| Abstract |
Collection contains correspondence, assessment books, photographs, association minutes, financial records, deeds, and other miscellaneous items. Republican interests, patronage, conventions, nominations, collaboration with the Populist Party, and illicit distilleries in Johnston and Harnett counties are discussed in correspondence with Matthew Quay, John J. Mott, Thomas Settle, and E. C. Duncan. Other items of a political nature include an affidavit signed by White to support laws concerning the emancipation of slaves, N.C. House of Representatives Rules for the 1921 session, political cartoons, political essays and speeches, and materials related to White's roles as collector of Internal Revenue for the 4th District of North Carolina and chairman of the Perquimans County Board of Commissioners. Family-related materials include lists of graduates from Belvidere Academy; correspondence concerning land holdings in Indiana, Iowa, and North Carolina; deeds indicating land held in Kansas, Illinois, and Missouri; and correspondence discussing schools in Beech Grove, Ind., and life in Lawton, Okla., and Mineral Wells, Tex. Temperance-related materials include the Women's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) minutes, which contain the constitution and minutes of the first convention of the 1st District, held in Elizabeth City, N.C; reports from local unions in Bethel, Edenton, and Belvidere; and the minute book for the Temperance Association of Perquimans and Chowan counties. Other materials include clippings, songs, speeches, handbills, publications, broadsides, posters, and W.T.C.U. handbills on suffrage. Also included in the collection are monthly and annual welfare work reports for the mill towns of White Oak and Proximity in Guilford County, N.C. Religious material relates primarily to the Society of Friends and includes the proceedings of their tract association, lists of members of the 1902 home classes, a Friends Academy calendar, and a program for the Indiana Yearly Meeting. Financial records include a general store ledger for Woodville, N.C. and Suttons Creek, N.C.; a mill account ledger; and two personal account books, which include notes of family births, deaths and marriages, money loaned, purchases, farm accounts, and labor costs. A journal for the steamer HARBINGER indicates transfers to the Winslow Line of the Norfolk Southern Railroad. Other materials include advertising cards, a prospectus for the Southern Cotton Mill in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., and correspondence that details plans of the Roanoke Rapids Power Company to build a canal and two large cotton mills. |
| Biographical note | Elihu Anthony White (1824-1900) was a Quaker farmer and business leader from Belvidere, N.C. After serving as postmaster of Newby's Bridge (1858-1861), White was elected as a Republican to the North Carolina Senate (1868-1870). He was justice of the peace in 1873 and served on the Perquimans County Board of Commissioners (1873-1878). In 1879, White was appointed collector of Internal Revenue by President Rutherford B. Hayes. He was a delegate to the Republican national conventions in 1884, 1888, and 1896. Also, in 1888, White was reappointed as collector by President Benjamin Harrison. In 1894, he became a member of the board of trustees of the University of North Carolina. In the mid 1890s, White became chairman of the Perquimans County Board of Education. |
