Hi Betty: You may want to contact "Ancestor Images" out of Apex, NC. Their web site is www.ancestorimages.com. Maybe they can help with the preservation or direct you to someone who can. Good luck. Sam ----- Original Message ----- From: "Betty Rose" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 3:36 PM Subject: [NCLENOIR] Poems of Sarah Eleanor Brock (1845-1900?) > Hi folks! My 94 yr. old aunt just gave me a packet of poems that the > sister of our ancestor, Stephen Rhodes Brock (b.4/22/1854 - > d.1/21/1924) wrote during mid to late 1800's. Stephen was born in > Duplin Co., but moved with his family to Lenoir Co. by the 1860 census. > his father was Edward A. Brock, who was killed in the Civil War. > > The papers are in very poor condition, and although the penmanship is > very pretty, the spelling seems to be more like the word "sounds" than > how it should be spelled. Although back then, perhaps it was the way > words were spelled! LOL!! > > Where is the best place or person for me to contact re: protecting > these papers from any further damage? The poems were written on a type > of stationery that has an embossed "Fairfield" on the left top of the > page. Other poems are written on lined paper. They have been folded and > refolded, and many are torn. Poems are written on the front, and in > some cases, both front and back of the page. > > I am so excited about finding these. They were evidently in the trunk > of Stephen R. Brock when he died in Winston-Salem, NC at the home of my > grandfather, his son, Walter E. Brock. > > I think Stephen, or his mother, Catherine_______Brock saved them, as > the author of the poems was listed in the 1880 census as having > "consumption". The poetry appears (from what I can decipher) to deal > with her feelings about death and her acceptance of it, and her desire > to have all family members come to know God. > > Who knows if she ever gave her writings to any of her family members? > Perhaps they were found by her mother after she died. What an exciting > mystery! > > Incidentally, Stephen Brock, tho a farmer, also became a minister, and > served churches in Clinton, Rock Hill and Lancaster. >