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 McBee Family Papers #2263, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Mrs. R. M. Carter of Ronda, N.C., in 1940; and from Mary Vardrine McBee and the estate of E. Estelle McBee in 1964.

Additional Descriptive Resources

Original finding aid 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: E. Ragan, Clyde Pitts, Ellen R. Strong, Anna Brooke Allan, 1963-1970

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, October 2005

Updated by: Laura Hart, July 2021

Funding from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., supported the encoding of this finding aid.

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.

• Account books.
• Agriculture--Societies, etc.--North Carolina.
• Cheshire, Joseph Blount, 1850-1932.
• Clerks of court--North Carolina--Lincoln County--History.
• College students--Southern States--Social life and customs.
• Diaries.
• Estates (Law)--North Carolina.
• Estates (Law)--South Carolina.
• Family--South Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Greenville (S.C.)--History.
• Industries--South Carolina--Greenville--History--19th century.
• Lincoln County (N.C.)--History.
• Lincoln County Agricultural Society.
• Lincolnton (N.C.)--History.
• McBee family.
• McBee, Silas, 1853-1924.
• McBee, Vardry Alexander, 1818-1904.
• McBee, Vardry, 1775-1864.
• McBee, Vardry, 1860?-1938.
• Mexico--History--Revolution, 1910-1920.
• Plantation owners--North Carolina.
• Plantation owners--South Carolina.
• Plantations--North Carolina.
• Plantations--South Carolina.
• Railroads--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Slavery--South Carolina.
• United States--Foreign relations--Mexico.
• Universities and colleges--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--History--19th century.
• University of Tennessee (Knoxville campus)--Students--History--19th century.
• Villa, Pancho, 1878-1923.
• Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Rail Road Company.

• Silas McBee Papers (#2455)
• Vardry Alexander McBee Papers, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University
• James Thomas Williams Jr., Papers, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University

Vardry McBee (1775-1864) was the son of Captain McBee, a Virginian who settled in what is now upper South Carolina prior to 1770. Captain McBee was constable of Tryon County in 1770 and later fought on the Whig side in the Revolution. He owned valuable lands in the Spartanburg district, including Limestone Springs, but lost them shortly after the Revolution, apparently as the result of poor management.

When his father lost the land, circa 1777, young Vardry McBee left school and went to work in the manufacture of lime. In 1793, he went to Lincolnton, N.C., apprenticed to his brother-in-law Joseph Morris, to learn the saddler's trade. In 1800, he moved to Charleston, S.C., only to return to Lincolnton, then relocate with his family to Kentucky a short time later. He opened a saddle shop in middle Tennessee in 1801, but the following year he returned to Lincolnton to open a store in partnership with John Campbell of Charleston, S.C. He sold his interests in this store in 1805.

In 1812, McBee became clerk of court of Lincoln County, N.C., a post he held until 1833. In 1815, he bought several thousand acres of land in and around the town of Greenville, S.C. In 1817, he built a flour mill there, and, in 1829, he built a second mill. He later added a woolen mill, a cotton mill, and a paper factory. He was an important delegate to the 1833 North Carolina Convention on Internal Improvements. He moved from Lincolnton to Greenville in 1836 in order to be closer to his many business interests there.

McBee became interested in railroads and served as president of the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston project. He subscribed to $50,000 worth of stock of the Greenville and Columbia railroad, saving the company from extinction and becoming the largest individual subscriber of railroad stock in the United States up to that time. He was also interested in agricultural affairs and was active in the promotion of better agricultural practices. Until his death in 1864, he was a wealthy and influential man in upper South Carolina.

Vardry McBee married Jane Alexander, daughter of Colonel Elias Alexander of Rutherford County, N.C., in 1805. The McBees had nine children: Joseph Gallishaw, Malinda Penelope, Silas L., Luther Martin, Hannah E., Martha ("Patsy") Adeline, Vardry Alexander, William Pinkney, and Alexander.

Their son Vardry Alexander McBee (1818-1904) was educated at Pleasant Retreat Academy in Lincolnton and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1841. He studied law and passed the bar examination, but was never active in the practice of law. He thrice served as clerk of court of Lincoln County and represented the county in the General Assembly in 1861 when he was elected without opposition to fill the unexpired term of his friend John F. Hoke, who had resigned to enter the Confederate Army.

Vardry Alexander McBee was a successful planter. He owned a large plantation several miles from Lincolnton. In addition, he was active in the construction of plank roads and railroads. He was treasurer of the Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherford Railroad Company and had a prominent part in the organization of the Chester and Lenoir Railroad. McBee was active in business, civic, and church affairs of Lincolnton and western North Carolina until his death in 1904.

Vardry Alexander McBee married Mary E. Sumner, whose father was then in charge of the male and female academies of Lincolnton. The McBees had nine children: Jane, Sarah, Mary ("Mamie"), Anne, Martha, Sumner, Silas, Vardry, and Thomas.

Their son Vardry McBee (1860?-1938) was educated at the University of the South at Sewannee, Tenn., and attended a theological seminary in New York. He became an Episcopal priest, but apparently retired from the ministry around 1896, possibly because of ill health. McBee was a gifted musician and was at one time the organist at Trinity Church in New York City. He married Anne Joyce Gwyn, the daughter of James and Mary Lenoir Gwyn of "Green Hill," Ronda, Wilkes County, N.C. Anne Gwyn was an artist and apparently made portraits and tapestries for various people around the state.

Additional information about the McBee family and about some of the people whose letters are present in this collection may be found in William E. Sherrill's Annals of Lincoln County, North Carolina (1937) and in Thomas F. Hickerson's Happy Valley (1940).

The collection consists of family correspondence and business papers of Vardry McBee (1775-1864), Vardry Alexander McBee (1818-1904), Vardry McBee (1860?-1938), and other members of the McBee family of Lincoln County, N.C., and Greenville, S.C. Papers include Lincoln County, N.C., deeds; contracts, bills, accounts, promissory notes, and receipts; estate settlements, bankruptcy proceedings, and guardianship papers; records of two Lincoln County clerks of court; and minutes of the Lincoln County Agricultural Society. Family letters written at Greenville, S.C., 1849-1869, give information about the McBees' varied enterprises, building construction, and property there, and activities of members of the family. Other correspondence refers to efforts to establish a college at Lincolnton, college students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and East Tennessee College in Knoxville, plank road plans, people who were enslaved, the American Civil War, and postwar conditions in Greenville. Papers, 1872-1900, relate chiefly to business, especially railroads and the development of industrial sites in Greenville, including Camperdown Mills. Twentieth century correspondence, largely personal, includes letters from Silas McBee (1853-1924) and other McBees with family news, Joseph Blount Cheshire (1850-1932) with news of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, and one from Sumner McBee, giving a first-hand account of the chase of Pancho Villa by United States cavalry. In diaries, 1857-1860 and 1878, Vardry Alexander McBee wrote brief entries about the plantation, enslaved people's labor, family and friends, court matters, railroad activities, and the weather. Alson included are account books, 1852-1872, and papers relating to his position as the treasurer of the Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherford Railroad.

• Extra-oversize paper folder (XOPF-2263/1)