Collections

The Bowman collection contains financial documents, correspondence, and essays related to the family of Samuel Bowman of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The material reflects financial, legal, and personal affairs of various Bowman family members.

The Bowman collection contains financial documents, correspondence, and essays related to the family of Samuel Bowman of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Two early receipts, dated 1770 and 1771, pertain to the financial affairs of William Ledlie, Captain Samuel Bowman's father-in-law. Other receipts from the 1790s, indicate Bowman's purchase of "twenty Gallons of Whiskey and one Cask," and a transaction involving a horse; one later financial document records an order for schoolbooks in 1809 made by Jacob Morris, a Revolutionary War colonel.

Several legal documents throughout the collection document land holdings of the Bowman family, as well as additional fiscal matters; these include a sworn statement about Ebenezer Bowman's debts (November 10, 1821), a deed for land owned by the estate of Jesse Fell near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania [1831], and a notice of a pending lawsuit against William Ledlie Bowman (February 20, 1837).

The collection also holds personal correspondence, including, among other material, one anonymous, religious letter (May 29, 1797), and an item about local military recruitment efforts (February 4, 1800). Among the additional materials are a celebratory essay written on July 4, 1825; an article about local lawyer Mr. Phillips, addressed to the editor of the Wyoming Herald; and an essay composed "On Nothing."

This collection is made up of correspondence, legal documents, financial records, school essays, ephemera, and other materials related to the family and descendants of Maskell Ewing of Radnor, Pennsylvania. The bulk relates to Maskell Ewing and his son, Maskell Cochran Ewing.

This collection is made up of correspondence, legal documents, financial records, school essays, ephemera, and other materials related to the family and descendants of Maskell Ewing of Radnor, Pennsylvania. The bulk relates to Maskell Ewing and his son, Maskell Cochran Ewing.

The Ewing family correspondence dates between 1784 and 1937, though the bulk falls between 1789 and 1845, with later groups dating from the Civil War and the mid-20th century. The earliest items include letters from Elinor Gardiner Hunter to her son James, written in the late 18th century, and incoming correspondence addressed to Maskell Ewing (1758-1825), often related to his financial affairs. Throughout the 1820s, Maskell Cochran Ewing (1806-1849) received letters from his mother and sisters while he studied at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. These letters reflect his military education and document women's lives in rural Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. Maskell Cochran Ewing occasionally wrote letters from the academy, and received letters from former classmates in the years immediately following his graduation. Several letters addressed to Maskell Cochran Ewing date from the Civil War.

The Ewing family's diaries, journals, school books, and a sketchbook primarily belonged to Maskell Cochran Ewing and James Hunter Ewing. One of Maskell Cochran's journals contains notes from a surveying expedition for the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal (1828). James Hunter Ewing composed 3 journals during the Civil War era.

Legal and financial documents comprise the bulk of the collection, with much of the material relating to the financial, legal, and real estate affairs of Maskell Ewing, with some items concerning Maskell Cochran Ewing's military career. Maskell Cochran Ewing kept a series of account books in 1859, intended for student use. Also of note is a set of United States debt certificates for goods seized for use by the Continental Army between 1780 and 1783. Bonds, receipts, financial records, and legal documents related to specific disputes also appear in the collection.

The Ewing family papers also include essays on many different topics, a manuscript map of West Point, and ephemera postcards, photographs, printed materials, and calling cards.

This collection is made up of correspondence, financial records, meeting minutes, and documents related to the operations of the French Creek and Cherry Run Oil Company. The company purchased land and dug oil wells in Venango County, Pennsylvania, in 1865.

This collection is made up of correspondence, financial records, meeting minutes, and documents related to the operations of the French Creek and Cherry Run Oil Company. The company purchased land and dug oil wells in Venango County, Pennsylvania, in 1865.

The earliest documents concern the company's initial expenses, a scouting mission, and founding documents. These items include receipts for land purchases near Frenchcreek, Pennsylvania, and a report regarding the costs of an examination of the company's property. On or around April 7, 1865, its founders adopted articles of association and afterward they addressed a summary of their proposed operation to Isaac Slenker, the auditor general of Pennsylvania. During the summer of 1865, John J. Glisson wrote 9 letters to the company's leaders from Franklin, Pennsylvania, and Big Creek, Pennsylvania, in which he reported on the company's local interests, equipment, wells, and finances. Brief meeting minutes are interspersed throughout the collection. Three printed and partially documents are a letter patent for the French Creek and Cherry Run Oil Company and 2 indentures for land in Frenchcreek, Pennsylvania. Also included is a map of the company's property along French Creek.

This collection is made up of accounts and receipts regarding Philadelphia tanner Jonathan Meredith. Most items pertain to Meredith's personal purchases of food and other goods during the year 1804, and one group of early items concerns property that Meredith owned in Philadelphia in the late 1700s.

This collection (77 items) is made up of accounts and receipts regarding Philadelphia tanner Jonathan Meredith. The first 4 items concern costs associated with carpentry work done on two properties owned by Meredith (November 26, 1784, and August 6, 1790) and the sale of one of these properties to Lauman & West (March 27, 1795, and April 15, 1795). The remaining items, the bulk of which are dated in 1804, are receipts and invoices for Meredith's purchases of goods from different Philadelphia merchants. Many concern foodstuffs such as bread loaves, sugar, fruits, coffee, and spices; Meredith also paid to have meat smoked. He bought glass, paper items, and candles, and he paid for labor, such as shoe repair. Two items concern taxes (August 29, 1804, and 1804); one concerns a newspaper advertisement (November 21, 1803); and one concerns legal services associated with a mortgage between Meredith and Sarah Wistar (December 4, 1804).

The Quaker Collection consists of miscellaneous letters, diaries, and documents relating to the religious and social history of the Society of Friends in America during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Quaker collection consists of miscellaneous letters, diaries, and documents related to the religious and social history of the Society of Friends in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. These items offer insights into Quaker's daily activities and concerns, such as family life, education, and attending meetings, as well as their participation in various social reform movements, such as abolition, treatment of Native Americans, prison improvements, temperance, and pacifism. The collection also documents internal divergences of American Quakerism in the 19th century, particularly the social and doctrinal disputes that culminated in the Hicksite and Wilburite schisms.

• 1707: A manuscript copy of the death warrant of William Leddra, the last of four Quakers (including Mary Dyer) executed in Massachusetts Bay colony for their religious beliefs
• July 26, 1755: A letter from Alexander Colden to Sir William Johnson voicing frustration with Quakers who refuse to support the war effort in Pennsylvania, and an announcement of General Braddock's defeat
• August 4-12 and 17, 1761: Two accounts, one by an anonymous woman, of Quaker presence at Treaty negotiations held at Easton, Pennsylvania, between the government of Pennsylvania and the Six Nations tribes. Discussed are the negotiations, Quaker-Indian interactions, and the role of Quaker women in the Society
• [After 1770]: An account by an anonymous author of a conference with Native Americans, mostly of the Minnisink Tribe
• October 13, 1829: A letter from Phoebe Post Willis of Jericho, New York, to Isaac Post on the death of John Hicks and strife between Orthodox and Hicksite Quakers
• March 10, 1843: A letter from Ethan Foster of Westerly, Rhode Island, to Thomas B. Gould on Wilburite-Gurneyite strife in his local meeting, and the disownment of Wilbur
• [After 1863 July]: A letter describing a meeting between Abraham Lincoln and five Quaker prisoners of war, who had been forced into the Confederate army, captured by the Union, and held at Fort Delaware
• Various dates: Reports, minutes, and epistles from yearly friends meetings in America and Great Britain

This collection contains legal and financial documents related to Robert Caldwell and his son Washington, both of Penn Township, Pennsylvania. Material includes indentures and court documents related to Robert Caldwell's land holdings, as well as receipts and court records reflecting Washington's career as a carpenter and, later, his service as a justice of the peace for Allegheny County.

This collection contains legal and financial documents related to Robert Caldwell and his son Washington, of Penn Township, Pennsylvania. The first item is an indenture between Samuel and Margaret Caldwell of Salem, Pennsylvania, and Robert Caldwell, related to the estate of the recently deceased Joseph Harvey (January 24, 1823). The bulk of the material dates from 1840 to 1901, and documents the property interests of Robert Caldwell, as well as the financial and legal affairs of his son. Early items (1840-1872) consist of indentures, court records, and other documents, primarily pertaining to land in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Also included are several early bonds (late 1840s), as well as testimonies from several court cases, including Caldwell's disputes with William and Sophia Whitfield, John P. Schuster et al., George Miller, and Robert M. Callen. A survey map that Caldwell commissioned from E. H. Heastings, shows land along Plum Creek, near Millersville (December 28, 1854).

Later material pertains to the financial and legal affairs of Washington Caldwell, beginning with his assumption of administrative powers over his father's estate (March 25, 1873). Several receipts dated throughout the late 1800s relate to the purchase of carpentry supplies, and a series of court documents from 1899-1900 concern legal cases he presided over while a justice of the peace for the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, particularly wage disputes against Daniel Moore. Other material includes insurance policies from various companies, covering Washington Caldwell's property in Verona, Pennsylvania (1886-1892).

Two broadsides document Robert Caldwell's efforts to arrest a burglar (December 21, 1843), and Washington Caldwell's sale of his deceased father's "Frame Grist and Saw Mill" (January 23, 1875).

This collection is made up of correspondence, financial records, legal documents, and other materials related to Philadelphia merchant and banker Samuel Harvey. The materials pertain to Harvey's personal finances, business matters, his firm Harvey & Worth, the Bank of Germantown, administration of decedents' estates, and real property in Pennsylvania.

This collection is made up of correspondence, financial records, legal documents, and other materials related to Samuel Harvey, a merchant from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The materials pertain to Harvey's personal finances, his business affairs, the firm Harvey & Worth, the Bank of Germantown, administration of decedents' estates, and real property in Pennsylvania.

The Samuel Harvey papers include Harvey's incoming correspondence, but are primarily comprised of legal and financial documents related to:

• Decedents' estates (approximately 140 items, 1775-1836)
• Real estate (45 items, 1784-1883)
• Mercantile and personal matters (approximately 560 items, 1796-1888)
• The Bank of Germantown (approximately 570 items, 1813-1865)

The collection includes around 80 incoming letters to Samuel Harvey, largely concerning his business affairs, finances, and management of estates. The remaining items, written and received by a variety of individuals, include letters about religion, family news, and real property, among other subjects.

The materials pertaining to estate administration regard the estates of Mark Freeman (23 items, 1775-1806), George Roberts (26 items, 1800-1803), John Thompson (65 items, 1813-1836), Isaiah Bell (22 items, 1819-1833), and Benjamin Rowland (9 items, 1824-1828). The documents include accounts, indentures, and correspondence regarding the men's finances during their lifetimes and finances connected with their respective estates. The Mark Freeman records contain items related to the firm Forbes & Paton and to William Sitgreaves. The George Roberts records contain items pertaining to William Roberts and to Samuel Harvey, who was at one time an administrator of the estate. The John Thompson materials largely pertain to Samuel Harvey's guardianship over Thompson's minor children, including Mary, Robert, Elizabeth, Matthew, William, and Isabella. Several items are signed by John Thompson's widow, Ann E. Thompson, and reflect payments that she received from Harvey.

Items related to real estate include surveyors' records, deeds, indentures, agreements, accounts, and maps related to land in Philadelphia. Most items dated prior to 1847 pertain directly or indirectly to Samuel Harvey.

The mercantile and personal papers of Samuel Harvey largely consist of accounts and receipts related to Harvey's finances and purchases, the firm Harvey & Worth, the management of estates, the Pennsylvania Seamen's Friend Society, and lawsuits..

The Bank of Germantown papers include reports on the bank's vaults, the destruction of banknotes, and the bank's relationships with customers. Many items in the series are personal accounts and receipts concerning Samuel Harvey's purchases of goods and labor.

The collection includes one book: A Century of the National Bank of Germantown (Philadelphia: Innes & Sons, [1914]).