys of the State Highway Commission (1925); the use of convict labor in road construction (1928); extension and improvements of the road from Washington to Greenville (1929); Civil Works Authority road construction approval (1933); bond indebtedness (1935); hard surfacing (1936); and dynamite used in road improvements (1941).

Correspondence between the "Colored Interracial Committee" and the White Interracial Committee, both of Washington, NC, contains recommendations concerning the conditions in specific parts of town. These include suggestions for the improvement, cleaning, maintenance, and paving of streets; provision of stop signs; repair of water mains; school construction; and the policing of a predominately black cemetery. Other race-related material includes information on a favorable report from the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on an anti-lynching law (1921), a court case against the Board of Graded School Trustees over mixed-race children (1922), the case of an Episcopal Black Englishman church worker who was wrongly accused of immorality (1926), a white supremacist Democratic executive serving on the Beaufort County committee commenting that the party should be a white man's party (1937).

The collection's legal files consist of general and litigation files. The general files include wills, land and timber deeds, chattel mortgages, contracts, petitions, bankruptcies, alimony payments, court calendars, and juror lists. The litigation files are more extensive and pertain to both civil and criminal law. Many cases involve liquor, including the illegal production of rum (1919) and whiskey (1926), and drunk driving (1921, 1926). Criminal cases involving major incidents of embezzlement include those of Beaufort County Sheriff W. B. Windley concerning a shortage of drainage district taxes (1917-1922); of C. H. Godwin regarding illegal fund transfers and accounting inaccuracies at a bank in Williamston, NC (1921-1925); of T. J. Mann pertaining to the misappropriation of Hyde County Board of Education money (1923-1936); and of the secretary of a fraternal benefit society implicated in missing insurance benefits (1933).

Grimes's local government activities are reflected in his records pertaining to the Washington, NC, Board of Alderman (1907-1908) and the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners (1928-1944). Documented are a land dispute with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (1906), plans for a street railway company franchise (1907), railroad bridge concerns, bonds for the Eastern Training School and street improvements (1907), city utility expenditures (1907-1908), and mayoral jurisdiction questions (1908). Other topics discussed are downtown development of shops and a theatre (1919-1928), telephone service (1920), rural electrification and the Rural Electrification Administration (1934, 1936), the possible restoration of Bath, NC (1938), a timber breakwater at the mouth of Pantego Creek in Belhaven Harbor, NC (1939-1942), and the dividing lines between Beaufort and Martin counties (1935-1937) and Beaufort and Craven counties.

Records pertaining to the economy and taxes include information on an installment plan revenue bill (1931); the First Congressional District Tax Relief Association (1933); sales and food tax; Civil Works Administration funds for county work projects that involved the Caswell Training School in Kinston, NC (1933); Beaufort County Home improvements (1933); property taxes (1934); Civilian Conservation Corps forestry work; Norfolk Southern Railroad back taxes (1934); the Bankhead Bill (1935); and liquor taxes (1937).

Throughout the collection, land issues and land development are noted. Correspondence and flyers from land companies include information on investment potential, lists of Beaufort County RFD inhabitants, and the Virginia-NC Joint Stock Land Bank (1920-1923). Files on the Clarendon Coal Field Company (1920-1939) involved a company in Moore and Chatham counties, NC, for which J. Bryan Grimes served as director. Information includes stock advertisements (1923), oil and gas royalties, and timber sales (1930). These records also contain lists of stockholders with their amounts of stock noted, maps of the field, clippings, director's meeting minutes, financial statements, and company debts. Other records include information on land dispute cases concerning the Currituck Sound Swan Island Club (1930-1931) and land and fishing rights of squatters on Bogue Banks (1942-1944).

Further files contain information pertaining to suits against railroads that involved improper cutting and removal of timber (1909-1910), killing of farm animals (1909-1911), damage or loss of freight (1922-1924), fires started from engine sparks (1922, 1927-1928), and accidents (1932-1933). One particularly well documented case concerned a fire caused by an unsafe heating apparatus in a freight depot that resulted in damage to surrounding warehouses owned by the S. R. Fowle and Son Company of Washington, NC (1907-1908).

War-related correspondence concerns Mexican border fighting, World War I, and World War II. Correspondence from Colonel Wiley C. Rodman describes preparations for surveillance of the Mexican border by the Second NC Infantry, first at Camp Glenn, NC, and later at Camp Steward in El Paso, TX (1916). World War I related material includes records pertaining to Grimes's appointment as chairman of the #1 Victory Liberty Loan Committee (1919); information on the Lafayette Flying Squadron, a U.S. volunteer flying corps that was connected with the French Army (1919); and a Battery B celebration for the 113th U.S. Field Artillery. World War II records concern the establishment of a local Selective Service Board (1940); selective service petitions to avoid service (1942-1943); the naming of Liberty ships and Merchant Marine ships built in Wilmington, NC (1943); and the Red Cross War Fund (1943). Other war-time materials pertain to crop allotments, threshing records, and licenses (1942); the abolition of the Farm Security Administration and the Farm Crop Service Program (1943); farm defense program forms that include estimates of production; a strike at an industrial plant (1943); and mob violence near Williamston, NC (1943).

Grimes was a member of the Vestry of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Washington, NC, and church activities are often mentioned in correspondence including finances; Vestry minutes; the church's 100th anniversary (1922); the transfer of graves to make space for aparish house annex (1926-1944); synod meetings (1942); liquidation of the diocesan debt (1943); Bishop Thomas Wright's election (1945); and the thirty-year consecration anniversary celebration of Bishop Thomas C. Darst. Other religious and charitable concerns mentioned were Thompson Orphanage (1919, 1941); the "Holy Rollers" (Pentecostals) and their annual meeting between Grimesland and Chocowinity, NC (1922); the Children's Home Society of NC (1925); a property dispute involving the Smithwick Creek Primitive Baptist Church (1930-1934); Caswell Training School in Kinston, NC (1933); the Beaufort County Public Welfare Department (1935); and the Children's Home Society (1941). Correspondence also mentions various health issues that affected the community including malaria, tuberculosis (1919-1920), influenza (1920), sterilization (1935), and venereal disease (1937).

Miscellaneous items and case files include information on a worker's compensation hearing (1931); the Stone Mountain Memorial Commission (1924); a survey of Knobs Creek and the Elizabeth City harbor for the purpose of providing a turning basin for barges and tugs (1925); arrest and detention laws (1936); Beaufort County's jail architecture (1938); and Venable and Moore family genealogical information. Oversized materials complete the collection and include a penciled drawing of various Washington, NC, businesses located on the wharf including S. R. Fowle, J. and W. Havens, and Morris's; a map of disputed land near Broad Creek; and a map of lands claimed by the state that are north and west of the Pungo River (February 1897). Other large items include Pungo River drainage tax lists (1917-1922).

Administrative information

Custodial History

December 12, 1988, 20 cubic feet; Files (1896-1944) of Washington, NC, attorney, consisting primarily of records of law firm Ward and Grimes. Gift of Mrs. Bryan Grimes, Washington, NC.

June 2, 2014, (unprocessed addition 1), 3.25 cubic feet; A large portion of this addition (from the Robert Grimes house in Plymouth, N.C.) includes records of the law firm Ward & Grimes and its successor Grimes & Grimes in Washington, N.C. These records include legal documents and notes (ca. 1885 through 1956) relating to deeds (sometimes family property), land disputes, estates and trustee actions. A second grouping of materials related to J. Bryan Grimes (son of Junius Grimes) includes correspondence (1926-1938), a 1973 marriage certificate re his 1938 marriage to his wife Bobby, a 1969 photograph and materials such as ball programs and a commencement program (1927-1929) pertaining to his time attending and graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A third grouping of papers consists of family tree charts for the Grimes, Needham Bryan, John O'Brien, Richard Grist, Sr., and Herritage families of Pitt and Beaufort Cos., N.C.; a 1998 boundary survey of Grimes Plantation in Pitt Co.; the 2009 architectural drawings for the restoration of the Bryan Grimes Plantation at Grimesland, Pitt Co.; a copy of the 1959 division map of the J. D. Grimes, Sr., estate called Pamlico Farm in Beaufort Co.; a 1981 survey done for the Washington Housing Authority Project N.C. 32-6 that includes part of Pamlico Farm and surrounding properties; and a 1964 survey showing the buildings of Camp Leach, run by the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina, in Washington, N.C. Gift of John Wharton Grimes, Sr.

Source of acquisition

Gift of Mrs. Bryan Grimes

Gift of John Wharton Grimes, Sr.

Processing information

Processed by M. Boccaccio, May 1996

Encoded by Apex Data Services

Descriptions updated by Ashlyn Racine, May 2023

Copyright notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

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