Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 George N. Folk Papers, #3421-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Alfred A Kent Junior of Granite Falls, N.C., April 1959 and April 1969.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in 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

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, January 2009

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

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.

• Caldwell County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Folk, Betty Council, d. 1912.
• Folk, George N. (George Nathaniel), 1839-1896.
• Love-letters--History--19th century.
• Women--North Carolina--Social life and customs.

George Nathaniel Folk (1839-1896) was a lawyer, law teacher, and state senator of Lenoir, Caldwell County, N.C. He served as a colonel in the 65th North Carolina Regiment, 6th North Carolina Cavalry in the Confederate army. After the Civil War, Folk, along with Major Junius Tate of Morganton, N.C., was charged with the murder of a bushwhacker named Reece, who had been court martialed and shot during the war.

The collection includes correspondence and other papers of George N. Folk (1839-1896) and his wife, Betty Council Folk (died 1912). Papers dated 1845-1855 are love-letters and letters from friends and suitors to Betty Council before her marriage to George Folk. Almost all of the papers dated after 1855 are personal business papers and other personal items, 1860s-1890s, of George Folk including items related his wartime murder charge and mental health. There are also tributes and letters of condolence at his death and papers pertaining to legal and property matters.

Among the correspondents in this collection are E. M. Davis, John J. Mott, Tyre York, Robert Franklin Armfield, William Blackmer, Johannes A. Oertel and wife, William B. Council, Edmund Jones, and Julian S. Carr.