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 W. J. Peele Papers, #1881, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Kenneth D. Raab and purchased from Mrs. Henry Curtain of Raleigh, N.C., 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, August 2009; Dawne Howard Lucas, July 2021

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.

• Bimetallism--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Butler, Marion, 1863-1938.
• Craig, Locke, 1860-1925.
• Lawyers--North Carolina--History.
• North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.
• North Carolina State University--History.
• North Carolina--Intellectual life--19th century.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1865-1950.
• Peele, W. J. (William Joseph), b. 1855.
• Populist Party (N.C.)--History.
• Prohibition--North Carolina--History--19th century.

William Joseph Peele (1855-1919) was a Raleigh, N.C., lawyer, publisher, and trustee of the University of North Carolina and later the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (later North Carolina State University). Peele was educated at Bush Horn Academy and the University of North Carolina. He studied and practiced law in Raleigh, N.C., forming a partnership with Ernest P. Maynard. In 1884, Peele founded the Watauga Club, a group promoting the establishment of an institution of industrial and agricultural education in North Carolina. The Watauga Club was instrumental in the allocation of funds to found the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. In 1897, Peele formed the North Carolina Publishing Society which produced his work Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians (1897). He was also the author of Index to the Law of Exemptions in North Carolina of Homestead and Personal Property (1892) and Civil Government of North Carolina and the United States (1907) and was involved in the founding of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association.

Peele was married to Elizabeth Bellamy of Raleigh, N.C., in 1909.

The collection includes correspondence of W. J. Peele chiefly concerning his law practice but also his interest in bimetallism and the activities of the North Carolina Populist Party, his efforts in the prohibition movement, his connection with the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (later North Carolina State University), his interest in literary and historical matters in North Carolina, and the publication of Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians (1897) and other writings. Correspondents include Archibald Hunter Arrington, Marion Butler, Collier Cobb, Locke Craig, William Edward Dodd, Samuel James Ervine, Alexander Graham, John Bryan Grimes, Ashley Horne, Charles Duncan McIver, William Shepherd Pettigrew, Thomas Merritt Pittman, Leonidas L. Polk, W. H. Polk, and Peele's future wife, Lizzie Bellamy.

• Photographs (PF-1881/1-2)