Creator: Settle, Thomas, 1831-1888.
Collection number: 3345
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Abstract: Thomas Settle, Jr., of Greensboro, N.C., was a North Carolina Supreme Court justice, 1868-1871, chairman of the Republican National Convention, 1872, and U.S. district judge at Jacksonville, Fla., 1877-1888. Also represented in the collection is his son, Thomas Settle III (1865-1919), lawyer in Rockingham and Guilford counties, N.C., state district solicitor, 1886-1893, and Republican U.S. representative, 1893-1897. Political, personal, legal, and business papers of Thomas Settle, Jr., and his son, Thomas Settle III. Correspondence with many individuals concerns the establishment of the Republican Party in North Carolina during Reconstruction, and thereafter party organization, activities, patronage, conventions, factions, finances, and campaigns and elections in North Carolina and nationally; political issues in North Carolina, Florida, and the nation, mainly 1872-1897, including amendments to the North Carolina state constitution of 1876, charges of election fraud, election law reform, taxes, tariff, currency, banking regulations, prohibition, suffrage, state and national activities of the Populist Party; federal legislation, 1892-1897; and African Americans. Also included are papers concerning personal business, finances, lands, and legal cases. Judge Settle’s Florida letters concern both his interest in North Carolina politics and cases he tried in northern Florida involving railroads, shipping, and homestead entries. The papers of Thomas Settle III date from 1884 to 1897. Also included are four political scrapbooks, 1866- 1912, and clippings and scattered papers relating to the political activities of Mary Settle (Mrs. B. C.) Sharpe, 1902-1904.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Correspondents include Maurice Corbett, an African American party worker in Yancyville, N.C. Corbett corresponds with Settle primarily from 1892 to 1894 about African American attitudes and the local political situation. (See Folders 53 – 158)
Also included are letters from John C. Dancy, prominent Republican Party leader and editor of the Star of Zion, the newspaper for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Correspondence with Settle is from 1894 – 1896, and includes discussion of campaign work in the Republican party.
Throughout the 1890s, Settle also corresponds with a number of other African American voters and influential leaders (particularly in 1894, 1895, and 1896). There is also a resolution (dated 6 Aug 1894) from African Americans employed in D.C. that are part of the 5th District in N.C., asking that Settle not run for office again (Folder 102).
Folder 174 is a bound volume attributed to Thomas Settle, that contains notes on different speeches related to civil rights, Reconstruction, African Americans, and the Ku Klux Klan.
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