Papers (1780-1969; bulk 1808-1924) including correspondence, land records, legal papers, financial papers, ledgers, etc., of two prominent Eastern North Carolina families--Grimes and Bryan--related through marriage. Other material concerns the Wharton and Conrad families of Clemmonsville, North Carolina, in Davidson County, who are also related by marriage to the Grimes family.
Papers (1767-1976) of three generations of Beaufort County, NC, lawyers named William B. Rodman, including correspondence, letterpress books, speeches, financial records, legal files, farm records, clippings, printed material, newspapers, photographs, genealogical material and miscellaneous. Originally from New York, the Rodmans married into the prominent Blount family in Beaufort County, NC. The Rodmans also held local and state government offices and were judges.
Papers (1819-1872) of Thomas Sparrow (1819-1884), a Washington, N.C., lawyer until the outbreak of the Civil War. He was commissioned a captain in the Confederate Army in 1861 and served at Fort Hatteras until he was taken prisoner by Union forces in August of that year. After the war he returned to Washington and represented Beaufort County in the North Carolina General Assembly in 1870 and 1881. Papers include correspondence, military papers, prisoner of war diary kept at Fort Warren, Massachusetts, articles, essays, speeches, accounts, clippings, genealogical notes, and Sparrow family Bible records. Also included are letters (1858-1881) written by Thomas Sparrow's son George Attmore Sparrow (1845-1922) to him describing life in Okaw/Arcola, Illinois, at Hillsborough Military Academy, in military service as a Confederate soldier, and in his post-war life as a farmer and lawyer and later as a Presbyterian minister.