Off the Shelf: April 2023

The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center has the Grant Colored Asylum and the Colored Orphanage Asylum of North Carolina Enrollment Ledger available online.

The Grant Colored Asylum was established in October 1883 on a 24 acre farm near Oxford, Granville County, North Carolina.

This ledger records African-American children enrolled during 1885-1919 and includes information such as the child’s name, home town and county, birth date, date of admittance into the orphanage, personal description, and sometimes the name of the parent(s).

Fourteen children from Gaston County and Lincoln County are listed in these records.

Index of Gaston and Lincoln County Children Received into the Colored Orphan Asylum

Surname	Given Name	Town	County	Page	Entry No.

Fingers	John	Lincolnton	Lincoln	122	245
Lineberger	Briton	Dallas	Gaston	86	173
Lineberger	Ernest	Dallas	Gaston	87	175
Lineberger	Eugene	Dallas	Gaston	87	174
Lineberger	Mary Jane	Dallas	Gaston	88	177
Lineberger	Walter	Dallas	Gaston	88	176
McCorkle	Meta B.	Stanford	Lincoln	135	271
McDowell	Esther	Lowesville	Lincoln	108	216
McDowell	Fred	Lowesville	Lincoln	108	217
Pegram	Edna	Dallas	Gaston	82	165
Pegram	Gerard Esley	Dallas	Gaston	83	166
Pegram	Queen Victoria	Dallas	Gaston	82	164
Stowe	Ernest	Dallas	Gaston	89	178
Stowe	John	Dallas	Gaston	89	179

Reverend Sylvester Paul Biggers served as Resident Manager 1 and later as Assistant Superintendent of the Orphanage, which had been renamed The Colored Orphanage of North Carolina in 1927.2 In his Report of the Assistant Superintendent for July 1, 1963 through June 30, 1964, he wrote that although for the first time, the dairy program of the orphanage "was able to step up its milk production without the purchase of additional cows" that their "most important product" was the rearing of "girls and boys to become self-supporting citizens."3 Rev. Biggers resigned his position on April 30, 1964.

Rev. S. P. Biggers' mother, Mrs. Cora Finger Biggers, had previously worked for the Orphanage as matron of the girls. After the death of her husband, Rev. Paul A. Biggers, Cora "accepted a position as matron at the Oxford Orphanage to render service to children and also to earn money with which to educate two of her youngest sons."4

Mrs. Cora Finger Biggers

Cora Biggers' youngest son was mural artist, author, and art department chair at Texas Southern University, John Thomas Biggers.5 John Biggers was born in Gastonia on April 13, 1924, and his father Paul Biggers died in 1937 when John was 13 years old.

John Thomas Biggers (1924 - 2001), Gastonia, N.C. artist.

The records for the Grant Colored Asylum and the Colored Orphanage Asylum of North Carolina Enrollment Ledger are located at https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/242322

1: Report to The Board of Directors of The Colored Orphanage of North Carolina [July 1, 1962-June 30, 1963] p.11.

2: Report to The Board of Directors of The Colored Orphanage of North Carolina [July 1, 1962-June 30, 1963] p6

3: Report to The Board of Directors of The Colored Orphanage of North Carolina [July 1, 1963-June 30, 1964] p.11.

4: Mrs. Cora Finger Biggers Reared Model Family. The Gastonia Gazette, September 8, 1962. and The Colored Orphanage of North Carolina Report of Superintendent [February 1, 1937-June 30, 1940] p.9.

5: Black artist returns home. The Gastonia Gazette, October 8, 1978.

6: Gastonia artist gets honorary degree from N.C. State University. The Gastonia Gazette, December 24, 1999 p4B

Brian Brown, Librarian, Local History & Genealogy