Finding Aid of the Cain and Hinton Papers, PC.2041

Cain Family-Letters,1846-1915 and undated

Scope and Content:

The greater part of the Cain family letters were written to Mrs. Cain by her children, grand-children, and friends. The earliest letters, 1846 to 1866, were almost all written to her by her brothers and father; they send news of the family, or touch on the subject of her father's second marriage in 1860 to a young woman 27 years his junior. The letters written between 1871 and 1881 continue to give accounts of family news and doings, but increasingly relate to Dr. and Mrs. Cain's children. A November 14, 1873, letter from Aldert Smedes to Dr. Cain relates to the bill for the tuition of his daughter, Mary Ruffin Cain, at St. Mary's School, Raleigh, in 1872 and 1873, while letters of December 6, 1878, and January 15, 1879, to Dr. and Mrs. Cain from her brother, Lucius Tate, speak of their son Sterling's attendance at Waynesville Academy and his determination to give up his studies there. The letters dating from 1882 to 1888 chiefly relate to, or were written by, Elizabeth Tate Cain from the time of her marriage to Charles L. Hinton until her death. There are no courtship letters in the collection, but there are two letters dated March 28, 1882, in response to enquiries Dr. Cain had made as to the worthiness of Mr. Hinton as a husband for his daughter. The letters dating from 1895 to 1898 include six from Thomas Ruffin Gwynn and three from William Sterling Cain written to Dr. Cain from Paraguay where the two boys had gone, had taken up the business of distilling rum, had married local women, and had commenced families. The letters written by Gwynn are descriptive of the country and the daily life of the two boys there (though colored by a certain amount of tongue-in-cheek writing). The letters from 1900-1915 are primarily correspondence between Mrs. Cain and her children; however, there are a number of letters written to her from professional organizations concerning her writings.

Cain Family--Miscellaneous,1803-1892

Scope and Content:

The collection includes small groups of correspondence and other papers that are family-related but extraneous to the main body of letters-as, for example, the handful of papers from the life of Annie Preston (Cain) Bridgers. The folder of extraneous bills and receipts relating to Mrs Mary Sutherland White, 1842-1863, contains the only Civil War letter in the collection. It was written to Mrs. White by Lt. John P. Lockhart of Company K, 2d Cavalry, N.C.T., from Camp Fisher near New Bern on January 20, 1862, while Burnside's fleet was still outside Hatteras Inlet. Miscellaneous Cain family papers include cards, bills and receipts, land related papers, and an 1837 political circular issued by U.S. Representative James Graham (1783-1861) summarizing achievements of the 24th Congress. The Jean Cameron letters from the 1830's are included.In relation to the personal and general miscellaneous papers in the collection it is noted that some of them are, on account of their size, housed separately in a flat oversized box with the label, "Cain-Hinton Miscellaneous Papers."

Cain Family--Writings by Julia Tate Cain,1876-1914, and undated

Scope and Content:

Manuscripts of Mrs. Cain's poetry, writings and sketches are arranged by title. Her lengthier works contain multiple drafts. While the majority of manuscripts are not dated, a few have dates ranging from 1876 to 1914.

Hinton Letters--Personal,1892-1953

Scope and Content:

The personal letters commence with four letters relating to the family of Miss Hinton's sister, Jane (Mrs. William Randolph Watson). Miss Hinton's own correspondence in the collection does not commence until 1897. The greater part of the letters written between 1897 and 1901 are from a Tennessee friend and kinswoman with similar interests, Susan Gentry, and most of those written between 1901 and 1906 are from two friends, Frances Norfleet of Roxobel, N.C., and Grace I. Bowles of Louisville, Ky., and Waynesville, N.C. In these letters the three women speak of their activities, their interests, their hopes, their disappointments.

A few other correspondents are included in the letters from this nine year period: The Rev. Matthias Murray Marshall (1842-1912), rector of Christ Church, Raleigh (Nov. 13, 1899); Edward C. Mead (1837-1908) of Keswick, Va., enclosing an illustrated brochure for his book on historic homes of the southwest mountains of Virginia (May 31, 1901), and five letters written by Sarah Leonora Gwyn Lenoir (1833-1914) of Fort Defiance (June 9, July 6, Aug. 6, and Sept. 25, 1903, and Oct. 8, 1904). Mrs. Lenoir's letters were written ostensibly in connection with an article she was preparing for publication in the North Carolina Booklet, but these amusing, sprightly letters give a clearer notion of the life of the Lenoir family at Fort Defiance than they do of the forthcoming article.

There is but a smattering of personal correspondence between 1904 and 1920, with none at all for eight of those intervening years. Even so, this smattering includes two or three letters worth comment. A letter from the Rev. Robert Brent Drane (1851-1939) dated Jan. 10, 1914, contains a passage on the landscape gardener as artist, and invites Miss Hinton to visit Mr. Drane's garden at Edenton and paint a picture of it. A letter dated Aug. 2, 1920, from Miss Hinton's cousin, Arrah Belle Johnson, wife of the rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Gastonia, N.C. (the Rev. J. W. Cauley), expresses regret over the news that Miss Hinton is the leader of anti-suffrage forces in the state and attempts to correct her views concerning women's suffrage.

There are two letters from Catherine Seyton Albertson (1868-1954) in the collection (March 28, 1916, and Sept. 29, 1936), and one from Mabel Pugh (1891-1986) as she prepares to leave New York in order to take up duties in the art department at Peace College (July 16, 1936) following the death of Ruth Huntington Moore. Three letters from Edward C. Seawell of New York, a cousin, are on the subject of the condition of his aunt and the Seawell house in Raleigh (July 18, July 20, and Aug. 19, 1936).

Correspondence for the period from 1937 to 1953 is widely scattered. The letters for this period are primarily personal family letters though two of them (July 14 and July 18, 1940) relate to an effort to revive an hereditary society, The Order of the First Crusade, in which Miss Hinton had held the office of "Chatelaine". The organization was founded in 1923, incorporated in 1934, and rent by internal controversy which resulted in the formation of a more successful group in 1936, The Order of the Three Crusades, to which Miss Hinton apparently was not admitted.

Hinton--Patriotic and Hereditary Societies,1898-1964

Scope and Content:

The organizations represented in this group include the Colonial Dames of America, Daughters of the Barons of Runnemede, Daughters of the Revolution, and Order of the Crown in Amierican and Order of the First Crusade. Of particular local interest is a 1964 description of the Seawell house in Raleigh by Edward C. Seawell, found in the folder of miscellaneous Colonial Dames of America material. Colonial Dames of America, 1911-1936 Colonial Dames of America. Correspondence, undated, and 1914-1964

Hinton Miscellaneous Papers--Personal,1846-1859

Scope and Content:

In relation to the personal and general miscellaneous papers in the collection it is worth noting that some of them are, on account of their size, housed separately in an oversized box with the label, "Cain-Hinton Miscellaneous Papers."

Cain Miscellaneous Papers--Oversized,1803-1870

Scope and Content:

Among the oversized miscellaneous papers from the Cain family papers are various horse handbills and pedigrees including an 1803 manuscript handbill for the stud horse Fire Tail, an 1804 manuscript pedigree for the mare Lucky Foot out of Vixen by Sterling Ruffin's Citizen, and a printed 1843 handbill for the stud horse Duane belonging to John F. Beavers of Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Also included are pedigrees for Wagner Chesnut, 1834; Boston Chesnut, 1833; Gray Eagle, 1835; and Fashion Bremare, 1837.

Additionally the Cain family items include a journal of Elizabeth Tate Hinton, "Bessie", circa 1870's. The journal primarily contains recipes; however, there are a few biblical lectures as well as lectures on Milton's "Paradise Lost". There are also a few pages of French lessons. The other two Cain items in this box are an empty scrapbook that once held newspaper clippings and letters and a Justice of the Peace docket from Orange County, N.C., circa 1823.

Hinton Miscellaneous Papers--Oversized,1883-1969

Scope and Content:

From the Hinton family, oversized items include an Anti-immigration campaign flyer from the American Immigration Conference Board dated January 1939. A drawing of a cemetery plot called the Colonel William Polk Plot located in Old City Cemetery; Raleigh, N.C. contains the burial location of twenty one family members most of which lived in the 19th century. Finally, there is a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and magazine reprints of artwork and portraiture.