Collection [1733-1975] including correspondence, cemetery records, deed books, court records, militia records; copies and originals of indenture, estate lists, wills, land grants, Bible records, and miscellaneous.
This collection consists of genealogical notes compiled by John A. Clark, Jr., who was the son of John A. and Ellen Causey Clark. Clark, Jr., lived at the Rhem House, 701 Broad St., New Bern, N.C. His notes contain genealogical information concerning families related to his father or mother and are, for the most part, of Craven and Pitt counties, N.C. Information is included on the Bright, Whitford, Witherington, Clark, Brooks, Purifoy, Causey, Gwaltney, Wadsworth, Franks, Miller, Rhem, Stokes, Gaskins, Gardner, and other related families.
Also included are brief histories of the Riverside Christian Church of Hookerton and Christ Episcopal Church of New Bern, a brief history of New Bern courthouses, and a 1949 manuscript describing the New Bern Fire Engine Company #1 and the New Bern Greys and Elm City Riflemen militia groups in the 1870s and 1880s. A 1924 draft of a newspaper article describes steamboat lines docking at New Bern from 1875 to 1905 and discusses the effects of the Atlantic and N.C.R.R. lease by the private sector on water traffic, the fish and oyster industry, and truck farming in New Bern. This article also gives a general description of Inland Waterway construction from Adams Creek to the Atlantic Ocean and New Bern's participation in the project. Labeled photographs of New Bern (ca. 1870s), a description of a New Bern wedding (1790s), and lot entries and original land records for New Bern (eighteenth/nineteenth centuries) are also found in the papers.
The collection contains tombstone listings from Cedar Grove Cemetery of New Bern, Parris Creek Cemetery in Pamlico County, Brock Family Cemetery in Jones County,Fowler Family Cemetery in Pamlico County, Lane Family Cemetery, and Biddle Plantation of Craven County.
Three folders of original land and legal records (1733-1915) pertain to Craven, Duplin, Jones, and Lenoir counties families such as the Carters, Francks, Gwaltneys, Hargetts, Jacksons, Millers, Moores, Perrys, Rhems, Simmonses, Spencers, and Wards. The papers consist of deeds, a bond, a power of attorney, a will (1842) for Martin Miller of Jones County, and articles of agreement (1809) concerning construction of a cartway from a public road to a ferry landing in Craven Co., N.C.
Miscellaneous items include a booklet concerning the University of Maryland's University College Far East Division (1956-1971); a history of the Ernul, N.C., post office; a biography of William Gaston (1778-1844) by John L. Sanders; statistical tables concerning servants, enslaved persons, taxables, tithables, and tobacco prices in Maryland and Virginia; and a print of a photograph of James Isaac Metts; information concerning Beall's Pleasure (the home of Benjamin Stoddert, the first Secretary of the Navy); a monograph (1961) describing the nineteen Disciples of Christ churches of the Pamlico Union in Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, and Pamlico counties; and maps of Cambridgeshire (1806) and Cambridge, England (1837), and Township No. 1 of Craven County, N.C. (1975).
Gift of Mrs. Ellen Clark
Processed by U. Loy; M. Elmore, August 1984
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.