Wilson and Hairston Family Papers, 1751-1928

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Wilson and Hairston Family Papers, 1751-1928

1751-1928

https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/04134/

Members of the Wilson and Hairston families were planters and merchants of Henry and Pittsylvania counties, Va., and Davie, Rockingham, and Stokes counties, N.C. Peter Hairston (1752-1832), of Pittsylvania, later Henry County, Va., was a merchant of Stokes and Rockingham counties, N.C., and owner of several plantations, including Royal Oak, Sauratown Hill, and Cooleemee Hill. His son-in-law, Peter Wilson (1770-1813), husband of Ruth Stoval Hairston (1783-1852), was a planter of Berry Hill, Brierfield, and Goose Pond, all in Pittsylvania County, Va., and partner in his father-in-law's mercantile business. Ruth Stoval (Hairston) Wilson married second Robert Hairston (1783-1852), of Leatherwood Plantation in Henry County and who, circa 1837, moved to Mississippi to manage his properties there, leaving Ruth in Virginia. Robert's brother, Samuel Hairston (1788-1875), of Oak Hill Plantation, Pittsylvania County, was one of the wealthiest men in Virginia, owning plantations there and in North Carolina and approximately 1700 slaves. His eldest son, Peter Wilson Hairston (1819-1886), lived his adult life at Cooleemee Hill in Davie County, N.C. Peter Wilson Hairston's niece, Ruth Hairston (1863-1936) married Alfred Varley Sims (1864-1944), civil engineer who worked for several railroads, taught engineering, and worked for the Knickerbocker Trust Company as general manager and chief engineer of the Cuba Eastern Railroad Company based in Guantanamo, Cuba, 1905-1908. The papers include business correspondence, financial and legal papers and scattered personal correspondence of six generations of the Wilson and Hairston families. Among the activities represented are the sale of tobacco through Virginia commission merchants; the service of Peter Hairston (1752-1832) as a deputy sheriff in Henry County, Va., mainly 1751-1788; the manumission of six Hairston slaves in 1832 through the American Colonization Society; purchase of supplies for plantation and household use; and activities of the Sandy Creek, Mayo, County Line, and Staunton River Baptist associations, 1833-1868. Civil War materials are few and consist of scattered family letters and some receipts for foodstuffs sold to the Confederate Army. Throughout the collection there is material concerning the management of the various family plantations. Approximately one-fourth of the collection consists of the personal and professional correspondence of Alfred Varley Sims as a professor at the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa), 1895-1904, and as a civil engineer, and includes materials related to his time in Cuba, 1905-1908, and to his connections with various southern and Cuban railroads and other businesses in Cuba and elsewhere.

51.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 16,800 items)

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6629711

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection

Related Entities

There are 13 Entities related to this resource.

Hairston, Robert, 1783-1852

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wx88cg (person)

Robert Hairston (1783-1853), son of George Hairston (1750-1827) and Elizabeth Perkins Letcher Hairston (1759-1819), was a tobacco planter in Henry County, Va., and a planter cotton in Columbus, Miss....

Hairston family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kj036j (family)

Hairston, Peter W.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60601xd (person)

Iowa State University

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69636r5 (corporateBody)

On March 22, 1948, Iowa State College (University) sponsored a 90th anniversary celebration in honor of the founding of the college, which occurred on the same date in 1858 when the charter act establishing a state agricultural college became law. The celebration included a symposium, luncheon, departmental open houses, and a dinner. From the description of 90th anniversary collection, 1947-1948. (Iowa State University). WorldCat record id: 54799482 In 1958, Iowa State Colle...

Sims, Alfred Varley, 1864-1944.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67w9dgm (person)

Wilson, Peter, 1770-1813.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64n26s5 (person)

Wilson family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fv81wk (family)

Hairston, Peter, 1752-1832.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sn4c4c (person)

University of Iowa. Interfraternity Council

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sv1fh2 (corporateBody)

Himie Voxman is among UI's most honored faculty and administrators. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the UI with high distinction in 1933, and received a master's degree in 1934 in the psychology of music, studying with pioneering researcher Carl Seashore. He taught woodwinds in nearby public schools, then in 1939 became a full-time UI faculty member. He served as director of the School of Music from 1954 until his retirement in 1980. Among many other honors, the UI Mus...

American colonization society

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6449kx0 (corporateBody)

The American Colonization Society was founded in 1817 in Washington, D.C. for the purpose of transporting freeborn and emancipated American blacks to Africa and helping them start a new life there. From the description of List of emigrants for Liberia, 1867 Nov. 17. (The South Carolina Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 32144821 The American Colonization Society was an organization dedicated to transporting freeborn blacks and emancipated slaves to Africa, to what is n...

Hairston, Samuel, 1788-1875.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gj2mmz (person)

Wilson family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65v910t (family)

Possibly as early as 1730, the first Hairston came to America. This was Peter Hairston, a Scottish immigrant, who may have first lived in Pennsylvania and then in Albemarle County, Va. He had four sons of which one was the progenitor of the Hairstons represented in these papers. This son, Robert Hairston (d. 1783), lived in that part of Pittsylvania County, Va., that became Henry County, Va., in 1777 where he built Marrowbone Plantation. He served as a captain of the Pittsylvania Co...

Hairston family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gw12r6 (family)

Possibly as early as 1730, the first Hairston came to America. This was Peter Hairston, a Scottish immigrant, who may have first lived in Pennsylvania and then in Albemarle County, Va. He had four sons of which one was the progenitor of the Hairstons represented in these papers. This son, Robert Hairston (d. 1783), lived in that part of Pittsylvania County, Va., that became Henry County, Va., in 1777 where he built Marrowbone Plantation. He served as a captain of the Pittsylvania Co...