Selected Early Land Deeds

Summary: Self-explanatory

Interpretive:
Before the College was even formally chartered in 1838, a few of the Trustees who had been appointed by the Virginia Conference in 1837 purchased 210 acres (in two parcels - 110 acres & 100 acres) of land lying west Greensboro for the sume of $3,350. Once the College was chartered, they, in turn, sold the land to the College. Of the 210 original acres, 40 were reserved for the College proper, and the rest were gradually sold off piecemeal as a means of recouping the original investment.

In the early 1880s, the College was in serious financial difficulty, and the Trustees ordered the sale of the College in 1882. A group of prominent Methodist laymen, of whom one was J.M. Odell and of whom several were involved with the North Carolina Railroad Company, purchased the College on June 5, 1882. Through their support and management, the school was able to continue operating.

Two years later, the North Carolina Railroad Company resold the College to the Greensboro Female College Association (Alumni) which was established in 1884. Through "An Act For The Promotion of Female Education," the College was able to secure the right to sells bonds, a financial move that helped in the short term.

Early land deeds such as these help to demonstrate the origins of the College and show who some of the principal players in the College's early years.

Status: Non-Circulating

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Technical Notes:
The deeds listed below are in the form of PDF files. However, they are not keyword searchable. In order to view the following documents, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, click here to download it from Adobe.

Depending on individual monitor sizes and resolutions, it may be necessary to use the "zoom" tool in Adobe Acrobat Reader to achieve the cleanest text and easiest to read text.

Technical Specs:
Master images saved as uncompressed TIFF files in true color (due to the amount of sepia toning) at 600 dpi. - unaltered image size. Access images (PDF Files) created using Adobe Capture 3.0: image - exact, true color at 300 dpi, JPEG compression - medium quality.

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