Legal documents and personal and business correspondence relating to several generations of the Hamer family of Anson County, North Carolina, and Marlboro and Marion Counties, South Carolina. Descendants of William Hamer, the family of William's son John Hicks Hamer (1765-1842) and grandson Robert Cochran Hamer (1801-1878) lived in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina throughout the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This large family was interconnected through marriage with the Betheas, Cochrans, Thomases, and a number of other surnames that are represented within the pages of these papers. Earliest items consist of receipts dating from the years 1765-1810, including one validating John Hamer's payment of his public and poor taxes for the years 1796 and 1799, and a bond dated 22 Jan. 1785 that originated in Anson County, N.C., and documents a business transaction between Richard Farr and Frances Curtis in which Farr assumes Curtis' debt to Ely Kershaw; antebellum period items include an account of receipts and expenditures, 1819-1820, for the estate of Thomas Cochran. John Hamer, his son-in-law, was executor of the estate. Account entries for monies received during 1819 reflect purchases of corn, rent of a plantation identified as "the beauty spot," and the hire of Harriet, an African-American slave, by Daniel Hamer and William Bristow. Early letters include 24 May 1824 from Henry Hamer to his brother Robert, in Marlboro District, S.C., reporting that "a man by the name of Woodburn from Gilford County" [N.C.] was in the process of establishing a school, and a detailed letter, 11 May 1826, from Thomas Hamer (Anson County, N.C.) to his father, John Hamer, in Marlboro, South Carolina, reporting his family's safe return home after a visit to South Carolina, death of a newborn slave, condition of crops, and the impact of dry weather. Writing on 8 Jan. 1835 from Lowndes County, Alabama, Tristram Bethea reported that the trip from Carolina took 28 days, yet he reported good health among the slaves with whom he migrated. He noted that he was unable to sell anything for a fair price on credit, "but for Cash there is not much difference between here and there." Letter, 24 Apr. 1856, from Methodist preacher Lewis M. Hamer to "Brother Robert," reports that he had been busy with religious meetings. His appointment that day was to preach at a school house near by; a large school taught by David G. Wood was located there, and the combination of students and people from the community, Hamer suggested, "make a very respectable congregation." The community was building a church that he expected to be completed in time for the third quarterly meeting which Lewis hoped Robert could attend. Lewis planned to go up to Cheraw, S.C., the following week to attend a four-day meeting and expected to travel with "Elizabeth and the children" as far as Society Hill, S.C., after which they would go on to Marlboro and he would travel by railroad. Eight receipts, 1842-1844, document Robert C. Hamer's administration of the estate of his father, John H. Hamer, with references to the sale and hire of slaves as well as the making of a coffin and case. A letter to R.C. Hamer from Elias Townsend, Harleyville, S.C., 1 Mar. 1853, reports that two men in the area planned to pursue a runaway slave. Eight letters, 1856-1858, from H[iram] McLemore (Lowndesboro, Ala.), to Robert C. Hamer, Little Rock (Marion District, S.C.), attest not only to the westward migration of families with South Carolina ties but also to the resulting problems of communication that the intervening distances often occasioned. The first is dated 13 Apr. 1856 and advises that a Dallas County, Ala., court would soon be convened, at which the cases involving both men were to be heard, all of which appear to have been legal proceedings in conjunction with the settlement of the estate of their father-in-law, Tristram Bethea. Five letters penned by John Hicks Hamer (1835-1916) while a student at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, were sent to Little Rock, South Carolina, between 1855 and 1856, three directed to John's father, Robert Cochran, and two to his brother, Robert Pickett. A letter dated 21 Aug. 1856, commenting on politics and recent elections, Hamer commented that "Democrats had been elected in all of the counties with "a very few exceptions," and John thought that the election results would "Bring the knownothings to a stand for a while." sting." The session, Hamer wrote, had been a quiet one until the preceding few days, when some students began "showing some fire balls" and accidentally set fire to a belfry. By the time they could get assistance, the fire caused approximately $3000 in damage to the structure and the bell." The collection contains two receipts for the purchase of slaves by R.P. Hamer from E.M. McCall: 1 Jan. 1862, was for $1200 "for the negro man Arthur"; and aanother undated receipt from Darlington District, S.C., and was for $2000 "for two Negroes, Julia and her daughter Jane." The sole Civil War letter, 16 Aug. 1864, was written by Lewis M. Hamer from Timmonsville, S.C. "There is a good deal said about the war," Lewis wrote. "And I believe all concur in the wish that it may soon terminate...." The sight of crippled men who lost legs or arms and "others bearing on their bodies the marks of battle," he suggested, was common. He also noted widespread rumors of deserters in the district, and the fears "that they may become troublesome" because they travel in groups of five or six so as to intimidate those whose job it was to round up deserters. Letter written by Robert C. Hamer on 2 August 1866 to "Aaron Hamer - Freed man" in Little Rock, Marion District, S.C., "at the request of Garret Watson - your father." Watson wished his son to come home to him as soon as he could. Aaron's mother and others were at the plantation of the writer's sister, "tending it on shares this year." Rounding out the collection are twenty labor contracts, 1873-1892, between Robert P. Hamer and the following persons: James H. Barefoot, Joseph Berry, James W. Bridges, H.L. Britt, Neill Carter, Henry Colley, Frank Emanuel, Thomas Fainkley, Jasper Hamilton, Briscow McCall, Robert McGaha, Edmon[d] McLendon and Thomas Trulove, Flora McNeill and her son, Jackson McNeill, John Miller, B.A. Shooter, J.F. Sineth, Hail Thompson, Isham Thompson, and Calvin Wiggins. Most of these agreements were for eleven-month periods from 1 January to 1 December.
