Collection (1840-1927) consisting of correspondence, records, historical sketches, legal documents, tax receipts, biographical sketches, genealogical records, diary and date book.
Robert Church was born in 1815. He was married to Lavina Church, born 1817. When Robert Church was 45 years old, he was enlisted into the Confederate Army. Before enlisting, he was married and worked as a baker.
This collection deals primarily with genealogical information concerning the Church family of Forsyth and Wilkes Counties, North Carolina, and other families related by marriage. Of particular significance are correspondence, records, and historical sketches of Robert Church's service in the Confederate army during the Civil War.
A letter (February 1862) sent from Morehead City, N.C., by Robert Church to his wife mentions the taking of Roanoke Island by the Union army. Civil War records include the enlistment papers of Church and a tax assessment on agricultural products to pay Confederate war expenses. Also included is a biographical sketch containing an account of Church's military service from his enlistment in 1861 to his death at Fort Fisher in 1865.
Legal documents (1848-1883) are composed of court records, claims, tax receipts, and minutes of a Salem Town Hall meeting.
The collection also contains a diary and date book (1892-1927), evidently begun as a diary in 1892 by a member of the Church family and continued by other family members as a date book of family events, births, deaths, and marriages.
Genealogical materials on the Church family include a family Bible record, abstracts from various Wilkes County censuses (1840-1860), and biographical sketches of Robert and Lavina Church. Other genealogical materials deal with the Pfaff, Flynt, Osborn, and Noble families. Of particular interest is a history of the Noble Brothers Iron Works of Rome, Georgia, which relates that factory's efforts to supply the Confederate army with various ordnance.
Loaned by Mr. Troy Lee Church
Processed by M. Mitchell, August 1977
Encoded by Apex Data Services
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.