The book Contributions of Vance County People of Color by Ruth Anita Hawkins Hughes is now available on DigitalNC. Thanks to a request from a community member, the folks at Granville County Public Library, and UNC Libraries, we were able to digitize this book.
Photographs of people discussed in the book are included
Written in 1988, the book contains vignettes about many Black residents of Vance County during the 20th century. The book is broken up into chapters about farm families, and town families, and then by different occupations in the county. An amazing resource particularly for genealogists, Contributions… is full text searchable, making it easy to search names quickly!
To view more materials about the Black community in North Carolina, visit our African American newspapers collection and our general collection here.
Creedmoor High School yearbook, 1952
Four Creedmoor High School yearbooks, from 1952 to 1955, are now digitized and available on DigitalNC thanks to our partners at Granville County Public Library. DigitalNC had previously only hosted the 1951 annual. Creedmoor High School was the local school until 1962, when the consolidated South Granville High School opened. Click here to browse all Granville County yearbooks on DigitalNC, from 1912 to 1968, including the only other yearbook from Creedmoor, the G. C. Hawley High School Hornet from 1967 and 1968.
To learn more about our partner the Granville County Public Library, visit their partner page here or their website here. To browse yearbooks from across North Carolina, click here.
Photos of different buildings by Mrs. Addie Wood. The church (top right) was built in 1754.
Volumes 135 through 140 of the Francis B. Hays Collection of scrapbooks from Granville County Public Library are now up on DigitalNC. These scrapbooks add to the extensive collection of volumes compiled by Mr. Hays, an avid local historian from the Granville area. Each scrapbook contains a wealth of information relating to a specific subject, and many contain notes and letters written by Mr. Hays himself. This batch of scrapbooks focuses mainly on family genealogies.
1957 letter addressed to Francis B. Hays.
Letter to Mr. Hays about ancestral information on the Duty family.
Volume 135 is the church book for Granville Circuit, including rolls of congregants dating back to 1836. Also included are the church programs for Oxford Methodist Church in Oxford, NC from September 1941 to June 1942. Volumes 136 through 140 are various genealogies for local families, including information on family records, marriages, newspaper clippings, and photographs dating back to the 17th century. Also included are various personal letters to Mr. Hays.
For more scrapbooks compiled by Francis B. Hays, you can visit the DigitalNC page for the Francis B. Hays Collection or view our previous blog posts on the collection. You can also see more materials from the Granville County Public Library partner page.
Included in the latest batch of Francis B. Hays scrapbooks from Granville County Public Library is one entirely about North Carolina’s devastation from Hurricane Hazel which struck in October 1954. The scrapbook mostly contains newspaper clippings from the aftermath of the storm, which is still one of the biggest hurricanes to ever hit the state. The focus of the clippings are not only on the Oxford area, where Hays lived, but across the state, particularly the Raleigh area and the coast, which were especially hard hit.
To see more scrapbooks from Francis B. Hays, visit the exhibit page here and learn more about them in previous blog posts here, here, and here. To see other Hurricane Hazel related materials on DigitalNC, visit here.
Francis B. Hays Collection Volume 122, Women’s Clubs I, page 115
The latest batch of scrapbooks from the Francis B. Hays Collection at the Granville County Public Library are now available on DigitalNC. Volumes 116 – 125 include subjects relating to women’s and men’s clubs in Oxford, politics in North Carolina, and weather.
Four of the scrapbooks highlight clubs in the Granville County area. Women’s Clubs I and Women’s Clubs II document the activities of intellectual and service organizations, such as literary societies and girl scouting groups. Men’s Club I and Men’s Club II highlight a variety of fraternal and service organizations, like the Shriners and Lions Clubs. There is also information and clippings about the Masons, which can be researched in context with other materials on DigitalNC, like those from the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. All of the newspaper clippings and print materials in these scrapbooks are full-text searchable and could be useful for genealogy researchers.
Francis B. Hays Collection Volume 124, Weather I, page 165
Francis B. Hays Collection, Volume 124, Weather I, page 175
Additionally, the scrapbooks concerning weather might also be of interest. These scrapbooks contain state and national newspaper clippings about extreme whether incidents, especially during the 1940’s and 1950’s. The images above feature two weather extremes from the triangle area– deep snow in downtown Durham and swimsuit weather in Raleigh in January! Check out Weather I and Weather II for more images and stories like these.
All the recent additions are linked below:
To learn more about Francis B. Hays and the scrapbooks he created, browse the exhibit page. For more information about Granville County Public Library, visit the contributor page or the website.
Volumes 106 through 115 of the Francis B. Hays Collection of scrapbooks from Granville County Public Library are now up on DigitalNC. These scrapbooks add to the extensive collection of volumes compiled by Mr. Hays, an avid local historian from the Granville area. Each scrapbook contains a wealth of articles related to a specific subject, and many contain indexes and short histories hand penned by Mr. Hays. This batch of Scrapbooks focuses mainly on topics of commerce and transportation.
An airport advertisement from Volume 112
A newspaper article from Volume 113
A newspaper article from Volume 114
Volumes 106, 107, and 108 focus on Tobacco sale and production in North Carolina. Volumes 109 and 110 collect newspaper articles about automobiles. Volume 111 includes hand-written biographies and newspaper articles about important people in and around Oxford, North Carolina. Volume 112 focuses on airplanes, Volume 113 on railroads, and Volume 114 on the postal service. Volume 115 details the history of banking in Oxford.
For more Francis B. Hays scrapbooks, you can visit the DigitalNC page for the Francis B. Hays Collection or view our previous blog posts on the collection. You can also see more materials from the Granville County Public Library.
Map of Pamlico County from Francis B. Hays North Carolina Counties Scrapbook, Volume 4, Page 308
The above map of Pamlico County is one example of the many maps that Francis B. Hays created in his County Scrapbooks, among the newest volumes digitized from Granville County Public Library’s Hays collection. Hays drew a map for each of North Carolina’s 100 counties. The scrapbooks also include population data, historical information, and numerous stories and articles about famous people or events from the county. Hays dedicated a volume specifically to Vance County, Granville County’s next door neighbor.
Map of Vance County from Francis B. Hays scrapbook of Vance County, Page 163
The county scrapbooks are part of a batch of fourteen added to the Francis B. Hays Collection. Mr. Hays was an educator and clerk in Granville County, who dedicated much of his time to documenting the county’s history. These scrapbooks represent Volumes 80-93 of 150 housed at the Granville County Public Library.
Aside from the County Volumes, Hays also documented doctors, nurses, and public health in Granville County, indexing names of those working in medical professions. These volumes could be useful for those interested in genealogical research in Granville County and the surrounding areas.
This batch also includes two other series of volumes: North Carolina Historical Items and Distinguished North Carolinians. The NC Historical Items series features many articles and clippings that discuss NC during and after the reconstruction era and during the colonial period with information about Native Americans who lived in the state or were removed by the government. The Distinguished North Carolinians series contains articles, clippings, and obituaries of noteworthy men and women connected to the state. Volume 3 of the series may be of particular interest because it contains the most information about noteworthy women, especially authors and poets.
Cover the 1938 North Carolina Highways road map from Francis B. Hays’ scrapbook of North Carolina Maps and Miscellaneous, Page 39
You can see all of the recently added scrapbooks at the links below:
You can view all 93 digitized volumes at the Francis B. Hays Collection exhibit page. To learn more about the Granville County Public Library visit their contributor page or the website.
Map of Granville County, N.C. from Franis B. Hays’ scrapbook “Health, Doctors, Hospitals, Nurses.”
Six more volumes of the Francis B. Hays scrapbooks have been digitized and published on DigitalNC. From the Granville County Public Library, these scrapbooks are added to the already large collection of Francis B. Hays scrapbooks on a wide variety of topics, from Granville County history to churches to schools. Four of the scrapbooks are focused on obituaries, volumes VII-X. Another is titled “Health, Doctors, Hospitals, and Nurses” and includes clippings related to these topics in Granville County. The last is an index of the names of people in Oxford, N.C., referring to other scrapbooks in the collection. These scrapbooks, including the obituaries, are useful for people researching genealogy in Granville County and surrounding areas in North Carolina.
For more Francis B. Hays scrapbooks, you can visit the DigitalNC page for the Francis B. Hays Collection. You can also see more materials from the Granville County Public Library.
Headline from the Durham Herald-Sun from the Robert Potter Scrapbook, Page 7
Seven new volumes from the Granville County Public Library’s Francis B. Hays collection have been added to DigitalNC.
Among Francis B. Hays’ many scrapbooks documenting the history of Granville County is his research on the infamous politician, Robert Potter. Born around 1800 in Oxford, N.C., Potter quickly became well known for his charisma and intelligence. According to the Durham Herald-Sun, he began practicing law in Granville county in 1821. Although he acquired a reputation filled with campaign brawls and duels, he was elected to the state legislature and served from 1825-1834.
Potter was not the typical member of the legislature. Unlike most politicians, he was elected to his second term while serving time in the county jail. Potter served a six month sentence for castrating two preachers whom he thought were having affairs with his wife. This short prison sentence reflected the fact that no law against castration existed in North Carolina prior to the incident. One year later, the state legislature passed a law officially making castration, or “Potterizing” as it was locally known, illegal.
After he was released from prison and finished his term in the state senate, he moved to Texas. There he continued in politics, serving in the state assembly and even becoming secretary of state of the Republic of Texas. Although he found renewed success there, his violent past foreshadowed the rest of his life. In 1842 he was killed in another brawl, which may have happened in or near the Red River.
Robert Potter may not be one of Granville County’s proudest sons in all aspects; however, he was a staunch advocate for labor and education before his dramatic end. You can read more about Potter’s politics and life in the Robert Potter Scrapbook. Along with contemporary newspaper articles outlining the story, Hays collected numerous primary sources and documents including, speeches and scholarly articles. Another unique feature of the scrapbook is the organized documentation of Hays’ research process, including his letters and notes to libraries in the area as he sought information about Potter’s life in North Carolina. This scrapbook in the Francis B. Hays Collection is an excellent resource for researchers interested in the “strange saga” of Robert Potter or in the processes and workflows of historical researchers prior to the digital age.
The other recently added volumes also offer many opportunities for research. The four Obituaries volumes are full of newspaper obituaries that could be used for genealogical data. Buses, Oxford, N.C. contains bus timetables for charter companies in North Carolina and the continental United States, many from Greyhound Lines, Inc. The other scrapbooks also give glimpses of the business and social history of Granville county during the early-mid twentieth century.
- Business Houses, Merchants, Etc. Oxford N.C. [1949]
- Social and Dramatic, Taxes and Budgets of Oxford N.C.
- Factories, Public Service Companies, Crime, Building and Real Estate, Sports and Recreations, and Fair in Oxford N.C.
- Robert Potter Scrapbook [1948]
- Buses, Oxford, N.C.
- Obituaries. BI [Granville County, N.C]
- Obituaries. BII [Granville County, N.C]
- Obituaries V [Granville County, N.C]
- Obituaries [Granville County, N.C]
- Historical and Descriptive Review of North Carolina, Volume 1
To view all of the Granville County scrapbooks, please see the Hays Collection Digital Exhibit page. To see more contributions from Granville County Public Library, please visit their contributor page.
Volumes 53 through 63 of the Francis B. Hays Collection of scrapbooks have been uploaded to our DigitalNC website. From the Granville County Public Library, these scrapbooks cover a wide variety of topics on Oxford and Granville County life. Some cover the histories of different religious denominations in the county, including the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church, Methodist Church, and one that is an amalgamation of information about all of the religious groups in the county. The Oxford Methodist Church also has a scrapbook completely dedicated to its history. Covering more general Oxford history, one scrapbook contains old copies of The Morning Clarion from the year 1876.
Front page of an 1876 copy of the Morning Clarion
Two of the scrapbooks contain information about the businesses and industries in Oxford, one taking clippings specifically from an industrial newspaper, and the other from the regular paper. Both of these scrapbooks have an emphasis on the tobacco industry in the county, and specific focus is given to the owners of tobacco warehouses. Continuing with the theme of business, Mr. Hays also put together a scrapbook concerning real estate and construction in Granville County.
Program Cover for the Court House Centennial Celebration
Newspaper clipping from the Oxford Public Ledger
The last two scrapbooks in this batch cover special topics pertaining to Granville County. The first is dedicated to the centennial celebration of the Granville County Court House and the Granville County bicentennial celebration. The final scrapbook in this batch is a collection of newspaper clippings discussing the creation and growth of the Granville Library and its importance to the community.
For more information about the other scrapbooks available in this collection, as well as about Francis B. Hays himself, visit the Francis B. Hays Collection page, or see this previous blog post.
