Duncan McArn was born on February 14, 1810. He moved from North Carolina to Jefferson County, Mississippi, around 1835. McArn taught school in neighboring Franklin County during the first five years of his residence in Mississippi. He married Catherine Torrey (b. 1821) of Mississippi on May 9, 1844. They had three children: Anna Duncan, John Dougal, and William T. (1845-1874). McArn soon began cultivating cotton on a plantation near Fayette, Jefferson County, and he established business outlets in Natchez and Rodney, Mississippi, and in New Orleans. The McArns were members of Union Church Presbyterian Church in Jefferson County. Duncan McArn died on February 24, 1875, leaving the management of the family plantation in the hands of his second son, John Dougal. Catherine Torrey McArn and John Dougal McArn were still operating the plantation in 1880. Catherine Torrey McArn died on February 8, 1885.

John Dougal McArn was born in Mississippi on April 7, 1852. He attended Oakland College and the University of Mississippi, but he returned to manage his father’s plantation without taking a university degree. McArn married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Wilkinson (1855-1904) in February of 1877. The daughter of Daniel M. Wilkinson, she lived in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, before studying in Oxford, Lafayette County, Mississippi. The McArns had at least twelve children: Mary C. (b. ca. 1878), Emma Power (1879-1937), Anna D. (b. 1879), Willie Sue (b. 1881), Lizzie (1883-1976), Margaret (1885-1931), Duncan (b. 1887), Effie (1889-1915), Allene (1889-1905), Katie (1890-1977), John Daniel, and Ruth. John Dougal McArn died on December 29, 1916.

John Daniel McArn was born in Jefferson County, Mississippi, on May 3, 1893. He was living with his brother, Duncan, and six of his sisters, Emma P., Katie, Lizzie, Margaret, Ruth, and Willie Sue, and farming in Jefferson County in 1920. Duncan McArn had been employed as a Jefferson County deputy or sheriff for twenty-eight years when he retired in 1956. John Daniel McArn died on May 3, 1987.

This collection includes several diaries, original sewing patterns, needlework-pattern books, and miscellaneous papers probably belonging to various McArn family members.

There are six diaries with brief entries that primarily record weather conditions in Jefferson County, Mississippi. Occasionally, they also record the deaths of family members and a few acquaintances, as well as activities such as hog-killing, hunting, and planting. The owners of two of the diaries are identified, but the rest of the diaries are anonymous. The first diary covers 1902. Another diary covers 1911 through January of 1916. John Daniel McArn kept the 1924 diary, and its entries are sporadic, covering January through part of March of that year. Another diary belonged to Willie Sue McArn, and it covers 1931 through 1935. The last diary is dated 1956 and contains daily entries of the same type as the others, but they are slightly longer and note more local deaths.

There are a number of hand-drawn or traced sewing patterns for various types of adult and infant clothing, as well as needlework-pattern books for crocheting, embroidery, knitting, and tatting. A 1918 pattern book is from the Ladies’ Home Journal, and a Bear Brand Bucilla and Glossilla Blue Book is dated 1921. The other pattern books are from Frederick Herrschner, Louise Nacke, the M. J. Cunning Company, the National Bellas Hess Company, the Priscilla Needlework Company, the Richardson Silk Company, Superyarn, and the Star Needlework Journal, and they are all undated. Willie Sue McArn owned one of the pattern books from the Richardson Silk Company.

The miscellaneous papers include an undated business card of attorney Claude H. Powell, an undated newsclipping of a poem entitled "Patients at Parchman," and an undated, unidentified memorandum book that lists a number of people and contains occasional unspecified accounts.

1. Diaries. 1902-1956. 2 folders.

   Box 1

2. Sewing Patterns (Original). n.d. 1 folder.

   Box 2, folder 1

3. Needlework-Pattern Books. 1918; 1921; n.d. 3 folders.

   Box 1, folders 3-4
   Box 2, folder 2

4. Miscellaneous Papers. n.d. 1 folder.

   Box 1