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Collection Number: 03858

Collection Title: Matthew George Henry Papers, 1858-1920.

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.


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.

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Size 3.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 600 items)
Abstract Matthew George Henry (1839-1920) was a Presbyterian minister in Nova Scotia, Canada, as well as several churches in western New York. He also lived in Chapel Hill, N.C., 1919-1920, with his son, George Kenneth Grant Henry, professor at the University of North Carolina. This collection contains the correspondence, sermons, and other papers of Matthew George Henry. The correspondence includes letters written by Henry to other Presbyterian ministers, his family and friends in Canada, and his children in the United States, and are primarily concerned with church matters, the daily lives of several individuals in Canada and the United States, along with local, personal, and family news. Volumes contain notes on reading, miscellaneous memoranda, business accounts, church records, and a diary kept by Henry while preaching in southern Nova Scotia, 1865-1867. Also included are about 400 sermons, speeches, and writings by Henry.
Creator Henry, Matthew George, 1839-1920.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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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 Matthew George Henry Papers, #3858, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Gift of Mary Henry of Chapel Hill, N.C., 1968.
Additional Descriptive Resources
A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.
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.
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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Processing Information

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Adam Fielding, Kate Stratton, and Jodi Berkowitz, December 2010

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.

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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.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Matthew George Henry (1839-1920) was a Presbyterian minister in Nova Scotia, Canada, as well as several churches in western New York. He was the son of Samuel L. and Eleanor D. Henry of Upper Musquodoboit, Halifax County, Nova Scotia. Henry graduated college in 1863, was ordained in 1864, and married Mary Parker of Middle Musquodoboit in 1865. His brothers were Fred W., Sydney, and Edmund Henry. He may also have had a sister named Mary. His children were Miss Eleanor Dunlap Henry, George Kenneth Grant Henry, Joseph Kaye Henry, John Geddie Henry, Lavinia Parker Henry (Mrs. Ralph M. Cooke of Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Lilian Elizabeth Henry (Mrs. Frank W. Burnett of Southampton, N.Y.) He lived in Chapel Hill, N.C., 1919-1920, with his son, George Kenneth Grant Henry, professor at the University of North Carolina.

Henry's papers indicate that he lived in the following places in Canada and the United States: 1839, Upper Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia, Canada, born 15 March; 1858-1863, Glenelg, Truro, Cornwallis, and Halifax, as a student; October 1863, West St. Peters, Cape Breton Island, on a temporary assignment; 1863-1869, Clyde and Barrington and neighboring places in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia; October 1869, call received from the Board of Foreign Missions to go to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu); 1876, Clyde; August 1877, call received to serve the congregations at Shubenacadie and Lower Stewaicke, Nova Scotia, likely served there until 1887; 1892, Genoa, N.Y.; 1894, Palmyra, N.Y.; 1896, St. Croix and Ellershouse, Nova Scotia; 1914, Jubilee held in July at Upper Canard church near Kentville, Nova Scotia, celebrating Henry's 50 years in the ministry; 1915, Geneva, N.Y.; 1919-1920, Chapel Hill, N.C.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

This collection contains the correspondence, sermons, and other papers of Matthew George Henry (1839-1920). The correspondence includes letters written by Henry to other Presbyterian ministers, his family and friends in Canada, and his children in the United States, and are primarily concerned with church matters, the daily lives of several individuals in Canada and the United States, along with local, personal, and family news. Volumes contain notes on reading, miscellaneous memoranda, business accounts, church records, and a diary kept by Henry while preaching in southern Nova Scotia, 1865-1867. Also included are about 400 sermons, speeches, and writings by Henry.

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Contents list

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Correspondence, 1858-1920 and undated.

Arrangement: chronological.

This series contains correspondence and letters of Matthew George Henry regarding his work as a Presbyterian minister in Nova Scotia, Canada and several churches in western New York. Correspondents include his family, friends, and other Presbyterian ministers. Topics include church activities, calls from congregations asking Henry to become their minister, family matters, weather, farming and crops, business matters, and community information and statisics. There are business papers regarding the settling of the estates of his parents, Samuel L. and Eleanor D. Henry in 1887 and 1893, and miscellaneous financial papers and items concerning stocks and bonds. Correspondence from 1918-1920 includes letters from from Henry's family in Chapel Hill, N.C. Folder 11 contains clippings of letters to the editor of the Guardian, probably from Halifax, written by Henry in 1879 regarding systematic beneficence and church finance; a leaflet on systematic beneficence; clippings about the Jubilee, 7 July 1914; and clippings of obituaries.

Folder 1a

Original finding aid

Folder 1

1858-1863

Folder 2

1864-1869

Folder 3

1876-1889

Folder 4

1890

Folder 5

1891-1897

Folder 6

1906-1914

Folder 7

1915-1917

Folder 8

1918

Folder 9

1919-1920

Folder 10

Undated

Folder 11

Clippings and pamphlets

Folder 12

Envelopes from letters

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 2. Volumes, 1839-1898 and undated.

Arrangement: chronological.

This series contains commonplace books, a diary, and notebooks kept by Matthew George Henry for his writings, theological studies, and church-related administrative matters.

Folder 13

Volume 1: circa 1854-1870

1854-1863, Commonplace book containing poems copied from various sources; 1869-1870, accounts and day book of family and household expenses listed as light fuel, horse and cow, books and stationary, wages, and clothing; also includes miscellaneous writings on Matthew George Henry's reading and studies, probably in the 1860s.

Folder 14

Volume 2: 1 October 1865-15 April 1867

Diary of Matthew George Henry at Clyde, Barrington, and the surrounding communities at the southern end of Nova Scotia, Canada. The entries describe where he preached and dined, persons visited, weather, study and reading, household, garden, and other activities; his resolutions about work and prayer and writing in his diary; frequent mention of his wife and younger brother, Sydney. Also included are records of which sermons were preached where from October 1865-December 1866; expenditures; a day book, 1865-1867; and miscellaneous writings about individuals including dates of death.

Folder 15

Volume 3: 1873-1898

Four small volumes. Volume 3(a), 1873-1876, includes a list of individuals who have paid Church subscriptions, costs paid on building for carpentry and stonecutting, and miscellaneous notes; volume 3(b), January 1891 and undated, includes lists of names under heading of "visits"; volume 3(c), February-December 1894, contains a list of petty expenditures such as meat, butter, etc.; and volume 3(d), 1897-1897, "Collections for Schemes of the Church--St. Croix and Ellershouse, 1897-1898."

Folder 16

Volume 4: 1892-1896

Copies of records of nine marriages performed at Genoa and Palmyra, N.Y.; a booklet of printed forms filled in by the performing minister.

Folder 17

Volume 5: "A General Review of the World's History During My Lifetime, 1839--," undated

Notebook with loose pages is not organized, but contains notes on reading and study of history of the world. This notebook dates from Matthew George Henry's later years, following his retirement.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 3. Sermons, Speeches, and Writings, circa 1859-1917.

Arrangement: topical.

This series contains sermons, talks, speeches, and other writings of Matthew George Henry. The bulk of the sermons are dated, and were used more than once, with some rewritten. They have been arranged topically by the books of the Bible. Other papers include "charges" to specific clergymen on their induction, and materials related to funerals and prayer meetings. Texts include the lives of missionaries and local events along with Biblical texts. The materials in folder 18 appear to be theological student compositions, essays, and sermons.

Folder 18

Theology students' writings, 1859

Folder 19

Genesis

Folder 20

Joshua

Folder 21

Ruth

Folder 22

1, 2 Samuel, 2 Kings

Folder 23

1 Chronicles

Folder 24

Nehemiah

Folder 25

Job

Folder 26-28

Folder 26

Folder 27

Folder 28

Psalms

Folder 29

Proverbs

Folder 30

Ecclesiastes

Folder 31

Song of Solomon

Folder 32

Isiah

Folder 33

Jeremiah

Folder 34

Lamentations

Folder 35

Malachi

Folder 36-38

Folder 36

Folder 37

Folder 38

Matthew

Folder 39-40

Folder 39

Folder 40

Mark

Folder 41-42

Folder 41

Folder 42

Luke

Folder 43

John

Folder 44

Acts

Folder 45

Romans

Folder 46

1 Corinthians

Folder 47

2 Corinthians

Folder 48

Galatians

Folder 49

Ephesians

Folder 50

Philippians

Folder 51

Colossians

Folder 52

1 Thessalonians

Folder 53

1, 11 Timothy

Folder 54

Titus

Folder 55

Hebrews

Folder 56

James

Folder 57

1 Peter

Folder 58

Jude

Folder 59

Revelation

Folder 60-72

Folder 60

Folder 61

Folder 62

Folder 63

Folder 64

Folder 65

Folder 66

Folder 67

Folder 68

Folder 69

Folder 70

Folder 71

Folder 72

Miscellaneous sermons, speeches, and writings

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