Mangum family.

Numerous sources on Mangum family history exist, including biographies of several members of the Mangum family in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Series 2 of this collection contains much material on Mangum, Dickson, and related family history, including A Short History of the Mangum Family of North Carolina, written by Ariana Holliday Dickson Mangum in 1956. This work contains a general genealogy and biographies of some family members (see subseries 2.1). Some of the information below was supplied by William Preston Mangum II. Among family members important in this collection are the following:

Willie Person Mangum (1792-1861) of Walnut Hall Plantation near Red Mountain, Orange (now Durham) County, N.C., was graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1815 and was a lawyer; Superior Court judge, 1818-1823 and 1828; and United States representative and senator, 1823-1853, serving as president of the Senate, 1842-1845. He was a trustee of the University of North Carolina for 47 years. Willie was considered a national leader of the Whig Party, running for president in 1836. Mangum married Charity Alston Cain in 1819.

A. W. Mangum (1834-1890) was the son of Willie Person Mangum's cousin, Ellison Goodloe Mangum, of Locust Grove Plantation, Orange County. He attended Randolph-Macon College and became a Methodist minister. During the Civil War, A. W. served briefly as a Confederate chaplain at Salisbury and Goldsboro, N.C. He later preached in several North Carolina towns, and, in 1875, became professor at the University of North Carolina, holding the chair of mental and moral philosophy and teaching history and English literature. He remained on the faculty until just before his death. His wife was Laura Jane Overman (1843-1914) of Salisbury.

Ernest Preston Mangum (1865-1904) was the son of A. W. and Laura Mangum. Ernest was graduated from the University of North Carolina. He was superintendent of schools in both Kinston and Wilson, N.C., and taught briefly at Western Carolina College. He married Lola Griffin (1867-1949), with whom he had two sons, Charles Preston Mangum (1893- ) and Ernest Preston Mangum, Jr. (1903-1955).

Charles Staples Mangum (1870-1939) was born in Greensboro, N.C., son of A. W. and Laura Mangum. He was graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1891 and, three years later, completed his medical training at the Jefferson Medical College. He returned to Chapel Hill in 1896 as professor of physiology and later became professor of anatomy. He served as dean of the Medical School and was a founder of the School of Public Health. Charles married Laura Rollins Payne (1873-1956) in 1900. One of their children was Charles Staples Mangum, Jr. (1902-1980), a lawyer.

William Goodson Mangum (1924- ) was born in Kinston, N.C., the son of Charles Preston Mangum and Margaret Blanche Edwards Mangum (1895- ). He served in the Army Air Force in World War II and attended the University of North Carolina, where he earned a M.A. in 1959. He also studied at the Corcoran School of Art, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, and the Art Students League of New York. His work--paintings, drawings, and sculpture--was been widely exhibited. He also taught at Western Carolina College in Cullowhee, N.C., and at Salem College, in Winston-Salem, N.C. He married Ariana Holliday Dickson in 1953.

Ariana Holliday Dickson Mangum (1928- ) of Richmond, Va., was the daughter of Benjamin Abbott Dickson (1897-1976), who, as a colonel in the United States Army, saw active duty in both world wars, and Alice Holliday Dickson (b. 1900) of Indianapolis. Ariana's grandfather was Brigadier General Tracy Campbell Dickson. Ariana's parents divorced in the 1930s, and her mother later became Mrs. Henry Coudon Lau Miller. Ariana's father also remarried; her stepmother was Eleanor Shaler Dickson and her stepbrothers Colin Campbell Dickson and William Abbott Dickson. Ariana traveled extensively, settling in Ireland for seven years. Children of Ariana and William were Margaret Ariana Holliday Mangum (1954-), William Preston Mangum II (1958- ), Alice Holiday Mangum (1960- ), Laura Jane Overman Mangum (1963- ), and Grace Elizabeth Mangum (1966- ).

William Preston Mangum II was graduated from Randolph-Macon Academy in 1978 and pursued several occupations, including working with horses in Montana, Wyoming, and Kentucky, and in restaurants, hotels, and retail stores in various locations. He has also designed t-shirts and written numerous articles on Western lore and family history.

From the guide to the Mangum Family Papers, 1777-1993, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)