Finding Aids

Guide to the

HUGH JAMES FAIRLY PAPERS
1842-1936, bulk 1854-1878

.17 linear ft.

Accession Number:
Collection Number: GA 47

Prepared by Cheryl A. Morrison
April 3, 1998

CITATION: Hugh James Fairly Papers, GA 47, Box number, Folder number, Special Collections Division, The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.

Table of Contents

Biographical Sketch

Sources

Series Description

Scope and Content Note

Provenance

Literary Rights

Container List

Series I. Legal Documents

Series II. Personal Letters and Papers

Biographical Sketch

Hugh James Fairly, deputy surveyor for Tarrant County, was born in North Carolina in 1829. He was the grandson of Alexander and Abigail Fairly and Hugh and Mary McLaurin, all of whom were born in Scotland. The Fairlys and McLaurins moved to North Carolina in the mid to late 18^th century. Hugh is the son of Peter Fairly and Mary (McLaurin) Fairly of Richmond County, North Carolina. He had three brothers and four sisters. The family moved to Jefferson County, Mississippi, in 1832. In 1846, after graduation from Oakland College in Claiborne County, Mississippi, Fairly came to Texas. He was employed by the Denton Land District as deputy surveyor for Tarrant County and was one of the first surveyors of record in Tarrant County. He laid out and surveyed the town of Fort Worth between 1852 and 1857. In 1857 he taught school in Town Bluff, Texas. He was a landowner in Tarrant County from October 1857 to June 1860. But in January 1858, Fairly returned to Mississippi, where on March 18, 1858, he married Mahala Jane Buckles of Fayette, Mississippi. They had six sons and two daughters. They lived in Union Church and Fayette, Jefferson County, Mississippi, where Fairly was a landowner and planter. Fairly fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy in Company K of the 1^st Mississippi Light Artillery. After the war, he returned home and to his life as husband, father, and planter. In 1893 Fairly was living in Union Church, Jefferson County, Mississippi, where he continued to live until his death. The date of his death is unknown.

Sources

• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Genealogical and Ancestral File Search, Salt Lake City, 1987.
• Claiborne, John Francis Hamtramack, Mississippi, as a Province, Territory and State, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964.
• Department of Interior, Office of the Census, Fourth and Fifth Census of the United States: 1820 and 1830. Population (142 and 201 rolls, Washington), Counties of Richmond and Robeson, North Carolina.
• Department of Interior, Office of the Census, Sixth and Seventh Census of the United States: 1840 and 1850. Population (580 and 1009 rolls, Washington), Counties of Jefferson, Jackson, Claiborne, Copiah, and Perry, Mississippi.
• Department of Interior, Office of the Census, Eighth and Ninth Census of the United States: 1860 and 1870. Population (1438 and 1748 rolls, Washington), County of Jefferson,Mississippi.
• Department of Interior, Office of the Census, Soundex of Tenth Census of the United States: 1880. Population (2367 rolls, Washington), F-640, Mississippi and Texas.
• Department of Interior, Office of the Census, Soundex of Twelfth Census of the United States: 1900. Population (7846 rolls, Washington), F-640, Mississippi and Texas.
• Department of Interior, Office of the Census, Tenth Census of the United States: 1880. Population (1454 rolls, Washington), Counties of Jefferson, Mississippi, and Somervell and Tarrant, Texas.
• Department of Interior, Office of the Census, Twelfth Census of the United States: 1900. Population (1854 rolls, Washington), Counties of Jefferson, Mississippi, and Somervell and Tarrant, Texas.
• Hudson, Weldon I., First Settlers of Tarrant County, Texas 1841-1859, Volume 1, Fort Worth: Weldon I. Hudson, 1983, 137-267.
• Knight, Oliver, Fort Worth, Outpost on the Trinity, Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1990, 37.
• McKitrick, Reuben, The Public Land System of Texas, 1823-1910, New York: Arno Press, 1979.
• McLemore, Richard Aubrey, A History of Mississippi, Vol. 1, Jackson: University & College Press of Mississippi, 1973.
• Miller, Thomas Lloyd, Bounty and Donation Land Grants of Texas, 1835-1888, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967.
• Miller, Thomas Lloyd, The Public Lands of Texas, 1519-1970, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972, 27-59.
• Murray, Nicholas Russell, Jefferson County Mississippi, 1805-1900, Computer Indexed Marriage Records, Hammond: Hunting For Bears, Inc., 1990.
• Personal Tax Rolls, Jefferson County, State of Mississippi, 1832-1893.
• Sanders, Leonard, How Fort Worth Became the Texasmost City, 1849-1920, Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1986, 17-18.
• Selcer, Richard F., The Fort That Became A City, An Illustrated Reconstruction of Fort Worth, Texas, 1849-1853, Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1995.
• Tarrant County Tax Rolls, 1850-1910, General MFM 976.4, (Reel 1).
• Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics, Index to Death Certificates, State of Texas, 1903-1945.
• War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, (128 Vols., Washington, 1880-1901), Consolidated Index to Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Roll 149, F-Fanver.
• Watkins, Sue, ed., One League to Each Wind, Accounts of Early Surveying in Texas, Austin: Texas Surveyors Association, (1964), 1973, 42-56.
• Weaver, Herbert, Mississippi Farmers, 1850-1860, Nashville: The Vanderbilt University Press, 1945.
• Wittshire, Betty Couch, Marriages and Deaths from Mississippi Newspapers, 1850-1861, Vols. 3 and 4, Bowie: Heritage Books, Inc., 1990.

Series Description

The Hugh James Fairly Papers are arranged in two series:

Series I. Legal Documents, 1842-1855. .09 linear ft. (.18 document box, 4 folders).

Legal document folders are arranged in chronological order. Items within the folders are arranged chronologically. Included are surveys, land certificates, and affidavits for land in the Denton District of Tarrant County signed by H. J. Fairly and A. G. Walker as deputy surveyors. Bulk of the material is from January 1854 through June 1855.

Series II. Personal Letters and Papers, 1856-1936. .08 linear ft. (.16 document box, 3 folders).

Personal letters and papers folders are arranged in chronological order. Items within the folders are arranged chronologically. Included are letters to and from H. J. Fairly, research notes for the Fairly family, and manuscript copies of surveys recorded in Tarrant County. Bulk of the material is from October 1856 through August 1878.

Scope and Content Note

The papers are contained in one-third of one legal size document box. They are arranged in two series consisting of seven folders. The twenty-six original handwritten items include: eighteen surveys and land certificates and eight letters and notes. Primarily items are by or about Hugh James Fairly.

Series I. Consists of legal documents concerning land in the Denton District of Tarrant County, Texas. These are surveys, land certificates, and affidavits signed by Hugh James Fairly or A. G. Walker.

Series II. Consists of personal letters and papers either by or about Hugh James Fairly. It contains notes for deeds of two tracts, one letter by Fairly, two letters to Fairly, one letter about Fairly, and notes by Fairly of surveys recorded in the Tarrant County Surveyor’s office.

The series and series order were decided by the processing archivist. Materials in each series and the order in each folder were decided by the processing archivist. Folders containing legal documents are arranged chronologically. Contents of folders are arranged chronologically. Folders containing personal letters and papers are arranged chronologically. Contents of folders are arranged chronologically. No items were discarded.

This collection will be of particular interest to those studying or researching surveying in the state of Texas, surveying in Tarrant County, the early settlers of Tarrant County, the history of Fort Worth, the history of Tarrant County, and the history of the Denton District of Tarrant County. It also provides information for those researching public land, bounty warrants, and land grants in the 19^th century in Texas. There is some information on Hugh James Fairly, the Fairly family, and A. G. Walker.

Provenance Statement

All of the materials included in the Hugh James Fairly Papers were a gift to The University of Texas at Arlington, Special Collections Division, in 1974 by Jenkins Garrett.

Literary Rights Statement

Permission to publish, copy, reprint, digitize, orally record for transmission over public or private airways, or use in any and all other current or future developed methods or procedures, must be obtained in writing from the Special Collections Division of The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries. All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards.

Container List
Series I. Legal Documents, 1842-1855

GA 47
Folder Title, Dates, and Description

1. 1 Fannin County Survey, 1842. Contains 1 item. A survey in the County of Fannin, Republic of Texas, September 1842.
2. 2 Denton District Surveys, 1854. Contains 5 items. These are surveys of land in the Denton District of Tarrant County signed by H. J. Fairly and A. G. Walker between January 1854 and December 1854.
3. 3 Tarrant County Survey, 1854. Contains 1 item. A land certificate for property in Tarrant County.
4. 4 Denton District Surveys, 1855. Contains 11 items. These surveys and land certificates for land in the Denton District of Tarrant County signed by H. J. Fairly and A. G. Walker between January 1855 and July 1855.

Series II. Personal Letters and Papers, 1856-1936

5. 5 Texas Deed Notes and Letter, 1856. Contains 2 items. These are notes about deeds of two tracts of land and one letter about land.
6. 6 Survey Notes and Personal Letters, 1857. Contains 3 items. There is one letter by Fairly and two letters to Fairly about surveying and personal affairs.
7. 7 Fairly Family and Tarrant County Survey Notes, 1857-1936. Contains 3 items. There is a letter about H. J. Fairly and notes about land and surveys in Tarrant County.

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This page last update on Wednesday, June 25, 2003