Old - Bagley Collection

1800-1834, 1860-1861, 1880
Manuscript Collection #1101
Creator(s)
Physical description
0.5 Cubic Feet, 2 vols. 380 p.
Preferred Citation
Old - Bagley Collection (#1101), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Repository
ECU Manuscript Collection
Access
No restrictions

Collection (1800 – 1834; 1860 – 1861, 1880) consisting of a business ledger jointly compiled by the Jones, Harvey & Aitchison Co. and the McPherson & Old Co., 1800 - 1834, companies owned and operated by shareholders of the Dismal Swamp Canal Co. during the construction of the canal; also a day book compiled by William Bagley, 1860 – 1861, pertaining to operations of a general store in South Mills, NC, which also includes Elizabeth "Bettie" Bagley's private diary, January - December 1880.


Biographical/historical information

Biographical Notes

The donors Mr. & Mrs. Herbert T. Mullen discovered this collection in a house formerly owned by H. T. Mullen & Annie Laurie Mullen, circa 2005. The house was known as "Lessie's House" after the African American woman who lived in the house the longest of all its dwellers and helped out on the Mullen farm.

Benjamin Jones (ca. 1757-1806), William Aitchison (1755-1804) and Thomas Harvey, were three of the five directors of the Dismal Swamp Canal Company which had been established to dig a canal between Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. The company was named for the vast swamp along the Virginia – North Carolina border which the canal had to cross. Together, the three men established a partnership to own and operate a general store, in South Mills, NC, which provided sundries, provisions, livestock, spirits, and tools to local residents and to workers on the lower canal. The store also milled lumber brought out of the swamp, and sold boards, flats, and shingles. The majority of the transactions consisted of barter between the company and its customers. William Aitchison (1755-1804) was the son of a Loyalist during the American Revolution. He was involved in a mercantile company in Virginia with James Parker, 1763 – 1804.

William Bagley (1824 - 1875) a farmer and businessman, operated a general store in South Mills, NC and sold a variety of goods to the local residents.

Elizabeth "Bettie" Bagley (1861 - 1931) was the daughter of William Bagley (1824 - 1875), a farmer and businessman, and his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Old (1838 - 1868), of Mackey's Ferry Post Office, Plymouth, NC; she compiled her diary while living with her aunt Ms. I. A. Taylor in South Mills, NC and recorded her day-to-day activities, particularly gardening, sewing, and visitations, throughout the year of 1880 in the back of the Daybook she found.

Thomas Harvey was a Camden, NC landowner and partner with Benjamin Jones, Thomas Harvey, Enoch Sawyer, and Frederick Sawyer in a company authorized by the North Carolina Legislature, in 1804, "to cut a navigable canal, and make a road thereon, through the Great Dismal Swamp, from Dismal Swamp Canal, near the head of the woods in Camden county, to the White Oak Spring Marsh in Gates County, and to demand and receive toll thereon."

Enslaver Benjamin Jones (ca. 1757-1806), was from Camden, NC. Extremely wealthy, he owned about 12,000 acres in North Carolina and enslaved at least 36 enslaved persons (six more than the next largest enslaver). He also was a very active business buying and selling land continually. He was also a partner with Nathaniel Allen in a mercantile business and possibly a store in River Bridge, NC. He also owned at least one smaller canal company and built mills to supply water for the canal. He was the only North Carolinian among the five directors.

Historical Notes

Transportation between northeastern North Carolina and southeast Virginia was extremely difficult in the 17th and 18th centuries and greatly interefered with economic development of the region. The only routes were overland by primitive trails through the Dismal Swamp, or by a sailing ship from Albemarle Sound via Point Harbor and Currituck Sound North to Norfolk, Virginia; or from Albemarle Sound via a southern route into the Pamlico Sound to Virginia. These were both long, difficult, expensive and dangerous journeys.

In 1786, Virginia and North Carolina commissioners met to find a way to make transportation between the two areas easier, cheaper, safer, and quicker. Their ultimate proposal was to dig a canal connecting the north-flowing Elizabeth River in North Carolina to the south flowing Elizabeth River in Virginia. The federal government then authorized the Dismal Swamp Canal Company to sell shares to fund the building of the canal. Investors would share in the revenue generated by the tolls that would be paid by users of the canal. Among the early shareholders were James Madison, Benjamin Harrison, Patrick Henry, Thomas Nelson, and George Washington. Washington had surveyed and charted Lake Drummond in the center of the swamp and had owned a considerable expanse of the swamp since before the Revolution, when he had invested in a speculation company to drain and fell the timbers of the swamp. In 1790, a road was constructed along the course of the canal to assist in the transportation of workers and in 1793 construction of the canal began.

By 1805, the canal was navigable from Chesapeake Bay to Albemarle Sound and open to barge traffic. Over the next few decades, the company made continual improvements to the canal, including new feeder creeks and locks, until 1830. To spur completion of the improvements, the General Assembly of North Carolina, in 1827, transferred the ownership rights from Benjamin Jones, Thomas Harvey, Enoch Sawyer, and Frederick Sawyer to William McPherson (1824-1875), who was also the guardian of the heirs of Holloway Old (1785-1832?). At the completion of their improvements in 1830, the canal was 22 miles long. Initially 4 feet deep, the canal had been deepened to 6.5 feet to allow heavier boats and widened to 40 feet (by 1829) to allow two-way barge traffic. The rise of railroads in the 1830s and 1840s hurt the canal and reduced businesss. Eventually, the United States Government purchased the shares of the company and the Dismal Swamp Canal became a part of the Intercoastal Waterway. Today (2014) it is the oldest man-made waterway still in use in the United States.

Sources: Camden County, NCGenWeb: http://ncgenweb.us/nc/camden/the-dismal-swamp-canal/

Original Shareholders of the Dismal Swamp Canal: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vatgs/DismalSwamp.htm

Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center: http://dismalswampwelcomecenter.com/history/

Camden & Gates County, NC - Great Dismal Swamp - Act for Canal, 1827: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/camden/court/canal01.txt


Scope and arrangement

SERIES I: JONES, HARVEY, & AITCHISON CO. - MCPHERSON & OLD CO. BUSINESS LEDGER, 1800 – 1834 [Vol. 1] contains the transaction records of a general store in South Mills, North Carolina, owned and operated by shareholders of the Dismal Swamp Canal Co. during the construction. It records receipts and expenses for individual accounts, provisions, sundries, hire of Black men in shingle, board, flat, and other "swamp" lumber enterprises. A handwritten title is written on the front cover: "Ledger A: Containing McPherson & Old A/C". An entry on the title page reads: "Ledger Jones Harvey & Aitchison for 1800." The volume is in good condition. Vol. 1 contains 132 pages used out of 262 pages.

SERIES II: THE WILLIAM BAGLEY DAY BOOK / ELIZABETH BAGLEY DIARY, 22 April 1860 – 4 July 1861 / 3 January – 2 December 1880, [Vol. 2] contains receipts and expenses of a general store in South Mills, NC. On the first page, obscuring business entries for Sunday – Monday 22 – 23 April 1860, are affixed Victorian advertisements from Brown's Iron Bitters, Horsford's Acid Phosphate (wording removed) and printed cards religious cards. The second half of the book contains Elizabeth "Bettie" Bagley's diary of her life in South Mills, North Carolina, 3 January - 2 December 1880. The diary includes entries on the weather, her health, correspondence, church events, preachers, meetings with friends and family, travels out of town, and poems. The volume is in poor condition, spine torn, cover torn; many pages missing and other torn; needs conservation. Vol. 2 contains 118 pages used.


Administrative information
Custodial History

August 1, 2007, 0.50 cubic feet; Collection (1800-1834, 1860-1880) including a ledger from the Jones, Harvey & Aitchison Company, 1800-1802, and its successor, the McPherson & Old Company, belonging to William McPherson & Hollowell Old, of South Mills, North Carolina, 1814-1834, recording receipts and expenses for individual accounts, provisions, sundries, hire of black men in shingle, board, flat, and other "swamp" lumber enterprises; also the William Bagley Day Book, 1860-1861, recording receipts and expenses and containing the diary of Elizabeth "Bettie" Bagley, Jr., January - December 1880, of Plymouth and South Mills, NC. Vol. 1: 132 p. used of 262 p.; Vol. 2: 118 p. Donor: Mr. & Mrs. Herbert T. Mullen

Source of acquisition

Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Herbert T. Mullen

Processing information

Encoded by Lindsay Flood, 3April 2008 Processing, finding aid & inventory by Barry K. Seebo, 5 May 2014 Processing, finding aid & inventory revised by Jonathan Dembo, 23 June 2014

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
Bagley, Elizabeth
Bagley, William, 1824-1875
Corporate Names
Jones, Harvey & Aitchison Co.
McPherson & Old Co.
Topical
Businessmen--North Carolina--South Mills
Lumber trade--North Carolina