Bocock, Mourning Smith Gracey. Waldwick plantation records, 1834 - 1971.
Title:
Waldwick plantation records, 1834 - 1971.
This collection chiefly consists of correspondence, plantation records, land grants, manuscripts, photographs, and printed materials. The Gracey Papers, 1834-1853, contain letters written to Minor Winn Gracey and Mourning Gracey from family and friends. The letters address financial matters and family concerns. Especially notable is the handwritten funeral notice for Minor Winn Gracey, dated November 8, 1853. The Willis P. Bocock series, 1865, contains receipts acknowledging receipt of the President's warrant of pardon, passport, and pardon. The plantation records kept by Bocock are found in the plantation record series. The plantation record series, 1842-1870, consists of plantation journals and daybooks kept by Minor Winn Gracey, W.P. Bocock, and overseers D.H. Smith, John M. Low, and Lewis A. Collins. The journals contain slave records, overseer rules of conduct, details of cotton production, articles sold from the plantation, work done on the plantation, and business transactions with S.N. Steele. Slave records include inventories, rules of conduct, birth records, death rates, time lost due to illness, individual tally of cotton picked, and personal financial accounts. This series also includes a slave receipt and sharecropping contracts between Bocock and his former slaves. The William M. Spencer Family Papers, 1903-1971, include correspondence, pamphlet, map mortgage papers, promissory notes, newspaper clippings, and manuscripts. The papers mainly deal with William M. Spencer, Sr. and his son, William Spencer, Jr . Especially notable is a letter, February 9, 1909, from physician E. McCollum in Greensboro, AL to W.M. Spencer, Sr. in Montgomery, AL. This letter is a plea to Spencer, evidently serving in the Senate from Marengo County, to vote against the "Osteopathic bill" then before the Senate. Another important item is a typewritten copy of the history of Waldwick, with a synopsis of the deed of Allen Glover and Mary A. to Robert S. Gracey dated April 6, 1840, for 160 acres. It is accompanied by a typewritten genealogy of the Gracey family. The photograph series, 1879-1895 and n.d., consists of photographs of Minor Winn Gracey, Mourning Smith Gracey Bocock, Willis P. Bocock, William M. Spencer, Sr., Sue Steele Spencer, William M. Spencer, Jr. and Steele A. Spencer. The series also includes four photos of the facade of Waldwick. The printed material series, 1852-1884, consists of newspaper articles and magazines. The land grant series, 1830-1837, are certifications of title to property bought at land offices. All are on parchment and in excellent condition. The land owners were: Thomas Gray, Allen Glover, and James Torbert. The relationship of Thomas Gray and James Torbert to the Robert Sinclair Gracey family is unknown.
ArchivalResource:
1 cubic ft. (1 archives box and 1 oversize box).
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/145407161 View
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