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CoUection: WHITFORD, JOHN D., PAPERS
New Bern, North Carolina
1770, 1812-1910
p r 89. 1-69.16
Physical Description: c. 1,500 items and 8 volumes, consisting of correspon¬
dence, telegrams, newspaper clippings, essays, reports, piece books,
manuscript- history, photograph, bills of sale, certificates, deeds, lease,
receipts, accounts, promissory notes, requisitions, estate papers, ap¬
prentice papers, quit claim, power of attorney, blueprint, almanacs, pam¬
phlets, circulars, advertisements, printed legislative bills; list of
operatives and time sheets of Planters Manufacturing Company; documents,
■ЛсцишИ&йЯ
reports, and minutes of Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad
Company; reports and miscellaneous items concerning the North Carolina
Railroad Company, Danville and Richmond Railroad, Wilmington and Weldon
Railroad, and railroads in general; and miscellaneous items.
Acquisition: July 13, 1959: Various reminiscences of Craven County,
351-page typed manuscript given by Miss Marybelle Delamar, Raleigh,' North
Carolina. The remainder of the collection was given by Whitford's son,
Reid Whitford, Haverford, Pennsylvania. For a complete list of items
fiven, see Biennial Report, 1926-1928. pages 18-19.
lescription: j0^n Daiton Whitford, born in New Bern, August 17, 1825, was
particularly active in the internal improvements program of North Caro¬
lina. He was a director of the Neuse River Navigation Company and of the
Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, becoming president of the latter in
1854. He remained as president until removed by military authority after
the Civil War but again served in the position under the administration of
Jonathan Worth. In 1865, he helped organize Whitford, Dill, & Co., which
was one of the first shipping houses to run a line of steamers from New
Bern to New. York after the war. He was financial agent of the Raleigh and
Augusta Airline Railway Company from 1867 to 1871 and was assistant engi¬
neer in charge of the government work on Contentnea Creek and Tar River,
1885-1888. Political positions held by Whitford include collector of
customs at New Bern under the administration of President Zachary Tarylor,
mayor of New .Bern (1853-1854), and delegate from Craven county at the 1861
and 1865 Conventions and in the North Carolina Senate in 1865. During the
war, he served as ordnance officer for a short time and later in the trans¬
portation department of the Confederate Government with the rank of major.
Whitford was the author of several articles and pamphlets. He died in New
Bern in 1910.
Although the bulk of the collection consists of the personal and busi¬
ness papers of John D. Whitford, there is a miscellaneous collection of
documents (1770, 1812-1853) that belonged to his father, Hardy Whitford. Ac¬
cording to the accession record, there were 109 pieces of the Hardy Whit¬
ford* papers; however, it is only possible to identify 99 items which be¬
longed to him. Among these items are miscellaneous legal documents, includ¬
ing apprentice papers, two for shoemaker and one for hairdresser, deeds,
bills of sale for slaves, and power of attorney; and there are various items
concerning Whitford's business as a general merchant, ’mainly accounts. There
are also four items of correspondence in the papers and a roster of the New
Bern Grays, 1835. A ledger from Hardy Whitford's business papery accessioned
