| Abstract |
The bulk of the collection is family oriented, with genealogical material on the Sills, Arrington, Battle, Jelks, Nicholson, and Dameron families. Correspondence from Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi comment on life and activities, as well as emigration of families from North Carolina. Letters, diary entries, and advertisements reflect the daily operation and development of area schools, including the school at Belford, La Grange Female Academy, Warrenton Female Seminary, Franklin Institute, and Castalia Female Institute. Also includes letters from two Sills children who attended medical schools in Philadelphia and Baltimore. A diary reflects the hardships of the Sills family during the Civil War era and includes references to the battles at Roanoke Island and Fort Donelson, Union troops near Wilmington, Confederate invasion of the North and the battle of Gettysburg, Confederate hospitals in North Carolina, and service by Nash County troops. Other material pertains to a distant relative who was involved in the Cuban Civil War. Also contains slave records, including bills of slave for slaves and a list of slaves emancipated in 1865. |
| Access restriction | Joyner- No access restrictions. |
| Cite as |
Sills Family Papers (#201), 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- Loaned by Miss Louise Sills. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Gift of Mrs. Charlotte Perry. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Gift of Mr. Bill Dameron. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Gift of Mrs. Isad D. Barton. |
| Biographical note | The Sills family came to North Carolina from Southern Virginia late in the 18th Century. David Sills, Jr. settled on a tract of land in Nash County, N.C., which he named Belford, after an ancestral home in England. Belford eventually grew to over six thousand acres in Nash, Franklin, and Warren Counties and at one time operated its own post office and school. |
