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A. R. Pierce and A. L. Rankin papers consist of letters filled with detailed information on the buildings, people, and religious life of Tulare, California.

Adam Lowry Rankin's lengthy letters to his friend in Vermont, A.R. Pierce are filled with detailed information on the buildings, people, and religious life in Tulare during the turbulent years of the 1870s. Rankin provides unusually detailed descriptions of both of the houses in which he lived, including a floor plan of one, of his garden, the church being constructed for him, and the town.

The true heart of the collection, however, is the protracted struggle between Rankin and his rivals. Rankin's early enthusiasm for his mission was met with a wall of apathy by the residents of Tulare, who seem always to have been more concerned with malicious gossip and grudges than salvation. Rankin comments at length on his failing ministry, on the religious and social tensions in town, and on the friction resulting from those whom Rankin considered as moral backsliders. Rankin's financial difficulties his relationship with both the Congregational Church hierarchy and the American Home Missionary Society also figure throughout the collection.

This volume contains accounts and a diary kept intermittently by Massachusetts merchant Horatio Gates Sanford between 1835 and 1884. Diary entries pertain to Sanford's religious convictions, conversations about Christianity, and attendance at Sabbath School and other church activities.

This volume contains accounts (27 pages) and a diary (128 pages) kept intermittently by Massachusetts merchant Horatio Gates Sanford between 1835 and 1884. The first 27 pages record financial transactions between Sanford and numerous persons from February 16, 1835-January 14, 1836, including the amount of "cash sales" made with each person listed.

The majority of the volume consists of diary entries that Sanford wrote sporadically between 1840 and 1884. The first section (October 15, 1840-February 6, 1843) contains daily entries about Sanford's philosophy of faith and includes occasional mentions of his personal and domestic life. The earliest entries relate to Sanford's experiences at his dying mother's bedside. He discussed her steadily declining health, the effects his mother's death had on his religious convictions, the family's reaction to her death, and her funeral. By November 1840, Sanford had returned home to Boston, where he often wrote about religious conversations, topics of sermons, and his activities at the Bowdoin Square Church. The second diary section (July 23, 1846-September 12, 1846) has near-daily entries about similar religious topics. The final group of entries (February 2, 1884-March 24, 1884) pertains to the death of Harriet Sanford, Horatio's wife, and his religious convictions. He continued to attend sermons and Congregational prayer meetings as he neared his 76th birthday. One letter fragment addressed to a Sabbath School is inserted into the volume (August 1858).

This collection consists primarily of letters received by Polly Carpenter Jones between 1814 and 1865, as well as two letters addressed to her husband, Austin Jones of Harford, Pennsylvania. Friends and family frequently corresponded about daily life in Pennsylvania, and many of her female acquaintances mentioned their teaching careers.

This collection consists primarily of letters received by Polly Carpenter Jones between 1814 and 1865, as well as two letters addressed to her husband, Austin Jones of Harford, Pennsylvania. The first items in the collection chiefly concern Polly's schooling in Harford, Pennsylvania, and include advice on the importance of an education, among other topics. Thomas Sweet specifically addressed the art of writing to a woman, admitting his own inexperience (December 4, 1816). Another early letter, written by William Torrey on December 29, 1818, concerns the administration of Sabbath schools and addresses Polly as the leader of such a school in Mt. Ararat, Pennsylvania. After 1857, much of Polly's incoming correspondence originated from her daughter Sarah, who wrote about her experiences teaching school in Canandaigua, New York, and who, in the collection's final letter, mentioned the recent fall of Richmond, Virginia, at the end of the Civil War (April 5, 1865). Another late correspondent, Hannah T. Ride, wrote a nostalgic letter about old friends in Harford and provided advice on medicinal plants (May 13, 1858). Undated material includes several similar letters from family and friends, including one from Polly's sister Betsey, who also taught school.

In addition to Polly's incoming correspondence, the collection holds one letter addressed to Ann Jones and two addressed to Austin Jones, Polly's husband; one of these, written by Polly weeks before their wedding, asked him to confirm his feelings for her (September 3, 1824), and another provided news of family members and acquaintances of Lydia W. Jones (March 10, 1855).