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5 Jan 1855 [1]
Dear Brother,
I have taken my seat this eavning to wright to you to let you know that we are all well at present and have been well. Liza has bee[n] very bad sick and came very near dying [2] but she has got about again. She was sick for three weeks. She has the pneumonia. Mother did not make a very large crop last year. There wasen’t a very good season and it wasen’t worked very well. She had in more than they cold work. She only made three bails of coten [3] . Ther has been a great deel- of sickness in the neighborhood last year and a great many deaths this neighborhood is thined out. A great deel you would not think it was the same plase if you were to come back. I would have writin sooner but I looked for you home before
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this time. The hirering is over mother is keeping John this year. She has hired Jake and Sandy Davis. She give 50$ for jake and a hundard for Sandy. Uncle Sirus Morrison got Nancy and Uncle Bill got Henry [4] . I have been going to Davidson Colege for the last three months and come home to spend the Cristmas and started back yesterday and got as far as Charlottie and met the students coming away Davidson is broken up evry student has left but two or three. The Faculty has showed injustis. they suspended one student of suspition. There was a fight on the campus one night and the faculty went to his room [5] and he was not there and he could not prove where he was time of the fight and they suspended him of [illegible] and the students drew a resilution that they would leave if the faculty
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would not take him back, and they woulden’t do it and they all left but two or three so I am out of business [6] . I do not know what to go at. We had no president the [illegible] Dr. Williamson out [7] and had not got another one so it is intirely broke up [8] . I have nothing more to tell you, we looked foor you to come home but we here last weak that your not coming. We are all well Eliza is’ getting about she was over here yesterday. All the rest of the neighbors are well. Give my love to all my cosins the, Mother and the rest sends their love to you. We have had dry Christmas, please excuse bad writing and spilling the candle is so dim I can not see the lines.
J.P. Mccombs [9]
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- McCombs handwritten letter to “brother”, Jan.5, 1855.
[1] James McCombs began attending Davidson College in the fall of 1854 and is listed in the alumni catalog not as class of 1858 but of 1859. This suggests that McCombs repeated a year at the college, perhaps due to poor academic performance. In 1854-1855, the college year consisted of two terms, one from September to February and one from February to June. (Davidson College Catalog 1854-1855, p 14) McCombs wrote this letter in the first term of his freshman year.
[2] Before the advent of advanced medicine, sickness was a major concern to carriers and non-carriers alike, especially at Davidson College. As Mary Beaty describes in her book, A History of Davidson College, sicknesses such as Smallpox took the lives of at least fifteen students before 1850 as well as John Williamson ’52, the son of then-Davidson president Samuel Williamson, in October, 1850. (Beaty, p 44, footnote 37). Even thirty years after James McComb’s writing of the letter, Typhoid fever killed a few students one unfortunate day in 1881. It was not until a period in 1885 that an old dorm named “Elm Row” became fitted as an infirmary (Beaty, p 161).
[3] From the language that McCombs uses, it can be inferred that his family owned a cotton farm.
[4] Judging from the word “got”, the reference to the individuals by their first names, as well as the notion of hiring, it can be inferred that McCombs’s mother had hired Jake, Sandy, Nancy and Henry from a nearby slave owner.
[5] As shown in the college catalog, students adhered to many rules. Under one such rule, they were required to allow faculty access to their rooms at all times.
For an image of the whole page, click here
[6]The faculty and students shared different perspectives on the grounds for suspension. The faculty justified suspending the student (Newton) on the grounds that he was losing focus in classes, using disrespectful language against his teachers, and being outside of his room during required hours (Faculty minutes, 21 December 1854). Some students, on the other hand, thought that their friend was suspended for hitting a professor with a rock (Faculty Minutes, 2 January 1855). Ultimately, it is unclear what happened.
[7] Around 1854, Daniel Harvey Hill (also known as Major Hill for his military experience) joined the college’s faculty. He played a role in initiating faculty talks concerning the poor state of college discipline. These talks ultimately led to a majority vote by the faculty to oust President Williamson, who left in August 1854 (Beaty, p 56). Drury Lacy did not step in to replace Williamson as Davidson College’s president until January 1855 (Beaty, p 60).
[8] Based on student lists in the 1855 college catalogue, only 14 students had returned by late February (Faculty Minutes, 26 February 1855). These issues with the college did not go unnoticed- in fact, the Chester Standard, a local newspaper, had published, “We do not, of course, presume to pass any judgment in this case but it does strike us very forcibly that something about this institution is most sadly out of joint” (Chester Standard, Jan 11, 1855).
[9] Born in 1836 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, James McCombs started attending Davidson College in 1854 and was a member of the Philanthropic Society. The 1924 alumni catalog indicates that McCombs left Davidson before getting a degree, opting to study medicine in New York (he graduated from that program in 1858). He was soon appointed Assistant Surgeon in the 11th Regiment of the North Carolina Troops. After serving in the regiment, McCombs returned to Charlotte as a practicing physician. He passed away in 1902 (Clipping, McCombs Alumni File), (Alumni Catalog).
Bibliography
Alumni Catalogue of Davidson College 1837-1924. Charlotte, NC: Presbyterian Standard Publishing Company, 1924.
Beaty, Mary. A History of Davidson College. Davidson, NC: Briarpatch Press, 1988.
Chester Standard (Chester, SC), January. 11, 1855.
Clipping, James McCombs Alumni File. RG 5/8.1. Alumni Relations. Davidson College, Davidson, NC.
Davidson College Catalog 1855. Davidson College Archives, Davidson, NC, 1855.
Faculty Minutes. RG 2/3.2. Faculty Minutes. Davidson College Archives, Davidson, NC.
Transcription and annotation author: Michael Ding.
Date: March 2013
From: DC0117s (Finding Aid)
Cite as: Ding, Michael, annotator. 5 January 1855 James McCombs Letter. DC0117s. <https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/digital-collections/james-p-mccombs-letter-5-jan-1855.>
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