Above images: The Heritage of Cleveland County Vol. I, page 2 and 3

Thanks to our partner Mauney Memorial Library, genealogy history from Cleveland County is now available on DigitalNC.

Created by the Cleveland County Historical Association and Museum, these volumes document the histories of families and institutions that might have otherwise been lost with the passing of older citizens. County citizens, churches, schools, civic clubs, and other entities were invited to submit stories and material for publication. The volumes include helpful indexes for easy searching and are also full-text searchable, making genealogy research faster and more efficient. This could also be useful resource for teachers working with North Carolina or Cleveland County history.

The first volume is linked below:

• The Heritage of Cleveland County Vol. I

To learn more about Mauney Memorial Library please visit the contributor page or the home page. To access more great resources for genealogy and family research, please visit the North Carolina Memory Collection, which contains many items that are also full-text searchable.

Edited December 13, 2016 – At the request of the contributing institution, Cleveland County Heritage Vol. II has been removed from our website at this time.  We hope in the future to have it available to the public.  

By-Laws Governing District Councils of the Improved Order of Red Men of North Carolina, page 5

Thanks to our partner, the New Bern Craven County Public Library, DigitalNC has published nearly twenty items from several chapters of the Improved Order of Red Men in North Carolina. This fraternal order, based on the images of Native Americans used by the Sons of Liberty during the Boston Tea Party in 1773. This batch contains many materials surrounding groups based in New Bern, Greenville, and Raleigh.

Reasons Why You Should Become a Member of the Improved Order of Red Men

Included in the batch are six minute books that cover nearly forty years of the groups’ activities. These could be useful for researchers interested in genealogy, especially within the New Bern area. The print materials also include information about the club’s structure and activities, including the “Department of Death Benefits.”

Perhaps the items from the Improved Order of Red Men offer us another alternative to a rather dramatic election year with a suggestion from their By-Laws, mentioned in the image above.

To learn more about the New Bern-Craven County Public Library, please visit their contributor page or the website.

Data for the Big Date, cover

Several new items from Charlotte Mecklenburg Library are now available online. These items tell the story of two Queen City community colleges and the social issues surrounding them– specifically Carver College and Charlotte College.

The materials in this batch document the conversation surrounding several bond elections held in Charlotte in the late 1950’s to the early 1960’s. These bond elections centered on a debate about whether Charlotte should have two community colleges– one for white students and one for Black students. The report “Should Charlotte Build Two Community Colleges?” summarizes the arguments on both sides and gives a detailed narrative about how various stakeholders in the education community responded to social changes in North Carolina during the 1960’s.

These items could be excellent primary source documents for educators constructing curriculum about the civil rights movement in North Carolina.

View all of the new documents at the links below:

• Education Committee Resolution
• Carver College and Charlotte College Bond Election Advertisement
• Information on Carver College [1949-1958]
• Should Charlotte Build Two Community Colleges?
• Data for the Big Date

You can see more information about Carver College by browsing their materials in the North Carolina Yearbooks Collection. You can learn more about the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library by visiting their contributor page or their website.

Information on Carver College, page 17

From the 1930-1931 booklet, a listing of the topics of discussion since 1898.

85 more years of the Wilson Book Club programs are now available online, thanks to our partner, the Wilson County Public Library.  We have previously posted about the earliest of these programs, dating back to 1901.  With the addition of 93 years of programs starting in 1911 and going through 2005, one can now have a good glimpse into changing interests in the literary world and how book clubs operate over the past 100 years.  The earliest programs in this new batch often had a subject for that whole year, whether it was based on genre or topic, such as “The Netherlands” or “Modern Irish Literature“.  Later years tended to have much more diverse set of subjects across the year, although on occasion still have a primary focus for the year.  The 1975-1976 program reflects the bicentennial being celebrated and many of months have a colonial era focus.  In addition to the information on the books read, a listing of the club members and who hosted each month is also included in the programs.

Perhaps a question many of us were asking in 2005.

To view all the book club programs, visit here.  And to learn more about our partner Wilson County Public Library and view their digitized materials, visit their partner page.

Minute Book No. 9 of Saint John’s Lodge, 1922-1930

Thanks to our partner, The Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons of North Carolina, DigitalNC has published five new items that document St. John’s Lodge No. 3 from New Bern, N.C.

Four new minute books continue the story documented by the Lodge’s members. There are currently 11 minutes books from this lodge available on DigitalNC, with the earliest documenting the group’s activities beginning in 1772. The Lodge existed even prior to the founding of the United States, offering a unique look into the institution.

This series also represents the change over time in the Lodge’s means of documentation, switching from the handwritten notes and logs in the 8th minute book and prior, to the mix of printed and handwritten documents from the 9th and 10th minute books, and finally the typed documentation from the 11th.

These minute books could be excellent and complete records for researchers interested in any number of things relating to the history of the masons and fraternal orders, history of New Bern and North Carolina, and genealogy research. The later, typed documents are also full-text searchable.

You can see all of the newest additions at the links below:

• Minute Book No. 8 of St. John’s Lodge No. 3
• Minute Book No. 9 of St. John’s Lodge No. 3
• Minute Book No. 10 of St. John’s Lodge No. 3
• Minute Book No. 11 of St. John’s Lodge No. 3
• Meeting Proceedings of the Hall of St. John’s Lodge No. 3

To learn more about the Saint John’s Lodge and the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons of North Carolina, please visit the contributor page or the home page.