The Calvin Jones Farm Journal
By Jennifer Smart, Assistant Director
It’s always exciting when we uncover new documents that show us what life was like for people in early Wake Forest. That’s why we were ecstatic to find out about the Calvin Jones Farm Journal. Held in the Wilson Special Collections Library at UNC Chapel Hill, the journal is a record of the crops, farm structures, family members, and paid and enslaved workers who spent their lives on the original Calvin Jones Planation.
Jones kept detailed notes about what it took to develop and maintain the property from the time his family arrived in 1821 until their move to Tennessee in 1832. It’s a wealth of material. Over this past summer, we were lucky enough to have an intern funded by Wake Forest University. Matt Capps, a senior majoring in anthropology, worked at the museum to investigate and research the built landscape of the Original Campus. One day he drove to Chapel Hill to view this journal. It was through his careful study that we discovered the fascinating truth: Calvin Jones produced mountains of notes filled with amazingly detailed information regarding the minutia of daily life! We followed up with a digitization request, and the Wilson Special Collections Library made the journal immediately available.
What’s in this nearly 200-year-old document? We’re finding intriguing hints on every page. One of the goals we have here at the museum is to better understand the day-to-day workings of the plantation, both in its days as the Calvin Jones Plantation and in its later years as the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute and then Wake Forest College. Jones sold his farm in 1832. The school opened in 1834. It’s reasonable to assume much of the landscape remained the same during the transition. For that reason, certain entries are more valuable than others. Although we absolutely want to know about crop rotation and drought conditions on the Calvin Jones Plantation, this line that touches on the homes of enslaved workers is the type of hidden treasure we most hope to find.
“Corn about the negro houses and margin of the low grounds is 5 feet high—poor low grounds 2 feet—over the road toward Holdens 2 feet.”
The mention of where homes for enslaved workers were located really grabbed our attention. Other sources suggest that seven cabins (later used as student dorms in the first year of the Institute) were to the east and north of campus. Putting together the clues, we now believe the phrase “low grounds” refers to the current location of downtown Wake Forest, which slopes away from the spot where the Calvin Jones House originally stood on the plantation’s highest geographic point at the center of what’s now the SEBTS campus. As the house faced east, this brief entry paints a clear visual. We can imagine visitors to the Jones Plantation would have seen cornstalks, perhaps paths, and the homes of enslaved workers when they sat on the porch or looked out a window. We got another thrill seeing the Holden name. That farm was south of the Calvin Jones Planation, on the way to Forestville along what’s currently South Main Street, and the homestead still stands.
4 Responses
This article was so interesting! And it keeps me in touch with thoughts of my ancestors – Great Grandfather William Bailey Royall and his father – and their contributions to Wake Forest College – and WBRoyall’s house across from the current Museum!!! THANK YOU Jennifer!!! Maggie McClure
So luv all the WF history!! One question though. What is the history of the now yellow building next to you house?? Was it part of your property long ago?? Remember when it was being renovated shortly after we moved here. Quite an interesting corner of historic buildings. Thanks
The yellow house, now a chiropractor’s office, is older than our house, which began as three rooms, two down and one up, in 1838. The front part of the yellow house was an old style with two rooms downstairs and a small room upstairs, and perhaps built in the late 1700s. I have been told it was moved from near the Neuse River to its present site sometime in the 1900s? The interior of the house has been altered, renovated several times. The last owner but one took it all back to the beams in the original rooms. The chimneys have been rebuilt, thank goodness, and I believe there are still two working fireplaces in the house.
Always love history articles, and anything by Jennifer!! Thanks for the addition of this column!