Delia Hyatt Papers, 1710 - 1968, PC.1529
Abstract
Delia Hyatt (1881-1964) was educated in the Kinston High School (1900), the Kinsey Female Institute at LaGrange, and St. Mary's School in Raleigh. Subsequently she briefly taught school; Clayton High School, 1908/09, and Mount Olive Graded School, 1909/10. Her true occupation in life, however, seems to have been management of real property. In 1963, as her life was coming to a close, Miss Hyatt created a charitable corporation styled, "The Hyatt Memorial Home for Boys" and transferred her property to it. The collection also includes some papers concerning Delia Hyatt's brother Anderson Lawrence Hyatt (1884-1960), sister Sybil Hyatt (1877-1951), her parents Sybil Henry Miller Hyatt (1858-1933) and Dr. Henry Otis Hyatt (1848-1922), and grandparents Anderson Roscoe Miller (1830-1905) and Delia Maria Henry Miller (1835-1884). This collection of material is gathered into four groupings: family papers (including land records); Bibles and prayer books; photographic images in different forms of photography; and oversize material. Most, but not all, of the papers are made up of deeds, grants, plats, surveys, and legal papers relating to the Hyatt family's real property. Consequently the greater part of them are evidences of title to lands conveyed in 1963 to the charitable trust, Hyatt Memorial Home for Boys. Of the Bibles and prayer books, only two Bibles contain family data. The photographic material includes a few daguerreotypes, a number of ambrotypes and tintypes, and a larger number of paper photographs. About half the photographic material lacks identification notations, though all of it relates either to the northern branch or to the southern branch of the family.
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Delia Hyatt Papers
- Call Number
- PC.1529
- Creator
- Hyatt, Delia, 1881-1964.
- Date
- 1710 - 1968
- Extent
- 20.00 boxes, 5.00 cubic feet, 31.00 folders, 180.00 images, 1.00 negatives, 1.00 stereographs, 14.00 tintypes, 12.00 volumes
- Language
- English
- Repository
- State Archives of North Carolina
Restrictions on Access & Use
Access Restrictions
Available for research.
Use Restrictions
Copyright is retained by the authors of these materials, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law (Title 17 US Code). Individual researchers are responsible for using these materials in conformance with copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], PC.1529, Delia Hyatt Papers, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Collection Overview
This collection of material is gathered into four groupings (1) family papers (including
land records); (2) Bibles and prayer books; (3) photographic images in different forms
of photography; and (4) oversize material. Most, but not all, of the papers are made
up of deeds, grants, plats, surveys, and legal papers relating to the Hyatt family's
real property. Consequently the greater part of them are evidences of title to lands
conveyed in 1963 to the charitable trust, Hyatt Memorial Home for Boys. Of the Bibles
and prayer books, only two Bibles contain family data. The photographic material includes
a few daguerreotypes, a number of ambrotypes and tintypes, and a larger number of
paper photographs. About half the photographic material lacks identification notations,
though all of it relates either to the northern branch or to the southern branch of
the family.
Though not indigenous to the collection, the papers contain two letters written from
Kinston to family in Vermont: one written by Miss Sybil Henry in 1859, and the other
by Mrs. Delia Henry Miller in 1864. These were purchased by the Friends of the Archives
in 1998 and added to the collection as "Miller Family Letters" (PC.1529.2). The letter
by Sybil Henry (Oct. 27, 1859) was written while she was staying in the Miller household
and describes the small school in Kinston that she taught. Mrs. Miller's letter to
her mother (Jan. 28, 1864) is descriptive of her life in war-torn Kinston and warns
that if she is able to go to Vermont in the summer of 1865, she will arrive quite
destitute. Additional passages, dated Feb. 16, make reference to the hanging of 22
soldiers in Kinston who, upon capture, were found to be former Confederate soldiers
who had deserted and joined the U. S. Army.
The collection also includes biographical information on Dr. Henry Otis Hyatt as well
as some of his health--related publications, a copy of his 1913 and 1922 wills, and
some papers relating to his estate. Mrs. Hyatt is represented by an 1875 autograph
book signed by friends and relations in both Kinston, N.C., and Waterbury, Vermont;
certificates of membership in various patriotic societies; and newspaper clippings
relating to her death and to the death of her sister, Maud Miller Luce.
A folder of papers in the collection contains some biographical information on Sybil
Hyatt and a copy of her 1939 pamphlet, Calling All Children. In this small pamphlet
she sets forth her ideas on educational reform and rehearses some facts from the 1916
controversy that culminated in a legal prosecution against her. A second folder relates
to a lawsuit that she pursued in the 1920s and 1930s to confirm the metes and bounds
of her Kinston property. There are several photographs of her at various stages of
her life, some from her years at school in the College of Notre Dame of Maryland,
one from the summer session at the University of Virginia (where she and other teachers
posed preparatory to the July 4 parade, 1909), and a series showing her and her friends
enjoying themselves on a holiday at Seven Springs, N. C. Her college diploma is filed
with the oversized material at the end of the collection.
There are a few papers of biographical interest relating go to Dr. Anderson Lawrence
Hyatt; most of his papers are legal files concerning suits over the Dover Swamp lands,
his bankruptcy proceedings, and his promissory notes, in all of which figure his sister
Delia.
The collection includes three photographs of Miss Delia Hyatt and students in front
of the Clayton High School building during the 1908/09 school year. Delia Hyatt's
few surviving papers relate to real property and taxes on her property in Lenoir and
Carteret counties, North Carolina, and in the states of Oklahoma and Florida. There
are two folders of documents and a receipt book relating to her estate and to the
Hyatt Memorial Home for Boys. There is a little biographical information concerning
her in the collection, and some photographs. Her high school diploma is filed with
the oversized materials as are her certificates of membership in various patriotic
societies.
Arrangement Note
By type of material. Includes the series: Delia Hyatt Papers, 1928-1967;Hyatt Family Papers, 1779-1964; Land Records, 1736-1963; Duplicate Papers; Bibles, 1900, n.d.; Photographs, 1864-1943; and Oversize Documents, 1710-1968.
By type of material. Includes the series: Delia Hyatt Papers, 1928-1967; Hyatt Family Papers, 1779-1964; Land Records, 1736-1963; Duplicate Papers; Bibles, 1900, n.d.; Photographs, 1864-1943; and Oversize Documents, 1710-1968.
Historical Note
Anderson Roscoe Miller (1830-1905), son of Imla Nunn Miller (1801-1857) of Lenoir County, N.C., graduated in medicine at Cincinnati, and in dentistry at Baltimore. In 1857 he married Delia Maria Henry (1835-1884), a native of Waterbury, Vermont. Miss Henry, educated in Vermont and New York, and proficient in French, Spanish, and Latin had taught schools in Vermont and Florida before coming to Lenoir County, N.C., to teach the children of Mr. Miller's cousin, Mrs. Frank Thompson. After their marriage the Millers moved to Wisconsin where their first daughter, Sybil, was born in June, 1858.
Later that year the family returned to Kinston, N.C., where they were joined briefly by Mrs. Miller's younger sister, Sybil Henry, who, too, came south to teach. The Millers' second daughter, Maud, was born in the spring of 1861, and shortly thereafter Mrs. Miller took her daughters to visit her family in Vermont. Here she remained during the first year of the Civil War. The surrender to U.S. forces of all but one of the North Carolina coastal towns during the first half of 1862 opened the way for Mrs. Miller's return to Kinston. She returned in the autumn of 1862, leaving her daughter Sybil with her kinspeople in Vermont. She arrived in federally occupied New Bern just as preparations were under way for a federal military expedition to destroy the railroad facilities at Goldsboro. Consequently Mrs. Miller was detained and not allowed to go on to Kinston until December 18, after the campaign had ended. During the remainder of the war Mrs. Miller remained in Kinston until the fall of Forts Fisher and Anderson early in 1865. She managed to get through the federal lines at New Bern and to embark for Vermont to visit her family and retrieve her daughter Sybil. After the war Mrs. Miller proved herself an astute merchant and businesswoman in Kinston.
Dr. and Mrs. Miller's daughter, Sybil Henry Miller (1858-1933) married Dr. Henry Otis Hyatt (1848-1922) in February 1877. Dr. Hyatt, a native of Tarboro, first studied medicine under Dr. Newsom Jones Pittman (1818-1893) and subsequently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's school of medicine in 1868. Dr. Hyatt moved his practice to Kinston in 1872. Here he was very successful, establishing a private hospital, or sanatorium for the treatment of chronic disease, in 1,891. In the same year he established a newspaper in the town, The Herald of Health, that ran until 1893. Dr. and Mrs. Hyatt had three children, none of whom married or left issue: Sybil, Delia, and Anderson Lawrence Hyatt.
Sybil Hyatt (1877-1951) was educated locally in Kinsey Female Institute at LaGrange, N.C., and in the Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies of Notre Dame of Maryland, Baltimore (Mistress of Liberal Arts, 1895). Planning a career in education, she attended a six week summer schools for teachers at the University of North Carolina (1896), University of Virginia (1909), and Columbia University (1912). Miss Hyatt taught school, serving frequently as principal, between 1908 and 1912. She then did research work at the newly established Caswell Training School (now the Caswell Center) at Kinston from 1912 to 1914. After a local controversy in 1916 in which Miss Hyatt attempted unsuccessfully to force educational reforms in the Lenoir County school system, she appears to have given up teaching altogether, though not her interest in public education.
Anderson Lawrence Hyatt (1884-1960) was educated in the medical schools of the University of North Carolina (1906-1908) and the University of Maryland (M.D., 1910). After returning to Kinston to practice medicine, young Dr. Hyatt persuaded his father, against the latter's better judgment, to let him try the experiment of farming as a landlord with tenants. The result was not reassuring to the elder doctor, who had no delusions with reference to his son's business acumen. The upshot of the experiment was that the elder Dr. Hyatt revoked the last will and testament he had drawn up in 1913 and wrote a new one in 1922 in which he bequeathed his real and personal property in Kinston to his two daughters and his extensive Dover Swamp lands in Craven and Jones counties to his son, Simultaneously, he conveyed the Craven and Jones lands by deed to his daughter, Delia, in a trust by which she became trustee for her brother.
Delia Hyatt (1881-1964) was educated in the Kinston High School (1900), the Kinsey Female Institute at LaGrange, and St. Mary's School in Raleigh. Subsequently she briefly taught school; Clayton High School, 1908/09, and Mount Olive Graded School, 1909/10. Her true occupation in life, however, seems to have been management of real property. In 1963, as her life was coming to a close, Miss Hyatt created a charitable corporation styled, and transferred her property to it. The objective of the corporation, when established, was to create a home for needy white boys, and failing that to create an educational fund to assist needy children to attend schools of advanced learning in the state. The home Miss Hyatt envisioned never materialized. Under a 2001 restatement of the articles of incorporation, all references to the proposed home and educational fund were deleted. The corporation continues in existence.
Contents of the Collection
1. Delia Hyatt Papers,1928-1967
scopecontent:
The collection includes three photographs of Miss Hyatt and students in front of the Clayton High School building during the 1908/09 school year. Her true occupation in life, however, seems to have been management of real property. Delia Hyatt's few surviving papers relate to real property and taxes on her property in Lenoir and Carteret counties, North Carolina, and in the states of Oklahoma and Florida. There are two folders of documents and a receipt book relating to her estate and to the Hyatt Memorial Home for Boys. There is a little biographical information concerning her in the collection, and some photographs. Her high school diploma is filed with the oversized materials as are her certificates of membership in various patriotic societies.
2. Hyatt Family Papers,1779-1964
3. Land Records,1736-1963
scopecontent:
One box of materials contains abstracts of title, copies of deeds and grants, plats of survey, and miscellaneous papers relating to Hyatt real estate in North Carolina, Florida, and Oklahoma. One-half box contains duplicate copies of these materials. Among the land records is a folder containing typed transcripts, or extracts, of laws ranging in date from 1762 to 1875 concerning the corporation of the town of Kinston, North Carolina, its boundaries, powers, and rights.
4. Duplicate Papers
5. Bibles,, n.d., 1900
scopecontent:
Sixteen Bibles and prayer books were received packed up with the Hyatt papers. A 1900 printing of the Bible includes the Hyatt family record from 1779 to 1964. A Bible salesman's sample dummy (made to show the choices of bindings and illustrations available to purchasers of McCurdy & Company's 1872 edition of of the Bible) has in it Dr. H. O. Hyatt's family record from 1848 to 1881. A death notice and obituary for William Roscoe Miller (1895) is pasted into an 1866 American Bible Society printing of the Bible. The thirteen remaining Bibles and prayer books in the collection contain no family data.
6. Photographs,1864-1943
scopecontent:
The collection includes several photo albums, all of which had been much disturbed prior to receipt by the Archives. There is a large number of photographs, ambrotypes, tintypes, and a few daguerreotypes. Many of these are of North Carolina branches of the Hyatt family: Miller, Luce, Prather, and Tilghman. An equal number represent northern branches of the family: Henry, Gale, Green, and Hinckley. (For family relationships, see the two family charts at the end of the finding aid.) The albums have been left as received. Identified loose photographs have been separated from unidentified ones.
7. Oversize Documents,1710-1968
scopecontent:
These materials include the diplomas of Henry Otis Hyatt, Sybil Hyatt, and Delia Hyatt; Delia Hyatt's certificates of membership in the Society of the Colonial Dames of America, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Daughters of American Colonists; land plats; Kinston city plans; Hyatt Memorial Home for Boys property maps; Lenoir County maps; and maps of the state of Florida.
Subject Headings
Acquisitions Information
Deposited by the Hyatt Memorial Home for Boys, Inc., 1969. Two letters (1859 and 1864), gift, Friends of the Archives, 1998.