This collection contains material (1818-1976) belonging to Emily Louise Loftin (May 10, 1898-December 20, 1985) of Carteret County, North Carolina. She was an educator, librarian, and historian. Included are correspondence, land records, legal records, receipts, wills, and estate records related to the Laughinghouse and Pugh families of Pitt County, N.C., the related Bright and Loftin families of Lenoir County, N.C., and the Pipkin family of Wayne County, N.C. This material was transferred from the Emily Loftin Collection at the History Museum of Carteret County, N.C. Material related to Carteret County remains at the History Museum of Carteret County.
Emily Louise Loftin was born 10 May 1898 in Carteret County, North Carolina, to Dr. Preston Brooks Loftin and Annie Bryan Laughinghouse Loftin. Dr. Loftin was born 2 Jul 1857 in Indian Springs, Wayne County, and died 9 May 1922 in Beaufort, Carteret County. Annie Bryan Laughinghouse was born on 1 Sep 1872 in Pitt County and died on 10 Oct 1962 in Durham, Durham County. Emily Loftin died on 20 Dec 1985 in Morehead City, Carteret County, and she and her parents are all buried in Oceanview Cemetery in Beaufort County, North Carolina. Emily Loftin was not married and did not have any children.
Sources: FindaGrave
Edward Stoughton Laughinghouse was born February 14, 1846, in Pitt County, N.C., to William John Laughinghouse and Ann Vines Laughinghouse. He married Rachel Frances Pridgen (or Pridgeon) on April 16, 1870. She was born January 17, 1847, the daughter of Lewis Bryant Pugh and Margaret Jane Bright Pugh. [Margaret Bright Pugh was the daughter of Simon and Rachel Bright.] Edward died December 26, 1908 and is buried in Trinity Cemetery in Chocowinity in Beaufort County, N.C. Rachel died February 28, 1935, and is buried in Saint Johns Cemetery in Grifton, Pitt County, N.C.
Sources: Edward S. Laughinghouse Bible, North Carolina Marriages, 1759-1979 Database on FamilySearch, Lewis Bryan Pugh Bible, 1870 U.S. Census, FindAGrave
The correspondence (1851-1937) pertains mainly to the Laughinghouse, Pugh, and Loftin families in the Kinston, Lenoir Co., and Grifton, Pitt Co., areas and deals with family and local activities. 19th Century correspondence includes several letters (1891-1894) between Annie Laughinghouse and her younger siblings Jesse and Rosebud (Rosa V.) and their Aunt Fannie Laughinghouse which reflect on life in Kinston for students who were boarding there while attending school. Some mention was given of subjects taken and particular teachers. An April 24, 1894, letter mentioned that a group from Greenville (Pitt Co.) including "cousin" Charles Laughinghouse performed the play "Comrades." P. B. Loftin wrote to his mother about going to medical school in Baltimore, Maryland, and in a December 17, 1887, letter he described an operation being performed on a patient while she was trying to give birth. A correspondent in Johnson's Mill wrote on December 31, 1894, about Convocation which took place over several days and about people dying of "yellow chills." A letter (1898) written on stationery for Dr. W. T. Woodley's Sanatorium in Charlotte by Wm. T. Woodley described at length the background of the Virginia lady he was planning to marry including property she owned, her being related to J.E.B. Stuart, and being a "working Methodist" which he considered better than being Episcopalian.
20th Century correspondence includes a 1908 postcard with an image of Rhodes Military Institute in Kinston, a 1912 letter from a Southerner who was attending Episcopalian Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and revised his opinion of "Yankees," and a 1912 letter giving a description of Phoenix, Arizona. Of special interest are letters (1910) between Samuel V. Laughinghouse of Grifton and W. T. Fitz Gerald and Company, patent lawyers in Washington, D.C., concerning Laughinghouse's inventions of a train car coupling device and automatic gates for trains. A minister in Tryon wrote on December 6, 1918, about the disruption to life caused by the flu and mentions epidemics in Spartanburg, Hendersonville, and Asheville and higher prices for food caused by the need to feed soldiers during World War I. A 1920 letter mentioned that soon-to-be inaugurated President and Mrs. Harding were in Norfolk and spoke at the Tabernacle and were heading to Bedford, Virginia, to speak to the Elks. An invitation to 1925 Commencement at Grifton High School included a card listing the class roll, officers, and advisor plus the class flower, colors, and motto.
Numerous letters are advertisements for cures such as Dr. Van Vleck's Absorption Cure for Piles, and Dr. G. H. McLin's Kolatona drink for good health. There's an advertising letter from Professor Hendrick Williamson (astrologer from Scranton, Pennsylvania). Other letters deal with payments to Guaranty Company of Chicago to cover dues to the Royal Arcanum (insurance) and there are insurance policies (1889, 1934).
This collection contains many holiday postcards and cards celebrating Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, and birthdays from which a sampling has been kept. As with the correspondence already discussed, the recipients are primarily members of the Laughinghouse, Pugh, and Loftin families. The holiday postcards cover the years 1906 to 1934 and the holiday cards cover the years 1919 to 1974.
There are numerous receipts (1836-1916) included for store accounts, taxes (especially Swift Creek and Contentnea Townships in Pitt County for 1870s-1890s), and tuition for local education (1848) and at Patapsco Female Institute (1866), as well as promissory notes and even a receipt (1855) for payment to a teacher in Pitt County. Most of the receipts concern the Laughinghouse family, Bright family (especially Simon Bright) of Lenoir County, Bryan Kilpatrick, and Lewis B. Pugh as administrator for Bryan Kilpatrick estate. Of particular interest are bills (1843-1844, 1849) for fees to be paid to witnesses for their attendance at and travel costs to trials in the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions in Lenoir County; receipts for daily labor costs (enslaved persons?) for 1860 and 1861; and a receipt from the Commissary's Department (A.C.S.) in 1864 for bacon from B. F. Bright on account of tax-in-kind.
Other odds and ends in the collection include three photographs of Edward S. Laughinghouse, one of Hattie Grice, and an unidentified tintype of a woman; documents (1901) related to buying headstones in Pitt County for Pugh family members; scattered entries in a 1909 diary for 1908, 1909, and 1914 regarding expenses and annual leave; and a list of patents won by Samuel Vines Laughinghouse related to trains.
Other estate records besides those pertaining to the Bryan Kilpatrick concern Laura E. Pugh, John Chapman of Pitt County, Lewis B. Pugh of Pitt County, and Edward S. Laughinghouse of Pitt County. Even though Laura E. Pugh of Lenoir County died on January 3, 1937, there are records from 1917 and 1931 with the estate records because they pertain to decisions made concerning the estate. Along with the estate records are the will of Susan Harper of Pitt County signed on November 30, 1853, and the undated will of Lewis B. Pugh of Pitt County.
There are land records (1818-1915) and more legal records (1819-1911) related to Pitt County families. Included are a plan (1818) of John Galloway's land, and deeds related to Noble (1830), Galloway (1835), Noble to Pugh (1851), Bland to Pugh (1855), Pugh to Kilpatrick (1899), and Laughinghouse to Thompson (1915). The other legal documents (mostly involving Laughinghouse family members) deal with debts, a mortgage, a rental contract, and an attempt by a widow to secure her dower portion of her deceased husband's land.
Other legal records (1835-1937) related to Lenoir County include estate records (1849-1851) for Simon Bright who died in October 1849, a removal permit (1937), repayment of debts (1851, 1916), and an 1835 document recording the deed of gift of seven named enslaved persons from Ila Loftin to her daughter Emily Ann Loftin. The enslaved persons are Lucy and her five children Alice, Mourning, Mary, Rachael and Stephen, plus another boy named Rufus.
A small number of legal records (1836-1866) pertain to Wayne County transactions affecting mainly Pipkin and Loftin family members. Included are deeds, a bond to cover debts, and an 1866 tax receipt for collection of direct taxes by the federal government based on the 1862 U.S. Congressional Act providing "for the collection of direct taxes in insurrectionary districts within the United States."
Since Emily Loftin was well-known for her work as a local historian, this collection contains a number of newspaper clippings related to the history of Beaufort County, Morehead City, the town of Beaufort, and Carteret County. Some of these clippings also mention Emily Loftin.
As relates to Emily Loftin's genealogy, there are pages tracing her family history and the Loftin Family Tree and the Powell-Taylor Family Tree. Other odds and ends include a 1906 survey of the Pugh Family Burying Ground on the land of W. H. Patrick, a program for the Davidson County Bicentennial service order of worship (June 13, 1976), funeral materials related to Maggie A. Pugh including remembrance cards and an "In Memoriam M. A. Pugh" sash and a 1926 clipping containing reminiscences of Confederate Col. W. N. Pugh's experience during the Civil War.
The oversize folder contains land records and other documents too large to fit into the document cases in the collection. Included are land deeds (1834-1882) pertaining mainly to Wayne County, but also to Duplin, Lenoir, and Pitt Counties involving members of the Pipkin, Herring, Loftin, Bright, and Pugh families. Also included are the results of an estate sale in 1866 for L. B. Pugh, an 1866 certificate from Patapsco Female Institute for Maggie Pugh, and a full-page newspaper ad for the 7th Grand Annual Exhibit by the East Carolina Fish, Oyster, Game and Industrial Association in New Bern in 1894. There's also an 1864 assessment form filled out by R. F. Bright stating the number of pigs he had killed since April 24, 1863, and the corresponding value of the pigs and how much bacon was therefore owed to the Confederate States government as a tax.
December 15, 2021, 2.0 cubic feet; This collection contains material (1818-1976) belonging to Emily Louise Loftin (May 10, 1898-December 20, 1985) of Carteret County, North Carolina. She was an educator, librarian, and historian. Included are correspondence, land records, legal records, receipts, wills, estate records related to the Laughinghouse and Pugh families of Pitt County, N.C., but also to related Bright and Loftin families of Lenoir County, N.C., and the Pipkin family of Wayne County, N.C. This material was transferred from the Emily Loftin Collection at the History Museum of Carteret County, N.C. Material related to Carteret County remains at the History Museum of Carteret County.
Transferred from History Museum of Carteret County
Processing completed by Martha Elmore and Matthew Lowe on April 11, 2022.
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. Copyright Law.