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Collection Number: 04582

Collection Title: Mrs. Richard McClure Diary, 1852-1863

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 1 item (microfilm only)
Abstract Mrs. Richard McClure lived on her father-in-law's farm outside Liberty, Allegheny County, Pa. Although the farm was closer to Pittsburgh, butter, wheat, livestock, and other products from the farm were sold in Wheeling, Va., later Wheeling, W.Va. The McClures seem to have had several children, among them Andrew Francis (b. 1838). The diary apparently descended to the Terrill family of Kentucky; Marshall Terrill's name appears in the margins of several pages. Diary, 441 p., begun in July 1852, with short, irregular entries concluding in September 1863. At times, entries were made daily; at other times, there are large gaps between entries. Mrs. McClure began the diary with a dedicatory page addressed to her son, Andrew Francis McClure, explaining that financial difficulties had led the family to his grandfather's farm, which they shared with his father's unmarried sister, his brother and his brother's family, and various tenants. Most of the diary entries document family life on the farm--the growing of wheat, the production of dairy products, the slaughtering of hogs and cattle, routine household chores--and social activities, with Liberty, Pa., as the point of reference. Mrs. McClure occasionally discussed religious activities, chiefly in the Presbyterian Church. Little mention is made of occurrences in the outside world until April 1861, when Mrs. McClure noted the attack on Fort Sumter and declared that Southerners "...want to form an Arastocracy [sic] for themselves." Her outrage at news from the warfront continued through September 1861, when she decided to wind down her diary writing. The few entries after September 1861 document Richard McClure's death in 1862 and the purchase of a monument for his grave in September 1863.
Creator McClure, Richard, Mrs., b. 1800.
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 Mrs. Richard McClure Diary #4582, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Loaned for microfilming by Suzanna Terrill of Maysville, Ky., (through Bill Dow and Jacquelyn Hall) in March 1992.
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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Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, May 1992

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

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Mrs. Richard McClure lived on her father-in-law's farm outside Liberty, Allegheny County, Pa. Although the farm was closer to Pittsburgh, butter, wheat, livestock, and other products from the farm were sold in Wheeling, Va., later Wheeling, W.Va. The McClures seem to have had several children, among them Andrew Francis (b. 1838). The diary apparently descended to the Terrill family of Kentucky; Marshall Terrill's name appears in the margins of several pages.

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Diary, 441 p., begun in July 1852, with short, irregular entries concluding in September 1863. At times, entries were made daily; at other times, there are large gaps between entries. Mrs. McClure began the diary with a dedicatory page addressed to her son, Andrew Francis McClure, explaining that financial difficulties had led the family to his grandfather's farm, which they shared with his father's unmarried sister, his brother and his brother's family, and various tenants. Most of the diary entries document family life on the farm--the growing of wheat, the production of dairy products, the slaughtering of hogs and cattle, routine household chores--and social activities, with Liberty, Pa., as the point of reference. Mrs. McClure occasionally discussed religious activities, chiefly in the Presbyterian Church. Little mention is made of occurrences in the outside world until April 1861, when Mrs. McClure noted the attack on Fort Sumter and declared that Southerners "...want to form an Arastocracy [sic] for themselves." Her outrage at news from the warfront continued through September 1861, when she decided to wind down her diary writing. The few entries after September 1861 document Richard McClure's death in 1862 and the purchase of a monument for his grave in September 1863.

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