Whitfield, Snipes, and Hastings Family Papers, PC.2001
Abstract
The families represented in this collection had roots during the 18th and 19th centuries
in Caswell and Person counties, but some moved in subsequent generations to other
areas, including nearby Guilford and Durham counties. Most papers in the portion accessioned
in 2010 focus on Hazel Mary Snipes Hastings (1924-2001), apparently the first in her
family to attend college, and her life and their intertwined lives as revealed through
the long run of letters home to her mother, Rosa Elizabeth Whitfield Snipes (1897-1989).
The papers also contain a birth and death record created in the years before 1862
of the Asa and Jane Johnson Fuller family, Person County, written on pages sown into
a rebound (cloth and cardboard) almanac. Letters of particular interest were those
written during the Great Depression, and those from Hazel Mary to her mother during
her student days at Mars Hill Junior College, and subsequently while enrolled in the
Watts School of Nursing, Durham. Includes a small quantity of photographs and other
material, and family letters that extend to 1986. An addition to the papers in 2017
includes additional material on Rosa and her huband Walter Snipes; and new papers
and photographs on the Bailey and other lines and covering the period from the early
20th century, through the World War I and World War II.
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Whitfield, Snipes, and Hastings Family Papers
- Call Number
- PC.2001
- Creator
- Whitefield family
- Date
- 1850-1986 1920-1986
- Extent
- 3.00 boxes
- 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] in PC.2001, Whitfield, Snipes, and Hastings Family Papers, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C., U.S.A.
Collection Overview
This collection contains letters from circa 1922 to 1986, addressed primarily to Rosa
Snipes/Rosa Dupree from her daughter Hazel Mary Snipes Hastings, though the earliest
correspondence came from friends and family. Included in a few of the letters are
newspaper clippings pertinent to the times and to the family. Also contained within
the collection are some photographs dated from circa 1885 to the 1940s. Though many
of the letters deal with family news and daily events topics such as the war, progress
in technology, medicine and treatments, and race relations are also talked about,
while letters to Rosa when she was a younger woman deal with things like the effects
of the great Depression.
An addition to the papers in 2017 includes additional material on Rosa and her huband
Walter Snipes; and new papers and photographs on the Bailey and other lines and covering
the period from the early 20th century, through the World War I and World War II.
The addition consists primarily of letters, post cards, greeting cards, photographs
of Rosa Whitefield, Walter Snipes, and the Bailey and Bryson family, 1917-1945; Mars
Hill College and Watts Hospital School of Nursing material of Hazel Snipes, circa
1941-1945; with most of the photographs dating from the period of the first half of
the 20th century.
The collection contains a family birth and death record created in the years before
1862 of the Asa and Jane Johnson Fuller family, Person County, and consisting of pages
sown into a rebound (cloth and cardboard) almanac. Contains a small quantity of photographs
and other material, including printed matter, receipts (one with a recipe for banana
pudding jotted down on the reverse side), and a Memorial Day program from 1932, Greensboro,
that lists white and "colored" veterans who had died since the last Memorial Day.The
papers include correspondence that touch on a variety of topics, some with at least
some passing references to many 20th century events, indicating a degree of first-hand
knowledge. The correspondence dates from the early 1920s to the late 1980s, and is
primarily penned by Hazel Mary Snipes Hastings to her mother and family, though there
is a portion by other people, including relatives, to her mother, Rosa.
Letters written to Rosa Snipes dating from around 1922 to 1940 are primarily gossip exchanged between family and friends (such as the news of a mutual acquaintance marrying a man who eventually ended up in prison for forgery and bigamy), but also includes information of greater historical value. One writer in 1922 mentions having a brother who was killed in France, while another mentions a desire to see Billy Sunday while he is in Lynchburg. Most notable, perhaps, though, is the correspondence of a tenant of the Snipes family, who writes in request of a rent negotiation in 1931, as her husband and sons have been laid off, and the bank used by the relative who sends them money failed. The tenant writes that she generally makes extra money selling chicken eggs, but even that has failed to bring in as much of a profit, and as often as not, she gives the eggs away to those who have nothing. The letter writer states, "hard times has struck everybody...27 men in this neighborhood are without work." In addition to such insights as these into life during the Great Depression, there is also brief discussion concerning the tobacco industry, and birthdays among the Snipes' three children.
The majority of the correspondence, however, was written by Hazel Mary Snipes (eventually Hazel Hastings) between the years 1942 and 1986 -- which follows her through college, marriage, and family, including having a child, watching the child grow up, and becoming a grandmother. By the end of the correspondence, Hazel Hastings has an eleven-year-old grandson and is about 62 years old. The first few years covered by the correspondence deal with her college life, both at Mars Hill Junior College, 1941-1943, and at Watts Hospital School of Nursing. Her correspondence topics include college life, such as the state of cafeteria food, celebrations, revivals, and events, including May Day. When she moves on to Watts Hospital School of Nursing, the subjects tend towards her classes, her work in the hospital wards, the standards the students have to follow socially and professionally and so on. Also brought up during her stay at both schools are references to World War II and to friends and family who are involved in the war.
Hazel Snipes left Watts Hospital School of Nursing in order to marry James Alton Hastings in 1944; nurses and nursing candidates were expected to remain single. Correspondence in the early part of 1945 deals heavily with the war, as her brother Russell joined the Marines. Hazel discusses rumors of Hitler's death, V-E Day, and atomic bombs among other things with her mother during her first year being a wife, but subsequent letters through the rest of the decade and the next deal more with personal topics as she has her first (and only) child and deals with personal and family illness. Also discussed, however, are such things as news of electric appliances being made and sold to the public, the couple purchasing their first telephone, buying a new house, and dealing with inheritance issues. Union strikes, tobacco crops, and the couple's son Jimmy going to college and getting married and having a family of his own, also see their share of discussion through the sixties and seventies. Race relations in Durham are a subtle, yet recurring theme through several of Hazel's letters as she tells her mother about the help and difficulties selling their house because of the number of blacks moving into the neighborhood.
While there may be many letters in the collection dealing with personal news that perhaps only family would find of interest, there is also much in the way of historical references, news, and topics of contemporary interest. In the former category, for example, there are two letters from family members in 1947, including Aunt [Ella] Lee Snipes (1893-1981), a sister of Walter F. Snipes's father, who did not marry and remained in Person County, but continued to connect with family who had moved.
Arrangement Note
Chronological within each series.
Biographical/Historical note
Contents of the Collection
1. Family birth and death records and miscellaneous material
Scope and Content:
Includes birth and death records of family of Asa Fuller (1782-1862) m. Jane R. Johnson (d. 1855); and printed matter, including almanacs, receipts, program.
2. Hazel Mary Snipes Personal Material,ca. 1930-1939
3. Miscellaneous Photographs,ca. 1885-1935
Scope and Content:
Small quantity of photographs of Whitfield/Whitefield, Snipes Families, including some extended family and friends. Some examples of the photos are:
Navy friend, M. Heaton, of W. F. Snipes, Portsmouth, N. H., Navy Yard, ca. 1917. Photo post card.
Graduation celebration, Jamie Bunnell Broach, University of North Carolina, June 15, 1921. Two photos including Rosa Whitfield/Whitefield and Zelia Whitfield/Whitefield, Person County. Also includes Samuel Broach.
Mary Sue Vernon, with husband and two small children, ca. 1925. .
Two little girls, neighbors of Snipes, ca. 1930. Lived next door to Snipes [?] at 803 Spring Garden St., Greensboro, N.C.
M. Scott, Ms. Richardson, and me [Rosa W. Snipes?] at Sadie's [trailer or cottage] at the beach, ca. 1935 . 2 photos. One includes the three women, at the end of a trailer, with a net on the side. One holding a broom, and another standing in a bucket.
Town square (unidentified) with Monument, and two early cars in street. Ca. 1920.
4. Correspondence,ca. 1922-1947
Scope and Content:
Contains a variety of correspondence topics, indicating first-hand knowledge of various 20th century events. The correspondence dates from the early 1920s to the late 1980s, and is primarily penned by Hazel Mary Snipes Hastings to her mother and family, though there is a portion by other people, including relatives, to her mother, Rosa, along with some letters to Walter F. Snipes.
Subject Headings
Acquisitions Information
Jim Hastings, Durham, N.C., 2010 and 2017