NOTE:  The numbers cited in parentheses, e.g. 1:5, refer the researcher to the Series#:Folder# in which that name/topic will be found.

INTRODUCTION

This collection contains the papers of two distinguished attorneys and judges related through marriage, Robert Paine Dick and his son-in-law, Robert Martin Douglas. The pairing provides a two-generation perspective on legal and political life in North Carolina in the second half of the 19th century. Although imbalanced in its coverage and dominated by household financial records, the collection also contains many materials that reveal political, business, and legal controversies, the handling of estates, the array of judicial cases, and the intellectual range of two state leaders. Of particular note are several depositions from Robert P. Dick’s involvement in cases investigating alleged lynching and violence after the Civil War. A reluctant Confederate during the war, he supported much of the Republican reform afterwards. Robert M. Douglas was the son of Stephen A. Douglas, who lost the presidency to Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Raised a Democrat, he became a Republican after the Civil War to fulfill his father’s dying wish that he support the Constitution.

Arrangement: This collection is organized into two groups with series and folders arranged by document type or subject. The groups are: Dick, Robert P., 1850s-1928; and Douglas, Robert M., 1857-1903.

Provenance: This collection was donated by Virginia Vanstory in July 2024 and assigned the accession number 2023.58.1. The donor is a direct descendant of Robert Paine Dick and Robert Martin Douglas through the latter’s son, Robert Dick Douglas Sr.

Processing: This collection was organized and the finding aid was completed by volunteer Ann Koppen in January 2025.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Robert Paine Dick (1823-1898) was born in Greensboro to Parthenia Paine Williamson and John McClintock Dick. His eight siblings included Susan Dick Bell (1826-1889) and William A. Dick (1830-1879). After attending the Caldwell Institute and graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1843, Robert P. Dick read law under his father and George C. Mendenhall. Licensed in 1845, he began his practice in Wentworth, the seat of Rockingham County, North Carolina. In 1848, he married Mary Eloise Adams, daughter of Justinia Madeleine Watkins and George Adams of Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The couple moved back to Greensboro and later built Dunleath.

Dick was appointed a U.S. district attorney by President Franklin Pierce in 1853. Active in state politics, he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1852 and 1860, when he endorsed the candidacy of Stephen A. Douglas as the best way to secure the union. Although pro-union, he ultimately voted for secession at the 1861 state convention. A member of William W. Holden’s “peace movement,” he was elected to the North Carolina Senate on that platform in 1864 and declined appointment in 1865 to the U.S. district judgeship for North Carolina because he could not take the test oath, having served in the state legislature during the war. Nevertheless, he became an active member of the new Republican Party, a leading advocate for the Fourteenth Amendment, and a continued ally of provisional governor William W. Holden. He served as an associate justice on the state supreme court from 1868 to 1872, when President Grant appointed him a federal district judge for the western district of North Carolina, a post he resigned shortly before his death in 1898.

In 1878, Dick and Judge John Dillard founded the Greensboro Law School, which operated from 1870 until 1883. Noted for his scholarship in history and biblical literature, he was the author of a book on Hebrew poetry consisting of 16 lectures. A gifted orator, he was in much demand for public speaking. He was also an active member of First Presbyterian Church, where he served as a ruling elder. He and Mary had five children: George Adams Dick, Jessie Madeleine Dick Douglas (1855-1935), Susan Dick Stone, Emma Dick Williams, and Samuel Weir Dick. Their eldest daughter, Jessie Madeleine Dick, married Robert Martin Douglas.

Robert Martin Douglas (1849-1917) was born in Rockingham County to Martha Denny Martin and Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, a U.S. senator and presidential candidate who opposed Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Raised primarily by his stepmother, Adele Cutts, in Washington, D.C., he became a Roman Catholic and was educated at Loyola College and Georgetown University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1867, a master’s degree in 1870, and an honorary doctor of laws in 1897.

Douglas moved to North Carolina in 1867 to oversee property that he and his brother had inherited from their maternal grandfather, Robert Martin. Although his father had been a Democrat, he decided that the Republican Party would better further his deathbed promise to his father to “support the Constitution,” and he became active in Reconstruction politics. Governor William W. Holden appointed him as his private secretary in 1868, and then President Ulysses S. Grant, a family friend, appointed him assistant secretary to the president. In 1873, he settled in Greensboro as U.S. marshal in North Carolina’s new Western District of the United States Circuit Court.

After marrying Jessie Madeleine Dick in 1874, Douglas studied law under his father-in-law and Judge John H. Dillard. He practiced for twenty years and served as the standing master in chancery of the Western District of the U.S. Circuit Court before he was elected an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1897, aided by the Republican-Populist fusion. As a judge, he was known for his knowledge, fairness, patience, and impartiality. But he and another court Republican, David M. Furches, were impeached on a technicality in 1901, because the Democrats, returning to power in the state, feared that the Republicans would overturn the suffrage amendments deterring the African American vote. Both Furches and Douglas were acquitted in the subsequent trial, and Douglas served until defeated in the 1904 election. Returning to Greensboro to practice law, he engaged in business and civic affairs as an organizer of Greensboro’s first chamber of commerce and director of the city’s first streetcar company, while also serving on the North Carolina Corporation Commission.

Douglas was a well-known orator and writer. Several of his historical addresses were published, the best known being The Life and Character of Governor Alexander Martin (1898). A few speeches published in newspapers are in this collection. Douglas was a principal contributor to the building of St. Agnes Church, to which he was devoted. He and his wife had four children: Robert Dick Douglas, Madeleine Douglas Myers, Stephen Arnold Douglas, and Martin Francis Douglas.

Biographical Sources: The biographical information on Robert P. Dick was gathered from the article about him in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Vol. 2 D-G, edited by William S. Powell (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986); his biography on Documenting the American South; the biography in the museum’s finding aid for the Dick Family Papers (Mss. Coll. #9); Ancestry.com; and obituaries in this collection.

The information about Robert M. Douglas was obtained from the article about him in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Vol. 2 D-G, edited by William S. Powell (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986, updated online in October 2022); “Speech of Col. Robert M. Douglas, of Washington, D.C.” (Delivered at a Republican mass meeting held at Smithfield, N.C., July 12, 1870); “Supreme Court of North Carolina, a brief history,” by Martin M. Brinkley, archived by the Wayback Machine, March 21, 2008; “Douglas, Robert Martin,” The Catholic encyclopedia and its makers (New York: The Encyclopedia Press, 1917); Ancestry.com; and the obituary titled “Judge Robert M. Douglas of Greensboro is dead” (The Wilmington Morning Star, February 9, 1917).

SCOPE & CONTENT NOTE

This two-part collection consists of correspondence, legal documents, financial records, and newspaper clippings relating to Robert Paine Dick and Robert Martin Douglas. Dominated by household financial records, the collection also provides samples of legal work and political controversy in North Carolina in the years surrounding the Civil War. In particular, it gives glimpses of the political climate after the Civil War, when ardent Reconstruction Republicans clashed with resisting Democrats (primarily ex-Confederates). Of special note are several depositions describing lynching and violence from Dick’s cases investigating these activities (I 4:2). Both Dick and Douglas became moderate Republicans and therefore experienced the advantages and disadvantages of moderation in a polarized climate.

The items in the Robert Paine Dick group supplement materials in the museum’s Dick Family Papers. Although many documents present interesting aspects of Dick’s legal career, particularly in his later years as a U.S. district court judge, they are not comprehensive. However, the folders containing court documents and Dick’s handwritten opinions, as well as the materials pertaining to estate settlements, provide a sampling of his legal work. The most complete series is financial, which holds many years of Dick’s household records. Those interested in Dunleath will find itemized accounts of building materials, as well as plans for the orchards and grounds. His activities as an orator, biblical scholar, and law school founder are also evidenced in this collection.

Financial documents also dominate the Robert Martin Douglas group. The profusion of invoices and receipts captures the necessities and costs of nearly every aspect of a leading figure’s daily life in late 19th century Greensboro. The newspaper clippings evidence Douglas’s keen interest in politics, business, real estate, and civic life, as well as his activities while serving on the circuit court and practicing law. He also saved a few articles that concerned him or his father or contained his speeches, which display his oratorical skills and ability to capture inspiring truths about his native city and state. The transcribed documents about the Mississippi plantation he inherited from his grandfather reveal maneuverings as slavery ceased, as well as the complicated nature of requesting compensation for property stolen/lost/destroyed during the Civil War. The single photograph in the collection is a portrait of Douglas with his three sons.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

I. Dick, Robert P.

1. Correspondence.  10 folders (ca. 170 items).  1855-1897.

Legal correspondence dominates this series, but one folder contains a few personal letters addressed to Dick. The legal correspondence is organized chronologically with the exception of two large subject-specific folders.

The clerkship appointment folders (1:1-2) hold letters and petitions composed in December 1896 to Robert P. Dick in his capacity as U.S. district judge and endorsing candidates or personally applying for appointment to the federal clerkship at Asheville. Candidates include W.A. Breese, Edgar Candler, G.P. Clayton, J.A. Fulmer, Robert M. Furman, W.S. Hyanis, J. Gibbon Merrimon, C.B. Moore, Walter E. Moore, J.H. Murphy, O.M. Pace, D.C. Pearson, and Henry B. Stevens. Most are Republican, on the assumption that Dick would appoint a Republican, but one Democrat did apply: James. J. Osborn. One letter was written to Hon. David Schenck asking for his influence on R.P. Dick. These letters reveal the behind-the-scenes maneuvering involved in judicial appointments, including by the family of the deceased judge causing the vacancy. The collections folder (1:3) holds letters mainly from John H. Watson and his collection house requesting payment from Robert P. Dick’s clients as the result of legal settlements or negotiations.

The chronological general incoming files cover Dick’s legal career, first as a practicing attorney in Wentworth and Greensboro and later as a U.S. district judge in Asheville. Many important judges who were his colleagues are represented (e.g., R.O. Patterson, Charles A. Moore, and Charles H. Simonton). Their quick rise to his defense after a critical 1894 article appeared in the newspaper is also captured, as is an extended controversy with U.S. Attorney R.B. Glenn over Dick’s verdict in a court case (1:5). A series of letters from 1887-1888 addressed to Mrs. Bell, likely Robert P. Dick’s sister, from her daughter and from an attorney concern the settlement of her husband’s estate (1:8).

In the personal correspondence folders, an unhappy set of letters from the wife of Robert’s brother, William, describes his drinking and their financial troubles (1:9). A long letter from this brother in 1877 describes his imagined conspiracy by both political parties against “the Greensboro Ring,” of which R.P. Dick was a member. Also of note is a letter from Prof. John Bassett of Trinity College in Durham asking about Dick’s experience as a Union sympathizer during the Civil War (1:9).

2. Financial.  13 folders (ca. 145 items).  1855-1895.

Bills and receipts associated with the running of Dick’s household comprise the bulk of this series (2:2-10). Organized by subject, these folders include post box rental and freight, subscription, and tax receipts (property, poll, county, and state), as well as bills and receipts for general household and farming supplies and expenses. A tuition receipt from Greensboro Female College highlights the education of Sue and Emma Dick (2:4). Together, these records reveal daily needs — building and farming supplies and repairs, utilities, home furnishings, food, and clothing. Like the journal in the miscellaneous series, the invoices for lumber and nursery items almost certainly record the creation of Dunleath. Although some blacksmith bills are included in both the farming and household sections, the source for the Dunleath ironwork in the museum’s collection is not apparent. The banking folder holds an assortment of checks, bank statements, and deposits (2:1). Two items reflect Dick’s stock purchases, one notably for five shares of N.C. Railroad Co. stock in 1854 (2:13), while insurance materials include correspondence, premium statements, and receipts from Aetna (2:11).

3. Greensboro Law School.  1 folder (10 items).  1870-1883, 1896.

A school flyer and receipts for advertising, tuition, printing, and law books comprise this series covering the years Dick and John H. Dillard ran this law school. One letter reflects unpaid tuition finally collected in 1896, after the school had closed.

4. Legal.  10 folders (ca. 200 items).  1850s-1890s.

This series includes accounts and receipts, court documents, legal drafts handwritten by Robert P. Dick, and some specific cases, primarily estate settlements, including the one for his mother.

The accounts are primarily “Gael Notes,” recording amounts for each prisoner, including notes, bonds, and interest, from the early days of Dick’s legal career (1850s; 4:1). One other account lists all of his income and expenses for a period in 1892 when he was judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.

The documents from court cases range from debt settlements (including one regarding the building of the Guilford County Courthouse in 1858; 4:2) and quit claims to subpoenas and sworn testimonies. Jeremiah Bason Jr. and Lucian Murray of Alamance County testified that they were arrested in 1874 by a regiment of the North Carolina State Troops as military prisoners and detained and tortured without warrant or charge even though they were not members of any military organization. Five 1870 depositions (when Dick was an associate justice on the state supreme court) describe incidents in which several named masked individuals beat and terrified “colored” men. In one instance, the victim was killed (4:2).

Two other court cases from the last year of Dick’s judgeship in 1897 involve complaints against Southern Railway and the Southern Building & Loan Association (4:3). The first is represented by a motion before Judge Dick to remand the case from district court to state court because Southern Railway was a non-resident. The case against Southern Building & Loan Association orders the failing organization into receivership to recover monies owed its stockholders. Despite a similar issue of non-residency pertinent to the railway case, Dick apparently moved ahead with this complaint. The legal drafts provide his reasoning for specific cases, including the Southern Railway case (4:5). Other papers list relevant precedent, rules of the court, and central “issues” of a case.

Robert P. Dick was executor for his mother, Parthenia P. Dick, and one folder (4:6) contains her will, some accounting from her execution of her husband’s will, and many records of payments to or sums received from her heirs, primarily Sallie Neall Dick, the daughter of Robert’s brother, William A. Dick, for whom Robert was trustee. Letters from Sallie’s mother in the correspondence series suggest reasons for the trusteeship: Sallie was mute, and her father struggled with alcohol abuse (1:8). Another relative, Thomas Dick, held a number of guardianships, and promissory notes from Robert relate to notes held by Thomas for some of his charges (4:4).

An estate case for William Hussey, early in Dick’s legal career, involves a protracted settling of Hussey’s affairs after he died intestate (4:7). Dick, previously named trustee for Hussey’s daughter Lydia and her husband, E.J. Dean, sued Hussey’s widow for unlawfully possessing and mishandling William’s “considerable” estate, including the questionable sale of some of his slaves. The folder includes the original bill of complaint, as well as responses from William’s wife Beulah and their other daughter, Rebecca, and her husband. On Beulah’s death two years later, Dick filed a supplemental complaint against her executors, Stephen Hunt and Alexander Lindsay, which is also included along with their response. In the years preceding William Hussey’s death, Lydia’s husband accrued considerable debt. Dick became trustee to supervise the exact split of their finances and later the administration of their portion from Lydia’s father’s estate. Beulah’s accounts and receipts in the year just before and after her husband’s death, as well as many court orders for E.J. Dean to satisfy debtors, are included, as are some financial transactions between E.J. Dean and Beulah Hussey, including a “master’s report” on the sale of slaves after her husband’s death.

For the estate of W. McConnel(l), Dick served for 15 years as guardian for two children who lived in Massachusetts, and a folder contains correspondence regarding the income from Greensboro real estate bequeathed to them (4:9). Tax records related to this guardianship can be found in the journal (5:2). Papers from another early estate case include “letters of attorney” appointing representation for the many heirs of Samuel Maxwell who died intestate (1850; 4:8). The receipts record the settling of debts in estate cases and guardianships — and for one retailer — sometimes including bonds and taxes, as well as legal fees and law books (4:10).

5. Miscellaneous.  4 folders (10 items).  1861-1897, n.d.

An informative journal, minutes from a Masonic lodge, a few medical records, and a speech draft comprise this series. The journal (5:2), apparently begun as a resource for court documents and arguments, with a table of contents, also contains tax records for Dick’s many guardianships, as well as detailed accounts for house and farm building and furnishing materials and the layout and planting of his orchards and gardens, most certainly at Dunleath. Some records relate to estate files in the legal series, most prolifically Charles and Lola McConnel. Dick’s guardianship of Alex and Emily Okey, not represented in the legal series, is also prominent in the journal. Two sets of Masonic lodge minutes record the case against and decision to expel H.W. Weeden from Lodge 199 in High Point for forgery, perjury, and extortion (5:3). Dick is not named but was perhaps of counsel to the proceedings, which took place at the beginning of Reconstruction. [According to a record in the financial series, Dick was a member of Lodge No. 76 (2:8).] The medical records include a receipt for medical services for Dick’s father, a prescription for a “sluggish liver,” and an 1897 letter from a doctor asking Dick’s support in promoting his cancer cure, with attached pamphlets (5:4). Dick died the next year of nephritis, then known as Bright’s Disease. His draft introduction to a speech about the Acts of the Apostles and Christian values is accompanied by a notepad listing the many supporting biblical citations (5:1).

6. Printed Material.  5 folders (17 items).  1871-1928.

Items in this series include booklets (Paul’s Practical Plant Points and Notes on Patents; 6:1), an invitation to a decoration of the graves of Confederate soldiers (with memorial oration given by Robert P. Dick), and concert ticket stubs (6:2). One folder contains flyers for a few publications (The Arena, The Literary Digest, and Rand-McNally’s Great Atlas of the World) and an advertisement from The Continent offering Dick’s volume on Hebrew Poetry (6:5). Newspaper clippings concern the Greensboro Law School, commemorated in a 1928 article, and a gift from the U.S. Commissioners to Dick (6:3). Also included are numerous obituaries for Dick from newspapers in Charlotte, Raleigh, Asheville, and Greensboro, as well as two accounts of his funeral in the Greensboro Record and Greensboro Telegram (6:4).

II. Douglas, Robert M.

1. Correspondence.  3 folders (17 items).  1877-1898.

These few items of legal and general personal correspondence include a series of letters from Sarah W. Conner inquiring about estate money due Jane Morrison King, a note from John A. Gilmer warning that a lawsuit between Douglas and William Watson & Co. had been compromised, a note from Harper’s Magazine stating that a copy of Sheahan’s Life had been mailed, a personal letter acknowledging receipt of a pamphlet of Douglas’s addresses (based on the date of 1898, almost certainly The Life and Times of Governor Alexander Martin), and a letter from Douglas’s doctor explaining his prescription. The most significant folder contains condolences on Robert P. Dick’s death, primarily letters and telegrams sent to Robert M. Douglas (1:3). These include heartfelt notes from Douglas’s sister and D.M. Furches, associate justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Telegrams are from H.C. Cowles, Dick’s colleagues Judge Charles H. Simonton and Charles A. Moore, and Father Benard of St. Mary’s College. An earlier letter from one of Dick’s students, V.C. McAdoo, to Jessie M. Dick Douglas anticipates Dick’s death from Bright’s Disease.

2. Financial.  18 folders (ca. 715 items).  1865-1894.

Invoices and receipts dominate this series. Also included are a fire insurance policy (2:3) and a few bank notes payable to and from Douglas, the latter primarily for bonds or the interest thereon (2:2). Some informal accounting records list expenses for clothing, dinner costs, “work on rooms,” and three years of unidentified credit/debit activity (2:1).

The invoices and receipts provide an excellent summary of typical expenses for all aspects of Douglas’s life — office supplies, books, legal expenses, and rent for his law practice (2:4); upkeep, furniture, and literature for his church (2:5); tuition costs (at Lina Porter’s school and St. Mary’s College), school supplies, and lessons for his children’s education, including musical (2:6); farming and nursery supplies, repairs, and labor costs, as well as tobacco sales (2:7); the cost of a tombstone, grave digging, and hearse rental for a funeral (2:8); a full range of household expenses for clothing, furnishings, building supplies, freight, toiletries, and groceries (2:9-12); the cost of lodging and indications of Douglas’s frequent trips to Washington, D.C., in the 1870s, as well as guests he boarded at Greensboro hotels (2:13); medical costs, including medications and doctor and dentist bills (2:14); subscriptions, from newspapers to religious periodicals and monthly or annual digests (2:15); taxes on land he owned in multiple counties in North Carolina and Texas (2:16); and telegrams related to his legal and business dealings, ranging from central and western North Carolina to New Orleans, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Chicago (including several to S.A. Douglas there), and Washington, D.C (2:17). A small number of receipts are made out to a third party, including three to R.P. Dick for furniture freight and one to Nettie Settle for tuition at Greensboro Female College (2:18). Many telegram receipts show Thomas Settle Jr. as the recipient (2:17); his daughter Henrietta is listed as Nettie in the 1870 census. Note that this series is missing records from the 1881 to 1886.

3. Miscellaneous. 1 folder (5 items).  1871, n.d.

The miscellaneous items consist of two blank but signed prescription forms, a NC Supreme Court letterhead, and a page torn from a memo book listing addresses and some budget items. Also included are the first four pages of a manuscript for a short story entitled “The Price,” an unattributed and undated allegory about empty striving.

4. Mississippi Plantation.  1 folder (5 items).  1857-1868 (transcriptions).

This series involves a cotton claim submitted by Robert M. Douglas and his brother, Stephen A. Douglas Jr., for cotton seized and lost during the Civil War. They inherited a Mississippi plantation and enslaved laborers from their grandfather, Robert Martin. Their father sold that plantation, and the enslaved workers were transferred to another plantation, with the cultivation supervised by overseers. The cotton grown on the plantation was the subject of the claim. The documents are typed transcriptions of two letters written by James A. Strickland, the man supervising the work on the new plantation, an agreement between Stephen A. Douglas and J.A. McHatton who owned the land, and a letter to Robert M. Douglas advising on how to proceed with the cotton claim. A summary of the story, unsigned and undated, concludes that the two brothers received nothing from the claim. Note that the summary misstates the date of a Strickland letter as 1837 when the transcribed letter is dated 1857.

5. NC Steel & Iron Co.  1 folder (4 items).  1889-1893.

This series contains a charter and by-laws, reports, and prospectus that comprise the documents and supporting reports necessary to incorporate in the state of North Carolina. They are contained in an envelope postmarked October 1893 and addressed to Robert M. Douglas, with his name stamped on the documents. He was an associate justice on the state supreme court at the time, so these materials were probably in his possession in that capacity.

6. Photograph.  1 folder (1 item).  ca. late 1890s.

The only photograph in the collection is a portrait of Robert M. Douglas with his three sons, Martin F. Douglas (incorrectly named on back of photo), Robert Dick Douglas Sr., and Stephen A. Douglas. Judging by the age of his sons, the photograph was likely taken in the late 1890s.

7. Printed Material.  8 folders (ca. 170 items).  1867-1903, n.d.

The printed material consists exclusively of newspaper clippings, most of which revolve around business and national, state, and local politics. While Douglas was a U.S. marshal for North Carolina and master in chancery to the U.S. Circuit Court, he focused on business and real estate (7:1). He clipped reports of the city government’s proceedings during the 1890s (7:5), but he also followed national and some state politics, especially during Reconstruction and the Republican James. G. Blaine’s campaign for the presidency in 1884 (7:6). One folder holds several of his speeches (7:7). His impeachment in 1901, when he was a justice on the state supreme court, is featured among articles that refer to him or his father, Stephen A. Douglas (7:3). Douglas and his fellow defendant, Chief Justice David Furches, were not removed, but the growing sentiment against Republicans by the combined ranks of Democrats and Populists is evident. A prominent politician, Walter Clark, became chief justice in 1902 in spite of an ardent campaign against him on ethical grounds, which is the focus of another folder (7:2). A handful of tributes (7:8) and two poems (7:4), one by Douglas’s son, are also included in the series.

FOLDER LISTING

NOTE:  The numbers cited in parentheses, e.g. 1:5, refer the researcher to the Series#:Folder# in which that name/topic will be found.

INTRODUCTION

This collection contains a variety of materials relating to the establishment and early operations of the Berry Coal Company (later Berico Fuels, Inc.), which was founded by W.N. Berry in 1924. The materials primarily cover the legal and financial transactions of the company, and they include correspondence, financial statements, loan agreements and contracts, and property deeds. Researchers interested Berico Fuels or the financial and legal operations of local businesses in the second quarter the twentieth century may find this collection useful.

Arrangement: This collection is organized into three series and arranged within series by document type or subject. The series are: Financial, 1926-1984; Legal, 1923-1959; and Miscellaneous, 1934-1999.

Provenance: The materials in this collection were stored in the Berico Fuels offices for many years. They were donated by CEO Thomas A. Berry, the son of Joseph Berry, and assigned the accession number 2016.26.1.

Processing: This collection was organized and the finding aid was prepared by volunteer Kimberly Oliver in July 2016.

HISTORICAL NOTE

The Berry Coal and Wood Company was founded in 1924 by William Nathan “W.N.” Berry and his wife Elizabeth “Bess.” Initially located on West Bragg Street, it later moved to West Lee Street and then Bessemer Avenue as it expanded. W.N. served as the president and Bess as secretary-treasurer, soliciting orders and collecting payments door-to-door in the community. The company began by delivering coal with a horse and wagon, and they were soon superseded by trucks. As demands changed, it began offering oil as the main fuel and added air conditioning to its services. W.N.’s son John succeeded him as president and was replaced by his brother Joseph around 1970, by which time the company had been renamed Berico Fuels, Inc.

Historical Sources: The historical information was obtained from the finding aid for the Berry-Vize Family Papers (GHM Archives, Mss. Coll. #188) and the Berico Fuels website.

SCOPE & CONTENT NOTE

This collection consists primarily of financial and legal materials relating to the Berry Coal Company. Included are financial reports (1:2-3), tax information (1:13), loan contracts and mortgages (1:5,8,2:1,4,5), financial and legal correspondence (1:4; 2:2), property deeds (2:7-8), a ledger (1:10), installation records (3:2), payment receipts (1:1,9), photographs (3:5), and postcards (3:6). The collection focuses on the legal operations of the company, with little information about its daily operations or services to the Greensboro community. The lack of context for many materials and the specialized nature of many legal materials are weaknesses. Researchers interested in the founding of the Berry Coal Company and its detailed legal and financial operations will find this collection useful.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

1. Financial.  13 folders (79 items).  1926-1984.

The financial documents include a variety of bank notes (1:1), CPA balance sheets for 1934-1984 (1:2), and several CPA financial and examination reports (1:3). Correspondence features loan payments and balances, tax updates, and receipts in the forms of letters (1:4). Insurance materials consist of life and auto certificates (1:6), correspondence about payments and policy coverage (1:7), loan agreements (1:8), and payment receipts (1:9). The series also contains correspondence and contracts made with the Home Federal Savings and Loan Association (1:5), a company ledger (1:10), purchased and blank stock certificates (1:12), property tax receipts, and 1943 income tax returns (1:13).

2. Legal.  8 folders (46 items).  1923-1959.

The legal materials include contracts between W.N. and Bess Berry and various parties for the payment or endorsement of loans (2:1), correspondence between W.N. Berry and his attorney regarding paid loans (2:2), and an abstract form from his attorney regarding the company’s property in Morehead Township (2:3). Mortgages detail payments to be made by Berry to various parties (2:4). Materials relating to real estate include contracts giving the option to buy a specific area of land (2:5), correspondence about land value, an attorney’s opinion about that land, an engineering sketch of the plot (2:6), and deeds of trust (2:7-8).

3. Miscellaneous.  6 folders (22 items).  1934-1999.

Of particular note in this series are company postcards (3:6), photographs of the company’s coal yard and trucks (3:5), and newspaper clippings promoting its 50th anniversary (3:3). Also included are dealers’ equipment installation records from the 1950s (3:2), auto service invoices (3:1), and a nomination form and newsletter announcement for the William Parker Award from the North Carolina Petroleum Marketers Association (3:4).

FOLDER LISTING

NOTE:  The numbers cited in parentheses, e.g. 1:5, refer the researcher to the Series#:Folder# in which that name/topic will be found.

INTRODUCTION

This collection consists primarily of letters that Vincent Wade sent to his parents while stationed in Europe and North Africa during and after World War II. The letters detail his experiences as a B-17 pilot in the final months of the war, as well as his work as a courier and in aerial mapping afterwards. Also included are a few pilot logs, photographs, and foreign coins from his military training and service. The correspondence with his future wife, Rita Hunter, took place after he was discharged. Researchers interested in the training and service of B-17 pilots during World War II, the post-war work of military pilots, or life in the United States after the war may find this collection useful.

Arrangement: This collection is organized in two series and arranged within series by author or document type. The series are: Correspondence, 1943-1951; and Miscellaneous, 1916-1950, n.d.

Provenance: This collection was donated by Nancy Wade McConnell and Anne Berry Wade in April 2023, and it was assigned the accession number 2023.9.1.

Processing: This collection was organized and the finding aid was prepared by volunteer Leah Nykamp in July 2023.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Lyle Vincent Wade (1925-2022) was born to Blanche Mann and Lyle Berry Wade in Greensboro, where he attended Lindley Elementary, Lindley Junior High, and Greensboro Senior High School. In 1943, he was a student at North Carolina State College (later North Carolina State University) when he enlisted in the U.S. Army. After completing basic training at Keesler Field in Mississippi, he continued his training at Hendricks Field in Florida and multiple locations in Georgia and Alabama until he was sent overseas in March 1945. As a B-17 pilot in the 365th Bomb Squadron of the 305th Bomb Group, he flew ten bombing missions over Germany, obtaining the rank of first lieutenant. After the war ended, he continued flying as a courier pilot and doing aerial photomapping for Project Casey Jones, which mapped western Europe and the coast of Africa. He returned to the U.S. in the summer of 1946 and was subsequently discharged. Following his military service, he earned a bachelor’s degree from N.C. State, and then worked as a chemical engineer in Virginia, Fayetteville, and Wilmington, before moving back to Greensboro in 1968.

Rita Hunter Wade was born in Gastonia, North Carolina. She attended the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (later UNCG) from 1944-1948, where she studied to become a teacher and then worked as a laboratory assistant from 1948-1949. In 1950, she married Vincent Wade, and the couple had two children, Nancy and Anne-Berry. The family were members of Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Biographical Sources: The sources for this biographical note include information provided by the family; items in the collection, particularly the letters between Wade and Hunter; Ancestry.com; Lyle Vincent Wade’s obituary (News & Record, October 9, 2022); the Rita Hunter Wade Papers at UNCG; and the American Air Museum in Britain.

SCOPE & CONTENT NOTE

The types of materials in this collection include letters, photographs, foreign coins, and a few logs, primarily dating from the World War II era. The majority consists of correspondence from Vincent Wade to his parents about his life as a B-17 pilot in the last months of the war and then his work as a courier and in aerial mapping afterwards. Also included are photographs he took during his training and service, as well as numerous letters that he and his future wife, Rita Hunter, exchanged while in college after the war. Researchers interested in the training and experiences of B-17 pilots during World War II, the work of military pilots after the war, or post-war life in the United States may find this collection useful.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

1. Correspondence.  48 folders (270 items).  1943-1951.

Most of the correspondence was sent by Vincent Wade to his parents and discusses his day-to-day life as a pilot during and after World War II (2:15-48). He describes his time as a trainee at Hendricks Field in Florida, as well as stationed overseas in places such as England, Belgium, Germany, and Libya. He tells his family about his flights, his experiences visiting foreign cities, and what it was like to live on a military base. He also expresses a fondness for photography and mentions multiple cameras that he bought in Europe, including the Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 531 purchased in Rome and donated with this collection. Letters between Wade and his future wife, Rita Hunter, were written while they were both in college (2:4, 2:11-14). After they became engaged, his mother wrote to welcome her to the family (2:10). Also included in the series are a couple letters from Wade’s maternal uncle, who was the pastor at Crozet Methodist Church in Virginia (2:7-8), as well as a few letters written to members of the Wade family by other soldiers, demonstrating that the whole family had friends in the military (2:1, 2:5-6).

2. Miscellaneous.  6 folders (28 items).  1916-1950, n.d.

The majority of this series consists of photographs taken while Wade was in Europe and North Africa (2:3). He took a “selfie” in a mirror with a camera that he mentions in a couple letters (1:45, Mar. 15 and Mar. 30), explaining that he traded cigarette cartons for it in Rome (1:46, Apr. 5). Also of note is his Pilot Rating Book, which was issued by the Civil Aeronautics Administration and contains evaluations of his flights as a trainee (2:4). Similarly, the navigation logs from his training (2:2) and his senior pilot log (2:5) contain records of places to which he flew. He apparently acquired the foreign coins in the countries in which he was stationed: Belgium, Egypt, England, France, and Italy (2:1).

FOLDER LISTING

NOTE:  The numbers cited in parentheses, e.g. 1:5, refer the researcher to the Series#:Folder# in which that name/topic will be found.

INTRODUCTION

This collection consists primarily of materials relating to the countywide school system merger of 1993, in which three school boards consolidated into one. Extensive correspondence is accompanied by informational flyers, newspaper clippings, minutes, legislation, and legal briefs, providing the context for the Merger Guidebook and supporting reports. These materials reveal economic and demographic shifts in North Carolina and its schools in the late 20th century. The original Guilford County school board refused merger with the two urban districts, so the issue went to the state legislature, which called for a referendum. The debate for and against the merger captures the complexity of the issues facing public schools, such as racial and funding equity and efficiency of scale versus community control. Also included in the collection are three scrapbooks unrelated to the merger. One follows Edgeville Elementary School from the 1930s to the 1970s, while the others each capture a single school year in Greensboro’s northwestern school district during World War II.

Arrangement: This collection is organized in four series and arranged within series by date or in original order. The series are: Correspondence, 1987-1993; Guidebook, 1960-1991; Reports, 1985-1993; and Scrapbooks, 1932-1973.

Provenance: This collection was donated by the office of the Superintendent of Guilford County Schools in August 2022 and assigned the accession number 2022.26.1. Note that all these materials predate the 1993 merger and therefore come from the files of the original Guilford County Board of Education.

Processing: This collection was organized and the finding aid was prepared by volunteer Ann Koppen in April 2023.

HISTORICAL NOTE

After the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education mandating integration, white responses – especially white flight out of urban districts – changed the demographics and relative funding of many public schools. In a prescient move, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school systems merged in 1960, claiming that the merger saved that county’s schools, preventing a black city school system and a white county school system. Several other counties gradually followed suit for the same reasons: “to cut costs, equalize resources, bolster achievement, and curb the suburban flight of white families and businesses” (Tabor). The discussion regarding a possible merger of the Greensboro City, High Point City, and Guilford County school systems began in 1978, intensifying in 1982 with the appointment of a committee by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners to research the impact on funding. At first most residents from all three systems opposed the idea. By 1985, the two urban school districts had grown to 50% black, while the rural school district was less than 20% black. After a major study by the Research Triangle Institute in 1985, commissioned by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, Greensboro and High Point were on board and presented a merger plan to the Board of Commissioners. The Guilford County school board continued to resist, but state legislation providing for a referendum led to the approval of the merger in 1991. Despite the county school board’s persistent litigation, the three systems merged in 1993, creating the new Guilford County Schools. The merger was later considered “a national model for how to succeed” (Tabor). However, in 1998, the school board acknowledged that de facto segregation continued, as neighborhoods and communities remained identifiable by race and class.

Historical Sources: The sources for this historical note include newspaper clippings in the Correspondence series; a “History of Education in Guilford County” on the Guilford County Schools website; “In Era of Smaller Schools, One County Finds Improvement from Consolidating,” by Mary B.W. Tabor (The New York Times, June 12, 1996); and The Guilford County Schools: A History, by John E. Batchelor (Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, 1991).

SCOPE & CONTENT NOTE

Most of this collection – the Correspondence, Guidebook, and Reports series – focuses on the Guilford County Board of Education merger. Only the Scrapbook series is unrelated to the merger.

The Correspondence series provides the narrative thread for the 1993 merger, in which three district boards of education – Greensboro City, High Point City, and Guilford County – combined into one countywide board. In addition to correspondence, it contains accompanying newspaper clippings, legal briefs, legislative bills, demographic and school data, informational flyers, and meeting minutes. Representing the time period of the original Guilford County school board, which actively resisted merger, these materials relate the drawn-out fight. The Guidebook series presents the final manual for facilitating the merger, as well as numerous resources that both prompted and informed it. The Reports series includes studies that promote and critique the merger, as well as subject-specific manuals for aiding the consolidation. Together, these materials provide a case study of the forces at play after school desegregation.

The Scrapbooks series predates the merger. Curated by the PTA, the Edgeville Elementary School scrapbook was started in 1960 to create a history of the school from its beginning in the 1930s. It contains photographs and a variety of printed materials relating to the student body and facilities, PTA activities, and PTA-sponsored events and performances. The Greensboro PTA Council scrapbooks from the 1940s are comprised almost exclusively of newspaper clippings about Parent-Teacher Council meetings, from local luncheons to the state convention. Issues include school funding, support of the war effort and democracy, and the consolidation of all state education commissions into one department of education. The schools represented are entirely white, since African American schools operated separately until 1954.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

1. Correspondence.  16 folders (ca. 215 items).  1987-1993.

Covering the years leading up to the merger of the three county school systems, these papers showcase the original Guilford County Board of Education’s fight against the merger. Newspaper clippings, informational flyers, reports, minutes, demographic and school data, legislation, and legal briefs accompany the correspondence. The news articles provide helpful historical recaps. A few items of general correspondence, perhaps misfiled, include a set of letters regarding a safety issue at Pleasant Garden Elementary School (1:2) and another set petitioning for a new middle school in Guilford County (1:4).

Organized in chronological order, with subject titles that capture the focus of that folder’s contents, the correspondence makes clear the county board’s continued opposition to the merger, starting with its participation in the 1987 countywide citizens’ Merger Task Force that considered and ultimately supported the Research Triangle Institute’s (RTI) recommendation to merge the three school systems (1:2). With the two city boards clearly in favor of merging, the county board refused to cooperate fully in a joint report requested from the three school districts by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. The county board then shared a critique of the final report with a counter proposal titled “Unity with Diversity,” as well as a lengthy rebuttal of claims made in the RTI study (1:3). They further opposed House Bill 333, which offered alternative paths for countywide mergers, removing the authority from boards of education (1:3). In 1989, the county board joined with the county PTA in lobbying the Senate Education Committee to oppose Senate Bill 612, which mandated the merger subject to a countywide referendum (1:5). And in 1990, the two organizations urged constituents to support county and state political candidates who opposed the merger (1:6). Nevertheless, both the state Senate and House of Representatives drafted bills for reorganization (1:7-9), offering for referendum a choice of a total county merger or coterminous lines (aligning city school districts with city boundaries, thus reducing the size of the county district). A sub-story of Jamestown’s attempts to redraw its boundaries in light of the legislation unfolds in this file. Also evident is opposition to the bill from other school districts in North Carolina. Despite a counter-resolution presented by the Guilford County Board of Education to offer county residents the option of no reorganization (1:7-9) and extensive lobbying and speeches before legislative committees (1:11) and the General Assembly (1:10), the legislation was ratified in May 1991. The Guilford County Board of Education then began litigation on multiple fronts, challenging the legislation’s constitutionality (1:12) and its adherence to the Voting Rights Act (1:13), and requesting cancellation of the referendum and denial of preclearance – the advance approval for changes to voting regulations under the Voting Rights Act. In the meantime, after active lobbying for and against, well represented in this file (1:14), the choice to merge into one district won the referendum. Litigation by the Guilford County Board of Education continued through appeal into 1992 and 1993. The last document in this series is dated April 6, 1993, with no response to the county board’s appeal filed on April 5. The merger of the three districts went into effect in 1993.

2. Guidebook.  18 folders (20 items).  1960-1991.

This series consists of the contents of two binders holding the key documents guiding the Guilford County school system merger. The materials have been removed from the binders and foldered in the order they were presented in the binders. The first two folders contain the 1992 merger plan prepared by a study group of the Leadership Greensboro Program as a how-to manual for the newly combined school board, while the remaining folders are the resources used for the plan. The original 1987 plan (2:9), prompted by the RTI report and organized by subject (e.g. governance, curriculum, personnel), was prepared by representatives from the original three school districts, although Guilford County refused to participate in several sections. Other resources include state reports on the “crisis” in North Carolina education (2:4, 2:11, 2:13) and consolidation mergers in other counties (2:5-7, 2:10, 2:14). Papers for and against merger are also among the resources. The Guilford County Board of Education’s 1987 “Unity with Diversity” (2:15), their official argument against merger, also appears more than once in the Correspondence series.

3. Reports.  11 folders (11 items).  1985-1993.

These reports range from historical studies of North Carolina school mergers to subject guides for the implementation of the Guilford County merger. The chronological organization allows for easy correlation to the Correspondence series. Most of these reports are referenced and sometimes included, at least in draft or summary, in the correspondence files. The first three present the case for district consolidation (3:1-3). “Heavy Meddle” (3:4) outlines the case against and was used by the Guilford County Board of Education in its challenge. The 1987 merger manual is a statewide study of school district mergers, presenting the history of North Carolina school mergers, the pros and cons of merging, and recommended procedures for effecting merger (3:5). The last five folders are subject reports put together in 1992 for the newly consolidated Guilford County Board of Education. Four of these (3:7-10) are status reports prepared by representatives of the original three school districts, and the final report is a facilities study by an independent educational planner. One of these reports is also in the Guidebook: the Research Triangle Institute’s Executive Summary (3:2) that launched the Guilford County merger. The four status reports are a direct result of the Merger Guidebook.

4. Scrapbooks.  3 folders (3 items).  1932-1973.

The only series unrelated to the county merger, the three scrapbooks highlight the activities of one local elementary school and the Greensboro PTA Council decades before the merger. The scrapbook relating to Edgeville Elementary School (4:1) was begun in 1960 to document the school’s history and covers the years from 1932-1973. (In 1955, the school was renamed the William Sydney Porter Elementary School in honor of Greensboro’s most famous author, O. Henry.) A second volume referred to as the “later book” is not in this collection, and this scrapbook is missing the years between 1945 and 1949. Event programs and newspaper clippings cover student performances and ceremonies, as well as the initiatives and meetings of the PTA. Photographs show facilities, including the new school building built in 1936, students in class groupings and performances, teachers, and PTA members. Many photos, starting in the 1940s, record the May Court and Spring Carnival.

The two Parent-Teacher Council scrapbooks from the northwestern district of Greensboro (4:2-3) each cover one school year – 1941-1942 and 1942-1943 – and represent thirteen schools. Newspaper clippings predominate, covering Greensboro PTA Council luncheons, speakers, and executive board meetings, as well as state and national conventions and issues. Also included is one program from a student performance for the PTA Council. Since World War II was in the background, the focus of these scrapbooks is more serious, including the goal to strengthen democracy through the schools and aiding the Red Cross and the Civilian Defense Volunteer Office. With resources and staff diminished, parents are urged to taken on more education at home. Involvement in the Parent-Teacher Council is heavily encouraged, and the duties of its members stressed, including attendance at the state Congress of Parents and Teachers and state Parent-Teacher Institute. Some newspaper clippings on national PTA events are also included.

FOLDER LISTING

NOTE: The numbers cited in parentheses, e.g. 1:5, refer the researcher to the Series#:Folder# in which that name/topic will be found.

INTRODUCTION

This collection consists of materials relating to the life and work of Thelma L. O’Brien, an employee of Cone Mills’ Print Works plant who worked to encourage unionization there. The most notable items in the collection are three copies of a script for a radio address she gave in that effort, five years of contracts between the Textile Workers Union of America and Cone Mills, and several letters that provide examples of the mill pushing back against the union. Researchers interested in Cone Mills, local unionization efforts, or the perspective of an average mill worker who supported the union may find this collection useful.

Arrangement: This collection is organized in four series and arranged within series by document type or subject. The series are: Correspondence, 1947-1952; Financial, 1941-1957; Miscellaneous, ca. 1930-1944; and Printed Material, 1943-1952.

Provenance: This collection was donated by Katherine Rowe in August 2022 and assigned the accession number 2022.17.1.

Processing: This collection was organized by Archivist Elise Allison and the finding aid was prepared by intern Amanda McBryde in January 2023.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Thelma L. O’Brien (1915-2007) was born in Danville, Virginia, to Mary Newman and Thomas Marshall O’Brien, and her family moved to Greensboro around 1927 when her father became a mill hand for Cone Mills at Proximity Print Works. She herself worked at Print Works from about 1934 until it closed in 1977, marrying fellow Cone Mills employee Joseph Keaton on December 26, 1956. Print Works was the first textile printery in the South, opening in 1913 and illustrating the diversification of the Southern textile industry during that time period. Thelma O’Brien served as part of the negotiating committee that worked with the Textile Workers Union of America to ensure better working conditions for her fellow employees. After her death in 2007, she was buried in Lemont Cemetery in Danville.

Biographical Sources: The biographical information was acquired from materials in the collection, the Guilford County Register of Deeds database, the Greensboro city directories, an article titled “Mill Employees Get Pay Boost” (The Greensboro Record, February 11, 1946), Thelma O’Brien’s obituary (News & Record, October 19, 2007), and the motion of recommendation to designate the Print Works plant as a Guilford County Historic Landmark.

SCOPE & CONTENT NOTE

The types of materials in this collection include correspondence, financial documents, radio scripts, a school assignment, and assorted printed materials. These items predominantly relate to Thelma O’Brien’s work at Proximity Print Works and efforts to organize a union at that plant. Of particular interest are three copies of a script for a radio broadcast she made to encourage her fellow employees to see the importance of unions, five years of contracts between the Textile Workers Union of America and Cone Mills, a sheet of rules for a picket line, and a strike card. Also of note are several letters from mill personnel to the local union leader addressing worker affairs and grievances. Researchers interested in Cone Mills or unionization efforts in the textile industry may find this collection useful.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

1. Correspondence.  3 folders (5 items).  1947-1952.

This series contains a letter from Sydney M. Cone Jr. to the workers at Print Works informing them of an upcoming union election and explaining why they should vote against joining a union (1:1). A letter from Print Works employee M.J. Gardner to Clarence Thore, president of the local union, discusses a worker’s complaint that his job had been performed by another worker while he was laid off (1:2). This would have violated the mill’s contract with the union, and Gardner argues that this is not the case. Also included in the series are three letters from Print Works Superintendent W.L. Thornburg to Clarence Thore regarding grievances submitted by members of the union, a position change for an employee, and the discontinuation of third shift on the finishing machines (1:3).

2. Financial.  4 folders (31 items).  1941-1957.

Included in this series are some of Thelma O’Brien’s paystubs from Print Works (2:3), her tax returns and withholding statements from 1949 (2:4), an advance payment receipt for a Hospital and Surgical Insurance Policy premium (2:2), and a subscriber’s receipt card for the Greensboro Daily News (2:1).

3. Miscellaneous.  2 folders (5 items).  ca. 1930-1944.

This series contains three copies of a script from a WBIG Radio broadcast given by Thelma O’Brien on the importance of organizing a union (3:1). Also included is an autobiographical school assignment by Red Caviness, who attended Bessemer High School, from which Thelma O’Brien graduated (3:2).

4. Printed Material.  6 folders (13 items).  1943-1952.

The printed material pertains primarily to Proximity Print Works and the Textile Workers Union of America (T.W.U.A.). Items relating to Thelma O’Brien’s involvement with the union include instructions from the National Labor Relations Board for helping with union elections (4:4), contracts between Print Works and the T.W.U.A. for 1944-1948 (4:2-3), a sheet of rules for a picket line, a strike card, and a booklet of T.W.U.A. songs (4:5). The contracts detail the agreed upon working conditions for employees as well as the policies for dealing with a violation of those conditions. Also of interest in this series are an employee handbook and an insurance booklet for Cone Mills employees, a leave of absence request completed by Thelma O’Brien for a month off under doctor’s orders (4:1), and her war ration book from 1943 (4:6).

FOLDER LISTING

NOTE:  The numbers cited in parentheses, e.g. 1:5, refer the researcher to the Series#:Folder# in which that name/topic will be found.

INTRODUCTION

The Gertrude Beal Papers consist primarily of printed materials and vinyl recordings from Gertrude’s youth in the 1960s and 1970s. A lifelong Greensboro resident, she was raised a Quaker and worked at Guilford College for most of her career. This collection provides a glimpse of her early years through her course of study at local public schools and activities as part of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls (Rainbow Girls), a Masonic organization, as well as through reading material, musical recordings, and event programs. Also included are items relating to the U.S., Guilford County, and Battle of Guilford Courthouse bicentennials.

Arrangement: This collection is organized into three series and arranged within series by document type or subject. The series are: Photograph, 1972; Printed Material, 1956-1998; and Vinyl Recordings, 1950s-1971.

Provenance: This collection was donated by Gertrude Beal in September 2021 and assigned the accession number 2021.10.1.

Processing: This collection was organized and the finding aid was completed by volunteer Ann Koppen in June 2023.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Margaret Gertrude Beal grew up in Greensboro, the daughter of Margaret Alice Sampson (1919-2006) and Franklin Dauphinee Beal (1920-1987), who worked as an executive chef at area country clubs. Born in the Guilford College area, her mother was a lifelong member of New Garden Friends Meeting and a volunteer docent at the Friends Historical Collection at Guilford College. Both her parents were active in the Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic-affiliated organization, and at age 18 Gertrude became “Worthy Advisor,” the highest leadership position in the Rainbow Girls, a junior version of the Order of the Eastern Star. Gertrude attended Lindley Elementary School, Kiser Junior High School, and both Grimsley and Smith senior high schools during the early years of desegregation. Bussed to Smith her sophomore year, she elected to remain there and graduated in 1973. She then attended St. Andrews Presbyterian College (later St. Andrews University) in Laurinburg, North Carolina, graduating in 1977 with honors, and earned an M.A. in history from UNC Greensboro. In 1977, Gertrude was a summer intern at the Greensboro Historical Museum. She was Assistant to the Curator of Education from 1978 to 1980 before moving full-time to Guilford College, where she worked until her retirement in 2017, holding several positions in the Hege Library and the Advancement and Admission offices.

Biographical Sources: The biographical information was acquired from a biographical sketch drafted by the Curator of Collections and then edited and expanded by the donor. Additional details about her parents were obtained from Ancestry.com and her mother’s obituary (News & Record, September 26, 2006).

SCOPE & CONTENT NOTE

This collection consists primarily of vinyl recordings and printed materials ranging from calendars and menus to pamphlets and books. One formal photograph of Gertrude Beal is also included. The bulk of the collection reflects her early life in Greensboro during the 1960s and 1970s, either through the music, reading material, and sporting events she enjoyed or through mementos of historic events, such as the U.S. Bicentennial. A detailed and comprehensive fourth grade unit plan on the history of Guilford County in honor of its bicentennial may be of interest to educators and historians. Items most specific to the time period and Gertrude’s experience are her high school curricular booklets and materials from the Rainbow Girls, a Masonic organization for youth. Also of note are a Greensboro Community Theatre 50th anniversary program and a Habitat for Humanity newsletter from the 1990s.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

1. Photograph.  1 folder (1 item).  1972.

This formal portrait of Gertrude Beal as a senior in high school was used in a newspaper article about her election to lead officer of the Rainbow Girls (2:12), and another copy of the photograph can be found in that folder.

2. Printed Material.  13 folders (39 items).  1956-1998.

This series consists of a variety of materials, including books, calendars, menus, magazines, and directories, that are primarily but not exclusively related to Greensboro in the 1960s and 1970s. Several items focus on the cluster of bicentennials, from Guilford County’s in 1970 (2:2) to the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 (2:3) and the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1981 (2:1). Materials relating to the U.S. Bicentennial include an abridged history of women in North Carolina and a companion book to WFMY-TV’s series of 60-second programs commemorating the role of North Carolina in the development of the United States. A program for a play about the Battle of Guilford Courthouse and a history of the battle comprise that bicentennial’s souvenirs, while a fourth-grade lesson plan on the history of Guilford County represents that bicentennial. The magazines American Girl and Pastimes, “onboard amusement” provided by Eastern Airlines, and a few children’s books – two Barbie books, My First Book to Read, and a book on telling time – represent period children’s and young adult reading material. More specific to Gertrude Beal’s experience are materials from her high school years (2:7), such as a planning handbook for her course of study and a full curriculum guide, and a directory and program from the Rainbow Girls, a Masonic organization for youth (2:12). The directory also provides a history of the organization and its purpose. Also of note are several menus from the Starmount Forest Country Club, where Gertrude’s father was chef, as well as programs and other items from local theatre and sporting events, such as the daily pairing and starting times for the Greater Greensboro Open golf tournament in 1969. A 50th anniversary program for the Community Theatre of Greensboro provides a history of that organization and is autographed actor Stephen Hale.

3. Vinyl Recordings.  3 folders (12 items).  1950s-1971.

The children’s records (3:1) feature stories, such as Davy Crockett, Wizard of Oz, Popeye, and Sleeping Beauty, and a few musical recordings, including a collection of party songs. Also included are one Andy Griffith 78 (3:2) and four LPs of Kiser Junior High School and Grimsley Senior High School band concerts (3:3).

FOLDER LISTING