This slim volume contains lists of Willard S. Niles' students at various locations in New York State, scholars' attendance, and other records between 1841 and 1849. The attendance rolls are divided by commencement date and each student's name is followed by a row of hash marks. Niles' children used most of the pages' margins and blank spaces to practice penmanship, jot their address, repeat student names, and in one case copy a letter from Hiram Niles in Iowa. The letter copy reads "It is very loathsome and mean and disgusting in you not to write once in a month if I get down." The blank book has tan, paper covers. Printed on the front cover is WRITING BOOK. THE PROPERTY OF MANUFACTURED AND SOLD BY B. MAYNARD... Hamilton, N.Y.: Imprint of G. R. Waldron & Co., with images of a patriotic eagle and shield, small oval depictions of a woman with a ship in the background, and decorative borders. The back cover bears a printed multiplication table.
Willard S. Niles was born in Madison, New York, on October 21, 1803, to Isaac and Lucretia Russell Niles. The family moved to Brockport, New York, and elsewhere in New York State. Mary Moseley (1807-1885) married Willard Niles on November 26, 1835, at Lebanon, New York. They would have at least three children, including Willard Smith Niles (1840-1938), Hiram E. M. Niles (1844-1919), and Mary Lucretia Niles (1853-1935). Willard Niles taught school for 35 years, in Hubbardsville, Earlville, Elbridge, Hamilton, and Smithville, New York. In September 1855, the family moved to Madison, Iowa. The Nileses there became farmers. Willard S. Niles died on January 8, 1885.
