D. Joseph Atkinson papers, 1853-1893.

ArchivalResource

Atkinson, D. Joseph, b. 1835. D. Joseph Atkinson papers, 1853-1893.

D. Joseph Atkinson papers, 1853-1893.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/55872419

Three volumes, 1853-1893, including entries re Atkinson's experience as an overseer and blacksmith on the home front during the Civil War. Atkinson acted as caretaker of the Vaucluse factory textile mill property after its destruction by fire in 1867. Daybook, 1853-1867, titled "Cash & Creddet: D.J. Atkinson's Ac[coun]t Book No. 5," listing purchases of tobacco, cloth, wheat, sugar, whiskey, beef, medicines, wagon parts, and payments to send goods to Graniteville, S.C.; other businesses represented include Vaucluse Company Store and Columbia & Hamburg Rail Road Company; includes affidavit, 12 Feb. 1864, with signatures of Atkinson's neighbors certifying that he had been employed as a wheelwright and blacksmith throughout 1863; endpapers record of weather conditions, [1857?]-1858. Volume, 1860-1870, with cover title "A Letter, Bill, Note and Receipt Book, No. 1 of D.J. Atkinson ... January 1, 1869," contains incoming personal and business correspondence, 1860 and 1867-1870. Atkinson modified a Vaucluse factory ledger by pasting over or tipping in to the stubs of pages that had been cut from the book. Several remaining pages from the ledger, ca. 1863-1864, list cost of sacks and bagging shipped from Vaucluse during Civil War. Letters written after the destruction of the Vaucluse factory by fire in 1867 document Atkinson's job as caretaker for the property and his association with William Gregg, Jr., and James J. Gregg, sons of Graniteville founder William Gregg. Letters from J.J. Gregg direct Atkinson to have the machinery broken up, to keep the wrought iron locked away by itself, and to prevent vandalism of the property. Other correspondents include Wade Buff, B.F. Harlow, Mrs. M.A. Odell, Samuel Overstreet, and G.W. Turner. Volume, 1869-1871 and 1885-1893, farm account book, lists sharecroppers working for various members of the Atkinson family at Dunkley's Mount. Includes record of "The time it Rained Each Week in the year," 1870-1871. Entries, 1885-1893, written in another hand, document labor accrued and goods purchased by sharecroppers.

3 v.

University of South Carolina, System Library Service, University Libraries