Heitman, John Franklin, 1840-1905.

John F. Heitman, ca. 1864

Inventory

John Franklin Heitman, 1840-1905

Papers, 1863-1911

Extent: 2.6 linear ft. in 2 8" document cases and 1 flat box.

Finding aids
Inventory in the repository. Correspondence is indexed in a card catalog; item control. Biographical sketches are in the collection file.

Biographical note
Educator, clergyman, and journalist, born in Davidson County, N.C. Captain, C.S.A., 1864-1865; Methodist minister; A.M., Trinity College, 1868. Acting president, Trinity College, 1884-1887; editor, North Carolina Education Journal, 1881- 1885; headmaster, Trinity High School, 1892-1904.
John Franklin Heitman (sometimes spelled Heightman) was born April 17, 1840, the son of Henry and Eve McRary Heitman. He entered Trinity College in 1861, but left in 1862 to join the Army of the C.S.A. After the war, following a short period in business and teaching, he returned to Trinity, took his degree, and resumed teaching. He also became a clergyman in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and held several parishes. In 1881, he left the clergy to enter business in Chapel Hill, establishing the North Carolina Educational Journal. At this time, he married Emma Carr, sister of the Durham tobacco manufacturer Julian S. Carr.
In 1883, he was appointed a professor at Trinity College, but most of his effort was spent in dealing with the financial problems of the school. As Acting President, Heitman dealt extensively with Carr and other members of the Board of Management, J.W. Alspaugh and James A. Gray, as well as with students' parents, inquirers, creditors and debtors. When the College moved to Durham in 1892, Heitman stayed behind to become Headmaster of Trinity High School, but when this, too, relocated to Durham, he took up residence there to end his career in education. He died June 15, 1904, and is buried in Trinity Cemetery, Trinity, N.C.

Organization and arrangement
Organized in two series: Correspondence, 1863-1911 arranged chronologically, and miscellaneous material

Contents
Correspondence, mostly received, arranged chronologically, with bulk dates 1883-1887, a diary (1864-1865) kept during his service in the Civil War, along with printed matter, bills and other financial papers, and miscellaneous printed matter. The largest part of the correspondence dates from the period when Heitman was serving as Acting President of Trinity College, Randolph County, N.C., a predecessor institution of Duke University. These materials concern the financial crisis confronting the College in the early 1880s, and other matters of concern to college administrators.
Materials making up the collection fall into three general subject areas: Civil War experience, business and church dealings, and Trinity College matters. The first is made up of a diary and received correspondence. The majority of the letters (eight) are from Mollie J. Alforce (or Alford), of Oakford, N.C., near Trinity, and appear to concern local matters. Heitman's brief diary concerns the Siege of Petersburg, retreat to Appomattox, and his imprisonment on Johnson's Island. A typed transcript is available.
Materials in the second subject area concern advertising, printing, and publicizing the North Carolina Educational Journal; many letters are from subscribers, some from book publishers, would-be authors and print shops. The Journal carried, among other things, classified advertising for schools, and from teachers wanting positions, so that it functioned as a kind of employment bureau for its area.
The third subject area concerns Trinity College and related institutions. Major correspondents include Julian S. Carr, and J.W. Alspaugh, members of the committee of management that ran the college from 1884-1887. The letters concern fund-raising and the overall state of the school. Heitman appears to have acted for a time as guardian to the children of William E. Pell, publisher of the Christian Advocate. Virginia C.R. Pell, his widow and a teacher of music, writes frequently concerning the children. Other correspondence comes from students and teachers, such as Henry Horace Williams, Obed W. Carr, and the Giles sisters, the last writing from the Greenwood Female College in Greenwood, S.C.
Trinity was one of the institutions that contracted with the U.S. Government to educate Cherokee Indian youths, and there is correspondence and other material from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of the Treasury concerning this; related materials are in the financial papers. Other correspondence is from applicants for positions and applicants for admissions to Trinity, or concerns employment for teachers, arrangements for room and board in Trinity, letters from parents and prospective students, and finally, a few family letters from son, brothers, daughter, and wife. The letters from 1887 on concern affairs at Trinity High School and its eventual removal to Durham. There are a number of letters from Trinity College President Crowell during this period concerning applicants for scholarships and the role of the high school as a feeder institution for the college.
Miscellaneous material includes bills and account book pages concerning accounts with merchants, students, etc., mostly 1883-1886; printed matter, including broadsides, invitations, and advertisements centered on North Carolina affairs, education, and Methodist activities; copies of the Carolina Wesleyan (containing Heitman's autobiographical sketch) and the North Carolina Home Journal; and several class record books.

Source of acquisition
Transfer from Manuscript Dept.. John F. Bivens, Jr. gift 1967 17 items and 1 volume.

Notes
Some of the early correspondence is badly faded.

Top of document

Heitman, John Franklin, 1840-1905. Papers, 1863-1911
Updated on 11/15/99.
© 1999, Duke University Archives