Papers (1767-1912) including correspondence, court order, indenture, will and legal papers, financial papers, etc. of Craven County planter and businessmen, Revolutionary War militia leader and his descendants.
The majority of the items in the collection concern George Bryan and his family. Bryan was a Craven County, N.C., planter and businessman whose life as a farmer and member of a Craven County militia company during the Revolutionary War stretched from the latter half of the eighteenth century into the early years of the nineteenth century. The activities of the Bryan family throughout the nineteenth century are revealed in the collection.
Correspondence (1861-1912, undated) contains a number of items relating to the Civil War, including letters of Thomas P. Bryan and James Morris Bryan (1861-1864) of Company I of the 18th N.C. Infantry Regiment describing army life at Fort Caswell (N. C.) and Camp Stephens (S. C.). Of particular interest is a letter (1864) from James Small to Sarah Bryan which relates front line activities during the siege of Richmond. A letter (1865) from Morris Bryan to his father describes conditions at Fort Anderson near Wilmington, N. C.
Legal papers (1818-1851, undated) are concerned primarily with the settlement of the estate of George Bryan. Of interest are the will of George Bryan (1838) and an indenture (1839) between Abraham Taylor and Frederick Bryan.
Financial papers (1767-1868, undated) reflect family and personal expenditures, and agricultural and other activities. Of interest are items relating to the hire of Black people. Included are medical bills, store accounts, tuition receipts, and farm-related items.
Miscellaneous material includes a farm memorandum book for the period 1861-1877, genealogical material, George Bryan's commission as a lieutenant in a Craven County militia company in 1775, and a collection of school exercises, one dated 1848.
Printed matter consists of fragments of the New Bern Journal, July 18, 1882; Harper's Monthly Magazine (undated); the Southern Illustrated News, Richmond, Virginia, Sept. 6, 1862; and a complete Aug. 1, 1891, issue of the National Reformer, a Farm Alliance newspaper published in St. Louis, Missouri. Other printed items include an Internal Revenue stamp for matches (1872) and a handbill for a patent medicine produced in Wilson, N.C., "Southern Hepatic Pills."
Gift of Mr. E. Frank Rouse
Processed by T. Lennon, September 1968
Encoded by Apex Data Services
Descriptions Updated by Ashlyn Racine, May 2023
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.