Haywood, Ernest, 1860-1946

The Haywood family of Raleigh, N.C., included such prominent members as John Haywood (1755-1827), state treasurer, 1787-1827, member of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina, 1789-1827, and first mayor of Raleigh; his wife Eliza Williams Haywood (b. 1781), member of the Raleigh Female Tract Society; his son George Washington Haywood (1802-1890), state attorney for Wake County, N.C., and plantation owner in Greene County, Ala.; John's daughter Eliza Eagles Haywood (1798-1877); his son Edmund Burke Haywood (1825-1894), surgeon in the Confederate army; his grandson Ernest Haywood (1860-1946), lawyer in Raleigh; and his nephew by marriage Alfred Williams (fl. 1825-1860), partner in the drugstore firm of Williams & Haywood, Inc., and plantation owner in Marengo County, Ala.

This collection documents the lives of three generations in the Haywood family of Raleigh, N.C., starting with John Haywood (1755-1827), state treasurer, 1787-1827, member of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina, 1789-1827, and the first mayor of Raleigh. He was the son of William and Charity Hare Haywood of Edgecombe County, N.C., and cousin of John Haywood (1762-1826), the writer and jurist. Among his brothers were Sherwood, Stephen, and William Henry. His first wife was Sarah Leigh, who died in 1791. In 1798 he married Eliza Eagles Asaph Williams (b. 1781), daughter of John Pugh Williams and Jane Davis Williams. Their children were Eliza Eagles, John Steele, George Washington, Fabius Julius, Alfred Moore, Thomas Burgess, Rebecca Jane, William Davie, Benjamin Rush, Frances Ann, Sarah Wool, and Edmund Burke. Eliza Williams Haywood was active in the Raleigh Female Tract Society. John Haywood served as state treasurer for forty years. After his death, a committee examined his accounts and found that $68,906.80 was missing. His estate reimbursed the state for $47,601.37, but was not able to cover the entire amount. Haywood was a very popular figure at the time of his death, and many citizens of the state believed he was innocent of any wrongdoing.

Several of John Haywood's children are also prominent in this collection. His son George Washington Haywood (1802-1890) was state attorney for Wake County and owned a plantation in partnership with his brother, John Steele Haywood, in Greene County, Ala. His daughter Eliza Eagles Haywood (fl. 1818-1853) was a friend of Anna Hayes Johnson, daughter of William Johnson, United States Supreme Court justice from Charleston, S.C. Eliza apparently ran a school in the family home in the early 1840s. The youngest son, Edmund Burke Haywood (1825-1894), became a prominent surgeon in the Confederate army. He was a student at the University of North Carolina from 1843 through 1846, and received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1849. He enlisted in the Raleigh Light Infantry in 1861 and was elected its surgeon. He established the first military hospital in the state, and on 16 May 1861 he was appointed surgeon of the North Carolina state troops. He continued to serve in medical posts and, in August 1862, was commissioned a surgeon in the Confederate army. Also in 1862, he became acting medical director of the Department of North Carolina and was placed in charge of the Raleigh military hospitals. His headquarters was at Pettigrew Hospital, located at New Bern Avenue and Tarboro Road. Edmund Burke Haywood served as president of the Board of Directors of the State Insane Asylum from 1875 to 1889, and as chairman of the State Board of Public Charities. He married Lucy A. Williams in 1850 and lived in Raleigh in the Haywood home built by his father in the 1790s.

A prominent figure in these papers who was a contemporary of the Haywood children was their cousin Alfred Williams (fl. 1825-1860). Williams operated a drugstore as part of the firm of Webb and Williams, which was later succeeded by the firm of Williams and Haywood, Inc. In 1833 this firm purchased land in Marengo County, Ala., and Alfred Williams moved there to operate the plantation. After his marriage in 1850, he spent much of each year in Raleigh and purchased 700 acres of land west of that city.

The third generation of Haywoods is represented in the collection chiefly by Ernest Haywood (1860-1946), son of Edmund Burke Haywood and Lucy Ann Williams Haywood. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1880 and was admitted to the bar in 1882. He practiced law in Raleigh and was one of the founders of the North Carolina Bar Association in 1885. He was interested in local history and published several articles in local newspapers.