| Abstract |
Collection consists of correspondence, legal documents, biographical and genealogical sketches, financial papers, and other miscellaneous materials related to the Grimes and Bryan families. The earliest letters primarily concern legal matters, such as land boundary disputes, ownership of slaves, and stock in the Bank of New Bern. Later correspondence concerns slavery and the Civil War, with letters discussing guard duty; deserters; violence; medical care for the wounded; scarcity of goods; speeches given by North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance; the Burnside Expedition in Beaufort County, N.C.; battles in Manassas, Va., New Bern, N.C., and New Orleans, La.; camp life; typhoid fever at Camp Lee, Va.; victory at Fredericksburg, Va.; A. P. Hill and Bristol Station, Va.; slave labor; the treatment of slaves; and Congressman Benjamin Wood's (NY) peace plan. Other topics include L. G. Hunt's experiences as a student at Wake Forest College and later as a medical student in Philadelphia, Pa., and New Orleans, La.; life in Marlin, Tex.; travels to Washington, D.C.; the sale of cotton; the peanut market; the 1880 contest for the Democratic North Carolina gubernatorial nomination; social activities; fashion; and a yellow fever quarantine between Galveston, Tex., and New Orleans, La. The collection also contains transcripts of testimony given in the case of State vs. William Parker concerning the assassination of General Bryan Grimes. A clipping contains an article on Grimes. Biographical and genealogical sketches pertain to the Grimes and Sparrow families and the Washington, N.C., area. Also included is a genealogical essay on the Shepard family of North Carolina. Volumes in the collection relate to finances. The account book of a Pitt County, N.C., doctor lists persons visited and charges made. Other account books record sales of foodstuffs, liquor, cloth, paper, shoes, and other goods. |
| Access restriction | Joyner- No access restrictions. |
| Cite as |
Grimes-Bryan Papers (#16), Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. |
| Terms of use | Joyner- Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Gift of James Robert Grimes. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Loaned by Mrs. J. D. Grimes. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Loaned by Mr. James Robert Grimes. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Loaned by Mr. John Grimes. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Gift of Mr. John Grimes. |
| Biographical note | The Grimes and Bryan families lived in eastern North Carolina during the nineteenth century. John Herritage Bryan (1798-1870), a lawyer of New Bern and Raleigh, served in the United States House of Representatives from 1825-1829. His daughter, Charlotte Emily, married Confederate General Bryan Grimes in 1863; after the war, they lived at General Grimes's plantation, Grimesland, in Pitt County. The Conrad and Wharton family papers, which center around Clemmonsville in Davidson County, N.C., appear in this collection as a result of the marriage of Ida Wharton of Forsyth County and Junius Grimes, a son of the general. |
