Kenan Research Center Finding Aids

This collection contains an unbound scrapbook and records collected by Erna Lee Mason about her farm and the Mason family. The scrapbook includes photographs, deeds, correspondence, brochures, and ephemera. Farm records document maintenance and finances, such as acreage reports to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and tree upkeep. The collection also includes newspaper clippings about the Spanish-American War, Glover Cleveland’s presidency, and President Roosevelt’s economic policies.

This collection contains Thomas Deaton's financial, legal, and personal papers, the bulk of which pertain to the Civil War. Financial records include deeds of purchase for land and enslaved persons, as well as affidavits of sales. Also included is a diary he wrote while working at a Confederate hospital in which he recorded personal notes, information about meetings, records of the weather, and copied obituaries. Correspondence documents Deaton’s sale of grain to the Confederate Army.