F. L. Bond Papers

1851-1864
Manuscript Collection #296
Creator(s)
Bond, F. L.
Physical description
0.073 Cubic Feet, 1 volume , diary scrapbook.
Preferred Citation
F. L. Bond Papers (#296), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Repository
ECU Manuscript Collection
Access
No restrictions

Papers (1851-1864) of Tarboro, NC furniture manufacturer and dealer, consisting of a diary scrapbook with list of vessels, Civil War events, addresses, prices, clippings.


Biographical/historical information

Francis Lewis Bond was born in 1820 in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C. to Lewis Bond and Sydney Nelson. His father, Lewis Bond, was born in 1795 in Pitt County, N.C. and in 1815, was apprenticed to a cabinet maker. He would later open a furniture making business in Greenville and then have a furniture making business in Tarboro when he moved there in 1820. When Lewis Bond retired in 1846, Francis took over the family business and became an accomplished furniture maker himself. By 1853, Francis Bond, having gained interest in the mechanical forms of production that were becoming well-known in N.C., opened the first and only furniture factory in Edgecombe County which went on to become a success. Francis Bond would succeed the following year in enlarging the factory and incorporating steam power.

In 1849, he married Martha Dancy, and they moved to Goldsboro shortly after their marriage. Their only child, Harlow Bond, was born but died the same year (ca. 1853). Francis Bond died in 1890 at the age of 70 when he drowned in the Tar River.

Source:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bond-9370


Scope and arrangement

The F. L. Bond papers consist of a diary scrapbook (1851-1864) written by F. L. Bond, "Manufacturer of and Dealer in all kinds of Furniture and Mattresses," of Tarboro, N.C.

The diary records news in Tarboro, including deaths of friends and family, as well as news of state and national concern. Mr. Bond's notations reveal his varied interests in education for the poor, temperance, religion, inventions, commercial improvements for Tarboro and North Carolina and North Carolina's government. He records events of the Civil War in the Tarboro area, including troop movements, Union prisoners, engagements and movements on the Tar River. Bond was also keenly interested in the advancement of the mechanical trade and the diary reflects this through listings and some descriptions, plans or recipes for various patent machines, medicines, industrial products, and foods as well as addresses for such useful products.

Entries of interest include a list of vessels arriving at Wilmington, N.C. in the year ending May 1851 complete with descriptions; a notation on a yellow fever epidemic in Wilmington, N.C. (June-November, 1862); a description of an advertisement of a new book he planned to publish entitled, The Follies of N.C. and Her Legislators; Addresses and prices of journals concerning temperance and education; a list of military events connected with a bridge over the Tar River in Edgecombe County, N.C.; a description of the convention for succession in Columbia, S.C. (December, 1860); rules and regulations of F.L. Bond's cabinet shops; and a description of his idea for the beautification of the railway between Tarboro and Rocky Mount by planting flowers.

Clippings include anti-Union propaganda, quaint sayings and philosophy.


Administrative information
Custodial History

October 27, 1975, 1 volume; Tarboro, N.C. daybook (photocopy) of the Civil War period. Gift of Mr. Steven L. Cummings, Route 1, Box 112, Tarboro, N.C.

Source of acquisition

Gift of Mr. Steven L. Cummings

Processing information

Processed by D. Speas, April 1976; Updated by N. Hardison, August 2024

Encoded by Apex Data Services

Copyright notice

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


Key terms
Personal Names
Bond, F. L.
Topical
Furniture industry and trade--North Carolina--Tarboro
Yellow fever--North Carolina--History--19th century
Places
North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Tarboro (N.C.)--History, Military--19th century

Container list
Box 1 Folder a Diary Scrapbook written by F. L. Bond, 1851-1864