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 Lyle and Siler Family Papers, #1818, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. T. W. Porter, 1951.

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.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, May 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.

• Bryson, James H., 1818-1897.
• Lyle, John M. (John McCampbell), 1820-1890.
• Bryson, Cornelia Siler, 1830-1900.
• Courthouses--North Carolina--Macon County--History--19th century.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Family--Tennessee--Social life and customs.
• Franklin (Macon County, N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Jefferson County (Tenn.)--Social life and customs.
• Lyle family.
• Lyle, Laura Siler, 1824-1866.
• Macon County (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Murphy (N.C.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
• North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Physicians--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Raleigh (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Siler family.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Correspondence.
• Tennessee--Social life and customs.

• See also Jesse R. Siler Papers (#1985), Siler Family Papers (#2966).

John M. Lyle, son of Daniel Lyle of Dandridge, Tenn., was a physician and business man of Murphy, N.C., and later in Franklin, N.C. He was also a member of the North Carolina state leglislature, 1862-1863 and 1864-1865. Lyle's wife was Laura A. Siler (fl. 1841-1854), daughter of William Siler of Macon County, N.C., and Althea Swain Siler. Laura's sister Cornelia was married to James H. Bryson of Murphy, N.C.

The collection includes personal, professional, and business correspondence, 1841-1864, of John M. Lyle and of his wife, Laura (Siler) Lyle. Letters to Laura are from friends and relatives before and after her marriage, especially James H. and Cornelia (Siler) Bryson at Murphy, N.C., relating family news and social activities. There are also letters from her husband at Raleigh, N.C., serving in the legislature. Letters to John M. Lyle are from his father, Daniel Lyle in Jefferson County, Tenn.; R. A. Edmondston and other physicians in the area; creditors; and a Confederate soldier in Virginia. The letters contain chiefly household and neighborhood news from western North Carolina and the eastern Tennessee mountains, but included also are references to lands, financial notes, debts, attitudes toward the Civil War, medical problems and practice, machinery, horse trading, and the committee for building the Macon County, N.C., courthouse in 1859.