Reid and Jordan family papers, 1767-1895

Restrictions on Access

Unrestricted access.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Source

Gift and purchase, May 1993.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Reid and Jordan family papers, Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

Processed by Sarah E. Gardner, 1993.

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Biographical Note

The Reid family emigrated from Ulster County, Ireland, to Rowan County, North Carolina, in the mid eighteenth century. The earliest record of the Reid family housed in this collection belonged to Samuel Reid, Sr., (July 8, 1728 - 1810). Reid, Sr. was active in both military and civil affairs in Rowan County and served on the Committee of Safety in 1775/1776. In 1790 he moved most of his family from North Carolina to land on the Beaverdam Creek in Greene County, Georgia, later Hancock County. He later moved to Putnam County, Georgia where he lived the rest of his life. His son, Samuel Reid, Jr., was a planter from Jasper County, Georgia.

Little is known about the Jordan family. They were apparently a planter family from Jasper County, Georgia. Charles S. Jordan (September 11, 1801 -May 25, 1879) married Rebecca Louisa Johnson on July 13, 1825. They had twin sons in 1827 who died shortly after birth, as did their mother. Jordan remarried seven years later, in 1834. He and his second wife, Elizabeth Yancey Reid, had five children. Apparently, Samuel Reid Jr.'s daughter, Jeannette, married Charles W. Jordan. The Keith and the Glover families also married into the Jordan family, and a few records of H. S. Glover and Jeannette Reid Jordan Keith Glover are included in this collection.

Scope and Content Note

The Reid-Jordan family papers document the lives of two planter families from North Carolina and Georgia during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection spans the dates of 1767 to 1895, with the bulk of the material falling between the dates of 1820 to 1865. Types of material include legal documents, which contain land deeds and surveys, slave bills of sale, and slave appraisals (1767-1860); financial records, which consist mostly of cotton invoices, receipts, and statements (1810-1865); and personal papers which are almost exclusively correspondence (1830-1870).

The Reid papers begin with the legal and financial papers of Samuel Reid, Sr. The majority of the Reid papers, however, belonged to his son, Samuel Reid, Jr. The remainder of this family's records belonged to Samuel Reid Jr.'s wife, Elizabeth; Samuel Reid Jr.'s brother, Andrew Reid; and one William Reid, relationship unknown.

The Jordan papers begin with those belonging to Charles S. Jordan. Papers of his sons Charles W. and Flemming Jordan are also represented in this collection.

Taken together, the Reid-Jordan Family papers document two families' rapid acquisition of land and slaves in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Unfortunately, there is little by way of personal papers, and therefore little to aid in establishing the connections between the various family members. In light of the paucity of personal papers, the few Civil War letters of Charles W. Jordan are particularly interesting. The business and legal affairs of the Reids and the Jordans are more clearly understood through this collection than their private lives.

The first box of the Reid-Jordan Family papers contain the papers relating to Samuel Reid, Sr., and his family. The second box houses the papers concerning Charles S. Jordan and his family as well as miscellaneous documents that apparently do not relate to either the Reid or the Jordan families.