Finding Aid of the Albright-Dixon Papers, 1812 - 1933, PC.58
Abstract
William Albright (1791-1856) lived in Chatham County and was a landowner, slave-owner, merchant and state senator. Thomas Dixon (d. 1899) owned the Dixon Manufacturing Company in Snow Camp, North Carolina. He married William Albright's daughter Eleanor and they had three daughters. Papers include correspondence, various receipts and invoices, newspaper clippings and other items concerning the temperance and prohibition movements, advertisements for Snow Camp Woolen Mills, and miscellaneous papers.
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Albright-Dixon Papers
- Call Number
- PC.58
- Creator
- Albright, William
- Date
- 1812 - 1933
- 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 58, Albright-Dixon Papers, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Biographical Note
William Albright (1791-1856) was born in Alamance County, the son of George and Catherine Holt Albright. He married Louisa Wood and they had eleven children, Elizabeth, Julia, Margaret, Tamer, Durant Hatch, William Gaston, Eleanor, Mary Emily, Martha and Henry Clay Albright. William lived in Chatham County, owned 3,000-4,000 acres of land, and had numerous slaves. He was a merchant and active in public affairs. The first public meeting to promote railroads in North Carolina was held at his home in 1828. William Albright served in the North Carolina State Senate from 1836-1848 and 1852.
Thomas Dixon (d. 1899) owned the Dixon Manufacturing Company in Snow Camp, North Carolina. He married Eleanor Albright and they had three daughters, Flora, Eula, and Florence.
Contents of the Collection
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William Albright owned the largest distillery in the Chatham, Alamance, and Orange county area until 1832 when he became interested in the temperance movement. He dismantled his distillery and participated in the founding of the Pleasant Hill Temperance Society. Newspaper clippings commemorating the 75th, 100th, and 101st anniversaries of the society, a program of the 101st anniversary meeting, and an invitation to the 75th annual meeting with the calling card of Miss Eula Dixon, president of the Pleasant Hill Temperance Society, attached, are included in this collection. Eula Dixon was a daughter of Thomas Dixon and Eleanor Albright Dixon. A newspaper clipping of an address by Eula Dixon as president of the North Carolina Women's Christian Temperance Union is also included in the collection. Other items on this subject are an undated petition for prohibition, a printed 1881 petition for prohibition, the commission of W. M. Johnson, the husband of Mary Albright, as a Deputy Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Haw River Division of the Sons of Temperance, and .
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Various receipts and invoices of William Albright and others, 1812-1848, a bill of sale for a slave, and judgments against two Orange County men for non-attendance at militia muster, 1812-1813, are also included in the collection.
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Correspondence is mainly letters received by William Albright, one from John Shofner, Bedford County, Tennessee, 1848, and others from Sarah and Hannah Dixon, Montgomery County, Ohio, 1838, and Wayne County, Indiana, 1845 and 1847, concerning finances. (Sarah Dixon and daughter Hannah were granted a certificate from Cane Creek Monthly Meeting to Lick Creek Monthly Meeting in Indiana, December 1, 1831.) Congressman John Long wrote to Thomas Dixon concerning the loss of his spectacles and a letter from D. Hickman, written from Camp Branch in 1862, asks the unnamed recipient to send reply by H. C, Albright. (William's son Henry Clay Albright had enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861.)
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Miscellaneous papers include an 1843 contract with a Susan Hubbard to teach a common English school, a political circular of Abraham Rencher, 1839, a 19th century mining permit, a poem on , and the appointment of W. Albright as an agent for Thomas Carter's patent medicines, 1855.
Subject Headings
Acquisitions Information
Gift of Miss Florence Dixon of Guilford College, North Carolina, July 10, 1939.
Processing Information
Collection re-boxed and re-foldered in July 2024 by Elizabeth Bates and Bill Brown.