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The bulk of the Raymond J. Kragness Papers (1943-1946, 2000, 2004) pertains to Mr. Kragness's service in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theatre in World War II aboard the USS Escambia. Personal items include rites of passage membership cards (such as crossing the Equator), draft board notification, photographs, post cards of San Francisco Bay, course certificates, separation from service records and a brief family history. The remaining items pertain to his service on the USS Escambia, a fleet oiler. Included are the ship's history and directory, newsletter "Eighty Times," a list of ships fuled by the USS Escambia, plans of the day, congratulatory messages from Admiral Halsey, and invitations and tickets for commissioning and decommissioning ceremonies.

This collection contains material related to the Naval service of William Laedlein Wentz (November 25, 1925-April 8, 2014). Included are his Naval records such as correspondence, orders, and inventory forms plus a couple of items related to visits to Korea and China, and Historical Notes for Personnel of the Naval Operating Base at Saipan on Navy Day (October 27, 1946), and reproductions of the December 7, 1941, issue or Honolulu Star-Bulletin 2nd Extra and the December 8, 1941 issue of the Honolulu Advertiser.

Papers (1830-1919) of a prominent New Bern, NC attorney, state representative, 1876-1880, and state senator, 1881-1883, consisting of correspondence, legal briefs, financial papers, accounts, estate papers, land book and miscellaneous.

Records (1948-1972) of Wilson, NC tobacco warehouse, including poundage sheets, sales records, ledger sheets, daily summary journals, correction sheets, and other financial records.

Material (1898-1948) including legal correspondence and summons, tax receipts, accounts ledger, deeds, contracts and life insurance policies related to the real estate business of Gaston Watson (1865-1933) and his wife Fannie Morris Watson (1884-1965) of Wilson, North Carolina. Also included are photographs related to the family; WWII pay records and photographs related to son William Kirby Watson (1919-1993); and an 1854 copy of "Zion's Hymns" compiled for use in Original Free-Will Baptist Churches of North Carolina.

This collection (1850-1988) includes records pertaining to Whitaker's Chapel, a Methodist Church near Enfield in Northeastern North Carolina, and minutes (1848-1939) of the Methodist Protestant Church's Roanoke Circuit to which it belonged.

Papers (1917-1932, 1974) of a World War I veteran who served in the 310th Ambulance Train, 78th Division, including correspondence, documents, historical reports, rosters, ephemera, memorabilia, photographs, postcards, printed forms, and printed materials.

Material (1844-1891) including correspondence, account books, speeches, pamphlets, receipts, legal papers, and publications concerning William Robinson (an Irish immigrant) who was a newspaper publisher, town commissioner and mayor of Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina, and his son Dr. Marius Emmet Robinson who practiced in Goldsboro, operated a drugstore with his brother, and was the first chief of staff of Goldsboro's first hospital.

The Charles S. Sterrett Collection contains one print of the USS Wisconsin (BB-64) from 1945.

Material (1862-2017) including correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, narrative reminiscences, and a muster roll (1862) and other original documents related to Dr. William N. Still, Jr.'s career as a well-known and respected maritime historian and author. His research topics included shipbuilding in North Carolina, maritime history, and Naval history in the American Civil War through World War II.

Diary (1862-1863) including photocopy, camp life, burning of boat, etc.

Papers (1914-1988, undated) of David Balcombe, an enlisted man in the 1st Battalion, 4th Queen's West Surrey Territorial Regiment (Reserve) in India during World War I, 1914-1917; he later served as an instrument mechanic in India and Egypt in the Royal Flying Corps, 1917-1918. Consists primarily of correspondence (1914-1919) from David Balcombe to his parents in South Norwood, Surrey, England, plus clippings, ephemera, and photographs of India. Also included are letters (1928-1935) from Walter George Courtice to his sister Ruby R. Courtice, during his residency in Durban, South Africa.

Personal Correspondence (December 30, 1861-September 16, 1862; April 1863) written by William Wilberforce Douglas to his family members during his service in the Fifth Rhode Island Volunteers and in General Ambrose Burnside's Expeditionary Corps in North Carolina. Letters, copied by his mother, Sarah Sawyer Douglas, from originals into a single bound journal, include references to his time at the battles of Roanoke Island, New Bern, and Fort Macon. Additionally, the journal includes newspaper clippings accounting his exploits in the war.

The collection includes letters (July 1918-March 1919) written by family members and friends in Jamesville, Martin County, North Carolina, to Asa J. Hardison while he was in World War I service with a medical detachment at Camp Greenleaf at Fort Oglethorpe in Chickamauga Park in Georgia and then at Camp Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. Also included are two letters (1909-1910) written by Maggie Roberson (Martha Ann Whitley Roberson) of Jamesville to her brother.

Collection (1795-1919) consisting of photocopies of tax lists, correspondence, election polls, business receipts, legal papers, and miscellaneous items concerning the Smith family of Chicod, Pitt County, N.C.