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Collection : GRAVES, CALVIN, PAPERS (I80i*-1878)
Caswell County, North Carolina
1833-1861*
P.C.
- 2
Physical Description: Letters, bills, receipts, broadsides, journal.
27 items and 1 bound volume.
Acquisition: Gift of Mrs. Robert Gapen,
Reidsville, North Carolina.
February 26, 1959; December 22, I960
»
Description: Calvin Graves, native of Caswell County, attended Bingham
Academy and the University of North Carolina; he studied law under
Judge Settle and at Chief Justice Henderson' s law school, and was
admitted to the bar in 1827. Graves served in the State Senate,
3£gl*-end 181*6-1850, and in the House, 181*0-181*6; he was speaker of the
House, 181*2-181*3, and of the Senate in 181*8. As speaker in the session
of 181*8-181*9, by casting the deciding ballot in favor of the North
Carolina Railroad (in opposition to the wishes of his constituents),
he ended his political career. Graves married Elizabeth, the daughter
of John C. Lea. See: Samuel Ashe, Biographical History of North
Carolina, U, 108-113.
Graves’ journal (1833-1859) covers a variety of subjects.
It records his plantation business - details of hiring overseers,
planting and sale of tobacco, hire and sale of slaves, listing of
slaves for taxes and listing of their births and deaths, settlement
of accounts with individuals and firms, etc. Remedies for numerous
ailments and recipes are given. Accounts of expenditures travelling
to Raleigh and to Washington; tuition and room and board at Chapel
Hill, Wake Forest, Trinity, and Oxford Female Academy; and newspaper
and magazine subscriptions are recorded. Miscellaneous information
written in the journal gives statistics on Caswell County elections
for governor and legislature (181*0-181*2); the fall circuit of superior
court judges (1850); and statistics on the University of North Carolina -
salaries of officers for 1853, revenues for 1852, permanent investments,
and aggregate of receipts and disbursements.
