A collection (ca. 1885-1918, undated) of 55 cartes de visite and cabinet cards mounted on cardboard, a scrapbook containing 11 snapshots, a manuscript, and printed materials belonging to John Miller Faison, a North Carolina physician, Democratic Party leader, and Congressman from the N.C. Third District between 1911 and 1915.
Dr. John Miller Faison (April 17, 1862 - April 21, 1915), a native of Faison (Duplin County), North Carolina, was born on a plantation to Henry W. and Martha Hicks Faison. His maternal grandparents were Dr. James H. and Sara Elizabeth Miller Hicks, and his paternal grandparents were Isham and Sallie Thomson Faison. John M. Faison married his cousin, Eliza Faison DeVane, daughter of Colonel William S. (C.S.A) and Laura Murphy DeVane, in 1887. John and Eliza had seven children: Louise Murphy DeVane, who died young, Laura Murphy, Henry W. DeVane, William DeVane, who all died unmarried, Isham Rowland, who married Louise Oates, John M., who married Esther Ramsdell, and Martha Hicks, who was a school teacher for a number of years. John M. Faison was educated in private schools and Davidson College, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1883. He attended medical school at the University of Virginia Medical College, did an internship at the Polyclinic Hospital in New York, and received his M.D. degree in 1885. After he graduated, Dr. Faison established a large medical practice in the Faison community in 1885. He served on the board of directors of the State Hospital in Goldsboro. He also served as editor and publisher of the Faison Journal, a local newspaper, for several years. Dr. Faison was also politically active as a member of the Democratic Party, and a well-known public speaker and debater. From 1898 to 1906, he was a member of the State Democratic Committee. In 1910, Dr. Faison was elected to the United States Congress from the Third District of North Carolina. He served from March 4, 1911 to March 3, 1915. Source: Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Edited by William S. Powell. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.
This photographic collection includes fifty-five cartes de visite and cabinet cards mounted on cardboard (ca. 1875-1910, undated) of John M. Faison, his family, friends, colleagues and residences in Wallace, Faison and Rose Hill, North Carolina, and a scrapbook of eleven unidentified snapshots. Most photographs were printed by North Carolina studios, including studios in Wallace, Charlotte, Greensboro, Wilmington, Asheville, Morganton, and Goldsboro. The most common non-North Carolina studios represented were in Baltimore, Maryland, and New York City. Several photographs have penciled inscriptions or the handstamp of Dr. Faison.
Several images depict Dr. Faison himself, one presumably being his medical class from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. There are several images of Dr. Faison's immediate and extended family, including his wife Eliza Faison DeVane, his children Martha H. Faison, William Faison, and Martha Hicks. Several photos of Dr. Faison's friends are included, representing the Pearsall and Peirce families. Individuals of note in this collection include Jeremiah Robert Pearsall (1861-1891), a physician at Central Hospital in Raleigh, and Brig. General Samuel Faison, who served with the A. E. F. in France in 1919. In several images, places of residencies are pictured in North Carolina towns, including Faison and Wallace. There are also images of other places of interest, including a plum orchard in Wallace, and a sailboat on Lake Louise near the Morganton Asylum.
This collection also includes one handwritten manuscript and a printed wedding invitation. The manuscript is a Memoriam of Mrs. Anna Octavia Moore, composed by Mrs. F. J. Faison and Mrs. J. Arthur Powell, Committee of the Ladies Missionary Society, Beulah Baptist Church on February 23, 1912. The wedding invitation, with reply card and envelope, is from Mr. and Mrs. Champ Clark, requesting the presence of Dr. Faison and his wife, at the marriage of their daughter, Genevieve Champ to Mr. James McIlhany Thomson. Mr. Champ Clark was the Speaker of the House, 1911-1919.
Purchase (Special Manuscript Fund), Chapel Hill Rare Books, Carrboro, NC
Encoded by Lindsay Flood, April 4, 2008
Processed by Jennifer Gabriel, January 2012
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.