This collection includes many letters written during the American Civil War by Dr. Charles James O'Hagan, an Irish immigrant who settled in Pitt County, North Carolina, and served in the North Carolina State Troops as a surgeon, to his daughters; and letters written by Confederate soldiers to his eldest daughter. Also included are letters (1840s) from family in Ireland and testamonials written to help Dr. O'Hagan find employment; letters written in the post-Civil War era 1860s through 1882; and letters, photographs, and obituaries concerning the related Laughinghouse and Grimes families of Pitt County, N.C., in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Dr. Charles James O'Hagan was born on September 16, 1821, in Londonderry County, Ireland, to John Patrick O'Hagan and Martha O'Kane O'Hagan. He was educated in Belfast, Ireland, and immigrated to the United States of America in 1842. Dr. O'Hagan taught school near Greenville, North Carolina, was an early North Carolinian daguerreotypist in 1845, and then embarked on a medical career in the same area. He graduated from New York Medical College in New York City, New York, with a M.D. degree in 1855. O'Hagan wed Ann Elizabeth "Eliza" Forrest of Greene County, North Carolina, in 1846. They had children Elizabeth "Eliza" Courtney Forrest O'Hagan (July 10, 1848 - January 29, 1919) who married Joseph John Laughinghouse Sr., and Martha O'Hagan (1850-July 19,1935).
During the American Civil War, Dr. O'Hagan served as Asst. Surgeon with the 1st North Carolina Cavalry (9th North Carolina State Troops) from June 1861 until May 1862 when he was transferred to the 35th North Carolina Regiment and appointed Surgeon under the command of Brig. General Ransom. He served in this capacity until his parole at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. In late 1862, Dr. O'Hagan was charged with "incompetence and ignorance of the duties of a Surgeon" and was dropped from the rolls, but he was reinstated after the requests of several Confederate physicians. He was tried by a Court Martial, found not guilty, and returned to the 35th NC Regiment in January 1863.
After the war's end, he returned to Greenville and continued practicing medicine. He served as a commissioner and as Mayor of Greenville, and as president of the NC State Medical Society and of the NC State Board of Medical Examiners. Dr. O'Hagan's wife Eliza died in 1871 and he remarried to Elvira Louisa Clark (February 19, 1835 - November 15, 1888) of Pitt County, North Carolina, on August 22, 1877. They had a son Charles James O'Hagan, Jr., born in December 1878. After she died in 1888, Dr. O'Hagan did not wed again. He died on December 18, 1900, in Greenville, North Carolina, and is buried in Cherry Hill Cemetery in Greenville.
The relationship with the Laughinghouse and Grimes families of Pitt County, North Carolina, is due to Elizabeth "Eliza" Courtney Forrest O'Hagan marrying Joseph John Laughinghouse, Sr. Their daughter Elizabeth Forrest Laughinghouse married John Bryan Grimes (a son of Confederate General Bryan Grimes) and they had sons Alston Grimes and Charles O'Hagan Grimes who both figure in the 20th Century material in this collection. Dr. Charles O'Hagan Laughinghouse Sr., a well-known Greenville doctor who was also involved in state medical groups, was another child of Eliza Courtney Forrest O'Hagan and Joseph John Laughinghouse, Sr.
Source: FindAGrave. Retrieved from: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19423255/charles-james-o'hagan and other FindAGrave entries for Laughinghouse and Grimes families members.
Dr. O'Hagan's service details from Hambrecht & Koste's unpublished database Biographical Register of Physicians who Served the Confederacy in a Medical Capacity (05/12/2014), excerpted on his memorial page on FindaGgrave.
Most of this collection is related to Dr. Charles J. O'Hagan and his immediate family and includes letters (1840-1882) written to and from him and to his wife and daughters, genealogy notes related to the O'Hagan family, and a photograph of Dr. O'Hagan's son Charles James O'Hagan, Jr. as a child. Other items (1907-1950) within the collection are correspondence, photographs, genealogy information, and clippings concerning the related Laughinghouse, Grimes, and Bryan families of Pitt County, North Carolina.
The Dr. Charles J. O'Hagan family correspondence is organized into the following groupings: Correspondence (1840-1882) received by Dr. O'Hagan; correspondence (1860-1865) written by Dr. O'Hagan to his daughters and niece; correspondence (1860-1869) written to Dr. O'Hagan's daughter Eliza and one letter written by Eliza; correspondence (1863-1865) written to Dr. O'Hagan's wife Eliza; and partial or undated letters.
The earliest correspondence is 1840 testimonials related to Charles J. O'Hagan's experience teaching the classics to the son of one man and the grandsons of another man in Londonderry and Antrim counties of Northern Ireland. 1841 and 1842 letters are from family members and acquaintances writing from Newtown in Limavady, Northern Ireland, describing the efforts of relatives to get passage to America and tips on how to avoid getting cheated by "man-traps" on the docks in Liverpool, England. Several letters trace the experience of Thomas Fitzgerald who took passage to America, then the ship he was on wrecked off the coast of Wales, he then joined the Frigate St. Vincent heading to the China Station, and he later ended up on the HOWE. One correspondent mentioned that he had given up drinking and is now a "Matthewite" and had gotten a medal [probably refers to Father Theobald Mathew of Ireland who established "Knights of Father Mathew" in 1838 which became the Catholic Total Abstinence Society].
Beginning in 1843, correspondence indicates that O'Hagan was now living in North Carolina. There is a letter in the collection that was written by O'Hagan to his future wife Eliza Forrest. It was written on May 24, 1845, and was sent to her while was living at Mrs. Mett's in Kingston [sic], Lenoir County, N.C. It's mostly a love letter, but we also discover that O'Hagan was one of the earliest Daguerreotypists in the United States and especially in North Carolina. O'Hagan says that he has disposed of his Daguerreotypes because he "was tired of keeping it and getting nothing to do and sold it" for a gold watch and ten dollars. The same letter contains a description of a female African American enslaved person turning on the female enslaver who is punishing her. Another interesting letter (February 26, 1848) is from Benjamin Brown (B.B.) Williams of Pitt County who was traveling in South Carolina speaking about healing human ailments through animal magnetism. He describes the excitement created by his lectures. [NCpedia.org article indicates he received an M.D. degree from Eclectic Medical Institute in 1847.] An 1864 receipt included in this correspondence documents educational expenses at Ursaline Convent and Academy in Columbia, South Carolina, for O'Hagan's eldest daughter Eliza.
The remainder of the correspondence written to O'Hagan covers the years 1866 to 1882. They cover the Reconstruction years, recovering from the property losses that occurred during the Civil War, North Carolina politics, and the medical field. Dr. O'Hagan's friend John Jackson tries to persuade him to set up a medical practice in Kentucky by giving a good description of life in Danville, Kentucky, and the cost of living there. By 1868, Jackson mentioned how the military presence has lessened in Kentucky in comparison to North Carolina. F. N. Luckey, another friend of Dr. O'Hagan, talks about politics in Rowan County, North Carolina, reflecting on Old Line Whigs, Radicals, and Conservative Republicans. By 1871 Mr. Luckey is in the N.C. House of Representatives and he states that he believes Gov. Holden will be convicted, but also mentions that Holden's counsel has proved outrages committed by the "K. Kluxes." Louis Hilliard of Greenville writes in 1871 about the charges of Radical candidates going to Democratic meetings and making misstatements and then running off to their buggies and "gathering a crowd of negroes around them and entertaining them with jugs of whiskey." Hilliard believes the charges are false. As relates to letters from colleagues in the medical field, Jackson in 1869 discusses encountering, while at a conference in New York, a new gynecological instrument invented by Dr. Nott and includes a drawing he made of it. Dr. David Richard Wallace, formerly of North Carolina and living in Texas where he was superintendent of the State Lunatic Asylum, writes in 1875 about the pros and cons of various lectures and publications by fellow physicians and science versus religion. Letters from Solomon Sampson Satchwell written in 1882 discuss his chances at being elected as president of the State Board of Health in North Carolina and how politics, especially involving Jarvis (presumably North Carolina Governor Thomas Jordan Jarvis) appears to be ending his chances. Both Wallace and Satchwell had been surgeons during the American Civil War as was Dr. O'Hagan.
The largest portion of the correspondence was written by Dr. O'Hagan to his daughters Eliza and Martha (also listed as little Babe Sis) and his ward and niece Emma during the American Civil War while he is serving as Asst. Surgeon with the 1st North Carolina Cavalry (9th North Carolina State Troops) and then transferring to the 35th North Carolina Regiment as Surgeon. No mention is made in the letters of the charges he faced in late 1862 and the Court Martial where he was found not guilty and returned to the 35th N.C. Regiment in January 1863.
In 1861, Dr. O'Hagan's daughter Eliza was thirteen years old and daughter Martha was eleven. O'Hagan never mentions his wife Eliza in these letters, and he spends a lot of time reminding his eldest daughter how to behave, encouraging her to be nice to her Aunt Matilda (O'Hagan's sister) who is living with them, and to encourage her younger sister to write better and learn more. He instructs her on farming, selling crops, taking care of and selling horses, buying food and mentions the costs of various foodstuffs. At times he suggests that she sell some of the medicine (quinine, soda, cream of tartar) he has at home for his medical practice and will tell her what prices to get for them. He also sends daughter Eliza money for house and farm upkeep, and inquires about how his ward and niece Emma is doing. He insists that Eliza go back to school and sends her money for tuition. As the war goes on, he states that his reasons for surviving the war are his two daughters and Emma. The 1860 Slave Schedule for Greenville shows that Dr. O'Hagan had four enslaved persons: a fifty-five-year-old woman, a twenty-eight-year-old male, a male aged six, and a female aged three who is listed as a fugitive. In these letters Dr. O'Hagan gives Eliza instructions to pass onto Moss [sic?] for him to take care of, and also mentions Aunt Fanny and Aaron. I believe these are the three enslaved persons mentioned in the Slave Schedule, with the fourth enslaved person being a fugitive. In October 1861, O'Hagan sends Christmas presents for Fanny and Moss and asks Eliza to give some of his old clothing to Moss, and in the next two months he sends money to Moss, Aunt Fanny and Aaron. In January 1862, he chastises Eliza for taking clothes back from Moss and sending them onto him.
These letters contain a lot of good descriptions of camps and the areas they are set in including Camp Beauregard in Ridgeway, Warren County, N.C. (August 1861), Camp Ashe at Centreville, Virginia (November-December 1861) and winter quarters at Cantonment W. N. Edwards near Manassas, Virginia (January-February 1862), and Camp Ransom near Kinston (April-May 1862). O'Hagan does not spare his eldest daughter from the realities of war. While at Centreville in November 1861, he noted the odor of rotting bodies and that dead men were buried in a pile and often uncovered. In January 1862 he notes that no one had been lost to bullets, but many soldiers were dead due to disease. In January and February 1862 O'Hagan is fearful that there will be a great Yankee expedition in N.C. and that if Washington and Edenton fall, he instructs his eldest daughter to move everyone to Thomasville in Davidson County, North Carolina. He also tells her to burn the house and anything else she can't carry because he doesn't want Yankees living in his house.
July 1862 finds O'Hagan in camp at Drury's Bluff near Richmond, Virginia. O'Hagan is once again chastising his daughter for complaining about the lack of necessities in life and he proceeds to tell her about his limited diet. He is also concerned about the class of people she is allowing in his house, and he wants her to go off to school or she'll be unfit for decent society the rest of her life. In September 1862 O'Hagan's unit is camping near Martinsburg, Virginia, and he discusses the recent battle (probably Antietam aka Sharpsburg in Maryland) and gives names of Pitt County men who were wounded and Marboro Guards members who were killed. The 1862 letters end with October at Winchester. Only one letter from 1864 survives and O'Hagan is writing from a camp near Wilmington, North Carolina. He gives advice about holding onto the buggy and wagon harness, mentions prices for harness and salt, and advises them to get revaccinated.
1864 letters come from a camp near Hamilton, North Carolina, in February when he reveals that Moss, who has been with him, has been wounded and is in Tarboro waiting to be taken back to Greenville; and from Petersburg, Virginia, in July when he talks about the crops burning up in the heat and the prices of foodstuff.
1865 letters are written to daughter Martha from a field infirmary near Petersburg. In a February letter, O'Hagan has heard that Tarboro has been burned and he fears that same fate has befallen Greenville; mentions that daughter Elizabeth is safe at school in the Ursuline Convent in Columbia, South Carolina, because he was assured that General Sherman was Catholic and that "he (General Sherman) had promised the Mother Superior that the institution shall be fully protected"; and gives advice about selling tobacco. By the time he writes on March 9, 1865, to daughter Elizabeth, he relates that he has heard that the convent has burned down and that a man is leaving Petersburg to go to Columbia, S.C. and pick up several girls including Elizabeth to bring them back to Petersburg and drop her off in North Carolina. He also mentions the raid on Greenville just a couple days after he left there. Much property and houses were burned and destroyed but his place was spared, and Moss hid the horses. A letter containing a partial date (November 1, 186_) was sent by O'Hagan to his younger daughter Martha from Camp near Weldon. He mentions that he has bought Martha for her (his daughter Martha) and that she is living in Raleigh until he can get settled after the war. He also mentions the money he included with the letter and the food that he has bought in bulk for the family.
The next set of letters (1860-1869) were written by male admirers to O'Hagan's daughter Elizabeth. This correspondence indicates that Elizabeth, her sister Martha, her cousin Emma, her mother Eliza, and another woman took care of wounded soldiers in their home, and this appears to be where Elizabeth met her suitors. There are some good references to the war in these letters, but the larger focus is on flowery, dramatic, and romantic talk expressing their love to her and trying to convince her to love them back.
Frank C. Lowman of Fort Valley, Georgia, definitely stayed at the O'Hagan home while recovering from war wounds. Writing in April 1863, Frank has returned home to Fort Valley to finish recovering. He describes going to parties there and in Macon where the college has 150 young ladies enrolled [probably Wesleyan Female College]. In September he comments on Greenville having fallen into Yankee hands. In February 1864 he is stationed five miles from Harrellsville, North Carolina, where he is working in the Subsistence Dept. of the State of N.C., and he mentions that he is sorry that Emma (O'Hagan's niece and ward) has died. After the war's end he mentions in an October 1865 letter that there are picnics, dancing parties, and riding excursions in Fort Valley. His 1866 and 1867 letters have him traveling through Alabama on business and he gives a good description of Eufaula. Later he travels to DeSoto Parish in Louisiana where he gives his opinions of the locals. Another topic of discussion is his alcohol use, and alcohol use and gambling among young men; he states that "There seems to be a spirit of recklessness that predominates entirely in all of our principal cities and this is not confined to the cities alone, the country has its preposition."
Byron B. Bower, Adjutant with the 62nd Georgia Cavalry, writes to Miss Eliza O'Hagan in May and July 1863 about camping near Windsor and near Harroldsville [sic], North Carolina, tracking gunboats on the Chowan River and trying to catch the enemy moving upriver to Colerain, N.C. In a January 1866 letter he mentions that he was captured at Salsbury, N.C., on May 11, 1865.
Post war letters to Miss Eliza O'Hagan from suitors include, among others, an 1868 letter from Oznold at Beaufort, North Carolina, in which he gives a very good description of that town. Another prospective suitor, Hugh F. Murray of the Law Office of Woodard & Murray in Wilson, N.C., describes a steamboat trip he took from Greenville to Tarboro in 1869 and mentions entertainments available.
There are just a few letters written to Mrs. Eliza O'Hagan. Two of the letters thank her for the care the men received at her house during the war. Frank C. Lowman writes in February 1865, "Sherman's successful march through this state has emboldened him to try a similar trip through S. Carolina but there we have a force, to meet him and hopes are entertained of his capture or complete rout. There has been an erroneous idea very generally circulated in N.C. & Va. that Georgia would soon go back into the Union. I am glad to say that it is all false." There is one letter written to her mother by Miss Eliza O'Hagan in August 1864 while she is at school at the Ursuline Convent. She mentions that her father has heard nothing from her mother and suggests maybe her mother is using the wrong address. She also says that her father was 80 yards from a mine explosion near Petersburg, but he wasn't hurt. A letter (January 30, 1861) from Mrs. Eliza O'Hagan to her daughter Eliza at the convent school mentions "nothing but war is talked of and the end of time."
There a few poems and valentines and valentine poems (1844, 1863, and undated) with the earliest valentine poem (accompanied by a pencil drawing of Eliza O'Hagan) being written in1844 to Eliza in Kinston [possibly to Eliza Forrest from Charles J. O'Hagan] and there's a poem written to J. Bryan Grimes III when he is a baby.
The next section of this collection has to do mostly with the Grimes and Laughinghouse family correspondence, photographs, clippings, and clippings. The correspondence (1908-1947, undated) contains many postcards from places in Western United States (most are dated 1915) written to Mrs. J. J. Laughinghouse (Eliza O'Hagan Laughinghouse) in Greenville. Other postcards are written to J. Bryan Grimes at Grimesland and to E. L. Grimes in Washington, N.C. A 1930 letter from Assoc. N.C. State Supreme Court Justice Heriot Clarkson congratulates Charles O'Hagan Grimes on passing the bar exam. Two letters (1936, undated) are related to the J. Bryan Grimes estate and the Alston Grimes estate [half-brothers]. Several postcards (1936, 1937) written by Alston Grimes from Zamboa [Zamboanga, Philippines] contain photographs of Moro Vintas, which are sailboats, including one owned by Alston Grimes. In a 1947 letter, Kenneth C. Royall thanks Charles O'Hagan Grimes for his congratulations to Royall on being appointed Secretary of War.
Many of the photographs in the collection are unidentified. The few identified ones include C. J. O'Hagan as a baby (1879) who was the son of Dr. Charles J. O'Hagan and second wife Elvira, J. Bryan Grimes as a child, Nancy and Priscilla Ford, and a mother and her two children in Fairlington, Virginia (1950). The most interesting images are prints made by Sid Whiting of St. Louis, Missouri, of 1825 artistic renderings of John Herritage Bryan and his wife Mary W. Sheppard Bryan.
Clippings include a News and Observer article (1938) about the Southern General Bryan Grimes in the American Civil War and his subsequent assassination years after the war's end, and the trial of the accused murderer. Also included in this article are pictures of Grimes, the house and cistern and bell and milkhouse on his Grimesland plantation, and a telling of the legend that Susie White (her name is appended to part of the Grimesland land because it had belonged to her before being sold to the Grimes family) was pirate Edward Teach's sister and that there was a "Table Top Cypress" on the riverbank where Teach would use as a watch tower. Other clippings (1930) relate to the death and burial of Dr. Charles O'Hagan Laughinghouse (died August 26,1930).
The remaining items in this collection include biographical and genealogical sketches, a passport, artifacts, and oversize items. Of particular interest are handwritten notes taken from a letter (whereabouts unknown) that had a postmark of May 23, 1841, from Bally Money [Ballymoney, N. Ireland]. The notes concern Dr. Charles O'Hagan's father Patrick and indicate that he is staying in Portrush [N. Ireland] waiting to sail. Added information by the notetaker that was probably not in the letter indicates that Patrick sailed from Liverpool on June 11 and arrived in America on July 23, 1841. The biographical sketches refer to Dr. Charles O'Hagan Laughinghouse and handwritten biographical/genealogical notes refer to Dr. Laughinghouse's grandfather Dr. Charles James O'Hagan and great grandfather John Patrick O'Hagan.
Charles O'Hagan Grimes's 1929 passport is included here along with his 1907 birth certificate. The passport indicates that he was student traveling to the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland. A wallet belonging to Charles O'Hagan Grimes's father J. Bryan Grimes includes name cards for J. Bryan Grimes and his wife Elizabeth Forrest Laughinghouse Grimes and a card indicating that she was a student at The Metropolitan Art School for the season of 1929. Artifacts in this collection include a film roll mailer, which is a drawstring cloth bag containing a roll of unprocessed film and an attached mailing tab containing the address for the film processor Bennett's Photo in New Orleans; and "petrified quills." These "petrified quills" [which are probably fossilized sea urchin spines instead] came in an envelope, with information probably written in 1914, that identifies them as having been found in a well that was dug to a depth of 320 feet at the schoolhouse in the town of Grimesland in October and November 1914. George Thomas found the items at the depth of 157 feet when the well was being dug.
The oversize materials folder contains the 1840 testimonials about Charles J. O'Hagan's teaching experience in Northern Ireland; 1842 letters written from acquaintances in Northern Ireland to Charles J. O'Hagan while he is working with the Ordnance Survey in Liverpool, England; and an undated but probably 1915 newspaper handout titled "Latest World's News from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco" put out by the Editorial Board of the Exposition.
Purchased from William G. O'Quinn
Processed by Martha Elmore March 2024
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