Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the W. C. Ervin Papers #845, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Julia Coburn of Morganton, N.C., in October 1943, and from William A. Harbison III of Charlotte, N.C., in June 2004 (Acc. 99808).

Additional Descriptive Resources

Previously compiled description of the collection available in box 1, folder 1.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC staff and Jodi Berkowitz, July 1962 and July 2006

Encoded by: Jodi Berkowitz, July 2006

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Avery, Isaac Thomas, 1785-1864.
• Bankers--North Carolina--History.
• Burke County (N.C.)--History.
• Caldwell County (N.C.)--History.
• Democratic Party (N.C.)--History.
• Editors--North Carolina--History.
• Ervin, W. C. (William Carson), 1859-1943.
• Land companies--North Carolina.
• Lawyers--North Carolina--History.
• Lenoir (N.C.)--History.
• Lenoir (N.C.)--Newspapers.
• Linville and Morganton Land and Improvement Company (N.C.).
• Morganton (N.C.)--History.
• Morganton (N.C.)--Newspapers.
• Morganton Chamber of Commerce (N.C.)
• Morganton and Shelby Railroad (N.C.).
• Newspaper editors--North Carolina.
• North Carolina--Newspapers.
• Railroads--North Carolina--History.
• Valdese (N.C.)--History.
• Waldenses--North Carolina.

Lawyer, banker, newspaper editor, and industrialist William Carson Ervin (1860-1943) attended the University of North Carolina, 1879-1880, where he studied law. He was a practicing attorney in the firm of Avery and Ervin in Morganton, N.C., and was a director and trust officer of the First National Bank of Morganton. Ervin served as mayor of Lenoir, N.C., 1888-1889, and as editor of the Lenoir Topic and the Morganton Mountaineer-Herald, 1890-1896. He helped found the Waldensian colony in the 1890s, organized Catawba Valley Light Company, and was attorney for or director of many businesses and industrial enterprises in Burke County and western North Carolina. Ervin was also an active Democrat.

The collection includes correspondence and other materials of lawyer, banker, newspaper editor, and industrialist W. C. Ervin of Morganton, N.C., and Lenoir, N.C. About half of the papers concern financing, chartering, promotion, and construction of railroads, chiefly 1895-1905. Also included are correspondence of Ervin and his partner Isaac T. Avery with politicians and state officials; correspondence related to an article written by Ervin on Grace Greenlee, 1915; papers relating to lands, including a letterpress copybook of the Linville and Morganton Land and Improvement Company; items relating to the establishment of the Waldenses at Valdese, N.C. in the 1890s; a legal fee book; stockholders minutes of the Morganton and Shelby Railroad, 1895-1898; and minutes book of the Morganton Chamber of Commerce, 1919-1920.