Creator: Badger family.
Collection number: 953-z
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Abstract: The Badger family of North Carolina included George E. Badger, superior court judge, secretary of the Navy, and United States senator, 1844-1855, of Raleigh, N.C.; his third wife, Delia Haywood Williams Badger; their children, Mary Badger Hale (b. 1836) and Thomas Badger (b. 1843); Badger’s daughter, Kate Badger Haigh (b. 1827); and his wife’s daughter Melissa Williams. Chiefly family letters, 1835-1867. Letters dated 1835-1836 are to Melissa Williams, Delia Badger’s daughter by a previous marriage, who was attending school in Philadelphia, from her mother and others in Raleigh, chiefly about family activities. Most of the later letters are to Badger’s daughter Kate Badger Haigh of Fayetteville, N.C., about family and neighborhood news. Included are an 1849 letter with a description of 50 drunken women and other rowdies at a cotillion in Raleigh; Civil War period letters with details of life on the homefront, including mention of sickly and pregnant slaves; and an 1867 letter discussing the possibility of an African American candidate for mayor of Raleigh. Also included are financial and legal papers, 1876-1888, of Thomas Badger and a few family photographs.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: In an 1863 letter to one of her sisters, Mary Badger Hale complains about the inability of her sickly and/or pregnant slaves to work. Two 1867 letters briefly mention military orders, the scarcity of money, the fear of land confiscation, and rumors of an African American candidate for mayor of Raleigh.