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Collection Number: 03692

Collection Title: E.J. Warren Papers, 1826-1917, 2000

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.


This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

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Size 1.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 800 items)
Abstract Edward Jenner Warren, a native of Vermont, moved to Washington, Beaufort County, N.C., where he was a lawyer; state legislator, 1862-1866 and 1870-1872; delegate to state conventions, 1861-1862 and 1865-1866; and Superior Court judge, 1865-1868. The collection is primarily correspondence of Warren's immediate family and of his and his wife's relatives in Vermont, Massachusetts, Alabama, and eastern North Carolina. Included are letters from Warren, in Raleigh, N.C., serving in the state legislature, attending conventions, and presiding on the judicial circuit to his wife, Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren (1829-1910); letters from his daughter Lucy Wheelock Warren (1850-1937) at Saint Mary's School in Raleigh, 1865-1867; from his son Charles Frederick Warren (1852-1904) at Washington College (later Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Va., 1869-1873; and from relatives serving in both the Union and Confederate armies and held as prisoners of war. These include latters from two of Warren's brothers in the Confederate Army: Fred, a prisoner of war in Indianapolis, and Herbert C. (d. 1864), with the 6th Alabama Volunteers. Also included are letters of another brother, John W., who served with the Wisconsin Cavalry and was taken prisoner at Columbia, S.C. Correspondence during the late 1860s and early 1870s includes letters concerning judicial business and court matters, as well as race relations and life at several Virginia health resorts where Edward Jenner Warren went to cure his rheumatism. Papers after 1876 are chiefly personal correspondence of daughter Lucy Wheelock Warren Myers. Volumes include Charles Warren's notes from classes at Washington College, 1871-1872; Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren's notebook of cures and rules for health; and Edward Warren's book of law forms.
Creator Warren, E. J. (Edward Jenner), 1826-1876.
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 E.J. Warren papers #3692, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alternate Form of Material
Some materials available on microfilm.
Acquisitions Information
Received from Lindsay C. Warren of Washington, N.C., in 1964 and Lindsay C. Warren, Jr., in July 2000 (Acc. 98561).
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: Brooke Allan, November 1964; Timothy A. Long, January 1993 with subsequent additions

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Laura Hart, July 2021

This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

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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.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Edward Jenner Warren (1826-1876) was born in Wardsboro, Vt., the third child of twelve of Dr. John Parker and Lucy Maynard Wheelock Warren. Dr. Warren was a distinguished physician and botanist. Lucy Wheelock Warren was related to Frederick Eleazar Wheelock, a prominent New England educator and founder of Dartmouth College, where Edward Jenner Warren studied until 1847 (he received his degree from Dartmouth sometime in the 1860s). Within two years of leaving Dartmouth, Warren settled in Washington, Beaufort County, N.C., where he taught school and studied law.

Warren quickly made his reputation at the bar and among the people of Beaufort County. He was elected to represent Beaufort County at the Secession Convention of 1861 and then in the state legislature, 1861-1862. In the 1871-1872 session, he served as president of the state Senate. He also served as a Superior Court judge from 1865 to 1868.

In 1849, Warren married Deborah Virginia Bonner (1829-1910). They had one daughter Lucy Wheelock (1850-1937), and one son Charles Frederick (1852-1904). Lucy ("Lulie") Warren received her formal education at Saint Mary's School in Raleigh and married W. Rodman Myers in 1872. Charles Warren received his degree from Washington College (later Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Va. He studied and practiced law in Washington, N.C. He was also president of the North Carolina Bar Association. In 1879, he married Elizabeth Mutter Blount.

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Edward Jenner Warren, a native of Vermont, moved to Washington, Beaufort County, N.C., where he was a lawyer; state legislator, 1862-1866 and 1870-1872; delegate to state conventions, 1861-1862 and 1865-1866; and Superior Court judge, 1865-1868. The collection is primarily correspondence of Warren's immediate family and of his and his wife's relatives in Vermont, Massachusetts, Alabama, and eastern North Carolina. Included are letters from Warren, in Raleigh, N.C., serving in the state legislature, attending conventions, and presiding on the judicial circuit to his wife, Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren (1829-1910); letters from his daughter Lucy Wheelock Warren (1850-1937) at Saint Mary's School in Raleigh, 1865-1867; from his son Charles Frederick Warren (1852-1904) at Washington College (later Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Va., 1869-1873; and from relatives serving in both the Union and Confederate armies and held as prisoners of war. These include latters from two of Warren's brothers in the Confederate Army: Fred, a prisoner of war in Indianapolis, and Herbert C. (d. 1864), with the 6th Alabama Volunteers. Also included are letters of another brother, John W., who served with the Wisconsin Cavalry and was taken prisoner at Columbia, S.C. Correspondence during the late 1860s and early 1870s includes letters concerning judicial business and court matters, as well as race relations and life at several Virginia health resorts where Edward Jenner Warren went to cure his rheumatism. Papers after 1876 are chiefly personal correspondence of daughter Lucy Wheelock Warren Myers. Volumes include Charles Warren's notes from classes at Washington College, 1871-1872; Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren's notebook of cures and rules for health; and Edward Warren's book of law forms.

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Contents list

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Loose Papers and Images, 1826-1917; 2000 and undated.

About 800 items.

Chiefly business and personal letters of Edward Jenner Warren, Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren, and their family of Washington, N.C. Letters detail aspects of Warren's career as lawyer, judge, and state representative during and immediately after the Civil War; activities of family members, South and North, during the Civil War; school-related information; and day-to-day news of various members of the family. Interfiled are bills, receipts, and legal materials. A small number of Edward Jenner Warren biographical materials, newspaper clippings, family photographs, and other items appear at the end of the series.

Folder 1-3

Folder 1

Folder 2

Folder 3

Loose papers, 1826-1843

Bills of sale, deeds, receipts, accounts, extracts of wills, and other legal and financial papers relating to the disputed settlement of the estate of William Windley, Beaufort County, N.C. Included are a settlement between William's widow Hannah Windley and executor Matthew Shaw and receipts of Winifred Bell.

The connection between the Windleys and the Warrens is not clear. An item dated 1876, however, mentions the property of a Timothy Windley, and Joseph Bonner, who was probably one of Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren's relatives, served as Hannah Windley's attorney.

Folder 4-5

Folder 4

Folder 5

Loose papers, 1843-1853

The first item relating directly to Edward Jenner Warren item is a letter, 19 December 1843, to him at Chesterfield, N.H., from Moody B. Smith in Vermont about a possible position as a schoolmaster. Also included are two letters, 1846, to Warren in Greenville, N.C., from Moody B. Smith at Washington, N.C., concerning legal studies and adjustments to living in the South. There are also miscellaneous invitations, 1848-1853, to Warren to address members of Odd Fellows lodges and literary societies at Washington, N.C., Greenville, Wake Forest, and other locations, and copies of his orations; a letter, 1850, from Edward's sister Mary E. Warren about Edward's baby and other family news; and scattered bills and receipts. There are no items dated 1854-1860.

Folder 6

Loose papers, 1861-1862

Chiefly letters of the Warren family relating to personal and public responses to secession and the Civil War. Items include a broadside, May 1861, entitled "To the Citizens of Beaufort County," by Edward Jenner Warren, candidate to the secession convention of May 1861 and several letters, December 1861-December 1862, from Edward Jenner Warren's brother Herbert Charles Warren (1842-1864), serving with Alabama troops in Virginia, addressed to Mr. and Mrs. William B. Bell, Montgomery, Ala. There is also a letter from Herbert to his brother Edward in North Carolina while Herbert was on invalid furlough at the Bells' house in Montgomery. In 1862, there is correspondence between Edward Jenner Warren, chairman of the judiciary committee of the state legislature in Raleigh, and his wife Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren at Greenville, N.C., relating to the war and the Confederacy's prospects; several letters to Edward Jenner Warren from Thomas Sparrow about current affairs; letters in November from members of the Warren family in Vermont and Massachusetts concerning the health of family members and wishes to continue exchanging news despite the disruption of the mails; correspondence of several women of Greenville, Washington, Tarboro, and other North Carolina locations about plans for safety; and letters, July-August, relating to 1862 elections for state legislature in the army camps.

Folder 7-8

Folder 7

Folder 8

Loose papers, 1863

Chiefly letters and correspondence of members of the Warren family. Items include correspondence of Edward Jenner Warren and his wife Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren while he was in Raleigh attending to legislative business or in Wilson, N.C., and while she lived either in Wilson or in Greenville; correspondence of daughter Lucy Warren with her parents, while she visited relatives in Smithfield during the summer and attended school in Hillsboro in the fall; several letters from relatives in Prince George's County, Md., and Washington, Fort Fisher, and Pactolus, N.C.; several letters received by Fred Warren while a prisoner at Indianapolis from relatives in Vermont and Massachusetts; a letter, March 13, from Richard Spaight Donnell of Raleigh to Edward Jenner Warren concerning business matters; and several letters from Herbert C. Warren with the 6th Alabama Volunteers to the Bell family of Montgomery, Ala., while he served at Richmond, near Fredericksburg, at Wilson, near Chattanooga, and while on furlough in Montgomery.

Folder 9

Loose papers, 1864

Chiefly letters exchanged by members of the immediate Warren family and their close friends. Included are several letters written to Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren by friends and family members, including Elizabeth Gregory, Washington, N.C., and other female relatives of Portsmouth, Tarboro, Wilson, and Pactolus relating to family matters and conditions caused by the war; brief notes written by Edward Jenner Warren to his wife while he was in Raleigh; and a letter from Lt. John W. Warren of the Wisconsin Cavalry to his brother Edward Jenner Warren giving news of the northern branch of the Warren family. Also included is a broadside tribute to Herbert C. Warren, who died 23 October 1864.

Folder 10

Loose papers, 1865

Chiefly letters of close friends and relatives of Warren family. War-related letters include several from Fred Warren in Montgomery, Ala.; John W. Warren in prison at Columbia, S.C., on his way home via Raleigh; "Macon" at Fort Anderson; and Elizabeth Gregory of Wilson. Other items include papers, September 1865, concerning the appointment of Edward Jenner Warren as a judge of the state circuit court; correspondence, beginning in October 1865 and continuing through November 1867 (see Folders 10-16), between Lucy Warren at Saint Mary's School in Raleigh and her mother at Washington, N.C., about general news of family and friends; and letters of Edward Jenner Warren while he attended to legislative and state convention business in Raleigh.

Folder 11-12

Folder 11

Folder 12

Loose papers, 1866

Chiefly letters to or from Edward Jenner Warren, Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren, and family members. Included are Warren's commission, 1 January, as judge of the superior court of North Carolina; his subsequent resignation, 6 January, from the state senate; several letters from him to his wife while he was on the circuit in eastern North Carolina; and correspondence between Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren and daughter Lucy at Saint Mary's School in Raleigh. Other items include letters from relatives in North Carolina relating to family concerns and interests with comments about the war; several letters to Lucy Warren from a school friend, Adele Hillyer of Pass Christian, Miss.; and a letter, 15 December, from Fred Warren of Montgomery, Ala., to his North Carolina relatives concerning business prospects in his home state and property matters in Vermont.

Folder 13-16

Folder 13

Folder 14

Folder 15

Folder 16

Loose papers, 1867

Mostly papers of Edward Jenner and Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren. Items include extensive correspondence between the two. Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren's letters are long and document events in and around Washington, N.C., including references to race relations. There are also several letters to Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren from her daughter Lucy at school and from relatives at Wilson, N.C. Edward Jenner Warren's papers include letters from North Carolina Governor Worth's office about judicial business and communications from Military Occupation headquarters at Raleigh about the conduct of the courts and about specific cases.

Folder 17

Loose papers, 1868

Chiefly letters and papers of Edward Jenner Warren, including commissions to Judge Warren and communications from Governor Worth's office about court matters and concerns about specific cases; brief, but frequent, notes from Warren to his wife while he was on circuit; letters from northern relatives; and papers relating to a request for pardon for one James Mitchell.

Folder 18

Loose papers, 1869

Chiefly letters to or from Edward Jenner Warren and Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren. Items include several letters from northern relatives including Warren's sister Fanny, who was teaching in New York; a series of letters, July-August, from Warren to his wife while he was treating his rheumatism in Hot Springs, Va.; and correspondence, October-December, between son Charles Warren at Washington College, Lexington, Va., and his mother, including monthly reports and a college composition.

Folder 19-22

Folder 19

Folder 20

Folder 21

Folder 22

Loose papers, 1870

Chiefly letters to or from Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren. including her continued correspondence with her son Charles at Washington College; letters, May 1870, to her daughter Lucy visiting a cousin at Sycamore Hill near Wilmington, N.C.; and several letters from her husband, Edward Jenner Warren, while he was at Hot Springs, Va., in August-September, New York and Vermont in October, and in Raleigh as president of the state senate, November-December. Also included are several invitations from W. Rodman Myers to Lucy Warren to attend dances, church, and other events.

Folder 23-24

Folder 23

Folder 24

Loose papers, 1871

Chiefly letters to Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren or her daughter Lucy Warren, including several letters from Edward Jenner Warren in which he discussed state politics, the impeachment trial of W. W. Holden, his friend Colonel Carter, and personal business; from Fannie at Sycamore Hill; from Mary E. Havens; and from the northern Warrens concerning health and news of family members. Items also include correspondence, November-December, between Lucy Warren and W. Rodman Myers while she was with her father in Raleigh.

Folder 25

Loose papers, 1872-1876

Chiefly letters to Lucy Warren, who married W. Rodman Myers on 21 February 1872. Items include invitations to Lucy Warren at Raleigh during the legislative session; letters to Lucy Warren from her cousin M. E. Reade and her husband Edwin Godwin Reade; a few brief notes from Edward Jenner Warren to his wife while he was at Raleigh; and three letters and two reports of Charles Warren at Washington College. In December 1876, there are papers relating to the death of Edward Jenner Warren.

Folder 26-27

Folder 26

Folder 27

Loose papers, 1877-1917

Chiefly letters to Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren or her children, but also to other members of the family, South and North, including letters of condolence on the death of Edward Jenner Warren; letters from Charles Warren's friend J. J. White of Lexington, Va.; letters, 1879-1880, from lawyers in Brattleboro, Vt., concerning Warren family property there; and a letter, December 1879, from Fred H. Warren of Montgomery about Charles' approaching marriage.

In the 1880s and 1890s, there are scattered family letters and a report card, November 1887, for Edward Myers at Washington Academy.

Items, 1903-1917, include several letters, 1903-1904, to Lucy Warren Myers about erecting a tombstone for her deceased daughter; telegrams and notes, 1904, on the death of Charles F. Warren; and letters, 1905, from Mrs. Fred H. Warren of Alabama to her relatives concerning a Civil War monument recognizing Frederick and Herbert Warren.

Folder 28

Undated letters and fragments

Mostly letters and letter fragments written to or by Edward Jenner Warren or members of his immediate family.

Folder 29

Undated other papers

Items include a speech, memoranda, compositions, a poem, a drawing, and a statement relating to the State of North Carolina v. James Mitchell.

Folder 30-31

Folder 30

Folder 31

Biographical and family history materials

Biographical, genealogical, and family history items compiled mostly by Lucy Warren Myers about her father, including a piece she wrote in 1904 concerning the Carrowan trial, which her father prosecuted in 1853. Also included are items collected by Lindsay C. Warren, Jr., in 1999 and 2000 about Edward Jenner Warren's parents and their ancestors.

Image Folder PF-3692/1

Unidentified family pictures

Includes color photographs of Warren homes in Wardsboro and Brattleboro, Vt.

Folder 32

Clippings

Newspaper clippings about the death of Edward Jenner Warren in 1876; the Carrowan trial in Beaufort County in 1853; the life of Charles F. Warren; and other subjects.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 2. Volumes, 1871-1903 and undated.

3 items.
Folder 33

Volume 1, 1871-1872

32 pp. Notebook of Charles F. Warren containing his handwritten lecture notes taken while he was a student at Washington College, Lexington, Va. Subjects include elocution, race, French verbs, and grammar. At least some of the lectures were given by William Preston Johnson.

Folder 34

Volume 2, 1903 and undated

85 pp. Deborah Virginia Bonner Warren's notebook of cures and rules for good health, including newspaper clippings and handwritten entries on a variety of different ailments and suggestions for maintaining good health.

Folder 35

Volume 3, undated

86 pp. Edward Jenner Warren's "Practical Forms," containing forms relating to his legal practice, including deeds of sale, trust, mortgage, and other legal papers.

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