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Collection Number: 00403

Collection Title: Theodore Bryant Kingsbury Papers, 1840-1915

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.


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Size 0.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 240 items)
Abstract Theodore Bryant Kingsbury (1828-1913) was a Methodist minister and journalist of Oxford and Wilmington, N.C. He attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, 1848-1849. Bryant was editor of The Leisure Hour: A Literary and Family Journal before becoming a Methodist minister in 1859 and moving to Wilmington. About 1866, he left the Methodist Church to become a Baptist because of his changed views on baptism. In 1869, he left the ministry entirely and became associate editor of the Raleigh Sentinel. In 1876, he left Raleigh to become the editor of the Wilmington Morning Star, where he remained until becoming the editor of the Wilmington Messenger in 1888. After his retirement in 1902, Kingsbury continued to contribute to the newspaper community by writing weekly articles on a variety of subjects for the Raleigh News and Observer. The collection includes business and personal letters, editorials and other writings, and other materials of Theodore Bryant Kingsbury. Corresopndence, 1840-1849, is to him while a student in Oxford, N.C.; at Lovejoy's Military Academy in Raleigh, N.C.; and at the University of North Carolina from friends in Oxford and students at several schools and colleges. Later letters, beginning in 1858, are from educational, literary, and political leaders in North Carolina and elsewhere, including Josephus Daniels, Zebulon Baird Vance, Charles B. Aycock, Walter Hines Page, John Spencer Bassett, Kemp P. Battle, Henry E. Shepherd, John O. Guion, Calvin H. Wiley, Seaton Gales, V. C. Barringer, and members of the Kittrell and Kingsbury families. Some letters relate to University of North Carolina history. Also included are newspaper clippings and a letter book entitled "Some old letters of my boyhood," dating 1840-1849. There are also undated drafts and fragments of Kingsbury's writings.
Creator Kingsbury, Theodore Bryant, 1828-1913.
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.
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 Theodore Bryant Kingsbury Papers #403, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Received from the Misses Kingsbury of Wilmington, N.C., and Theodore Shackford of Lexington, Va.
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: G. A. Wallace and Suzanne Ruffing, March 1996

Encoded by: Bari Helms, March 2005

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

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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.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Theodore Bryant Kingsbury, born in Raleigh, N.C., was the son of Russell and Mary Sumner Bryant Kingsbury. His father, a native of Connecticut, arrived in North Carolina between 1812 and 1815 to settle in Granville County, where he became a farmer and merchant. Kingsbury's mother was from Scotland Neck, N.C., and died in 1836, when he was only eight.

Kingsbury studied at the Oxford Male Academy and later at the Lovejoy Academy in Raleigh. In 1848-1849, he attended the University of North Carolina, but left without graduating despite his reputation as a skillful writer. After leaving the University, Kingsbury decided to enter the mercantile business, where he stayed for the next seven years.

On 1 May 1851, Kingsbury married Sallie Jones Atkinson, daughter of General Roger P. Atkinson of Virginia. The couple had nine children. One of their sons was Dr. Walter Russell Kingsbury.

Kingsbury worked as a newspaper editor, most notably for The Leisure Hour: A Literary and Family Journal, before he entered the Methodist ministry in 1859. About 1866, he left the Methodist Church to become a Baptist because of his changed views on baptism. From 1866 to 1869, he served as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Warrenton, N.C., where he also edited the weekly newspaper. In 1868, Wake Forest College awarded him the honorary degree of doctor of divinity in recognition of his services to the Baptist denomination.

In March 1869, Kingsbury left the ministry to become the associate editor of the Raleigh Sentinel. He left Raleigh in 1876 to become the editor of the Wilmington Morning Star, where he remained until becoming the editor of the Wilmington Messenger in 1888. After his retirement in 1902, Kingsbury continued to contribute to the newspaper community by writing weekly articles on a variety of subjects for the Raleigh News and Observer. Kingsbury was highly regarded as both an editor and a literary critic, and in 1888 the University of North Carolina granted him an honorary doctor of letters degree.

Kingsbury died at his home in Wilmington on the 4 June 1913.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The collection includes business and personal letters, editorials and other writings, and other materials of journalist, editor, Methodist minister, Baptist, and civic leader Theodore Bryant Kingsbury. Corresopndence, 1840-1849, is to him while a student in Oxford, N.C.; at Lovejoy's Military Academy in Raleigh, N.C.; and at the University of North Carolina from friends in Oxford and students at several schools and colleges. Later letters, beginning in 1858, are from educational, literary, and political leaders in North Carolina and elsewhere, including Josephus Daniels, Zebulon Baird Vance, Charles B. Aycock, Walter Hines Page, John Spencer Bassett, Kemp P. Battle, Henry E. Shepherd, John O. Guion, Calvin H. Wiley, Seaton Gales, V. C. Barringer, and members of the Kittrell and Kingsbury families. Some letters relate to University of North Carolina history. Also included are newspaper clippings and a letter book entitled "Some old letters of my boyhood," dating 1840-1849. There are also undated drafts and fragments of Kingsbury's writings.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Correspondence , 1840-1915.

About 240 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Folder 1-12

Folder 1

Folder 2

Folder 3

Folder 4

Folder 5

Folder 6

Folder 7

Folder 8

Folder 9

Folder 10

Folder 11

Folder 12

1840-1915

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