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Inventory of the Braxton Craven Records and Papers, 1839-1882

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Descriptive Summary

Repository
University Archives, Duke University.
Creator
Craven, B. (Braxton), 1822-1882.
Title
Braxton Craven Records and Papers, 1839-1882.
Extent
4,000 Items,
7.2 linear feet
Abstract
Braxton Craven (1822-1882) served as an administrator and educator during the nineteenth century evolution of Trinity College (Randolph County, N.C.). Craven was Principal of Union Institute (1842-1851), President of Normal College (1851-1859), and President of Trinity College (1859-1863, 1866-1882). In addition, Craven actively participated in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and the Order of the Masons in North Carolina. Collection includes correspondence, sermons and addresses, diaries, legal and financial papers, teaching materials, subject files, and photographs and portraits of Braxton Craven. Correspondents include John Wesley Alspaugh, Charles Force Deems, David Lowry Swain, David Settle Reid, Henry Toole Clark, and Calvin H. Wiley. Subjects include the Methodist Episcopal Church, college financial affairs, and the activities of the Trinity Guard, a unit of student-soldiers that Craven formed during the Civil War.
Language
English.
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Administrative Information

Access Restrictions
Patrons must sign the Acknowledgement of Legal Responsibility and Privacy Rights form before using this collection.
No Restrictions.
Acquisitions Information
Received from multiple sources, including transfers from other campus units prior to the founding of University Archives:
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Braxton Craven Records and Papers, University Archives, Duke University.
Use Restrictions
Copyright for official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Processing Information
Torrence N. Thomas, Jill Katte; Completed October 2002
Encoded by Joshua McKim, 2002
Updated by sherrie Bowser, June 2008
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
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Biographical and Historical Note

Educator and Methodist clergyman, Braxton Craven was born in Randolph County, N.C., in 1822. Craven became licensed to preach in 1840, earned an A.B. (Hon.) in 1849 from Randolph-Macon College, and received various other degrees during his lifetime. His career included the following educational and administrative positions: Student-teacher, Union Institute (1841-1842); Principal of Union Institute (1842-1851); President of Normal College (1851-1859); President of Trinity College (1859-1863, 1866-1882). Braxton Craven died in 1882.

Duke University (Durham, N.C.) was established in 1924 and evolved from the following institutions: Brown's Schoolhouse (Randolph Co., N.C), 1838-1839; Union Institute (Randolph Co., N.C.), 1839-1851; Normal College (Randolph Co., N.C.), 1851-1859; Trinity College (Randolph Co., N.C.), 1859-1892 and (Durham, N.C.), 1892-1924).

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Scope and Content Note

Correspondence, student and financial records, reports, and other materials relating to the administration and academic program of Trinity College (Randolph Co., N.C.) as well as its predecessors, Union Institute and Normal College. Of particular interest are Braxton Craven's reports to the Board of Trustees, as well as minutes and resolutions of the trustees of Normal College, the constitution of Union Institute (1839), and Craven's correspondence with elected officials in North Carolina as well as Methodist clergymen. Individuals figuring prominently within the correspondence include trustee John Wesley Alspaugh; Charles Force Deems, a Methodist minister; David Lowry Swain, President of the University of North Carolina; North Carolina Governors David Settle Reid and Henry Toole Clark; and educator, Calvin H. Wiley. Subjects within the correspondence include the Methodist Episcopal Church, college financial affairs, and the activities of the Trinity Guard, a unit of student-soldiers that Craven formed during the Civil War. Some letters describe conditions and public sentiment in and around Randolph County during the Civil War. Also included are Craven's sermons and addresses, lecture notes, and diaries, as well as photographs of Craven.
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Online Catalog Headings

List of Series in Collection
Correspondence, 1842-1882.
Sermons, Speeches, and Addresses, 1841-1880.
Diaries, 1845-1874.
Legal and Financial Papers, 1850-1882.
Teaching Materials, 1850-1882.
Masonic Papers, [undated].
Methodist Episcopal Church South, [undated].
Photographs and Portraits, 1840-1880.
Bible, 1839
Oversize materials
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Container List

Correspondence, 1842-1882.

Arrangement: chronological

The correspondence of Braxton Craven that survives documents the financial struggles of Normal College and later Trinity College. During the 1850s and 1860s, the correspondence describes attempts to gain state aid to the College and the formation of a cadet corps at Trinity. Included are typed copies from the original correspondence in the North Carolina Department of Archives and History in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Methodist Church seems to dominate the correspondence after 1859, when it becomes the chief financial supporter of the College. A few surviving family letters are also present. They pertain to the illness and death of Craven in 1882. Also included is a letterbook (1870-1882) that contains copies of letters, receipts, bylaws of the Trinity Normal School, bursar accounts, and faculty salary payments. Major correspondents include John Alspaugh, member of the Board of Trustees of Trinity College, Bishop Edward R. Ames of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Calvin Henderson Wiley, John S. Brown and Governors Thomas Settle Reid, David Lowry Swain and Henry Toole Clarke of North Carolina.
Box 1
   Folder 1-6

Correspondence

Sermons, Speeches, and Addresses, 1841-1880.

Arrangement: alphabetical.

Include sermons given by Craven at church services, commencements, and funerals. Some are incomplete or fragments of sermons. Also present are 14 volumes that contain drafts of sermons by Craven. The notebooks, mainly pocketsize, include Scriptural passages glued to pages, with handwritten exegeses beneath them.
   Folder 7
All things are teachers, and all teaching is necessary
Anti-Christ
Asking but not recovering
The Atonement of Christ
Beauty Rebuked
Babes in Christ
Baccalaureate Sermon
Belief
Be ready
Besetting Sins
The Best Gifts
The Blood of Christ
Born Again
Brotherhood
Brotherly Love
   Folder 8
The Christian Ideal
Christian Kindness
Christian Life
Christian Manliness
The Christian's Prize
The Church
Christmas 1854
The Church of God
Comfort Ye, My People
Conscience, a Test of Duty
Counting the Cost
Courage
Currency in God's Kingdom
   Folder 9
Danger of missing heaven
The Day of Small Things
The Day of Trouble
Demonstrating the Heart
Denominationalism
Denouncing Sinners
Diversity in Unity
Divine Life
The Diving Omniscience
Doc's Religion Satisfy the Soul
Edification
The Effective Element of Christianity
Elegance and Durability of Christianity
The Emphatic Work of the Church
Enough Help Already Given
Equal Error of Sensationalism and Rationalism
Evangelism
Every Man needs a Pastor
The External Manifestations of God's People
The Fall and Atonement
Family Religion
The Father draweth them
Feeding and Governing the Flock
Final Destiny
The Fixed and Variable
The Friendship of the World
Fruits meet for Repentance
   Folder 10
Given to Idols
God's Anger Turned Away
God's Graciousness to Penitents
God's Mercy to those that Cry
God's Providence
God's Providence of Doing and Permitting Founded on Contingency
The Great Deliverance
The Great Promise
Healing for the Nations
Heaven
Help only in God
A Higher Status of Life possible and necessary
Honest Failure
How God is Known
House of Prayer
Human Happiness
The Hurt of my People
Immortality
Impudence
The Influence of the Dead upon the Living and the Living upon the Dead
Instant in Season
   Folder 11
Job
The Judgements of God
Keeping the Heart
The Kingdom of Christ   (3 versions)
The Lamb of God
The Last Judgment
Laying up Treasures
Let out the Light
Life in the Light of the Gospel
Life of the Spirit
Love, the only improving power
   Folder 12
The Magna Charta
The Man with enough
The Manifestations of the Spirit
Methodism
The Mission of Christ
Mutual Help
Necessity and Sources of Regeneration
Necessity and Atonement
Obligation to return Favors
Our Father
Our Natural Character
Our Value to God
   Folder 13
Parental Duties
Paul's Position
The Pecuniary part of Religion
Philanthropy
The Philosophy of Experience
A Plea for Missions
Power of the Gospel
Praise, A Religious Duty
The Praise of Men
Prayer and Faith
Prayers
Preliminary Sufferings of Christ
The Prodigal
The Profit of Church Membership
Proof of the Divinity of Christ
The Prospects of Praying, Believing Man
Proud Looks
Proverbs . . . .
Proving the Heart
Prudence
The Publican
   Folder 14
The Ransomed of the Lord
Rebuilding the Temple
Reformation
Reproof
Regeneration
Religion is satisfactory the soul
Resisting Evil
Resisting the Devil
The Resurrection of Christ
Retribution
The Salvation of God
Satan . . .
Saving Sinners
Scenes in the Future
Self Denyal and the Cup
The Sinner cannot comprehend his own estate
The Sinner destroys God
The Sinner's controversy with God
Sitting together in heavenly places
The Social Estate
The Songs of the Temple
The Spiritual Conflict
The Stature of Christ
Straight Paths
The Sufferings of Christ
Sunday School Lecture
   Folder 15
Taking the Kingdom
Terms of Discipleship
Testing the Trees
True Worshippers
Trusting in God
Trusting in the Lord
Unfaltering Trust
The Unspeakable Gift
Victory of Sin
Waiting for the Holy Spirit
The Way of the Lord
Weeping is brief
We see Darkly
What shall I do
The Whole Christian
The Will of the Lord
The Word of the Lord
Working for the Multitude
Wounded in the house of our friends
Yielding to the Will of God
   Folder 16
Incomplete Sermons
   Folder 17
Funeral Sermons
   Folder 18-22
Sermons - Volumes [Old catalog Nos. 794-803]
Box 2
   Folder 23-24
Sermons - Volumes [Old catalog Nos. 804-806, "Sketchbook, 1880" ]
   Folder 25
Dedications, 1882.
Includes transcript of a speech given by Craven at dedicatory celebrations of a cotton factory in Concord, North Carolina.
   Folder 26-27
Education.
Speeches given on the topic of education -- normal schools, collegiate education, female education, testing, and scholarships.
   Folder 28
Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Topics include unity within the church, and the centennial of the Methodist Church.
   Folder 29
Fragments of addresses given by Craven.
Topics include education, labor problems, and the Masonic rites and creeds.

Diaries, 1845-1874.

Arrangement: chronological.

Although the diaries span the years of 1845-1874, entries do not appear for every year. A partial transcript has been made for a particularly detailed section of Craven's 1868 diary. Handwritten portions of diaries from 1845 and 1855 also are included. The volumes date from the years 1861 (2 volumes), 1868, 1869, 1871, and 1874. These volumes are pocketsize, and some contain ideas for sermons, notes and comments on the weather, farming, preaching, Methodist conferences, and the state of the institution. Also included in this series is a short diary which was kept in 1867 by Craven's eldest daughter, Emma L. Craven. An undated memoranda notebook kept by Braxton Craven is also present.
   Folder 30-34
Diaries

Legal and Financial Papers, 1850-1882.

Arrangement: Legal papers alphabetical by topic; financial papers chronological.

Personal legal papers primarily dealing with transactions of land and money to and from Craven. Topics include receipts, letters of guardianship for orphans, last wills and testaments, indentures, petitions, deeds and legal disputes in which Craven was involved While this series does span the years of 1850-1882, it does not include material from all years. Financial material pertains to the personal finances of Braxton Craven with some items related to the Craven family. Topics in this series include receipts, inventories, promissory notes, and bank ledgers. Also in this collection, are two ledgers (1872-1875) from the Shaw and Company Store, of which Braxton Craven was a partner.
   Folder 35-44

Legal Papers
   Folder 45-54

Financial Papers

Teaching Materials, 1850-1882.

Arrangement: alphabetical; student papers chronological

Notes from lectures given by Craven, class lists and grade books, and outlines of instruction. The lecture notes have become confused and are roughly arranged alphabetically by subject. It is difficult to ascertain whether these lectures were given at the Union Institute, Normal College or Trinity College. The class lists and grade books are from classes that Craven personally taught and are not for the entire College. The outlines of instruction are summaries of the classes which Craven was teaching during 1850.
The series also includes student papers and essays, including valedictory and salutatory speeches delivered at Trinity College in 1872 and 1873. There is also a bound volume of 15 graduation speeches from class of 1880. Topics include industrial waste, the Confederate States of America, success, time, music, government, and philosophy. Some fragments of student papers are present.
Box 3
   Folder 55-93

Lecture notes
Aesthetics
Astronomy
Beauty
Botany
Chemistry
Education
Elocution
Fine Arts
Geology
Government
Latin
Law
Logic
Mathematics
Mineralogy
Natural Science
Philosophy
Psychology
Box 4
   Folder 94-97
Rhetoric
Theology
Zoology
   Folder 98-99
Class lists and grade books, 1850-1882
   Folder 100
Outlines of instruction, 1850
   Folder 101-103
Student papers, 1840-1872

Masonic Papers, [undated].

Arrangement: None

Papers pertaining to the Order of the Masons, of which Craven was a member. Trinity College also had its own Lodge. Included within this series are bylaws of the Trinity Lodge, minutes of meetings, copies of Master Mason's Certificates, and a partial list of members.
   Folder 104-105
Masonic papers

Methodist Episcopal Church South, [undated].

Arrangement: None

This series documents Braxton Craven's involvement with the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Included in this series is a roll book of the North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Church, of which Craven was secretary (ca. 1870s). Inside the book are provisions for lay and clerical delegates.
   Folder 106-107
Methodist Episcopal Church South

Photographs and Portraits, 1840-1880.

Arrangement: chronological.

Primarily formal portraits of Braxton Craven with some images of Craven's family, his wife, Irene L Craven, and his tombstone in Trinity, North Carolina. Formats include tintype, ambrotype, engraving, and silhouette.
   Folder 108-109
Photographs and portraits

Bible, 1839

1 volume.
This Hebrew Bible was printed in Germany in 1839 and was the property of Braxton Craven. Craven's daughter gave it to the Reverend B.F. Hargett, after her father's death. Hargett gave the Bible to the Reverend Wilbur G. McFarland, who died in 1955.
   Folder 110
Bible, 1839

Oversize materials

Box 5
   Folder 111
Sermons
   Folder 112
Class Lecture Notes
   Folder 113
Portrait
Box 6
Trinity Account books, 1855-1863
Box 7
Trinity College Class Book and Accounts, 1860-1863
Trinity College Roll Book, 1864-1869
Trinity College Grade Book, 1860-1861
Trinity College Roll Book, 1860-1861
Notebook that includes grades and sunday school records, circa 1875-1876
Miscellaneous notebook with clippings
Box 8
Framed box containing: 1859 slave contract signed by Braxton Craven; 1880 promissory note signed by Craven; undated carte de viste of Craven (photo by Rufus Morgan); pocket pistol dated 1845.