Papers, 1862-1867.

ArchivalResource

Pearce, John W. Papers, 1862-1867.

Papers, 1862-1867.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/41579865

This manuscript volume (125 pp.) has two parts: Level Book No. 1, 1862, and 1st Tenn. Book, 1866-1867. Level Book No. 1 records all or part of an experimental survey for a railroad line connecting the Richmond & Danville and North Carolina Railroads, and consists of pencilled survey figures that run throughout the volume. The proposed new railroad was surveyed from Barksdale Station on the Richmond & Danville in Halifax Co., Va., southward to Company Shops (now Burlington) on the North Carolina Railroad in Alamance Co. The route ran through Caswell and Alamance counties in N.C. The greatest interest in such a connection was probably due to the gap in the railroad system between Greensboro and Danville. The Confederacy mounted a major effort to close this gap, which was done by 1864. The construction of this railroad was probably why the line surveyed by Pearce was never built. Superimposed upon the survey records throughout the volume is the "1st Tenn. Book," which presumably was also kept by Pearce. These records are written in ink. They consist of the names of subscribers to the CHRISTIAN OBSERVER, a Presbyterian newspaper published in Louisville, Ky, beginning in 1813. The entries are arranged by localities throughout Tenn. and consist mostly of subscribers' names, with occasional numbers and other notations. The subscribers include many clergymen and other persons of prominence. Information about Pearce himself is confined to this volume. Perhaps he was the Capt. John W. Pearce of the Confederate Niter and Mining Service, who was stationed at Jonesborough, Tenn., in September, 1864 (WAR OF THE REBELLION, Series IV, Vol. 3, p. 702).

1 item.

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