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[Identification of item], George Coke Dromgoole Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
The George Coke Dromgoole Papers were acquired by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library in 1933-1955.
Processed by Rubenstein Library Staff, 1989
Encoded by Meghan Lyon, August 2011
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory:
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
Dromgoole was a large planter and politician of local prominence. He practice law, served in both houses of the State legislature, and was a delegate to the Virginia Convention of 1829 prior to his service in Congress, 1835-1841 and 1843-1847.
The correspondence and papers of Edward Dromgoole, prominent planter of Brunswick Co., Va., during the latter half of the nineteenth century, and sometime lawyer at South Gaston, N.C. The letters and papers give an excellent account of plantation life and management just previous to and following the Civil War in Va., dealing mainly with such matters as the settlement of accounts and notes, the sale of slaves and cotton, the production of such crops as corn, cotton, and tobacco, land tenure, land drainage, labor agreements, etc. A large number of the letters to Dromgoole following the Civil War are from his land tenants, which discuss in great detail the problems of plantation management. A few plantation account sheets and Dromgoole's daybook showing plantation expenses (1892-1893) are included.
A few letters from M.M. Harrison, a student at Virginia Military Institute during the 1870s, to Dromgoole, his guardian, give much information on V.M.I. and some account of the death and funeral of Commodore Mathew Fontaine Maury, a professor at the Institute, in 1873.
Also included in the collection are bonds and obligations; land deeds; Justice of the Peace, County, and Circuit Court minutes; orders, summonses, warrants, and despositions of Brunswick County; articles of agreement for land tenure and labor on Dromgoole's plantations; various obituaries; land plats; the will of James Ledbetter of Brunswick County (Dec. 1, 1820); advertisements; numerous bills and receipts; promissary notes; and a memorandum book.
An item of especial interest in the collection is a copy of the petition for exemption from Confederate military service made by Dromgoole in 1864, in which he discusses the size and importance of the plantation under his management, both those of his own and of his wards.
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