The True Lost Cause: The Battle for Peace in February, 1861

Fort Sumter from the Battery in Charleston.

April 11, 1861 was America’s last day of peace.

On April 8^th, President Lincoln’s envoy to the Governor of South Carolina announced the President’s intention to resupply the besieged garrison at Fort Sumner with food and water, threatening to prolong indefinitely the stalemate that had begun the previous December 26^th.  The implication of Lincoln’s action was that, if war was to come, then the Southern firebrands who had advocated for a state’s right to leave the Union would have to turn push into shove.

The cascade of fear and anger that had begun with Lincoln’s election in November had almost run out of steam by April, 1861.  South Carolina, ever fast to take offense, led the way on December 20^th, followed by Mississippi (Jan. 9), Florida (Jan. 10), Alabama (Jan. 11), Georgia (Jan. 19), Louisiana (Jan. 26), and Texas (Feb. 1).   But there the flood tide had run out, and in the months since it seemed that overwrought tempers and heated words had cooled and even begun to recede.

The rock on which the initial secession wave broke was the Upper South, the border states possessing a majority of the southern populace, natural resources and industry.    Even there the vocal minority of men of property and power had advocated for secession.   But Unionists held back the flood, pointing out that the United States had been created by state constitutional conventions, authorized by a vote of the people, which then ratified (or not, in the case of North Carolina), the U.S. Constitution.  They argued that secession, more simply known as “Disunion,’ could only be achieved by following a similar process.  They hoped this delaying tactic would provide time to think, consider the consequences, and allow the possibility of compromise and new understanding.

On February 9, 1861, Tennessee voted on whether to send delegates to a State Convention to decide on secession.  88,803 votes were cast for pro-Union candidates and 22,749 votes were cast for Secession candidates, but the actual proposal for a secession convention was defeated by a vote of 69,675 to 57,798.

On  February  13^th a convention assembled in Richmond to determine whether Virginia should secede from the Union.  More than two thirds of the delegates refused to vote for secession.

On Feb. 18^th, the day that Jefferson Davis was inaugurated president of the Confederate States, the citizens of Arkansas approved holding a convention to consider the question, but when an ordinance of secession was put to a vote on March 16^th, it was rejected by a vote of 39 to 35.

Anyone reading the returns of the election of 1860 could have discerned the pro-Union sentiments of the voters of North Carolina.  When the final vote totals were published in the Greensboro Patriot on February 14, 1861, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, the Southern Democratic candidate, had received the most votes (48,533); second was John Bell of Tennessee, the Constitutional Union nominee (44,039); and far behind was the Democrat Stephen A. Douglas (just 2,690 votes).   When their totals are combined, more than 97% of North Carolina voters arguably approved the pro-Union positions of Bell and Breckinridge.  (Abraham Lincoln probably didn’t get a single vote in Randolph County during the election of 1860; the new Republican Party had not garnered enough votes in the previous election to even be allowed on the North Carolina ballot.)

On January 29^th the North Carolina General Assembly scheduled a referendum on whether to call a secession convention.  “Whereas, the present perilous condition of the country demands… that the sovereign people of this State should assemble in Convention to effect an honorable adjustment of existing difficulties whereby the Federal Union is endangered, or otherwise preserve the honor and promote the interests of North Carolina; and Whereas, this General Assembly, on matters of such grave import, involving the relation of North Carolina to her sisters in the Confederacy, is reluctant to adopt any settled policy without the sense of the people in whom, under our governance, all sovereignty resides, being first ascertained.” [The act was  published in the Feb. 14^th edition of the Greensboro Patriot.   The Yoda-like sentence structure of its preamble is a potent combination of florid Victorian language and turgid legalese.]

The act required the Governor “to issue a proclamation commanding the Sheriffs of the respective counties… to open polls… on the 28^th day of February, A.D. 1861, when and where all persons qualified to vote… may vote for or against a State Convention:  those who wish a convention, voting with a printed or written ticket, ‘Convention,’ and those who do not wish a convention, voting in the same way, ‘No Convention.’”

At the same time, potential delegates were to be elected in case the Convention was approved.  Further complicating the process, even if the Convention met and approved an Ordinance of Secession, the bill still would require ratification by yet another vote of the people before it could take effect.

Campaigning against the Convention- against “Disunion”- began immediately in The Patriot, the old-line Whig newspaper serving Randolph and Guilford counties.  On Thursday, February 6^th, the editor wrote “TO THE POLLS!  The bill calling a Convention, having provided that it shall be left to the people to say, through the ballot-box, whether or not they desire said Convention, we hope and trust that every man who loves his country, who desires the perpetuity of this Union, will resolve, if possible, to be at the polls and record his vote against a Convention.  Let no one be deceived:  The real question is Union or Disunion…. Let no one say, that it is useless to vote… It may be, and we think it probably that a majority will be cast for a ‘Convention,’ yet it is of the utmost importance, that as large a vote as possible should be cast against a Convention, for every vote so cast will be a vote for the Union…”

On January 31^st, Jonathan Worth, leader of the Randolph Whigs and newly-elected to represent the county in the state House of Commons, issued “a circular to his constituents” which took a strong stand against the Convention.  “Every artifice will be employed to make you believe that the Convention is to be called to save the Union.  Believe it not…. If war begins, it will probably be brought on during the sitting of the Convention.  It is now the policy of the disunionists to postpone hostilities till President Buchanan goes out and President Lincoln comes in.  They will probably court a fight as soon as Lincoln takes the reins…. Believe not those who may tell you this Convention is called to save the Union.  It is called to destroy it.  If you desire to preserve the Union, vote ‘No Convention.’” [Worth’s Circular was excerpted in the Patriot of Feb. 6, 1861, and printed in full in the Feb. 14^th issue.]

The last issue of The Patriot before the referendum (Feb. 21^st) was full of articles and editorials seeking to get out the vote of faithful Whigs.  “The 28^th of February, the day which perhaps will decide the fate of the Union, is close at hand.… Let every man then who loves his country be at his post… There is a battle to be fought.  A battle upon the result of which hang the destinies of this Nation.  The enemies of our Union have been marshaling their forces.  The hand is already uplifted to strike down the flag of our country!  Union men, to the rescue!  To the rescue!  …Believe not those who tell you, that the question is, whether North Carolina shall go with the North, or the South.  The issue, and the only issue, is Union, or disunion… If we are but true to ourselves, the stars and stripes will yet continue to wave over the freest and happiest people upon whom the sun ever shown.”

The editorial quotes multiple stanzas of a poem,

“Stand like an anvil, when the stroke

Of stalwart men falls fierce and fast,

Storms but more deeply root the oak

Whose brawny arms embrace the blast.

Stand like an anvil, when the sound

Of ponderous hammers pains the ear;

Thine, but the still and stern rebound

Of the great heart, that cannot fear.”

“The Convention will be the first step toward revolution…” another editorial blasted.  “The vote…will be the most important ever polled in North Carolina.  We hope and trust the people will follow the example set them by Tennessee… [and say] in a voice that cannot be misunderstood, that this Union ‘must and shall be preserved.’”

When the great day of battle arrived, the voters of North Carolina joined in electoral combat at the polling places, and the forces of Union achieved a narrow victory, rejecting the Convention by a vote of 47,705 (No Convention) to 47,611 (Convention).   The traditional Piedmont Quaker counties overwhelming voted for the Union and against the Convention.  Chatham County cast 283 votes for the Convention, but 1,795 against it.  In Guilford County, the margin of victory was 25 to 1.  And in Randolph, editor E.J. Hale exulted in the Asheboro Herald of March 3, 1861,  “Listen to the thunder of Randolph!

“Convention…………………..45

“No Convention……………..2,436!

“The honest democracy of this county have showed that they love their country better than their party; and the Whigs, who detest the accursed doctrine of secession, have made their action conform to their principles, by voting against convention—the instrument, solely relied upon by secessionists to make their heresy effectual, and impotent to do anything else.”  [The Asheboro Herald is a newspaper which has not survived, except as copied in the Greensboro Patriot of March 14^th]

Alongside the results of the referendum printed in the March 14^th Greensboro Patriot was the inaugural address of President Lincoln, delivered on March 4^th , and agreeing with the pro-Union sentiments of North Carolina voters in his assertion that “the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.”

The final canvass of the Randolph County vote was 2,570 to 45, a ratio of 57 pro-Union voters to every one pro-Confederate secessionist.   That lop-sided proportion struck newspapers in eastern North Carolina as fishy… the New Bern Progress [quoted in the April 11, 1861 Greensboro Patriot], headed its editorial “Something Wrong.”

“There must be something wrong in the vote cast in Randolph county for and against Convention.  In 1856 Randolph cast for Bragg and Gilmer 1842 votes, in 1860 for Ellis and Pool she gave 2015 votes; in November for President she gives 1589; and in February 1861, six months later, on the question of Convention, they run up to 2514, showing a clear gain since August last of 497 votes.  Now when you consider that the vote in August last was by far the largest ever polled in the state and that every county strained its full strength, we come deliberately to the conclusion that there is something wrong about the Convention vote in Randolph… We hope the matter will be sifted and that we will have new light on the subject.”

The editor of the Fayetteville Observer, in a lengthy defense of the Randolph vote, replied [again, quoted in the Patriot of April 11^th], “We have heard what perhaps the Progress has not– the county of Randolph was more thoroughly canvassed, and the people more thoroughly aroused, at the late elections, than ever before.  They are attached to the Union, and they felt that the Union was in danger.”

The terrible irony of this rousing defense of the pro-Union vote in Randolph County is that it was published on the last day of peace.  Early that next morning the hungry defenders of Fort Sumter saw their supply ship approach, and be turned away by the start of a two-day bombardment by the Army of South Carolina.

On April 15, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation, calling for as many as 75,000 troops to crush the rebellion.  That call to bear arms against fellow Southerners was too much for the upper South states.  On April 17^th, Virginia’s Secession Convention (still in session since January) saw former Governor Wise seize the podium and announce that he had ordered the state militia to capture federal installations in the jurisdiction, and pulling out a pistol, dared the Convention to stop him.  Within minutes the delegates had voted 88 to 55 to recommend disunion to the state’s voters.

Arkansas voted to leave the union on May 6^th.   The last state to join the Confederacy, on June 8^th, was Tennessee, and even then eastern half of the state overwhelmingly voted against it.

On May 1, 1861, the North Carolina General Assembly bypassed the voters to call directly for a Convention.  The Convention delegates passed an Ordinance of Secession on May 20^th, but the eager Confederate Congress, already meeting in Richmond, had “provisionally” admitted the state to the Confederacy three days earlier.

This past February I told a group of local high school students that February 28^th was the anniversary of one of the most important votes ever taken in Randolph County:  to secede and join the Confederacy, or to stay with the Union.  How did they thing their ancestors of 1861 voted? How would they have voted?

Without hesitation, they all voted to join the Confederacy, “of course.”

It is a huge loss when the modern residents of Randolph County have no idea of the true struggles of their forebears during the “Civil War” period.  It is a terrible mis-use of history that teaches children some muddy “big picture” and completely loses the details.

We still fight a war of words over what to call the conflict that began April 12, 1861.  The “winning” side prefers to call it “The Civil War;” unreconstructed Southerners insist it was “The War Between the States.”  The poet Walt Whitman simply called it “The Secession War,” and that best describes what happened in North Carolina.  One of the bravest battles of the war which would last 4 years and kill more than 600,000 Americans  was the very nonviolent, yet very verbal battle for the Union which was fought in Randolph County in the spring of 1861.  As we commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the breakdown of peaceful conflict resolution, no finer memory of the Quaker heritage of our county can be found than in its struggle to preserve, not destroy, the United States of America.

Notes on A Confederate Christmas

"Santa Claus in Camp, 1864" by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly.

Introductory Note:
“Mrs. James Lafayette Winningham…”
On 24 May 1876 Nancy Hannah Steed married James Lafayette Winningham (ca. 1853- 1930), the son of Siebert Francis Marion Winningham and Laura Ann Lyndon.  Winningham was born at Union Factory, now Randleman, North Carolina.  [Internet geneaological research on the Winningham and Steed families was largely posted by Donald Winningham.]

“…was the daughter of John Stanley Steed and Rachel Director Swaim.”
John Stanley Steed (22 Feb 1829 – 3 May 1899) was the son of Charles Steed (15 May 1782- March 1847), who served Randolph County both as a member of the North Carolina Senate and as a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives.  His mother Hannah Raines (born circa 1788- died after 1850) married Charles Steed on 25 Jan 1806.  John Stanley Steed married Rachel Director Swaim (15 Nov 1835 – 27 Nov 1880) about the year 1852.

Paragraph 1:
“As I was born in 1857…”
Nancy “Nannie” Hannah Steed was born 14 June 1857.

“My mother always took the children home to her father’s for the holidays”
Rachel Steed’s parents were Joshua Swaim (1804-1868) and Nancy H. Polk (1808 – 14 April 1865), who married in Guilford County on 1 September 1824, but lived in the Cedar Falls area (the area west of Franklinville, south of Grays Chapel, and east of Millboro).  The Christmas of 1864 may have stuck in Nannie Steed’s memory because it was the last she would have with her maternal grandmother Nancy Polk Swaim.

Maternal grandfather Joshua Swaim was the son of William Swaim and Elizabeth Sherwood, and nephew of the Clerk of Court Moses Swaim (1788-1870).   Joshua and Nancy Swaim were buried in the old Timber Ridge cemetery near Level Cross.  Here is a link to photographs of their tombstones: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~davidswaim/TimberRidge.htm

“In their home were our three young aunts and a young uncle, all full of life and fun, and about ten grandchildren.”
Nancy and Joshua Swaim of Cedar Falls had the following children, several of whom had moved West before the time of the Civil War.  Numbers 7 through 10 are Nannie’s “young aunts and uncle”:
1.  James Polk Swaim (November 21, 1825 – February 04, 1890); m. Sarah McDonald about 1848; died in  Franklin County, Ark.
2.  Elizabeth Swaim (September 30, 1827-  June 28, 1846).
3.  Margaret J. Swaim, b. March 22, 1829- February 29, 1848.
4.  Mary Swaim (b. ca. 1831); md. Mr. Glass before 1854.
5.  William Walter Swaim (February 10, 1833 – died October 17, 1905 in Eldora, Hardin County, Iowa); m. Mary Ann Davis, ca. 1859, in Hamilton Co., Indiana.
6.  Rachel Director Swaim, (November 15, 1835 – May 27, 1880); m. John Stanley Steed on October 07, 1852.  [Nannie’s Grandma Swaim]
7.  Luther Clegg Swaim (b. ca. 1837, d. ca. 1868) [Nannie’s Uncle “Luther Clegg”]
8. Susannah Swaim (b. ca. 1840); m. J.L. Coble, September 04, 1862.
9. Hannah Swaim (b. ca. 1841); m. Henry C. Green, October 06, 1864.
10. Martha Swaim (b. ca. 1847).

{The family information is Included in the Polk family genealogy, posted by Kathy Parmenter at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/POLK/1999-07/0931116431 }.

“Of us there were my three brothers and myself.”
As of this time in the story, John and Rachel Steed had the following children:  Emily, born 1853, who died in infancy; Wiley Franklin, born 1855; Nancy Hannah, born 1857; Henry Luther, born 1860; Joshua Nathaniel, b. 1862.

Paragraph 2:
“The young people had wheat or potato coffee…”
Imports of coffee and other delicacies were reduced almost to the point of nonexistence by the federal blockade of southern ports.  According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_substitute ), Roasted acorns, almonds, barley, beechnuts, beetroots, carrots, chicory, corn, cottonseed, dandelion root, figs, okra seed, peas, Irish potatoes (but only the peel), rice, rye, soybeans, and sweet potatoes have all been used as coffee substitutes.  Roasted and ground wheat as a non-caffeinated substitute for coffee was popular again in the United States during both World War I and II, when coffee was sharply rationed.   “Postum”  was the brand name of an instant-style coffee substitute made from wheat bran, corn and molasses which was popular in North Carolina in the 20th century, but production was discontinued in October, 2007.

Paragraph 3:
“In our stockings were…ginger cakes…”
Ginger is a tropical root imported from Africa, Jamaica, India or China.  It was a much-loved spice during the Civil War era; ginger beer, ginger ale, and all sorts of ginger cakes and breads were popular.  Some recipes could be rolled out, cut into shapes and hung on the tree; some were soft like bread and others were hard and crisp.  The following recipe from a Civil War reenactor group makes crisp, sugar- coated cookies suitable for putting in a stocking:

3/4 cups shortening

1 cup sugar

1 beaten egg

1/4 cup molasses

2 tsp. soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ginger

2 cups flour

Combine shortening and sugar into a cream; add the egg and molasses and mix well. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the shortening mixture. Mix until combined. Roll into walnut sized balls and roll in sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 – 10 minutes.

Paragraph 4:
“…my aunties started the eggnog…”
Various milk punches were known in Europe and brought to America, so the exact orgin of Egg Nog is obscure.  “Nog” is an old English word with roots in East Anglia dialects that was used to describe a kind of strong beer which was served in a small wooden mug called a “noggin”.   “Egg nog” is first mentioned in the early nineteenth century but an alternative British name was “egg flip,” a punch made with milk and wine, particularly Spanish Sherry.
Internet sites repeatedly cite an unnamed and unsourced English visitor who wrote in 1866, “Christmas is not properly observed unless you brew egg nogg for all comers; everybody calls on everybody else; and each call is celebrated by a solemn egg-nogging…It is made cold and is drunk cold and is to be commended.”
The English author Elizabeth Leslie regularly published cookbooks on both sides of the Atlantic from 1837 to 1857.  Her Directions for Cookery, published in 1840, introduced the concept of the “sandwich” to America.  This recipe for Egg Nogg comes from the edition of 1851:
“Beat separately the yolks and whites of 6 eggs. Stir the yolks into a quart of rich milk, or thin cream, add half a pound of sugar. Then mix in half a pint of rum or brandy. Flavor with a grated nutmeg. Lastly, stir in gently the beaten whites of three eggs. It should be mixed in a china bowl.”

Perhaps the last word on Confederate egg nog would be the recipe of Mary Custis (Mrs. Robert E.) Lee herself::

-10 eggs, separated

-2 c. sugar

-2 1/2 c. brandy

1/2 c. and 1 tsp. dark rum

-8 c. milk or cream

Blend well the yolks of ten eggs, add 1 lb. of sugar; stir in slowly two tumblers of French brandy, 1/2 tumbler of rum, add 2 qts new milk, & lastly the egg whites beaten light (very fluffy).  Allow to “ripen” in a cold but not freezing place; an unheated room or porch was the common location for Mrs. Lee.

From The Robert E. Lee Family Cooking and Housekeeping Book (UNC Press, 2002), by Anne Carter Zimmer.

Paragraph 5:
“…expressed in those days as ‘Christmas Gift’…”
The phrase “Merry Christmas” was popularized around the world following the appearance of the Charles Dickens’ story, A Christmas Carol in 1843.  Robertson Cochrane, Wordplay: origins, meanings, and usage of the English language, p.126. (University of Toronto Press, 1996).  “Christmas Gift!”  is an earlier Southern tradition, used as a greeting.   The first person saying it on Christmas morning traditionally received a gift.  See “Whistlin’ Dixie: A Dictionary of Southern Expressions” by Robert Hendrickson (Pocket Books, New York, 1993).

Paragraph 6:
“Which is it, the old bad man or the Yankees?”
She is using a euphemism for “the Devil,” a word considered to be so much a curse word at the time that a well-bred young lady was not allowed to use such language.  The Devil was on the side of the Yankees, just as God was supposed to be on the side of the Confederacy.

"Little Christmas Waifs Are We"- 19th century Christmas Card

“…the old English custom of the waifs of England.”
It is unclear whether Nannie has here conflated two distinct Christmas rituals from medieval England, or whether the traditions had previously merged in the antebellum South.
The surviving English tradition is of the Christmas “Waits,” musicians and singers who go from door to door “waiting,” or caroling.  According to the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, “wait” is the name of a medieval night watchman, who sounded a horn or played tunes to mark the hours.  By the 15th century waits had become bands of itinerant musicians who paraded the streets at night at Christmas time, and became combined with another ancient tradition, “wassailing”.  It gradually became expected that the musicians would receive gifts and gratuities from the townspeople, and often “those who went wassailing would dress up like street waifs or ragamuffins.”  http://www.cafepress.com/+christmas_waifs_sticker,320599343
One other British custom of the Christmas season was specifically aimed at soliciting alms.  “Thomasing” anciently occured on 21 December (St Thomas’s Day) when the village poor people visited the homes of their better-off neighbours soliciting food and provisions to help them through the winter. Also called “Gooding,” “Mumping,” and “Doleing,” the earliest reference is from the year 1560, but the custom gradually declined through the 19th century as poor relief was institutionalized, and laws were passed against ‘begging’.
In the South this tradition may have inspired a tradition of inviting local orphans or “waifs” to spend Christmas afternoon with rural families or in urban church socials. [books.google.com/books?isbn=0253219558 ]  In 1864 the “ crowning amusement” of Christmas day for the Davis children in Richmond was “the children’s tree,” erected in the basement of St. Paul’s Church, decorated with strung popcorn, and hung with small gifts for orphans.   (First Lady Varina Davis’s 1896 article “Christmas in the Confederate White House” makes an  interesting contrast to Nannie Steed Winningham’s story of Christmas in rural Randolph County;
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/on-the-homefront/culture/christmas.html ).

The First Confederate States Flag

Paragraph 7:
“ The Bonnie Blue Flag”
-is a marching song associated with the Confederacy.   The song was written to an Irish melody by entertainer Harry McCarthy during a concert in Jackson, Mississippi, in the spring of 1861 and first published that same year in New Orleans.  The song’s title refers to the unofficial first flag of the Confederate States, the symbol of secession from the Union bearing the “single star” of the chorus.   The “Band of Brothers” mentioned in the first line of the song is a reference to the St. Crispin’s day speech in Shakespeare’s play Henry V.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonnie_Blue_Flag]
Here is the song:  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21566/21566-h/music/bonnie.midi

“The Girl I left behind me”
-is a popular folk tune.  The first known printed text appeared in an Irish song collection in 1791; the earliest known version of the melody was printed in Dublin about 1810.   It was known in Britain as early as 1650, under the name “Brighton Camp”.  It was adopted by the US regular army as a marching tune during the War of 1812 after they heard a British prisoner singing it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_I_Left_Behind

The song can be heard here:  http://www.contemplator.com/england/girl.html

“Hurrah for the Southern Rights, Hurrah! Hurrah!”
-Hurrah! Hurrah!/ For Southern rights, hurrah!” is actually the first two lines of the chorus of  “The Bonnie Blue Flag.”  ‘Hurrah! Hurrah! For the Southern Rights, hurrah!’ is an alternative reading of the line that is only found in Gone With The Wind, page 236.  Both undoubtedly reflect the way singers at the time added ‘the’ to mirror the same article in ‘the’ Bonnie Blue Flag.

“Hurrah! for the Homespun Dress the Southern Ladies Wear”
-”The Homespun Dress,” also known as “The Southern Girl,” or “The Southern Girl’s Song,” is a parody of The Bonnie Blue Flag that oral historians have found in variant versions all over the South.  Most authorities attribute the words to Miss Carrie Belle Sinclair of Augusta, Georgia.  See Songs of the Civil War, by Irwin Silber, Jerry Silverman; Dover, 1995, p.54.  The lyrics can be found at http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-HomespunDress.htmlv

Oh, yes, I am a Southern girl,

And glory in the name,

And boast it with far greater pride

Than glittering wealth and fame.

We envy not the Northern girl

Her robes of beauty rare,

Though diamonds grace her snowy neck

And pearls bedeck her hair.

CHORUS: Hurrah! Hurrah!

For the sunny South so dear;

Three cheers for the homespun dress

The Southern ladies wear!

Paragraph 8:
“…Mars Luther Clegg had drinked too much eggnog.”
“Mars,” short-hand for “Master,” was used by enslaved people as a general title of respect, in the same way that white people would use “Mister.”
Luther Clegg Swaim was born in Cedar Falls in 1837.  On February 1, 1866 he married Dorcas Aretta Odell (1828-1918), daughter of James Odell and wife Anna Trogdon.  This was the second marriage for Dorcas Odell, the sister of J.M. Odell and J.A. Odell who worked for George Makepeace in the factory stores at Cedar Falls and Franklinsville.  John M. Odell was the first Captain of the Randolph Hornets, Company M.  Her brother Laban Odell became Major of the 22nd Regiment, and was killed at Chancellorsville.  Her first husband was her second cousin, Solomon Franklin Trogdon, who died in 1860.  She had two sons in the first marriage, and a daughter with Luther Clegg Swaim before he died in 1868.  Dorcas’s son Williard Franklin Trogdon became the original geneaologist of the Trogdon family, publishing the family history which provided this information in 1926.

Paragraph 9:
“My father and my uncle owned and operated a large tannery, shoe and harness shop.”
The J. S. Steed family is the very first one listed in the Western Division of Randolph County’s 1860 census; his occupation is listed as “Tanning,”  and a 17-year-old boarder living with them is listed as “Apprentice Tanner.”  Family #2 in that census is David Porter, a buggy manufacturer and grandfather of author William Sidney Porter.  I believe the Porters lived on the southeast corner of the intersection of Salisbury Street and the Plank Road (Fayetteville Street)- where First Bank is today.

The 1860 Census  of Manufacturing for Randolph County lists “J.W. & J.S. Steed” as engaged in “Tanning… Boot and Shoe Making…[and] Harness Making.”  6 employees in 1859 cured “1400 sides of harness, sole and upper leather” worth $2000; made 40 pair of boots worth $300; 250 pair of shoes worth $500; and 50 setts of harness worth $900.

The Steeds probably lived on Salisbury between Cox and the Plank Road, but the location of his tannery is unclear.  The only tannery I am aware of that was ever located in or around Asheboro itself is the one located on the site of the present-day Frazier Park, across Park Street from Loflin Elementary School.  The branch that heads in a spring (now piped underground) on that site is called Tan Yard Branch.

“My uncle” probably refers to the “J.W. Steed” listed on the Census of Manufacturing; this was Joseph Warren Steed, born ca. 1806, and little else is known about him.   It could also refer to John Stanley Steed’s brother Nathaniel Steed (3 May 1812 -10 Nov 1880).  In 1832 Nathaniel married Sarah (“Sallie”) Redding (9 Oct. 1811 -10 Aug. 1852), daughter of John Redding and Martha Jane Swaim.  They are buried at Charlotte Church, on Old Lexington Road west of Asheboro.

“Early in 1864 my father… was drafted and sent to eastern Carolina, where he was in the service..”
[Some of you Civil War experts, trace his service record, please.]

Paragraph 10:
“…our faithful family physician, who on account of advancing years bad about given up his practice until the war began…”
Could this have been Dr. John Milton Worth, (28 June 1811 -5 April 1900), who studied at the Medical College in Lexington, Kentucky and practiced in Asheboro up to the time of the war?  A substantial part of Dr. Worth’s war years were spent overseeing the Salt Works near Fort Fisher, so this may be some other faithful family physician.

“On the morning of the 10th we were told we had a little brother named for his daddy…”
John Stanley Steed, Jr., born December 1864.  The Steeds would have five more children over the next 15 years.  Rachel Steed evidently died during childbirth in 1880.

A view of antebellum New Bern from the Neuse River

Paragraph 12:
“There was a man in our town called Captain Pragg, who owned a dry goods store…”
The name “Pragg” is not found in the Randolph County census records for 1860 or 1870, but “Isaiah Prag” does appear in Randolph County marriage bond records for April 19, 1865, when he married “Mrs. Jane Sugg.”  This was apparently the second marriage for each of them, as according to family genealogical records “Mrs. Sugg”‘s maiden name was Jane Adaline Andrews (1841-1907).  She may have a family connection to Lt. Col. Hezekiah L. Andrews of western Randolph, who was killed at Gettysburg.
Isaiah  Prag was born 20 October 1824 in the town of Hadamar in the state of Hesse, Germany.  He first appears in America in the 1850 census of Annapolis, Maryland, with wife Rose Adler (1827-1864), and a new baby, Mary.  Prag would ultimately have 8 children by his first wife, and 7 by his second.  By 1860 Isaiah and family have relocated to New Bern, NC, where he is in business as a “merchant.”   From June 1, 1861 to February 10, 1862, the state Quartermaster’s office paid receipts totalling $13,11320 for purchases from Isaiah Prag.  He evidently provided most of the “dry goods” or clothing needed to equip at least two companies of Craven County volunteer troops: Company F and Company K (The Elm City Rifles):  98 suit coats and pants; 74 flannel shirts and 199 striped shirts; 218 caps, 141 pairs of “drawers” and 160 pairs of “pantaloons;” not to mention 556 overcoats- enough for 5 companies!
Isaiah Prag is also listed as an “Ordinance Sergeant” in Company B of Clark’s Special Battalion of the North Carolina Militia, but further details of his military service are not yet known.
Prag’s initial connection to Randolph County is also unclear.  It is possible that he was involved with the local factories in the production of underwear under contract to the Quartermaster.  His work supplying the army may have forced him to leave New Bern after its capture by federal forces on March 14, 1862.  It doesn’t seem likely that Prag would have been allowed to frequently cross enemy lines if his family remained in New Bern, but  Rose Adler Prag is said to have died in New Bern on July 20, 1864.
The 1870 census finds Isaiah and Jane Prag in Calvert County, Maryland.  The 1879-80 city directory of Baltimore (p. 625) lists 6 separate families of Prags, with Isaiah listed as selling furniture.  The 1880 census finds him settled in Cambridge, Maryland, the seat of Dorchester County on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay.  This is where family records place him at the time of his death, April 18, 1889.
It appears that Isaiah and Rose Adler Prag were Jewish, and may have been one of the first Jewish families to reside in Randolph County.  That may be why Isaiah gave the Steed family as valuable a gift as the ham would have been in 1864- religious dietary laws would have prevented him from eating it.
[Sources:  US Census records for the years cited; Randolph County Marriage Bonds; Miscellaneous Records of the North Carolina Quartermaster’s dealings with Isaiah Prag or Pragg, preserved in the National Archives at Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, 1861-65 ; the Park Service online list of Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, at http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/>; Prag family geneaology records on Ancestry.com at http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/person.aspx?pid=1078239925&tid=16758860&ssrc= .]

Paragraph 13:
“My present was a balmoral (petticoat) which she had carded, spun and woven herself…”
A Balmoral was a long woollen petticoat which was popularized by Queen Victoria at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.  Usually of striped fabric, it was worn immediately beneath the dress so that it showed below the skirt.

The woman wearing a Balmoral in this “carte de visite” is Rachel Bodley (1831-1888), the first female chemistry professor at Philadelphia’s Women’s Medical College from 1865 to 1873.

Paragraph 14:
“…a bowl of mush or … plate of thick corn pones.”
Corn Meal Mush was made two different ways, and it appears that Mr. Winningham liked both of them.  The first was prepared in rolls like sausage or in loaf pans like modern liver pudding.  The cook would cut it in slices, dredge in egg yolk, dust in flour, fry and serve with butter, molasses, syrup or powdered sugar.  The second method was to boil the corn meal in a saucepan just as if preparing raw oatmeal or grits.  It was then served hot in a bowl topped with milk, sugar, fruit, raisins, nuts or ice cream.
“Corn Pone” is corn bread made without milk or eggs, and either baked in hot coals (as described by Nannie Winningham) or fried.

Modern Corn Pone Recipe (makes 4 servings):

Ingredients:  3 cups cornmeal; 3 teaspoons salt; 2-3 cups water; 3 tablespoons lard

Directions:  Bring water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Add cornmeal and salt and immediately remove from stove. Mix well.  Melt half of lard in a baking pan to coat. Stir remaining lard into corn meal mixture. Pour mixture into baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes, or until golden brown.

Reuben Wood’s Library

[Because of the length of this research paper, I divided it up into five sections; actually six now, because the footnotes wouldn't register with the blog software, so I but them in a separate post.  I and II deal with Reuben Wood and his family and career; the footnotes follow; and II, IV and V is the inventory of his library, transcribed by me from the handwritten text in Will Book 4.  Not every title has been recovered- if you have any ideas for one of the odd titles, email me.]

With no diaries and other first-hand accounts available to tell us of daily life in 18^th-century Randolph County, one of the only alternative sources is to look in the Will Books maintained by the county Clerk of Court.  The series of books, dating back to the formation of the county in 1779, preserve more than just the Last Will and Testaments of county residents; those who died without a will (“intestate”) often provide even more information.  A typical first step in the administration of any estate was compiling an inventory of the deceased’s personal property, and one of the next steps was often to sell it all at a public auction.  These inventories and sale accounts are the best window into early American domestic life we have as local historians.

While looking for something entirely different many years ago, I noticed that one of the very first inventories in Will Book 4 (the blank book was started in November, 1812) was the “Inventory and Account of the Sale of the Estate of Reubin Wood, Esq., Dec’d”, which took up 14 of the first 15 pages in the book.  I knew nothing at the time about Reuben Wood, other than he appeared to have owned a remarkable number of books, and the fact that many of them were law books indicated that he must have been an attorney.  I filed the Reuben Wood papers among the many hundreds of interesting Randolph County curiosities pending further research.

[Home spinner- a dozen yarn ends at the time]

Last fall I stumbled across it again, because one of the items of farm equipment sold at Wood’s 1812 auction sale was an unusual piece of textile production equipment.  “1 spinning machine — 9.0.0 [9 pounds sterling/ no shillings/no pence] ” was purchased by Benjamin Elliott, an Asheboro merchant who would go on, with his son Henry Branson Elliott, to convert his grist mill at Cedar Falls into Randolph County’s first textile mill.  Every estate at that time included numerous items of textile production equipment, and the Wood estate also sold “1 loom & apparatus” at 2.10.0, two spinning wheels (at 0.18.7 [probably a flax wheel] and 0.7.0 [probably a cotton or 'walking' wheel]), and one “flax machine” at 0.5.0 (probably a flax “brake,” an ironing-board-sized contraption that removed the hard outer husk from raw flax).

[36 yarn ends at once- more like a factory!]

The “spinning machine” was by far the most expensive piece of textile equipment, and was probably what was commonly called a “spinning jenny” or “plantation spinner,” used by slaves to mass-produce cotton yarn needed to weave clothes and domestic textiles.  This is the only reference I have seen to such a device in Randolph County estate records.  Its presence raises a number of questions:  was it meant to be used by the family’s slaves (there were nine)?  Does it indicate a long-standing family bias against imported English or European textiles?  Did Reuben Wood perhaps affect cotton “homespun” clothing, as Thomas Jefferson and North Carolina’s congressman Nathaniel Macon?  Or was this a recent acquisition indicating the effect of anti-English trade embargoes preceeding the War of 1812?  We’ll never know.

[Colonial Williamsburg coachmakers build a riding chair]

The Spinning Machine caused me to take a closer look at the Wood inventory.  One other unusual item stood out:  “1 Riding Chair”, purchased by the widow Charity Wood at the premium price of 22.0.0 Pounds Sterling!  (compare “1 Waggon,” at 15.0.0, or “1 Cart with Oxen” at 16.5.0!).  This indicated the upscale status of the Wood family just as much as the fact that Reuben Wood owned nine slaves at the time of his death.  Just recently the wheelwrights at Colonial Williamsburg reproduced a riding chair for the collection of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and explained that

[Child's riding chair for horseback use]

“Riding chairs were popular in the 1700s… These vehicles typically had two wheels and seated one or two people…  Riding chairs were more comfortable than riding on a horse…  In a riding chair, you could move a bit, shift your weight. You didn’t have to sit on the back of a sweaty horse in August.  Also, it was easier on the horse, which didn’t have the weight of a human on its back. “  [See http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/Winter04-05/wheel.cfm#webex ]

Not so extraordinary for the times was that a slave auction was part of the sale– in fact, the major financial aspect of the whole estate.  70.86% of the total auction proceeds of 2,272 pounds, 7 shillings, 11 pence represented the value of nine human beings (1,610 pounds, 12 shillings, 6 pence).  All but one of the nine were purchased by the widow or by family members, so this particular sale did not represent the catastrophic separation of slave families that many such auctions did.  No comparable research has been conducted in other Randolph County estates, so it is not clear whether the high proportionate value of the enslaved blacks was unusual in this case.

What was without a doubt unusual was the high proportionate value of Reuben Wood’s Library to the total value of his estate.  Almost fifteen and three-quarters percent of the total auction proceeds was made up of the price paid for books.  While that may not sound impressive, look at it this way:  when the value of enslaved people are subtracted from the total estate, the sales total just 661 pounds, 9 shillings and 9 pence; and out of that total, 357 pounds, 9 pence represented books—54% of all personal property excluding slaves.  Two hundred twenty-three separate titles are listed by name, and due to the book-binding practices of the time, it can be safely assumed that the vast majority of these titles were multi-volume sets.  My study of the collection indicates that it probably represented approximately 800 volumes, a large private library even by modern standards.

To understand how mind-boggling this percentage is, we must check out other Randolph County estate inventories.  A comprehensive comparison was beyond my available time these past 6 months, but a random check of 50 or so estates in the first four will books indicates that not one in three Randolph County decedents at the turn of the 19^th century even listed books as part of their estates.  Typical of those was Joseph Hill (d. 1794, WB 2, p.18) and Barnaby McDade (d.1812, WB4, P17), both of whom list simply”1 Bible.”   Elizabeth Wright (Feb. 1813, WB4, p.22), lists “1 Hymn book” and “3 books.”  Stephen Cox (August 1814, WB4, p.92) listed “1 spelling book” which sold for 4 shillings, 7 pence and “1 Arithmetick & Testament” worth 1 shilling.

Only four take the trouble to list books by title, as did Joseph Wilson when he inventoried the Wood estate.  Haman Miller of the Farmer community, who died in  1814 (WB4, p.97), was one of the wealthiest men in the county.  His wife listed “1 Testament”, “1 Hymn Book,” and 18 assorted law books in her inventory, indicating his status as a Justice of the Peace (what we would today consider a county commissioner).  His sale listed “1 Dictionary… 1 Pilgrim’s Progress… 1 Little Boston Collection… Acts of Congress… Acts of the General Assembly… and Laws of the United States.”  Col. John Brower, another JP (d. 1814, WB4, p.100) had an estate sale which raised $2,312.48, of which just $37.41 was attributed to the sale of his 71 books, including “Dutch [German] Books,” “Acts of the General Assembly,” “Martin’s Justice,” “Hutchinson’s Works,” and “Carver’s Travels” comparable to those Reuben Woods’ collection.  William Tomlinson (1812, WB4, p.74) unhelpfully lists “1 lot of old books” and “1 lot of pamphlets” and a book on Landlord-Tenant law, but also features a volume of “Christian Philosophy” and 4 volumes of “Newton’s Works” (Sir Isaac Newton? Unclear).  In none of these estates is the proportion of books to the total anywhere near that in the Reuben Wood estate.

Before researching the man himself, I decided to look closely at the contents of his library.  As best I could, I transcribed each title, alphabetized them, and then sought to classify them by subject matter.  It became obvious that the inventory had been based on the short title embossed on the leather spine of a book or series, which was probably called out aloud by one person while being transcribed phonetically by another- a process that inevitably led to mis-spellings and odd transpositions.   I attempted to match each short title from the inventory with the author and exact title of an edition which might have been the one listed.  The most useful resource for this purpose was the British Library’s English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) of items printed before 1801 [ http://estc.bl.uk/ ]; I also used the Law Library of Congress Rare Book Collection [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awlaw3/rare_book.html ] for specialty law titles.  Three early-19th century library catalogues provided interesting comparisons:  the 1822 printed catalogue of books in the UNC-Chapel Hill Philanthropic Society library; the 1828 catalogue of the University of Virginia library; and the 1831 catalogue of Harvard’s Porcellian Club Library.

Twenty-eight titles have so far defied my analysis- either no specific title was given ["A Lott of Books"/ "A Dutch Book"/ "A French Grammar"]; or the original listing is perhaps in error [Grolisque?  Canuclad?]; or the information given was vague or inadequate ["A Small View," "Christ"?], or I have been unable to match the title to any known comparable book ["Astrolhology," "Sullivant's Lectures," "Thiston's Memorials," "Jennings Works," etc].

Undoubtedly more titles will become clear with additional research, but some things are obvious.  At least 67 titles were those used by a working lawyer, representing what appears to be one of the largest private law libraries in Piedmont North Carolina.  Four books were reference works [such as Samuel Johnson's Dictionary] and six were in German or French.  Sixteen were Classical Literature, with Greek and Roman authors in translation.  Ten related to religion, with a strong bias toward Presbyterianism, with a large number of titles from the Scottish Enlightenment.  Another 18 can be classified as contemporary philosophical and ethical works, including Locke, Helvitius, Lavater, Chesterfield and Edmund Burke.   Twenty-one titles would then have been classified as “Political Economy,” titles that were standard currency among the Founding Fathers: Junias, Burke, Adam Smith, Burlemaqui, Joseph Priestly, Thomas Paine.  Twenty-eight titles were in the realm of History and Biography: not just ancient history, but a number of contemporary works indicating an interest in foreign policy, especially of France, Ireland, Scotland, India, and Prussia.  Finally, twenty-three titles were purely for entertainment, with classics of English Literature such as Paradise Lost, The Spectator, and The Rambler; early novels such as Clarissa Harlow, Tristam Shandy and Tom Jones; and a number of volumes of poetry.  Oddly missing are standard titles and authors such as Shakespeare [neither plays nor sonnets], Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey.  Perhaps these titles were in the “1 Lott of Books” which sold for the amazingly large price of 37 pounds, 2 shillings and 6 pence- more than the Riding Chair, more than “1 Bay Horse, 26.10.0″ and half the price of “1 Negro Girl, Eleanor, 75.0.0″.

Reuben Wood’s Library II

When I turned toward researching Reuben Wood himself, I was surprised to discover that a genealogical sketch of his life had been written by none other than Senator Sam Ervin, Jr., of Morganton, a great-great-great-grandson of Reuben Wood.  An entry in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, summarized a manuscript written by Senator Sam, which stated :

“My mother’s… great-great-grandfather, Reuben Wood [was] an old-time lawyer of Randolph County, North Carolina, who practiced as a trial lawyer in virtually every superior court and county court of pleas and quarter sessions which sat in the vast region lying between his home in Randolph County and Jonesboro, Tennessee.”

It appears that Reuben Wood was the first resident of Randolph County actually licensed to practice law in Randolph County. How had this man been so thoroughly forgotten in his own home county?

Reuben Wood’s father, John Wood (b. 23 May 1716- May 3, 1794), was a native of Middleborough, Massachusetts. He had four children by his first wife Sarah Clement, one of whom, Zebedee Wood (26 Feb 1745- 11 July 1824), became Reuben’s partner in Randolph County government.  Soon after the birth of Zebedee, John Wood moved his family to the town of Mendam in Morris County, New Jersey, where his next son was born and Sarah died, perhaps from complications in childbirth. With four children under ten, John Wood quickly remarried and father four more children by his second wife Sibbel [Sybil] Wilborne. Reuben Wood (circa 1755- July 1812) was born to John and Sybil in New Jersey, but his brother David, who arrived in 1759, was born in North Carolina, indicating that the family had moved once again.

Surely the boy Reuben came to North Carolina with his family; but the “History of Morris County, New Jersey” lists a Reuben Wood from Mendham as a member of Captain Cox’s Company of the 3^rd New Jersey Regiment in 1776. Perhaps he returned to attend school—Princeton is close by—and lived with his mother’s relatives. Even if so, both Reuben and Zebedee were soon involved with the militia in Randolph County. Zebedee Wood was one of Randolph County’s first militia captains in 1779, at a time when the militia captain’s district was the fundamental governing unit of the county.  In 1779 Reuben served as lieutenant (second in command) of Captain Thomas Clark’s infantry company, which “rendezvoused at Salisbury & marched to Charlestown under Col. Archibald Lytle a Continental Col. & joined General Lincoln” in the defense of Charleston. Whether Reuben was still there when Charleston fell to the British in May, 1780, is unknown, since in November 1779 he had married Charity Hinds, probably a sister of his militia commander Captain John Hines, whose “Light Horse” Company Wood joined as lieutenant in 1780.  Hinds was one of the most active captains in the new county, and spent a great deal of time in 1781 and 1782 jousting with the Tory guerrillas led by Colonel David Fanning.

By 1782 Wood was no longer serving in Hinds’ company; he must have taken time in the early 1780s to further his education.  There is no mention of him in county court records before1782, and those minutes are missing between 1783 and 1787; but suddenly when Book 3 opens in September 1787 Reuben Wood is listed as “State’s Attorney,” the equivalent of the modern District Attorney.  The educational gap between 19 year-old militia lieutenant in 1779 to State’s Attorney by 1787 was not as deep then as now; no law schools and graduate degrees were available, so a prospective lawyer apprenticed to his trade by “reading” law with an established attorney. It could not have hurt his chances for employment that brother Zebedee was by then one of the Justices of the Peace who ran the county court.

[Rowan County Courthouse in Salisbury]

Where Reuben Wood received his legal education is an open question, but closely available was his immediate predecessor as Randolph County State’s Attorney. When the county was formed in March 1779, one of the very first orders of business was to hire as State’s Attorney Spruce Macay [McKay] (?-1808), who also served as the Rowan County State’s Attorney. Macay was the son of Rowan County Sheriff James Macay, and graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1775. He served as State’s Attorney in Rowan until 1785, when he may also have resigned his Randolph position. Macay left the practice of law in 1790 when he was elected a Superior Court Judge, but in the 1780s at least one soon-to-be-famous lawyer read law with him: Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). The 17-year-old Waxhaw native moved to Salisbury to live with McKay and study the law in 1784. After two years with Macay, Jackson moved on to study one more year with another Salisbury lawyer John Stokes (March 20, 1756 – October 12, 1790), a crotchety veteran who would emphasize his points in court by banging the silver knob that replaced a hand he lost in the Revolution. In September 1787 Jackson was licensed to practice law in Rowan County, and on December 11, 1787, “Andrew Jackson, Esquire, produced a license from the Honorable the Judges of the Superior Court of Law & Equity Authorizing him to practice as an Attorney in the Several County Courts.  Took the Oath prescribed and proceeded to practice in said Court.” One of the Justices of the Peace sitting at that session of court was Zebedee Wood, and Reuben had been practicing as State‘s Attorney for the County since at least June of that year. So perhaps Reuben Wood and Andrew Jackson were “classmates“ in the law office of Spruce Macay; that they were practicing members of the Randolph County Bar at the same time is a fact.

[Bust of Andrew Jackson, ca. 1812]

Reuben Wood temporarily “resigned“ his office as State‘s Attorney several times in the 1788 so that other attorneys could handle particular cases. One of his replacements in 1788 was John Louis Taylor (1769-1829), a Fayetteville resident and graduate of William and Mary. Taylor became a Superior Court Judge in 1797 and in 1810 was appointed the first Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Part of the reason Wood couldn’t represent Randolph full time was that he had also been appointed State’s Attorney in Burke County for the years 1788 and 1789. Burke County then encompassed all of western North Carolina, including the huge undeveloped territory which would become Tennessee. Burke County’s quarter sessions began on the first Monday of the month, so Wood may have had trouble getting back home in time for the regular second Monday beginning of Randolph Court.

[Burke County Courthouse]

There are claims among some secondary sources that Reuben Wood and his brother Zebedee were both attorneys. I have seen nothing to indicate this, and the confusion apparently begins with a misreading of the suffix “Esq.” which court records attach to both their names. In modern American useage “Esq.” [an abbreviation for 'Esquire'] indicates that the subject is a lawyer. In the 18^th century America it was used to denote anyone who held an office of trust under state government, such as Justices of the Peace, Sheriff, Clerk of Court, Register of Deeds, etc., also including all attorneys. In English useage of the time, “Esquire — A rank next below that of Knight… this title is held by all attendants on the person of the Sovereign, and all persons holding the Sovereign’s commission being of military rank not below Captain; also, by general concession, by Barristers at Law”. Reuben Wood was entitled to the honorific as an attorney; Zebedee Wood as both a militia captain and as Justice of the Peace. According to NC law at the time, an attorney was not allowed to practice as an attorney if he accepted a commission as a Justice of the Peace, so obviously in the Wood family, brother Zebedee was the politician and brother Reuben the lawyer.

That didn’t mean that they didn’t serve together at times. Both were among the county’s delegates to the North Carolina Constitutional Conventions of 1788 and 1789.
The first, meeting in Hillsborough, considered the arguments of Federalist party managers and overwhelmingly rejected ratification of the proposed U.S. Constitution. The Anti-Federalists, who feared a strong central federal government, objected to the document without some guarantee of basic personal freedoms. Ratification was rejected by a vote of 184-84, with six members abstaining to vote. Interestingly, Reuben Wood was Randolph County’s sole abstention; the rest of the county delegation voted unanimously to reject.

The second convention, meeting in Fayetteville, ratified the Constitution upon the promise of the future Bill of Rights. An attempt to add amendments to the Constitution strictly limiting the Federal government’s control over the states was defeated 187-82. Then the Constitution was ratified by a vote of 194-77. On this occasion, Reuben Wood voted with the majority both times, and Zebedee Wood voted with the losing Anti-Federalists. Nathan Stedman, their Randolph County co-delegate who had voted against ratification in 1788, abstained from both votes- therefore not siding with either brother!

[Early Buncombe County Courthouse]

Their tours of service together didn’t end with the Constitutional Conventions- in 1791 both brothers were elected to represent Randolph County in the General Assembly: Reuben in the House of Commons and Zebedee in the State Senate. The next year Reuben continued his long-distance commutes to court, as he was hired by the Justices sitting at the organizational meeting of the Buncombe County Court to serve as that county’s first State’s Attorney. With Randolph court being held beginning on the second Monday of each quarter, and Buncombe court being held beginning on the third Monday of each quarter, Wood’s travel time on horseback must have made continual service in both next to impossible. But riding the circuit of the county courts became Wood’s professional life. As Sam Ervin writes in the DNCB:

[Jonesboro,"The Oldest Town in Tennessee"]

“With horse and saddlebags, Wood attended virtually all of the courts that sate in the vast territory between his home in Randolph County and North Carolina’s westernmost county town, Jonesboro, which now lies within the boundaries of Tennessee. He was among the lawyers considered by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1788 for appointment as attorney for the Washington District, embracing practically all of the territory that subsequently became the state of Tennessee.” The man Reuben Wood lost the Tennessee District Attorney job to: his brother at the bar, Andrew Jackson, who used it as his springboard into state politics and ultimately, the Presidency.

[President Andrew Jackson, 1844]

Reuben Wood resigned the Buncombe County position in April of 1795.  He was at least 40 years old at the time, and either the harsh demands of life in the saddle or his growing family must have dictated that he stay closer to home. The number his books which were authored or published in the 1790s also argue that he then had more time to read and expand his library. Starting in the 1780s Reuben and Charity Wood had a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters, half of whom were still living at home at the time of the Census of 1810. With more than 600 acres of land to tend in the Polecat Creek/ Sandy Creek area, with eight children, and with the head of the family often gone for weeks or months at a stretch, it’s understandable that Reuben Wood gradually became a substantial slave owner.

[Burke County looking towards Tennessee]

Senator Sam Ervin observed of his ancestor, “Unlike most of his contemporaries at the early NC bar, he devoted his chief efforts to the law rather than to politics. As a consequence, he became noted as a wise counselor and skillful advocate.” Wood’s politics in truth may not have been suitable for either federal or state politics: his vote in the 1788 constitutional convention did not benefit the Federalist positions of James Iredell/ Alfred Moore/ William R. Davie, who later received appointments from Washington and Adams; his vote in 1789 also would not have endeared him to the Jeffersonian party where his brother Zebedee had voted the straight line. One political plum that Reuben Wood did receive late in his career was an appointment by the legislature as a “Counselor of State” from 1800 through 1806, which apparently was a something of an “in-house counsel” position giving advice to the Governor.

It’s possible that one reason he accumulated such a large personal collection was so that he could accept young men as law students.  When Andrew Jackson switched over to study law with John Stokes, he was following Spruce Macay’s recommendation to study with the man whose law library “exceeded any other in the region.” Wood’s collection would certainly have given him that reputation; even in 1821 the library of the Dialectic Society at the University in Chapel Hill was just a little more than twice its size.  Looking at the men who married his daughters gives us some evidence that Wood set about training a new generation of lawyers.  Joseph Wilson (1782-1829), a Quaker native of Guilford County, was Reuben Wood’s only confirmed student; he was licensed to practice law in 1804 and settled in Stokes County, where he served in the legislature. From 1812 until his death he served as State’s Attorney in the western district of North Carolina, the same job Reuben Wood had started twenty years before. Wood became so identified with bringing law and order to Western North Carolina that he was subsequently known as “the Great Solicitor.” Wilson’s brother Jethro Starbuck Wilson also likely studied with Wood; he married Wood’s daughter Laura (b.ca.1786), became a lawyer and went into practice in Charlotte. Further along the distaff side of the family tree, Senator Sam Ervin’s mother Laura Theresa Powe was the great-grandaughter of Mary and Joseph Wood’s daughter Laura Theresa Wilson (1808-1848), a family line which included five additional lawyers.

It’s not clear that any of Reuben Wood’s own sons followed him into the practice of law.  In fact, their relationships do not appear to have been close.  Oldest son John L. Wood was excluded from the draft will his father wrote, and appears to have left Randolph County for the western territories at an early date. When his father died, he was contacted in Tennessee, and his descendants settled in Arkansas.  Son Albert L. Wood was left only a life estate in part of the family property by his father, and soon followed his brother West; his family settled in Missouri.  There is some indication Joseph Wood became a frontier doctor; his family settled in Texas.  Youngest son Edwin may have been his father’s favorite; could he have been working to follow his father into the law?  Unfortunately, Edwin only survived his father by two years, the only one of the children to die so young.

Some sudden illness apparently came upon Reuben Wood in the summer of 1812; as is the case with many lawyers, his own personal affairs were not in good order.  He owed a number of outstanding debts, and he was owed payment for work done for clients on credit.  He drafted a will, obviously on his sick bed, which was not properly signed or witnessed, and was never probated.  Reuben Wood died at home in late July, 1812. Though he had wanted young Edwin to settle the estate, his brother-in-law Joseph Wilson took over, appointing guardians for the three minor children, settling the widow’s petition for dower support, conducting the inventory and the sale of Wood’s personal property. It is unknown how long Charity Wood survived her husband. All of the children had left Randolph County and all of Reuben’s real property had been sold by 1825, and so far no reliable records mention Charity. The location of the burial plot of Reuben Wood, Edwin Wood and perhaps Charity Wood is also unknown. Brother Zebedee and his family, who lived not far away from Reuben, are buried at Shiloh Methodist Church, near Julian.

Trying to reconstruct a man’s private and professional life almost 200 years after his death is not an easy task even when sources are plentiful. With the early founders and leaders of Randolph County, the sources are scattered, many puzzle pieces are missing, and without personal letters, journals or diaries, intellectual opinions and internal motivations are hard to imagine from the bare legal records that remain. Reuben Wood’s library offers a rare window into his mind, his interests, and his education- the only insight available, since absolutely nothing remains of his home, his grave, his physical existence. Perhaps the list of his books in Will Book 4 really is Reuben Wood’s most appropriate memorial.

Thankfully, the internet has now made research into Reuben Wood’s library much easier than it was just a decade ago. A study of the books Wood read and chose to purchase adds color to the picture of him outlined by Senator Sam Ervin in 1972: not just a hard-working, circuit-riding trial lawyer, but a philosopher of the law, a deep thinker on topics of constitutions and government, economics, and ethics. Well-educated in the classical tradition, and committed to educating others, he established a tradition of professional and public service that has endured down to the present day. Even after uncovering, sifting, and organizing all this information about Reuben Wood, it still surprises me that he and his brother Zebedee have been so completely forgotten by the county they served. A contemporary of the Founding Fathers, Reuben Wood should have been remembered as our Randolph County Adams, Jefferson or Madison. This is an attempt to correct that oversight.

Reuben Wood’s Library III

Reuben Wood’s Library, Listed in Estate Sale

223 titles sold at his auction, November 1812

Transcribed from Randolph County, NC, Will Book 4, beginning at Page 2, by Mac Whatley.

Reference Works -4

Johnston’s Dictionary    0.10.0
[Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language: In Which the Words are Deduced from their Originals and Illustrated in their Different Significations by Examples from the Best Writers;  (London: published 15 April 1755) was the most influential English dictionary prior to the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary 173 years later.]
Atlas                     2.13.0
Domestic Medicine    0.9.0
[Buchan, William. Domestic Medicine, or A Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases By Regimen and Simple Medicines. Exeter: J.B. Williams, 1785.  Homeopathic remedies and preventative medical practices advocated by a Scottish physician.]
Murrays Introduction             0.5.0
[Lindley Murray (1745-1826), Murray's Introduction to English Grammar: Compiled for the Use of the Youth in Baltimore Academy, Tammany Street: To Which is Added, An essay on Punctuation.  Baltimore: Printed by S. Engles & Co. at the Academy Press, 1806.]
Art of Speaking            0.10.0
[James Burgh, The art of speaking: containing, I. An essay; in which are given rules for expressing properly the principal passions and humours, which occur in reading and public speaking; and II. Lessons taken from the ancients and moderns (with additions and alterations, where thought useful)... Printed by Joseph Bumstead, for Ebenezer Larkin, 1793 (2nd ed.), 322pp.]

English Literature – 23

Akinses Letters    1.0.0
[John Aikin, M.D. (1747-1822), Letters from a Father to his Son, on various topics, Relative to Literature and the Conduct of Life.  London, 1796-1800.  Aikin was a prominent Unitarian-Universalist.  Porc-Aiken's Letters, 12mo.]
Bells Poems                    0.2.1
[George Bell, A collection of poems on various subjects. By George Bell, Wright in Jedburgh.  Edinburgh: printed by William Turnbull, 1794; 34pp. 12mo.]
Blairs Letters                2.0.0
[Possibly Letters on Dr. Blair's sermons.  Edinburgh:  printed for C. Elliot, and W. Coke, Leith, 1779; 35pp. 8vo.  "Dr.Blair" would be Hugh Blair (1718-1800), Scottish professor and Presbyterian preacher.]
Churchills works         0.2.7
[The Works of C. Churchill.  In 4 Volumes.  London: Printed for John Churchill (Executor of the Late C. Churchill) and W. Flexney.  5th ed., 1774.  Charles Churchill, 1731-1764, was an 18th c. poet and satirist.)]
Clarisa Harlow            2.3.0 [probably The history of Miss Clarissa Harlowe, comprehending the most important concerns of private life, and shewing wherein the arts of a designing villain, and the rigour of parental authority, conspired to complete the ruin of a virtuous daughter. Abridged from the works of Samuel Richardson, Esq. Author of Pamela and Sir Charles Grandison. Philadelphia, 1798.  Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) published the very popular early novel "Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady" in 1748 in 8vol,
and there are many editions.  Only those published in the 1780s and 90s appear to use the title "Clarissa Harlowe".]
Critical Essa on poetry        0.5.6
[perhaps William Duff (1732-1815), Critical observations on the writings of the most celebrated original geniuses in poetry. Being a sequel to the Essay on original genius. By W. Duff, A.M.  London, 1770; 372pp. 8vo.]
Eppagoniad             0.4.2
[William Wilkie (1721-1772), Epigoniad (1757), an epic poem on the Epigoni, sons of the seven heroes who fought against Thebes.]
Paradise Lost            0.8.0
[John Milton, Paradise Lost, A Poem in Ten Books. London, 1667.]
Hudibras                1.0.0
[Samuel Butler, Hudibras, In Three Parts.  Written in the Time of the Late Wars. First Ed., London, 1684.  First American edition. Troy (NY): Wright, Goodenow, & Stockwell, 1806. 12mo, 286pp.  CH Phil Soc has "Butler's Hudibras"]
Goldsmiths Essas    0.10.0
[The Bee, A Select Collection of Essays, on the Most Interesting and Entertaining Subjects.  London: 1759.]
The London Magazine        1.1.0
[The London magazine: or, Gentleman's monthly intelligencer.  London: printed by C[harles]. Ackers in St. John’s Street, for J[ohn]. Wilford, behind the Chapter-House in St. Paul’s Church-Yard; .T[homas]. Cox [sic] at the Lamb under the Royal-Exchange; J[ohn]. Clarke at the Golden-Ball in Duck-Lane; and T[homas]. Astley at the Rose over-against the North Door of St. Pauls, 1732-36; 4 vol.]
Peter Pindar            1.0.0
[perhaps John Wolcott, writing as Peter Pindar: Odes to Kien Long, The  Present Emperor of China; with The Quakers, A Tale... London, 1792- price 3 shillings.  Wolcott was a satirical comic author in late 18th c. society.  Uva- Pindar's (Peter) Works, London, 1797, 3 vol. 12mo.]
The Pleasures of Memory 0.8.6
[Samuel Rogers, The Pleasures of Memory with Other Poems. First Ed., London: 1793]
The Rambler           2.2.0
[Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) , The Rambler, 4 volumes, published in London, 1750-52;  perhaps the 1791 London 12vo edition "printed for J. Hodges, W. Millar, R. Tonson, T. French, J. Ottridge."]
The Rambler            0.3.0
[2nd copy?  perhaps an older edition, in bad condition...]
Sterns Works            1.5.0

[The Collected Works of Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) were first published in 1779.  He was best known as the author of Tristram Shandy, but also wrote A Political Romance and A Sentimental Juorney Through France and Italy, as well as multiple volumes of sermons.]

Sheritons Poems        0.6.0

[Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the Irish playwright and author of The Rivals and The School for Scandal, doesn't seem to have written poems...]

Spectator                        0.3.8
[The Spectator, an influential daily literary magazine edited by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele and first published 1711, and reprinted many times later in the century.  Each 'paper', or 'number', was approximately 2,500 words long, and the original run consisted of 555 numbers. These were collected into seven volumes, and a revival published in 1714 was collected to form an eighth volume.]
Thomsons Seasons        0.7.6
[James Thomson, The Seasons (1730), a very popular book-length poem]
Tom Jones            1.18.0
[Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling.  London, 1763.  many editions.]
Temple of Nature        1.0.0
[Erasmus Darwin, The Temple of Nature: Or, The Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical Notes.  1802.  Charles Darwin's grandfather- poet, philosopher, naturalist and one of the leading intellectuals of 18th c. England.]
Tristam Shandy            0.13.0
[Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.  orig. 9 vol. 1759-1767.  many editions.]
Youngs Knight Thoughts    0.5.3
[Edward Young, The Complaint; or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality. 1st Ed. 1745; partial 1797 ed. by Richard Edwards was illustrated by William Blake.]

Classical Literature – 16

Ciceros Morals                    0.11.3
[Marcus Tullius Cicero, The morals of Cicero. Containing, I. His conferences de finibus: or, concerning the ends of things good and evil. In which, All the Principles of the Epicureans, Stoics, and Academics, concerning the Ultimate Point of Happiness and Misery, are fully discuss'd. II. His academics; or, conferences concerning the criterion of truth, and the fallibility of human judgment. Translated into English, by William Guthrie, Esq.  London: Printed for T. Waller, at the Crown and Mitre, opposite Fetter-lane, in Fleet-street, 1744; 44pp., 8vo.]
Clarks Nepos               0.5.0
[Cornelius Nepos (c. 100-24 BC) was a Roman writer and biographer. Cornelii Nepotis Vita excellentium imperatorum: cum versione Anglicâ, in qua Verbum de Verbo, quantum fieri potuit, redditur: notis quoque Anglicis, & indice Locupletissimo; Or, Cornelius Nepos's Lives of the excellent commanders. With an English translation, as Literal as possible: with English notes, and a large index. By John Clarke, Master of the Publick Grammar School in Hull. In Pursuance of the Method of Teaching the Latin Tongue, laid down by him in his Essay upon Education.  London, 1734; parallel English and Latin texts, 280pp. 8vo.;15th ed. 1797.]
Clark Salest            0.7.6
[Sallust (86-34 B.C), C. Crispi Sallustii Bellum Catilinarium et Jugurthinum; cum versione libera. Præmittitur dissertatio, ... et vita Sallustii, auctore ... Joanne Clerico. I.E. The history of the wars of Catiline and Jugurtha, by Sallust; with a free translation. To which is prefixed a large dissertation ... as also, the life of Sallust, by ... Mons. Le Clerc. By John Clarke.  London: 1755.  245pp. 8vo. Parallel English and Latin texts.   Part of Benjamin Franklin's printed inventory left with Mr. Hall in 1748 were "Clark's Grammar; Clark's Erasmus; Clark's Esop; Clark's Sallust; Clark's Justin; Clark's Horus.]
?Juvaniles Letters        1.10.0
[Juvenal wrote Satires...
Deonizeas?            0.2.6
[possibly Dyonisus, translated into blank verse, from the Greek of Dr. Wells's edition, containing both antient and modern geography. By B. D. Free, M.A. and a student of Lincoln's-Inn.  London: 1785? 66p. 12 mo.  This is apparently an adaptation of Edward Wells' 'Treatise of antient and modern geography', first published in 1701, however, no Greek language edition is known.]
Duncans Cicero        1.15.0
[(Marcus Tullius) Cicero's Select Orations, Translated Into English with the Original Latin, from the Best Editions, on the Opposite Page; and Notes, Historical, Critical and Explanatory Designed for the Use of Schools as Well as Private Gentlemen.  By William Duncan, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen.  New Haven: Sidney's Press, 1811.  Duncan's first edition featuring parallel text was published in Edinburgh in 1801.]
Davidson’s Horace        1.3.6
[The odes, epodes, and carmen seculare of Horace, translated into English prose; with ... notes, and a preface to each ode... London: Printed for Joseph Davidson, 1740.  400pp., 8mo.]
Davidson’s Virgil                1.6.0
[The works of Virgil translated into English prose, As near the Original as the different Idioms of the Latin and English Languages will allow. With the Latin text and order of construction in the opposite page; and Critical, Historical, Geographical, and Classical Notes, in English, from the best Commentators both Ancient and Modern, beside a very great number of notes intirely new. For the Use of Schools as well as of Private Gentlemen. In two volumes. London: printed for Joseph Davidson, at the Angel in the Poultry, Cheapside, 1743.  2 vol. 8 mo.]
Davidson’s Ovid                    0.12.6
[Ovid (43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D) The epistles of Ovid translated into English prose, as near the original as the different idioms of the Latin and English languages will allow. ... For the use of schools as well as of private gentlemen.  London: Printed for Joseph Davidson, 1746 (et. seq.).  Or an American edition:  Ten select books of Ovid's Metamorphoses; with an English translation, compiled from the two former translations, by Davidson and Clarke; a prosody table and references, (after the manner of Mr. Stirling) pointing out, at one view, the scanning of each verse; and Davidson's English notes.  Philadelphia: Printed by William Spotswood, 1790.  4 vol., 12 mo.]
A Greek Grammar            0.2.0
[perhaps Caleb Alexander (1755-1828), A Grammatical System of the Greek Language, Printed at Worcester, Massachusetts : at the press of, and for Isaiah Thomas, 1796.]
Guide to Classical Learning    0.6.0
[Joseph Spence Spence (1699-1768), A Guide to Classical Learning. London : printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, and R. Horsfield, in Ludgate-Street, 1764. (Last ed. 1786).]
Latin Grammar                    0.2.6
[Davidson, James. Short introduction to Latin grammar for the use of the the university and academy of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Exeter, [N.H.]: By and for J. Lamson, 1794. 12mo; 108 pp.  First published in 1781 and the most successful Latin grammar of late 18th-century U.S.; there were ten editions published before 1800.  James Davidson was a professor at the school later known as The University of Pennsylvania. Since Wood owned three other translations by Davidson, I’m hypothesizing this generic title describes the same author’s Latin Grammar.]
Oveds Art of Love        0.12.0
[Ovid, Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love"), is an erotic tale set in Rome, 8 AD.]
Plutarchs Lives            6.2.6
[Mestrius Plutarchus (circa  45 - 125 A.D.), Priest of the Delphic Oracle, wrote a very lengthy book of "biographies" of Gods and Heroes which is one of the most popular Greek works of all time. The first printed edition of Plutarch was published in Paris in 1572, and was made up of 13 volumes.  Sir Thomas North prepared the first English edition of Plutarch's Lives in 1579, and Shakespeare borrowed heavily from it to write his plays.  Wood's version could be any one of many editions, but the high price paid indicates that it was a complete multi-volume set.
Wartrons Virgil                1.17.6
[Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) (70 - 19 BC); The Works of Virgil in Latin and English, 4 vols. [vol. i, The Eclogues and Georgics, tr. Joseph Warton], London 1753.  Joseph Warton (1722–1800) translated Virgil’s ten pastoral poems known as the Ecologues into rhymed couplets.] (David Watson was also a mid-18th c. translator…)

Youngs Dictionary            0.15.0
[Rev. William Young (d. 1757), A new Latin-English dictionary: Containing all the words proper for reading the classic writers, with the Authorities subjoined to each Word and Phrase. To which is prefixed, a new English-Latin dictionary, Carefully Compiled from the best Authors in our Language. Both Parts greatly improved, beyond all the preceding Works of the same Nature; supplying their Deficiencies, and comprising whatever is useful and valuable in all former Dictionaries. By the King's Authority. Designed for the General Use of Schools and Private Gentlemen. By the Rev. Mr. William Young, Editor of Ainsworth's Dictionary.  London, 1757; 1,024pp., 8vo.]

Reuben Wood’s Library IV

Reuben Wood’s Library V

Political Economy – 21

Anecdotes of Junias        1.0.0
[Anecdotes of Junius: to which is prefixed the King's reply.  Southampton: 1775; 54pp. 8vo; Dublin, 1788.]
Ans. to Pains Age of R         0.6.0
[Probaby Joseph Priestley, An Answer to Mr. Paine's Age of Reason, Being a Continuation of Letters to the Philosophers and Politicians of France on the Subject of Religion; and of the Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever.  London:  1794.]
Beaties Elements        2.19.7
[James Beattie, Elements of Moral Science, 2 vol., 1790-1793.  Beattie (1735-1803) was another figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.]
Burgh Political Desquisitions        3.0.0
[James Burgh, Political Disquisitions: or, An Enquiry into Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses.  Illustrated by, and established upon FACTS and REMARKS extracted from a Variety of AUTHORS, ancient and modern, CALCULATED To draw the timely ATTENTION of GOVERNMENT and PEOPLE to a due Consideration of the Necessity, and the Means, of REFORMING those ERRORS, DEFECTS, and ABUSES; of RESTORING the CONSTITUTION, and SAVING the STATE. London, 1774.]
Burlemark                1.5.0
[Burlamaqui, J[ean] J[acques].  The principles of natural law…. Translated into English by Mr. Nugent. The third edition, revised and corrected. London: J. Nourse, 1780. 8vo, 312 pp.; Vol. 2 published 1784.  An examination of the philosophy of natural law by a Swiss jurist, first published in 1747 and first translated into English in 1748. The Encyclopædia Britannica says of Burlamaqui that “his fundamental principle may be described as rational utilitarianism” (IV, 836); his works are considered a primary source of the theory voiced by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.]
Desertatian                    0.7.6
[could be many things- I picked this one, based on other titles in the collection and Wood's interests: Thomas Paine (1737-1809), Dissertation on first principles of government. To which is added, the genuine speech, translated, and delivered at the tribune of the French Convention, July 7, 1795. By Thomas Paine, author of Common sense, Rights of man, &c. Philadelphia: re-printed by E. Conrad, no. 100, Fourth, the second door above Race-Street, and sold by the booksellers, 1795; 42pp. 8vo.]
Essas on Trade           0.4.0
[perhaps Richard Cantillon, Essay on the Nature of Trade in General, written in French c. 1730 and first published in English 1755.]
Fable of the Bees                0.9.0
[Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees: or Private Vices, Publick Benefits. London: J. Roberts, 1714.  A very early text on economics and productivity.]
Godwins Political Justice    1.5.0
[William Godwin, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and Manners.  London: 1793.  The book was another response to Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (as was Paine's Age of Reason).  It is "a critique of political institutions. Its vision of human perfectibility is anarchist in so far as it sees government and related social practices such as property monopoly, marriage and monarchy as restraining the progress of mankind."]
Junias                0.15.0
[See below.  CH Phil Soc has a copy of "Heron's Junius"; see Robert Heron, Junius, Philadelphia: Published by Samuel F. Bradford, 1804.  (Heron (1764 – 1807) was a Scottish writer and French translater at the University of Edinburgh.]
Juniases Letters        0.10.0
[The letters of Junius: Stat nominis umbra, with Notes and Illustrations; Historical, Political. Biographical and Critical, By Robert Heron, Esq.  London: 1804.  Vol 1: 316 pp.  The Letters of Junius were a series of letters contributed to the Public Advertiser and first published in book form in 1772.  The letters were written to warn the British public that their historic rights and liberties were being infringed upon by the government.  The real identity of the nom de plume "Junius" has never been established.]
Kaimes Criticism            2.12.6
[Henry Home, Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, 2 vol., 1762.  One of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, he proposed a "science of criticism" to standardize criticism of art, rhetoric and literature.]
Monroes politics                    0.13.0
[Possibly one of the few books authored by James Monroe and published before his presidency: A view of the conduct of the executive in the foreign affairs of the United States, as connected with the mission to the French Republic, during the years 1794, 5, and 6.... Philadelphia, 1797.  8vo; 400 pp.; or the first British edition: London: James Ridgway, 1798. 8vo (21.5 cm, 8.5"); 126pp. Sabin 50020; Howes M-727.]
Nicholson’s Philosophy        1.18.0
[William Nicholson, An Introduction to Natural Philosophy, 1781.  Nicholson (1753-1815) was an early English scientist, chemist and inventor.  He translated numerous French scientific texts into English.]
Pains Age of Reason        0.5.6
[Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology.  Paris: 1794.  A critique of institutionalized religion that challeged the legitimacy of the Bible and led to a revival of deism. Published in three parts in 1794, 1795 and 1807, it was one of the first American bestsellers.]
Smiths Wealth of Nations    2.10.0
[Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1st ed. London 1776.]
Telemachus            1.0.0
[Possibly Francois Fenelon's The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses (1699), a scathing attack on the French monarchy.]
Utopia & Government    0.2.6
[Possibly Sir Thomas More, A Fruitful and Pleasant Work of the Best State of a Public Weal, and of the New Isle Called Utopia (1st English ed., 1551).
Wrights of Women            0.7.6
[Probably Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.  1st American Ed. Philadelphia, 1792; 2nd Boston: Peter Edes for Thomas & Andrews, 1792. 8vo (21.6 cm, 8.5"). 340 pp. Evans 25054.]
Federalist                    2.17.6
[,Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), The Federalist: a collection of essays, written in favour of the new Constitution, as agreed upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787.  Written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Each essay signed: Publius. New York:1788, 2 vol. 12mo.  First complete edition in book form.]
Murch’t? Book Keeping    0.5.6
[John London, merchant, A complete system of book-keeping, after the Italian method: in two parts. Part I. relating to theory, contains Rules for that Purpose never printed before in any Language; so few and short as to be learnt almost in an Instant, and retained without burthening the Memory; and so plain and perfect as that three Hours, or less, are sufficient to teach this whole Branch of it by them. - As also an Explanation of the Manner of keeping Accounts in two Sorts of Specie, namely, Domestic and Foreign for one and the same Article: without which neither Merchants who send Consignments abroad, or receive any Goods from thence for their own Accounts; nor Proprietors of Estates in Ireland, or else-where abroad, who reside here, can keep regular Accounts, and vice versa. - To which is added the Manner of keeping Bank, India, and other Stock after the Italian Method. - As likewise some Candid Animadversions on the erroneous and Imperfect Method of Book-Keeping taught and practised among us, contained in an Essay on Book-Keeping, &c. by Wm. Webster. Part II. relating to practice, contains a Plan of Commerce adapted to the Rules aforesaid, giving proper Examples of every Manner in which a Merchant can engage in Trade, and of the various Cases which may occur to him therein. -As also Directions how to apply the Italian Method of Book-Keeping, on the one Hand, to the Use of Warehousemen, Shopkeepers, &c. and of Proprietors of Estates, Stewards, &c. on the other. - Together with the Form of an Epitome, or Monthly Abstract of a Merchant's Books of Account; very proper to carry always about him, not only for disburthening his Memory, and enabling him to carry on his Business with a less Capital, but to shew him the State of his Affairs, if his Books should be destroyed by Fire, or any other Accident. By John London, late of Tiverton, Merchant.  London, 1758; 2 vol. 4o.

Religion -10

A View of the Times            0.5.6
[Philalethes (Charles Leslie), A View of the Times: Their Principles and Practices in the first volume of the Rehearsals. London: W. Bowen, 1750.  The politics of the succession of the house of Hanover and its impact on the Church in England.]
1 Large Bible 1.0.0
Blairs Sermons            0.15.0
[Hugh Blair, Sermons, in 5 volumes published 1777-1801.  Blair (1718-1800) was a Presbyterian preacher and Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Edinburgh, one of the primary figures of the "Scottish Enlightenment."]
Butlurs Analogy            0.12.0
[Joseph Butler (1692-1752), The Analogy of religion; natural and revealed, to the constitution and course of nature; to which are added, two brief dissertations on personal identity and on the nature of virtue. London: 1736.  300pp.]
Christ —–                0.3.6
[could be many things...
Davieses Sermons        2.0.0
[Samuel Davies (1723-1761), Sermons on the most useful and important subjects, adapted to the family and closet. By the Rev. Samuel Davies, ... In three volumes. ... To which are prefixed, a sermon on the death of Mr Davies, by Samuel Finley, D.D. and another discourse on the same occasion, together with an elegiac poem ... by Thomas Gibbons, D.D.  London: 1766.  3vol. 8vo. Philadelphia ed. 1794.]
Evidence of Chris. Religion    0.3.3
[Susanna Newcome, An Enquiry into the Evidence of the Christian Religion; London, 1732;  or, Soame Jenyns, A View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion; London, 1776.]

The Fashionable World    0.6.3
[Hannah More (1745-1833), An estimate of the religion of the fashionable world. By one of the laity.  London: T. Cadell, 1791; 270pp 8vo. CH Phil Soc has a copy; Porcellian Society 1831]
The history of the church    0.1.0
[Probably Joseph Priestly, A general history of the Christian church, from the fall of the Western Empire to the present time.... Northumberland [PA]: Pr. for the author by Andrew Kennedy, 1802–03. 8vo (21.6 cm, 8.5″). 4 vols. I:475pp. II: 539 pp. III:488 pp. IV: 480 pp.   Vol 1&2 were first published in 1790.  Shaw & Shoemaker 2933 & 4913.  The volumes are usually marked on the spine “History of the Church”.]

Phisical theology [Enquiry?]           0.7.7
[Henry Constantine Jennings (1731-1819) A physical enquiry into the powers and properties of spirit, and, how far by analogical inferences resulting from experimental and natural phænomena, the human intellect may be enabled to attain to any rational conception of omnipotence. [Chelmsford] printed by Clachar, Gray, & Co., 1787; 90 pp. 8vo.]

History and Biography – 28

The American Revolution        0.18.0
[(SNOWDEN, RICHARD) The American Revolution; Written in the Style of Ancient History.  Philadelphia Jones, Hoff; Jacob Johnson 1793; 1794 First edition First editions. 2 volumes. 12mo. xii, 226; (xii), 216pp. Sabin 85589.]
Antient Europe        2.0.0
[William Russell (1741-1793). The history of ancient Europe, from the earliest times to the subversion of the Western Empire, with a survey of the most important revolutions in Asia and Africa, in a series of letters from a gentleman to his son, intended as an accompaniment to Dr. Russell's History of modern Europe.   Porcellian Society 1831 has Russell's Ancient Europe, 2 vols. 8vo.]
Baran Trink        0.11.0
[The Life of Baron Frederic Trenk, Containing His Adventures; His Cruel and Excessive Sufferings the Ten Years Imprisonment, at the Fortress of Magdeburg, by Command of the Late King of Prussia; Also Anecdotes, Historical, Political and Personal. Translated from the German by Thomas Holcroft.  Dublin, 1790.  First Biography Franz van der Trenck, 1711-1749, Austrian soldier and father of military music.]
Belknaps History of N.H.    2.10.6
[Jeremy Belknap, History of New Hampshire, 3 vol., 1784-1792.  Belknap (1744-1798) was called American's best native historian by Alexis de Tocqueville.]
Carvins Travels            0.10.0
[Jonathan Carver (1710-1780), Three years travels, through the interior parts of North-America, for more than five thousand miles ... together with a concise history of the genius, manners, and customs of the Indians ... and an appendix, describing the uncultivated parts of America that are the most proper for forming settlements. By Captain Jonathan Carver, of the provincial troops in America.  Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph Crukshank, 1789; 300 pp. 12vo.]
Charles the 12th           0.5.0
[Probably Voltaire's History of Charles XII, biography of the Swedish King, skilled military leader and politician (1682-1719).  The first English translation, by Tobias Smollett, was published in London in 1762.  An American edition was printed in Frederick, MD, in 1808.]
Galery of Portraits        0.7.6
[possibly Mirabeau, Gabriel-Honoré de Riquetti, comte de (1749-1791) Gallery of Portraits of the National Assembly, supposed to be written by Count de Mirabeau. Translated from the French. In Two Volumes.  Dublin: 1790.  2 v. 12 mo.]
Goldsmiths Rome            0.8.6
[Oliver Goldsmith, The History of Rome from the Earliest Times, (2 vol.), 1769.]
Goldsmiths England    0.6.6
[Oliver Goldsmith, An History of England in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son.  4 Vol. London: 1792.
Guthries Grammar            3.11.0
[William Guthrie, A New Geographical, Historical and Commercial Grammar (1770); "one of the most popular books of any kind published in Britain in the late 18th century.  It went through at least thirty editions....[and] “was known to everyone from the schoolboy to the philosopher.” Laird Okie, Augustan Historical Writing, p. 186.  An octavo size, 1,000 page combination travel book and almanac-like history and geography book.]
History of the Admirals   2.5.0
[possibly John Campbell (1708-1775), Lives of the British admirals: containing a new and accurate naval history, from the earliest periods. By Dr. J. Campbell. With a continuation down to the year 1779, ... Written under the inspection of Doctor Berkenhout. The whole illustrated with correct maps; and frontispieces ... In four volumes. London: 1779; 4 vol. 8vo. First ed. 1742.]
History of Caesar            0.8.0
[possibly, The Gallic and civil wars of Cæsar, translated into English, by the Rev. John Pullein Hawkey.  Dublin, 1788.]
History of Man            1.15.0
[Henry Home, Lord Kames, Sketches of the History of Man. Edinburgh: W. Creech: London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1774. 4to (27.5 cm, 10.9"). 2 vols. I: 519pp. II: 507pp.]
?History of Rome                3.15.0
Humpries Works                0.10.0
[David Humphreys (1752-1818),  The miscellaneous works of Colonel Humphreys, late minister plenipotentiary to the court of Madrid.  New-York : Printed by Hodge, Allen, and Campbell, 1790. 748pp., 8vo; 2nd ed. 1804; Porc- Humphreys' Works, 8vo.]
Jefferson Notes                    1.6.0
[Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia; first ed. Paris 1784; first English ed. London 1787.]Volneys Travels in Amer.            1.7.0V
[C.F. Volney, "Description of the Climate and Soil of the United States of America," 1803 (he visited 1795-1798).
Knoxes Essas            1.10.0
[possibly Alexander Knox (1757-1831), Essays on the political circumstances of Ireland, written during the administration of Earl Camden; with an appendix, Containing Thoughts ON The Will Of The People. And a postscript, Now First Published. By a gentleman of the north of Ireland. Dublin: 1798.  236 pp. 8vo.  Porc. 1831 has Knox's Essays, 3 vols. 12mo.]
The Life of Caesar                0.2.6
[either Samuel Clarke (1599-1682), The life & death of Julius Cæsar, the first founder of the Roman empire. As also the life and death of Augustus Cæsar in whose raign our Blessed Lord, and Saviour Jesus Christ was borne. London, 1665 (100pp. 4vo.); or Charles Coote (1761-1835), Life of Caius Julius Cæsar: drawn from the most authentic sources of information. London:  printed for the author; and sold by T. N. Longman, 1796.  284pp. 12mo.]
The Life of Oliver Cromwell  0.7.0
[Isaac Kimber, Edmund Gibson, Sir Thomas Pengelly and Edmund Waller, The Life of Oliver Cromwell: Lord-Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.  London, 1743. 407pp.]
Millers Retrospect            1.15.6
[A Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century. Part First; In Two Volumes: Containing A Sketch of the Revolutions and Improvements in Science, Arts, and Literature, during that Period. By Samuel Miller, A. M. One of the Ministers of the United Presbyterian Churches in the City of New-York, Member of the American Philosophical Society, and Corresponding Member of the Historical Society of Massachuesetts. Vol. I. Published According to Act of Congress. New-York: Printed by T. and J. Swords, no. 160 Pearl-Street, 1803.]
Modern Europe        5.5.0
[William Russell (1741-1793). The History of Modern Europe, with an account of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; and a View of the Progress of Society from the Rise of the Modern Kingdoms to the Peace of Paris in 1763, in a Series of Letters by William Russell, L.L.D.  London: 5 vols., 1779-1786. 2nd American Edition: Philadelphia, 1802.  Procellian Society 1831 has Russell's Modern Europe, 6 vols. 8vo.]
Powells history of 20 Months    0.10.0
[Probably Francis Plowden, A short history of the British Empire during the last twenty months: viz, from May 1792 to the close of 1793. Two 1794 editions: G. G. and J. Robinson (London), or Dublin: Printed by P. Byrne, Grafton-Street, both approximately 390pp.]
Robertson’s Antient India       1.0.0
[William Robertson, An Historical Disquisition Concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India (1791).  Robertson (1721-1793) was a Scottish historian and professor at the University of Edinburgh.]
Robertson History of Scotland    1.10.0
[William Robertson, The History of Scotland during the Reigns of Queen Mary and of King James VI... with A Review of the Scottish History Previous to that Period, 2 vol., 1794.  Robertson's best known work.]
Robertson’s Charles 5th    3.15.0
[William Robertson, The History of the Reign of Charles V, 4 Vol., 1792.]
Robertsons History of America        0.18.0
[William Robertson, The History of America (4 vol., books 1-8, 1792; Books 9-10, 1796).]
The United Irishman         0.3.0
[This title appears to be the same as an anonymous work of fiction found in the University of Michigan library: The United Irishman: a tale; founded on facts ...
Printed for the author, 1798.  Although listed as only 17 pages long, a later edition printed in Dublin by J. Cumming and Co. in 1819 appears to have been issued in two 12mo. volumes, copies of which are found at Villanova and the New York Public Library.  OCLC 37303059.   It could alternatively be a pamphlet found at Cornell authored by "Publicola," A letter from a father to his son, a United Irishman: in the barony of Ards, in the county of Down. Printed in the year, 1797 (24 pages).

The Irish Rebellion of 1798 was led by a republican revolutionary group, the United Irishmen, which was inspired by the American and French revolutions to revolt against British rule over Ireland.  Since 1691 a minority of Protestant settlers loyal to the British crown had ruled the majority population of native Catholics.  The Society of United Irishmen was a joint group of protestants and Catholics who advocated for political reform and home rule.  An uprising and bloody guerilla war in the summer of 1798 was suppressed by British troops.  The French revolutionary government provided military support until their supply ships were defeated by the Royal Navy, leading to the collapse of the rebellion.  Sectarian massacres and atrocities were followed by increased political repression and the Act of Union of 1800, which removed the last vestige of Irish autonomy.  The struggle for Irish nationalism was supported by Thomas Jefferson and his "Democratic-Republican" followers, with whom Reuben Wood appears to have sympathized.]

Volneys Ruin                            1.3.0
[C.F. Volney, The Ruins, or Meditations on the Revolutions of Empires, first publ. in France in 1791; repub. in US in 1802]

Philosophy and Ethics -18

Anarcharsies in Greece    1.7.0
[Abbe Jean-Jacques Barthelemy, Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece.  1st ed. 1788 in French; 1799 ed. in English in 8 vol.  An imaginary travel journal of Anacharsis, a Scythian philosopher who traveled through Greece in the early 6th century BC.  The book fueled a passion for all things Greek in the early 19th century.]
Bennetts Letters            0.10.0
[John Bennett, curate of St. Mary's Manchester, Letters to a Young Lady, on a variety of useful and interesting subjects, calculated to improve the heart, to form the manners, and enlighten the understanding.  Warrington, 1789.  2 vol. 12mo.  1st American edition Newburyport [Mass.] Printed and sold by John Mycall, 1792.]
Burke on the Sublime        0.16.0
[Edmund Burke, A Philosophical inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757.]
Chesterfields Letters    2.0.0
[Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl Chesterfield, Letters to His Son on the Fine Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman. 1746.
Condorsett                      0.5.0
[Condorcet, Progress of the Mind, Fr. Paris, 1795- UVa]
Essa on Truth                0.17.0
[James Beattie, An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, 1770?)
Edwards on free will        0.11.0
[Jonathan Edwards, An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of the Freedom of the Will which is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame. 1st ed., 1754]
Harrises Hermes            0.12.6
[Hermes: or, a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Language and Universal Grammar. By James Harris, London, J. Nourse and P. Vaillant, 1751.]
Helvisias on Man            1.10.6
[CH Phil Soc has a copy of Helvetius on Man]
Holmes Sketches         2.0.0
[possibly Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696-1782), Six sketches on the history of man. Containing, the progress of men as individuals. ... With an appendix, concerning, the propagation of animals, and the care of their offspring. By Henry Home, Lord Kaims, author of the Elements of criticism.  Philadelphia, 1776.  266pp. 8vo.]
Lavatur                        0.16.0
[Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801), Swiss poet and physiogonomist.  Christian mystic. no editions in English?  Maybe this was another "Dutch book"]
Laille? Locke? on Human Understanding    0.10.0
[John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.  London: 1690; First American edition: "An abridgment of Mr. Locke's essay concerning Human Understanding." Boston: Pr. by Manning & Loring for J. White, Thomas & Andrews, D. West, et al., 1794. 12mo (17.3 cm, 6.8"). 250 pp.  An inquiry into how we acquire ethical knowledge.]
Priestley’s Letters            1.10.0
[Joseph Priestley, Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever, 1780; multi-volume set of books on metaphysics]
Paleys Philosophy                1.10.0
[William Paley, Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, 1785; very influential and popular (15 ed. before author's death in 1805) work; the author was a strong supporter of the colonies during the Revolution and advocated abolition of the slave trade.]
Senakes? Morals                    0.7.0
[Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (ca. 4 B.C.-65), Seneca's morals by way of abstract: Of benefits, Part I; Of a happy life; Of anger and clemency, Part. II; the third, and last part. Digested into XXVIII. epistles.  London: printed by Tho. Newcomb for Henry Broome, at the Gun in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1678 (3 vol); 1st American ed. Printed at Boston : by I. Thomas and E.T. Andrews, at Faust's Statue, no. 45, Newbury-Street, 1792; 395pp. 12vo.]
Watts Logic            0.4.0
[Isaac Watts, Logic, or the use of Reason in the Inquiry After Truth with a Variety of Rules to Guard Against Error in the Affairs of Religion and Human Life, as well as in the Sciences; 1st ed. 1724.]
Zimmerman on pride            0.15.0
[ZIMMERMANN, Dr J[ohann]. G[eorg]. ESSAY ON NATIONAL PRIDE. To Which Are Added Memoirs of the Author’s Life and Writings. Translated From the Original German of the late Celebrated…By Samuel Hull Wilcocke. London: Printed for C. Dilly, 1797. 8vo, xl, 260, (23 as index)pp. Full mottled calf, red morocco spine label, gilt lettered, ex library, front joint starting, foxing to first and last few leaves, some loss at spine head and tail, otherwise a good copy. $150. ¶ First Edition, second (most desirable) English translation. Johann Georg Zimmermann was trained as a medical doctor; in 1768 he was appointed “His Britannic Majesty’s Physician” at Göttingen. He was later physician to Frederich II of Prussia, and after the death of “The Great” wrote two books concerning him. He was best known, however, as a popularizer of current philosophical and ethical ideas. Originally published in German in 1758 under the title Von dem Nationalstolze, the present volume, written during the Seven Years War, concerns patriotism and well argues a distinction between true and false national pride. A prior unauthorized English translation, issued in 1771, was rejected by Zimmermann; highly inaccurate, Zimmermann considered the translator “not only an ignorant fellow but a cheat” (Preface). Given current events, a most appropriate theme for study. Scarce. Lowndes p.3025.]
Zimmerman on Solitude        0.6.0
[ZIMMERMANN, [Johann Georg von]. SOLITUDE Considered with Respect to its Influence upon the Mind and the Heart, Written Originally in German by M. Zimmermann… Translated from the French by J.B. Mercier. The Second Edition. London: C. Dilly, 1791. 8vo, (4), vii, (1), 380pp. Half calf, red morocco label, marbled boards rubbed, joints weak, edges scuffed, overall very good. $125. ¶ An English translation of Zimmermann’s popular Über die Einsamkeit (1784). A successful physician, appointed in 1768 “His Britannic Majesty’s Physician,” Zimmermann (1728-95) was known as a popularizer of current philosophical ideas. In this work he discusses the edifying aspects of solitude. NUC lists UC Berkeley only.]

Foreign Language -6
Dutch books                0.11.6
A Dutch Book               0.2.6
a French Book              0.2.6
a French grammar         0.1.7
A french Grammar         0.8.0
A Large French book     0.6.6

Miscellaneous -5

1 lott of books                 37.2.6
1 book                             0.5.0
A book                             0.5.0
A Lott of papers                0.4.6
A Lott of News Papers        0.8.1

Unknown- 23

?A Small View                    0.3.0
?Astrolhology                     0.6.2
?Balance Garden [Balancie Garder?]  1.0.0?
Beauties History        1.0.0
[xBeatties? ?UVA, 1828- Le Beau's History of the decline of the Roman Empire, Fr. Moestricht, 1780.
Canderie?  Conderse?  Condense?                0.6.1
[CH Phil Soc has Condorcet on the Mind]  Candide?
Canuclad                1.0.0
[french?]
Cerise? Cevis’l? Travels                0.7.6
[Antoine-Marie Cerisier was a French journalist living in Amsterdam who worked with John Adams in the 1780s, but not sure if this is him...]
?Curvins (Curwin’s?) Speeches    0.17.6
?Davises Researches    0.17.6
?Grolisque ?                     0.7.1
[Grotius?
?History of India            3.15.0
?Loyal Captiene &etc                   0.9.1
?Lysie's Poems        0.3.6
[prob. not the Greek speech writer Lysias... he wrote orations]
Milses Philosophy                                      1.5.0
?Morgans Essas & Robertsons Illuminations    2.12.0
Nickerson Religions        0.7.6
[?nothing before 1800 Nic- / Relgions
?Bye Laws Poetry? Pailny?           0.2.6
?Sarrows overtis? Overtur?           0.10.0
?Spies of Parris?                0.1.0
Sullivants Lectures            1.2.6
?Thistons Memorials                0.7.6 (Whiston? Twiston?
?The Theory of Commerce    1.1.0

SOURCES USED FOR RESEARCHING TITLES:

British Library- English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) printed items before 1801.

http://estc.bl.uk/

The Law Library of Congress Rare Book Collection

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awlaw3/rare_book.html

The printed Catalogue of the Dialectic Society Library (1821, at UNC-CH), gives the short titles of 1673 books.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/unc/uncbk1026/uncbk1026.html.

The printed Catalogue of the the Philanthropic Society (at UNC-CH), Printed by J. Gales, Raleigh, 1822.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/unc/uncbk1027/cover.html .

UVA library catalogue, 1828

http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=2005_Q4_1/uvaBook/tei/b004123185.xml;brand=default;

Porcellian Club Library, 1831

http://www.archive.org/stream/catalogue00clubgoog/catalogue00clubgoog_djvu.txt

Civilian Conservation Corps Camp

On the north side of NC 22 halfway between Ramseur and Franklinville are these two quartz columns that mark the one-time entrance to Randolph County’s only Civilian Conservation Corps camp.

The western column has a carved stone inserted in the quartz which appears to be something more like soapstone; the carved writing has deteriorated and been partially vandalized, but seems to read “Civ Co C/ 340 C/ NC.SCS 20G/Ramseur.N.C.”

If those hieroglyphs were all we had to go on, we might still be wondering if this was any more than a standard entrance to the modern subdivision that now stands down “Camp” Road.  There are no other structures still standing to tell a story.  Luckily, a couple of notes in the Franklinville section of The Courier (published in Asheboro), explain further.

“Randolph County gets a C.C.C. Camp.  This camp will be located on 90 highway, on a 10 acre tract of land opposite Central Service Station, midway between Ramseur and Franklinville.  The camp will consist of 11 buildings, including an office, commissary, and barracks, and will accommodate 226 men.  The houses will be built by local carpenters and are expected to be ready for camp by July 15 at which time they want to begin work if the farm erosion extension is officially confirmed.  We are glad to have this camp in our community, which is centrally located in the new erosion extension.” (June 6, 1935)

The camp was apparently built on a 5-acre tract which the federal government must have leased from J.H. Burgess, who had inherited it after the dead of his father John H. Burgess in 1905. In 1962 Burgess sold the 4.89 acres to W.M. Cox, proprietor of Ramseur Building Supply, who subdivided it into twelve lots known as “Forest Hills” subdivision (Plat Book 10, Page 120). Camp Street runs along the western boundary of the property, and Forestview Street marks the eastern boundary.

A note from the May 12, 1936 Courier tells us that the camp had been built and was in operation doing soil conservation work :

M.F. Cheek has done much work on his farm two and a third miles south of Franklinville. This farm was formerly known as the George York place and joins the late A.J. Curtis home place. Since Mr. Cheek bought this property about eight months ago, more than 20 acres have been cleared. By private work and the aid of the CCC camp, the farm has been mapped, terraces run, pastures built, and land selected for the most suitable crops. The farm is on the headwaters of Curtis Creek and several acres will be run in pasture. Mr. Cheek expects to build a dwelling house and a large feed barn this summer.

M.F. Cheek bought the first of three tracts in this property from the heirs of George York in September, 1935 (DB 268, P425). When he sold out in June, 1943, there were three tracts totaling 124 acres (DB372/459). The 1978 deed in the chain describes the property as being “in Franklinville Township…approximately two miles west of the town of Ramseur, on the road known as Holly Springs Road…”

I’m sure that somewhere (probably in the National Archives) there is a lot more information about this camp, and maybe someone else will track down its entire history one day.

The “County Home”

From The Courier, Asheboro, North Carolina, June 8, 1922:

“The new county home which has been under construction for the past few months has been completed. The home is built on the land which the county commissioners purchased of Mr. R.J. Hopkins, a mile outside the corporate limits of Asheboro on the highway leading from Washington to Atlanta. The cost of the buildings are $28,000, heating $4,100, plumbing and water $3,000. The farm cost $8,500. The total cost of the new county home is $43,600.

Superintendent N.H. Ferguson and his family together with the old inmates of the county home moved about the middle of May. There are fifteen white and five colored inmates. The entire equipment, bedding, and everything used is new. The cost of the furniture, etc., has not yet been estimated. Randolph County can boast of having one of the best county homes in North Carolina. It is modern and up-to-date in every respect. This is the second county home that Randolph County has ever had. The old location was purchased between 1860 and 1870. The old location was purchased by Governor Jonathan Worth.

Governor Jonathan Worth, who as a representative in the legislature from Randolph County in 1854 and ’56, introduced a bill providing for the erection of a penitentiary in North Carolina and for every county to have a county home. There was a great deal of dissatisfaction over this but it soon became so popular that Dr. [sic- "Dr." John Milton Worth was the Governor's brother] Worth’s fight in the legislature resulted in his election as the governor of North Carolina.

Randolph County within a few years after that arranged for the purchase of the old location and the erection of the first county home. The influence which probably prompted Gov. Worth to use his influence in the legislature was a visit of Dorothy Dixon [sic- Dorothea Dix] to North Carolina, who went about in the interest of humanity recommending the caring for criminals and unfortunate people. Up until that time there had never been any fires in the jails of North Carolina, and Judge Tourgee, who was presiding in this district, ordered that fires be built in the jails for the comfort of the prisoners.

Randolph has needed the new county home for many years.”

This article is priceless for its contemporary description of the County Home, a building which has only been progressively less respected as time has passed.

My 1978 survey and 1985 book did not include the County Home because it was then barely 60 years old, even though it had (and still has) great architectural interest.

To speak to a few of the writer’s historical non sequiturs: Judge Albion W. Tourgee was one of North Carolina’s most famous (back in the day, they would have said ‘notorious’) Reconstruction Era carpetbaggers. A New York native who served with the Union army in the South and later settled in Greensboro, he served as a Superior Court Judge for the Piedmont district and actually wrote North Carolina’s first Code of Civil Procedure. It may well be true that Judge Tourgee first ordered that the cells of the Randolph County jail be heated. Why this historical tidbit merited inclusion in this article is unclear, unless the writer somehow conflated the county jail and the county home, even though they had always been separate.

The claims about Gov. Jonathan Worth’s central role in reforming the system of poor relief seems more suspect. I have not found in published contemporary legal books any revisions of the poor laws from the 1854-56 session of the legislature. Worth’s “influence,” as a member of the House of Commons at that time, would have been minimal compared to his service as wartime Treasurer and as Governor from 1865-68. Worth was removed as Governor by the military supervisor of the Carolinas, and his political enemy W.W. Holden was installed as governor. The Constitution of 1868, written by men such as A.W. Tourgee, was passed almost immediately upon Worth’s removal from office, and it did make some substantial changes to the “poor law.”

Worth would have been very supportive of the relief of indigent people, as this had been for hundreds of years a central concern of all Quakers. As Governor, in fact, Worth faced unprecedented numbers of needy constituents who had been beggared by the war, and had to deal with distributing donations sent to the state for their support. “Finding it impossible to attend to the proper dispensation of the donations committed to my charge for the use of the indigent of this State,” Worth wrote to A.U. Tomlinson on May 15, 1867, “I obtained the consent of…the ministers of the four principal churches in this city, to take the labor off my hands. All that has been committed to my charge, they have control over.” [Correspondence of Gov. Jonathan Worth, 1909, quoted in Randolph County, 1779-1979, p. 92] Tomlinson, of Bush Hill, had complained that Worth had “overlooked” the needy of Randolph County; the harassed Governor responded that “There has been neither carelessness nor improper discrimination in the distribution of this bounty—but for want of proper information… If Randolph has been overlooked it must be attributed to the failure of the authorities to report its needs…”

Indigent relief had in fact been considered a function of local county government since the constitution of 1777, when “An Act Providing for the Support of the Poor” was passed by the General Assembly. The Act was later codified as Chapter 89 in the Revised Statutes of North Carolina (1837), and as Chapter 86 of the Revised Code (1855). The revisions of 1868 were codified as Chapter 88 of Battle’s Revisal (1873).

From 1777 to 1846 seven “Wardens of the Poor” were elected by “the freemen… of every county” meeting together at the courthouse on Easter Monday. The Court of Wardens were charged with the “maintenance of the poor,” and from 1817 could support them through the imposition of a Poor Tax, which the County Justices could levy. In 1831 the Justices in each county were authorized “when they deem necessary” to buy land and to “cause to be erected poor houses and other out buildings for the… support of the poor.” The Wardens were responsible for the oversight of the Poor House, but its actual daily operation was “annually let out to the lowest bidder;” that Overseer of the Poor was employed to “superintend the business… and to do all such matters and things as they may deem expedient, for the promotion of the said Poor House and the comfort of the poor” (sections 12 & 13, Revised Statutes, p. 471).

In 1798, the Wardens were first charged with the care of aged and infirm slaves whose owners had failed to provide “food, raiment and lodging” for them. Any citizen could report that “a slave is in a suffering condition,” and the Wardens would investigate, provide for the indigent slave, and charge the owner (section 19, ibid).

After 1846 the county Justices appointed the Wardens of the Poor, and were authorized to pay them for their services. The Constitution of 1868 transferred all these powers to the newly-created County Commissioners, but their responsibility to provide for the “maintenance…comfort and well-ordering” of the poor remained substantially the same (Battle’s Revisal, Ch. 27, section 24, p. 275).

From an architectural standpoint, the 1922 county home is an interesting example of a transition from the boxy turn-of-the-century Craftsman or “American Foursquare” style of residential design, to the Bungalow style. The plan of the complex of buildings is the familiar service wing-and-hyphen “plantation house” design that goes all the way back to English Baroque examples, and was first seen in America in the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg.

Originally situated on a hilltop and oriented toward South Fayetteville Street, the complex presented a familiar, comfortable and even upscale façade that ran counter to the traditional parental admonition, “you’ll send me to the Poor House.” The main block has a residential face and a two-story porch that makes it look like a more modern version of the Coffin-Makepeace House in Franklinville. The whole composition is reminiscent of that house, in fact, as the Makepeace House also originally had service wings connected to the main block by porch hyphens.

The complex is still owned by Randolph County, and currently used for surplus property storage. It is afflicted with the same vague and almost always untrue “it’s full of asbestos” curse that doomed so many other 20^th-century institutional structures, such as the Ramseur Elementary School. It is also suffering from the late-20^th century disease afflicting both homes and institutions, the loss of pride in its entrance yard. In this case, the semicircular drive has been closed, and the impressive oak grove between the County home and the railroad track has been repurposed to house recycling bins and dumpsters. The lower-class residential downscaling of the facility is complete from trash to chain link fencing, defunct vehicles, and cast-off upholstered furniture on the front porch.