Biographical/historical information

David Nicholas Dalton (1826-1895) married Margaret Melissa Rives Dalton (1830-1865) from Chatham County, N.C. and the moved to Little Yadkin. David owned over 2000 acres of land and built the Dalton House. The Dalton House was on top of tunnels where the family store food and valuables during the Civil War. Together, David and Margaret had seven children. After Margaret's death, David remarried to Rebecca Jane Westmoreland Dalton (1841-1901) . Together, the couple had nine children.

Scope and arrangement

Correspondence is primarily concerned with routine family and personal matters, such as illnesses, births, deaths, and marriages of relatives and neighbors.

One complete letter is devoted to a detailed description of a case of smallpox suffered by the writer's child (1856). Of interest are comments on current prices for various crops and goods during the period, including corn, pork, flour, cotton, tobacco, salt, sole leather, wagons, horses and mules. Particular note is made of the harsh winter of 1855-1856, the purchase of dresses (1850), the forced separation of enslaved families (1850), the 'difficulty' for white enslavers of purchasing black enslaved people (1852), religious revivals (1851), the position of the Know-Nothing (American) Party as the heir to Whig Party support (1856), scarcity of money (1857-1858), and inflationary prices during the early months of the Civil War (1861). Several letters (1857-1860, 1883) were written from South Carolina and Georgia and describe efforts to sell tobacco on a glutted market. Typical of this was his report from Macon, Georgia (1858), that there were already sixteen wagons of tobacco in the yard when he arrived.

Administrative information

Custodial History

August 17, 1970, 24 items; Correspondence. Loaned for copying by Mrs. C. J. Lambe and Miss Nan E. Jones, Walnut Cove, N.C.

Source of acquisition

Loaned by Mrs. C. J. Lambe and Miss Nan E. Jones

Processing information

Processed by M. Griffin, April 1971

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.

Metadata Rights Declaration

Key terms

Family Names

Dalton family
Rives family

Corporate Names

American Party

Topical

Agricultural prices--North Carolina--Stokes County
Revivals--History--19th century
Slavery--United States--History--19th century
Smallpox--History--19th century
Tobacco--Southern States--History--20th century

Places

Southern States--Economic conditions--19th century
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Economic aspects

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