Timeline extended for launch of Wilson Library facilities work.

Collection Number: 02493

Collection Title: Hobbs and Mendenhall Family Papers, 1787-1949

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 processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Collection Overview

Size 4.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 700 items)
Abstract Collection contains family and personal letters, articles, and volumes, chiefly dating from 1870, concerning the political and religious activities, travels, and careers of members of the white Mendenhall family and the white Hobbs family of Guilford County, N.C. The papers reflect the Quaker view of life and relate to several reform movements, including anti-slavery, women's health and education, and pacifism. Topics include the Mendenhall's aid to enslaved people attempting to self-emancipate from North Carolina to a free state in 1864; use of labor of imprisoned people by Western North Carolina Railroad in the 1870s; construction of an asylum in Morganton, N.C., for people with mental health problems in the 1870s; state appropriations for schools for Black students in North Carolina in 1891; a treatise on pregnancy and childbirth; travel in England, 1890-1891; service with a Quaker relief organization in France during World War I; student educational experience at Haverford College, 1870s; teaching at New Garden College, 1876-1884; and the college presidency at Guilford College, 1888-1915. Materials include correspondence, accounts books, scrapbooks, diaries, religious notebooks, and other notes.
Creator Hobbs (Family : Guilford County, N.C.)



Mendenhall (Family : Guilford County, N.C.)
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Information For Users

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 Hobbs and Mendenhall Family Papers #2493, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alternate Form of Material
Microfilm copy of Nereus Mendenhall's treatise on pregnancy and childbirth (folder 33) available.
Acquisitions Information
Received from A. W. Hobbs of Chapel Hill, N.C., in 1943.
Additional Descriptive Resources
This PDF contains scans of older, paper-based versions of the description of this collection. When requesting materials please use container numbers in the current version of the finding aid.
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.
Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Processing Information

Processed by: Suzanne Ruffing, February 1996

Encoded by: Eben Lehman, January 2007

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, January 2023

Conscious Editing Work by: Nancy Kaiser, October 2020. Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, scope and content note, and container list.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subject Headings

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.

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Nereus Mendenhall (1819-1893), a white Quaker, graduated from Haverford College in 1839; received his medical degree from Jefferson College, Pa., in 1845; and abandoned his medical practice for health reasons. He taught in the New Garden Boarding School at Greensboro, N.C., and later became a civil engineer and surveyed many railroads in North Carolina. In 1860, he returned to the New Garden School as principal and kept it open during the Civil War, which he opposed along with secession and Reconstruction. He served two terms as a Democrat in the state legislature and, in 1876, was appointed to faculty of the Penn Charter School in Philadelphia. He helped with the construction of the state asylum at Morganton and the State Penitentiary. He was a learned and devout member of the Society of Friends. He married Oriana Wilson in 1851.

Mary Mendenhall Hobbs (1852-1930), daughter of Nereus and Oriana Mendenhall, was also a member of the Society of Friends. She married L. L. (Lewis Lyndon) Hobbs and with him dedicated her life to education in North Carolina, especially that of women. She held no official position at Guilford College, but was the third woman to receive a degree from the University of North Carolina. She wrote on many subjects and was prominent in aiding all efforts for peace. She and Lyndon Hobbs had five children: Lewis Lyndon, Richard Julius Mendenhall, Allen Wilson, Walter, and Gertrude. Richard served with a Quaker relief organization in France during the First World War.

Lewis Lyndon Hobbs (1849-1932), son of Lewis and Phoebe Cook Hobbs, was a member of the Society of Friends and graduated from Haverford College in 1876. He accepted an appointment to teach at the New Garden College from 1876 to 1884 and was elected president of Guilford College (as New Garden had then become) from 1888 to 1915. He helped to establish the first rural grade school in North Carolina.

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

Collection contains family and personal letters, articles, and volumes, chiefly dating from 1870, concerning the political and religious activities, travels, and careers of members of the white Mendenhall family and the white Hobbs family of Guilford County, N.C. The papers reflect the Quaker view of life and relate to several reform movements, including anti-slavery, women's health and education, and pacifism. Topics include the Mendenhall's aid to enslaved people attempting to self-emancipate from North Carolina to a free state in 1864; use of labor of imprisoned people by Western North Carolina Railroad in the 1870s; construction of an asylum in Morganton, N.C., for people with mental health problems in the 1870s; state appropriations for schools for Black students in North Carolina in 1891; a treatise on pregnancy and childbirth; travel in England, 1890-1891; service with a Quaker relief organization in France during World War I; student educational experience at Haverford College, 1870s; teaching at New Garden College, 1876-1884; and the college presidency at Guilford College, 1888-1915. Materials include correspondence, accounts books, scrapbooks, diaries, religious notebooks, and other notes.

Back to Top

Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series Quick Links

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Correspondence and Related Material, 1787-1932.

About 450 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Primarily correspondence of both families, mainly concerning theological issues. Also included are a few deeds, plats, and indentures.

Extra Oversize Paper XOP-2493/1-8

XOP-2493/1

XOP-2493/2

XOP-2493/3

XOP-2493/4

XOP-2493/5

XOP-2493/6

XOP-2493/7

XOP-2493/8

Oversize papers

Folder 1

Correspondence, 1787-1799

Folder 2

Correspondence, 1804-1842

Folder 3

Correspondence, 1849-1868

Included are letters regarding the Mendenhall's aid to people who were enslaved in North Carolina and attempting to self-emancipate to a free state in 1864.

Folder 4

Correspondence, 1870-1881

Included are letters concerning use of labor of imprisoned people by Western North Carolina Railroad and construction of an asylum in Morganton, N.C., for people with mental health problems.

Folder 5

Correspondence, 1883-1889

Folder 6

Correspondence, 1890-1899

Included are letters regarding North Carolina state appropriations for schools for Black students in 1891.

Folder 7

Correspondence, 1900-1904

Folder 8

Correspondence, 1905-1909

Folder 9

Correspondence, 1910-1917

Folder 10

Correspondence, 1869-1870

Folder 11

Correspondence, 1918

Folder 12

Correspondence, 1919-1921

Folder 13

Correspondence, 1922-1926

Folder 14

Correspondence, 1927-1929

Folder 15

Correspondence, 1930-1932

Folder 16

Undated letters and other material

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 2. Articles and Other Writings.

200 items.

Includes a treatise on pregnancy and childbirth, religious sermons, educational articles, newspaper clippings, and some genealogical information collected by Mary and Lyndon Hobbs.

Folder 17

Articles of Mary Mendenhall Hobbs

Folder 18

Papers of L. L. Hobbs

Folder 19

Biographical sketches and genealogy

Folder 20

Undated manuscripts

Folder 21

Sketches

Folder 22-25

Folder 22

Folder 23

Folder 24

Folder 25

Articles

Folder 26

Review of Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World

Folder 27-30

Folder 27

Folder 28

Folder 29

Folder 30

Miscellaneous articles

Folder 31

Miscellaneous fragments

Folder 32

Miscellaneous genealogical materials

Folder 33

Nereus Mendenhall's treatise on pregnancy and childbirth (microfilm available)

Reel M-2493/1

Microfilm: Nereus Mendenhall's treatise on pregnancy and childbirth

Folder 34

Fragments

Folder 35

Newspaper clippings about Gertrude W. Mendenhall

Folder 36

Newspaper clippings about Nereus Mendenhall

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 3. Volumes, 1797-1923.

39 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Folder 37

Daybook containing accounts with barbers and other trades people (V-2493/1), 1797

5 pages. Also chronological record of business transacted and letters received.

Folder 38

Arithmetic book (V-2493/2), 1798-1802

40 pages. Stephen Mendenhall.

Folder 39

Penmanship exercises and poems (V-2493/3), 1807-1808

50 pages. Mary Pegg.

Folder 40

Daybook and ledger with barber and cash accounts (V-2493/4), 1822

16 pages.

Folder 41

Account book (V-2493/5), 1832, 1837-1844, 1852

300 pages. Accounts of the estate of Judith Mendenhall; records of Quakers in Charleston, S.C.; description of Montgomery County (N.C.) lands; accounts of George C. Clark; register book for lands of George Mendenhall; accounts of James R., George C., and other Mendenhalls.

Folder 42

Young Lady's Remembrancer (V-2493/6), 1833-1848

60 pages. Album of Minerva T. Mendenhall.

Folder 43

Diary of Nereus Mendenhall (V-2493/7), 19 February 1851-29 November 1851

100 pages.

Folder 44

Scrapbook (V-2493/8), 1854

60 pages. Miscellaneous clippings of James R. Guilford, attorney, Guilford County, N.C.

Folder 45

Autograph album of Charlie M. Crump (V-2493/9), 1862

61 pages.

Folder 46

Letterpress copybook of Brenizer, Kellog and Co., Greensboro, N.C. (V-2493/10), 1867-1868

452 pages.

Folder 47

"Index Rerum" of Nereus Mendenhall (V-2493/11), 1869-1870

400 pages.

Folder 48

Accounts of the estate of Richard Mendenhall (V-2493/12), 1870-1883

383 pages. Includes other accounts.

Folder 49

Secretary's record book of the Temperance Society of New Garden District, N.C. (V-2493/13), 1871-1877

80 pages.

Folder 50

Pocket notebook of G. L. Hobbs, New Garden, N.C. (V-2493/14), November 1872

80 pages.

Folder 51

Notes on lectures and accounts of Haverford College store (V-2493/15), 1875

38 pages. L. L. Hobbs.

Folder 52

Notes on mathematics, logic and lectures (V-2493/16), 1875

38 pages. L. L. Hobbs, Haverford College.

Folder 53

Commonplace book (V-2493/17), 1876

46 pages. L. L. Hobbs.

Folder 54

Personal notebook (V-2493/18), 1881-1883

41 pages. Accounts of personal expenses; list of subscribers; and roll of a primary Latin class.

Folder 55

Travel diary (V-2493/19), 1890-1891

175 pages. Tour of England.

Folder 56

Personal notebook (V-2493/20), 1891, 1897, 1902-1904

140 pages. L. L. Hobbs notebook containing subscription list, addresses, expenses on trip to Philadelphia in 1897; notes about a trip to England; subscriptions to Guilford College endowment and to Harriet Green Memorial fund.

Folder 57

Notebook (V-2493/21), 1903-1905

120 pages. L. L. Hobbs.

Folder 58

Notebook (V-2493/22), 1906-1907, 1915-1916

92 pages. L. L. Hobbs.

Folder 59

Notebook containing material on the Susanna Cocroft System of exercises and physical culture (V-2493/23), 1907

16 pages.

Folder 60

Notebook (V-2493/24), 1909-1912

120 pages. L. L. Hobbs.

Folder 61

Notebook on peace, Friends' educational work (V-2493/25), 1911

140 pages.

Folder 62

Minutes and notes on the Annual Meeting of Friends, Guilford College (V-2493/26), 1914

120 pages.

Folder 63

Notebook with list of delegates (V-2493/27), 1915

70 pages. L. L. Hobbs.

Folder 64

Notes on annual general Meeting of Friends at Guilford College, afternoon session on "Present Peace Problems" (V-2493/28), 1917

80 pages.

Folder 65

Notebook (V-2493/29), 1919-1923

120 pages. L. L. Hobbs.

Folder 66

Religious notebook (V-2493/30), 1920

150 pages. Sunday school class list and notes on Christ, apostles, Luther, and history of the Friends.

Folder 67

Notebook (V-2493/31), Undated

70 pages.

Folder 68

Religious notebook (V-2493/32), Undated

58 pages. Notebook with religious and ethical questions and answers, accounts, and subscriber list.

Folder 69

Pocket notebook (V-2493/33), Undated

120 pages. Notes and quotations inscribed Mendenhall, "Howland."

Folder 70

Bible quotations and notes (V-2493/34), Undated

29 pages.

Folder 71

Notes on Guilford College history, Quaker education (V-2493/35), Undated

28 pages.

Folder 72

History and hygiene notebook (V-2493/36), Undated

200 pages. Mary Mendenhall.

Folder 73

Notebook on education and right living (V-2493/37), Undated

140 pages.

Folder 74

Commonplace book (V-2493/38), Undated (TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE)

Microfilmed. Includes genealogy of James Ruffin Mendenhall, a poem by James R. Mendenhall "On the Power of the Mind," and an acrostic by Richard Mendenhall.

Folder 75

"Sketches on Tanning" (V-2493/39), 1849-1851

43 pages. Richard Mendenhall.

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Items Separated

Back to Top