Published two years after John Hill Wheeler's (1806-1882) death, Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians compiles facts, genealogies, lists of officials, and short biographical sketches from North Carolina's Revolutionary War-era and antebellum history. Parts of the compilation also refer to the Civil War and Reconstruction. The text is divided into 49 chapters and is organized alphabetically by county—though not all counties are included—and reads more like a collection of notes for a larger work, perhaps a kind of reference that Wheeler was unable to complete. The work has proved popular over the years, especially among genealogists and local historians, because of the many names it includes and the popular tales it retells.

Works Consulted: William S. Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, vol. 6, Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1996, 167-168; H.G. Jones, History's Sake: The Preservation and Publication of North Carolina's History, 1663-1903, Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1966.

Kevin Cherry