Finding Aid of the Kate Middleton Pearsall Williams Papers, 1877 - 1946, PC.1787
Abstract
Kate Middleton Pearsall (1861-1909) was the daughter of Jeremiah and Jemima Haywood
Pearsall of Duplin County. Presumably, her teaching career lasted only through the
decade of the 1880s and closed upon her marriage to Robert Williams of Mount Olive,
N.C. By a previous marriage Robert Williams had two children, Mary Elizabeth (Mrs.
Richard Edward Wooten) and George R. Williams, and by his marriage to Kate Middleton
Pearsall, one son, James Henry Williams (1891-1949). Kate Pearsall Williams entered
Hygeia Hospital and Sanatorium in Richmond, Virginia, for treatment of a heart condition
in the autumn of 1907 and remained there through the winter of 1907/08. She died July
2,1909.
The collection consists of letters, invoices, bills, receipts, post cards, two manuscript
volumes, cancelled checks, and notes. The majority of the letters are those written
by James H. Williams to his mother while in school at Faison and Oxford and those
written to him by Mrs. Williams from their home in Mount Olive or from Hygeia Hospital,
Richmond, Virginia. The invoices, bills, and receipts date from the years when James
H. Williams was under his mother's guardianship from 1905 to 1909. Earlier materials
relate to the education of Kate Middleton Pearsall Williams and include a copybook
and notebook.
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Kate Middleton Pearsall Williams Papers
- Call Number
- PC.1787
- Creator
- Williams, Kate Middleton Pearsall, 1861-1909
- Date
- 1877 - 1946
- Extent
- 504.00 items
- 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.1787, Kate Middleton Pearsall Williams Papers, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Collection Overview
The collection consists of correspondence, bills, invoices, and receipts, chiefly relating to the education and guardianship of Kate M. Pearsall Williams' son, James H. Williams (1891-1949), following the death of her husband Robert in 1905. Most of the approximately 111 letters were exchanged between the son while he was at school in Faison Male Academy, Faison, N.C., and the Horner Military School, Oxford, N.C., and the mother, while she was at home or in Hygeia Hospital, Richmond, Va. between 1906 and her death in 1909. Business and estate papers nearly all relate to household and estate affairs and the education of her son. They include such matters as school bills, groceries, clothing, medical treatment and medicines, livery, general merchandise, hardware, insurance, telephone, and lumbermen's accounts. Additional material relating to education include Mrs. Williams' composition copybook from Kirkwood Seminary (1877) and her notebook from the 1882 Chapel Hill Normal School. The former includes compositions in the essay, epistolary, and narrative styles; the latter includes notes on educational theories and teaching practices, songs for school children, and lecture notes. The collection includes certificates of standing in Mount Olive High School for her step-son George R. Williams in 1890, and a letter from him while at the Horner Military School in 1897.
Biographical Note
Contents of the Collection
Subject Headings
Acquisitions Information
Gift, Clyde A. Williams, Mount Olive, N.C.