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 Digby Gordon Seymour Papers #5372, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Carmen Valentino in December 2007 (Acc. 100825).

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: Amanda Ross, December 2007

Encoded by: Amanda Ross, December 2007

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.

• Families--Southern States--Social life and customs.
• Fathers and sons--Southern States--Correspondence.
• Minstrel shows--United States--History--20th century.
• Railroad engineers--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Railroad engineers--Southern States--History--20th century.
• Railroads--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Railroads--Southern States--History--20th century.
• Sewanee Military Academy (Sewanee, Tenn.)--Students.
• Seymour family.
• Seymour, Charles Milne, 1882-1958.
• Seymour, Digby Gordon, 1855-1927.
• University of Tennessee (Knoxville campus)--Students.

Digby Gordon Seymour (1855-1927) was a railroad engineer who lived and worked in the southeastern United States. He was born in Kentucky, but educated at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H. Throughout his career, he worked for a number of employers and, for a time, was engaged in a lawsuit with R. M. Quigley & Co., a Saint Louis contractor for which he had worked. Digby Seymour married Josephine Ermine Douglas, and the couple had several children, including Charles Milne Seymour and James Seymour.

Digby Seymour's eldest son, Charles Milne, was born on 17 July 1882. He attended Sewanee Military Academy, 1897-1899, and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1903. He later became a lawyer, businessman, and community leader in Knoxville, Tenn. Charles Seymour married Flora Nell Gloster in 1906, and they had eight children: Nell Gloster, Jane Scott, Charles Milne Jr., Josephine Douglas, Arthur Gloster, Dorothy Gordon, Richard Caswel, and Digby Gordon. Charles Milne Seymour died in 1958.

The collection chiefly includes letters, 1893-1902, written by railroad engineer Digby Gordon Seymour at his work locations in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee to his oldest son, Charles Milne Seymour. Also included are telegrams from Digby Seymour and a letter from him to another son, James Seymour. These communications contain fatherly advice, especially comments on and encouragement of Charles Seymour's studies. Digby Seymour wrote of borrowing money to pay for Charles Seymour's attendance at Sewanee Military Academy in Tennessee and at the University of Tennessee and for his family's monthly expenses; expenditures for rent, food, clothing, shoes, and travel; and a lawsuit with R. M. Quigley & Co., a Saint Louis contractor for which he had previously worked. In later letters, he discussed his political opinions, especially his support for Republican politicians. Items of note include a 22 March 1900 letter that provides directions for staging an eleven-act minstrel show.