William Sidney Porter Papers

Financial and legal documents - Porter Drug Store
Twenty-six items are from the Porter Drug Store from 1853-1889. The majority are receipts for items purchased and several are signed by W.C. Porter. See the finding aid for the various names of this drugstore at different times. Also included is an agreement (1882) between Porter and Dalton and C. P. Mendenhall for fixtures, etc. (with explanatory notes included) as well as the receipt from W.C. Porter to R.F. Dalton (1882) for 1/2 interest in the drugstore. Very interesting are two pages of accounts from Porter and Gorrell to W.C. Porter (debits), 1863, with amounts in "Confederate" and "Gold." Several of the receipts are Civil War era and many have the drugstore letter/billhead.
Letters to Lyndon Swaim
Lyndon Swaim followed William Swaim as editor of the "Greensboro Patriot" (1839-1854). He had been apprenticed under William. In 1842, he married the widowed Mrs. William Swaim and became stepfather to Mary Jane Virginia Swaim Porter, William Sydney Porter's mother. The 1839 item is from Jesse Lindsay to Lyndon Swaim inviting him to return to Greensboro to edit the "Carolina (Greensboro) Patriot." The other item is from a John Swaim in New Jersey and deals with early Swaim genealogy.