Finding Aid of the Margaret Eliza Cotten Journal, <date calendar="gregorian" era="ce" normal="1853/1854">1853-1854,</date>, PC.1979
Abstract
Margaret Eliza Cotten (1835-1895) was born in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C., the
first-born of John W. Cotten (circa 1811-1845 and Laura Placidia Clark Cotten (1816-1864).
Following the death of her father, Margaret moved to Raleigh with her family, where
she was educated at St. Mary's School. A year and a few months after the last entry
in the journal, she married Joseph Adolphus Engelhard.
This antebellum journal was maintained when Margaret Cotten was living with her mother,
younger siblings, and grandmother in Raleigh, N.C. during her seventeenth and eighteenth
years, from October 1, 1853 to July 12, 1854. Entries include accounts daily life
and of trips to Tarboro and to Wilmington, N.C. to visit with family and friends and
to take part in social events and Christmas holiday celebrations. The journal also
provides a glimpse of the thoughts and aspirations of a well-connected, upperclass
young woman in antebellum Raleigh, a town of about 4,500 people during the period
recorded.
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Margaret Eliza Cotten Journal
- Call Number
- PC.1979
- Creator
- Cotten, Margaret Eliza
- Date
- 1853-1854
- Extent
- 1.00 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.1977, Margaret Eliza Cotten Journal, 1853-1854, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, N.C., USA.
Arrangement Note
Journal is bound and written in chronological order.
Biographical Note
Contents of the Collection
1. Journal of Margaret Eliza Cotten,1853-1854
scopecontent:
The journal includes many of Margaret Eliza Cotten's thoughts and feelings, and an informal record of her day-to-day and family activities. The journal does not generally include detailed descriptions, but has many references to her various pastimes such as reading, painting, dancing, and visiting people within Miss Cotten's family and social set. From time to time she named rectors who had preached at her church, Christ Church [Episcopal]. Within easy walking distance of her home on Blount Street, the church, consecrated in 1829, was then in its first building at Wilmington and Edenton Streets, across from Union Square and the east portico of the Capitol.
Entries also included accounts of daily life and of trips to Tarboro in Edgecombe County and to Wilmington, N.C. to stay with family and friends and social events and Christmas holiday celebrations. There are references to visits to the North Carolina State Fair, a highly anticipated event that opened for the first time in October of 1853. There are many references to neighborhood visits, and a few comments about illness and death. She wrote with particular feeling about the death of the mother of her friend, Annie Bryan, Lucy Olivia Blount Grimes, who died 29 June 1854, and the bereavement and sadness of losing one's mother. More frequently, Margaret Cotten wrote of friendships and visits with St. Mary's School friends. Young men also figure prominently in the journal, including William Laurence Saunders and Joseph Adolphus Engelhard, her husband-to-be (but apparently his future status was faintly suspected and hoped for, but unbeknownst to her at the time). Saunders and Engelhard were friends and also students together at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, class of 1854. Saunders and Margaret's sister, Florida, and Saunders would later wed in February 1865.
Mr. Engelhard apparently travelled to visit family in Mississippi during the summer of 1854, a trip that occasioned great anxiety in Miss Cotten when she did not receive a letter from him. She includes among her concerns the reality of cholera outbreaks in St. Louis and along the Mississppi River. Towards the end of the journal, she, her grandmother, and other family, were about to embark on a trip to Shocco, a highly popular resort at the time, located northeast of Raleigh in Warren County. Although Miss Cotten recorded that she anticipated a , the springs were frequently sought by wealthy 19th century travellers for both the therapetic effects of the nearby mineral springs and for the active social life.
The end of the volume suggests that Miss Cotten planned to continue her journal writing. It is unknown whether she added to her first volume and if so, whether any additional ones have survived.
Subject Headings
Acquisitions Information
Received as a gift from John Cotten,