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The first portion of this volume dates from 1816 to 1854 and contains records on African Americans registering with the Jackson County, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas, in accordance with the state's restrictive Black Laws. The bulk of the entries are copies of evidence used to prove free status with brief notes about the officials who attested to the information in the originating state and recorded the information in Ohio. Occasionally the entries provide physical descriptions of the registrants, including general age, skin tone, height, hair, and scars or marks on their bodies. The second portion of the volume primarily contains copies of the commissions for Jackson County justices of the peace from 1816 to 1842. Occasional justices' resignations appear as well as documentation of ministers authorized to solemnize marriages.

The first portion of this volume dates from 1816 to 1854 and records information on African Americans registering with the Jackson County, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas, in accordance with the state's restrictive Black Laws. The first entry is apparently a copy of an 1816 document (Wm Sterett was county clerk in Mason, West Virginia) that was recorded by the Jackson clerk in 1818. The bulk of the entries are copies of evidence used to prove free status, with brief notes about the officials who attested to the information in the originating state and recorded the information in Ohio. Evidence provided includes manumission deeds, brief notes about manumission papers, portions of wills, oaths, court certificates, registration records from other states, and statements made in open court. Occasionally entries also provide physical descriptions of the registrants. Such descriptions often include the registrants' general age, skin tone, height, hair, and scars or marks on their bodies. Registrants in the volume appear to have migrated from Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina or have already been residents of Ohio.

• Benjamin Johnston, enslaved and manumitted by Lawrence Augustine Washington "because of the solemn and entire conviction that I feel of the justice and propriety of the act"
• Lewis and Jinsey Burchett, enslaved and manumitted by John Burchett
• A number people enslaved and manumitted by John Poindexter, including Charles; Edy and her son Tarlton; and Jack
• Charles, husband to Edy named above, manumitted by her "in consideration of the natural love and affection which I bear to my husband Charles whom I purchased of David Shepherd"
• Walter, enslaved by Alexander Catlett and manumitted by his children Alexander Catlett, Jr., and Horatio Catlett
• Children of Lucy Morris (alias Yancy), born free: William Henry Yancy, Martha Jane Yancy, Charles Alexander Yancy, Lucy Ann Yancy
• Ann Carter, daughter of Hannah Grant, "a free woman of colour"
• Sam Cale, son of Sam Cale, "a free man of Colour"
• William Mitchel, "a Coulered man about to travel to the northwestern Country . . . born of free parents"
• Various men, women, and children enslaved by John Skurry and emancipated by his will, including Mack Skurry; the children of Eliza Skurry (William, Giles, Richard, Jane, Betsy Ann, Nancy); and Sally Ann
• Various men, women, and children enslaved by Joseph Perkins and emancipated by his will, including Isham; Milly, mother of five children, Ann, Martha, Jacob, John, and Isham; and Polly and her child Dick. Notably Polly appears to have registered in Jackson four years after Isham and Milly.
• Charles Roberts, born free
• Various men, women, and children enslaved by William Morrow and emancipated by his wife Elizabeth Morrow: Samuel Cale, his children Sam and Ester, and his grandchild Susan; Hannah Grant and her children Ann Carter, Jonathan, Reuben, Sam and Mary, and her grandchildren Frances or Sally; Sina and her child Fayette; Rachel and her five children, Betty, Sam, Agnes, Patton, and James
• Milly, enslaved by Richard Hawks and emancipated by his will
• Julius, enslaved by Thomas Whittington and emancipated by his will. Over fifty other additional men, women, and children were also named as being manumitted in the will.
• Richard Grant (alias Dick), enslaved and manumitted by James Withrow
• Ison McGhee, enslaved and manumitted by James Stephenson
• Jesse Artist, "of free Parentage"

The second portion of the volume primarily contains copies of the commissions for Jackson County justices of the peace from 1816 to 1842, while occasional justices' resignations also appear as well as documentation of ministers authorized to solemnize marriages. Denominations represented include Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and the United Brethren in Christ.

The collection also includes a single disbound page of financial accounts relating to court fees, ca. 1841.

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 consists of 24 manuscript items related to State of Indiana v. Luther A. Donnell, tried in the Decatur County Circuit Court in 1849. Luther A. Donnell, an Indiana farmer, was prosecuted for providing assistance to the Beach family during their escape from enslavement in Trimble County, Kentucky. The documents consist of 20 witness summons, the witness testimony of Robert Hamilton and Woodson Clark in the context of the court's proceedings, a summation of the trial proceedings (including the witness testimony of Robert Hamilton), an 1848 grand jury indictment, and one verdict slip.

The collection consists of 24 manuscript items related to the case of State of Indiana v. Luther A. Donnell, tried in the Decatur County Circuit Court in 1849. Luther A. Donnell, an Indiana farmer, was prosecuted for providing assistance to the Beach family during their escape from enslavement in Trimble County, Kentucky. The documents consist of 20 witness summons, the witness testimony of Robert Hamilton and Woodson Clark in the context of the court's proceedings, a summation of the trial proceedings including the witness testimony of Robert Hamilton, an 1848 grand jury indictment, and one verdict slip.

The 20 witness summonses are partially printed documents used to summon witnesses on behalf of the state, plaintiff, and defendant. They span the period of June 28, 1848-March 29, 1849.

One of the written documents is a summary of the trial proceedings. The proceedings include the indictment against Donnell on the basis of Indiana law and the legality of slavery in Kentucky; evidence introduced on behalf of the state; witness testimony for the state and defendant, including that of Robert Hamilton, associate of Donnell; the rendering of a guilty verdict; and attempts by the defense counsel to have the verdict set aside on the basis that the law Donnell was tried under was unconstitutional. Hamilton, who assisted Donnell with the hiding and escape of the Beach family, recounted the events of November 1, 1847, in his testimony, including Donnell's efforts to secure a writ of habeas corpus to search the property of Woodson Clark (who he believed was imprisoning the Beach family). Additional witnesses described seeing the Beach family or persons matching their description on their journey through the county following their rescue by Donnell and others. Woodson Clark's testimony also recounts the events of November 1, including his discovery of the Beach family and his subsequent deceit and imprisonment of them in a fodder house on property owned by his son, Robert Clark. Clark also notes his acquaintance with George Ray including a visit to his home where he had first seen members of the Beach family.

This collection is made up of the correspondence of William Dickson, a prominent member of the Republican party during and after the Civil War, and a perceptive observer and critic of the leading political characters and movements of his day. In 1860, he became part of inner Washington political circles, associating with Abraham Lincoln, Edwin M. Stanton, and Salmon Chase, and participating in the framing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The William Dickson papers include letters from an impressive array of the politically prominent, including Roscoe Conkling, James A. Garfield, Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, Rutherford B. Hayes, Salmon Chase, and George B. McClellan. Most are post-1870, but the several Civil War-era items are highly significant, particularly for their content regarding African-Americans. Copies of two letters of George McClellan, one to Winfield Scott and one to Salmon Chase [incomplete], are frank and informative. The former comments on Confederate strength and strategy, while the latter openly criticizes Lincoln and Stanton, and sets forth anti-abolition views: "...forcible abolition of Slavery should have no place in the policy of the Government. It should not free a slave, merely that a human being might be freed." An 1864 letter to Dickson from Gen. Lew Wallace disputes a statement that black brigades were not permitted to defend Cincinnati in 1863. Secretary of War Stanton wrote to Dickson in 1864, explaining refusal of a commission Dickson had supported, and in 1865 lamenting the death of Lincoln. Post-war letters from then-Representative Rutherford Hayes to Dickson praise his political judgment and comment revealingly on Reconstruction. In one of January, 1867 he disagrees with Dickson's recommendation of moderation and patience, asserting that "'the negroes and interlopers' are unprotected and are greatly in need of it," and that southerners worship power and only respond to its use. Moreover, "[t]hose people are our enemies until they agree to terms of settlement." Dickson's published address on Reconstruction spells out his views in support of black citizenship and suffrage. An 1870 letter from William Slocum Groesbeck, legal representative of President Johnson for the impeachment proceedings, alludes to a letter of Dickson's which defines policies similar to those adopted in the Emancipation Proclamation. He writes that Dickson may be associated "more intimately" with that "great historical event" than he is aware.

Dickson had strongly personal views about McClellan and Lincoln, based on pre-war associations with the future president, on time spent in Washington during the early stages of the war, and on his association with Thomas Marshall Key, McClellan's aid de camp and Dickson's pre-war law partner. After a week at McClellan's headquarters he came away disillusioned and disgusted, later recording his observations in an essay, "A Leaf from the Unwritten History of the Rebellion," written in response to the publication of McClellan's autobiography. This fascinating document damns McClellan as a weak and cautious leader who "organized the army not for victory, but for defeat," and whose influence remained long after he himself departed: "His impress remained almost to the end. His army could stand up and be killed; but it never had the confidence that leads to victory." He characterizes headquarters as a den of intrigue and plotting, with one element so loyal to McClellan that they would have overthrown the government for him. The general himself, Dickson believed, despised Lincoln both "as the representative of the abolition sentiment" and for his "ungainly gait and low birth." He permitted his staff to make the president " a subject for ridicule and merriment." One of his aides, talking to Stanton, referred to Lincoln as "the d-----d old Gorilla." Dickson also writes, in an unpublished draft, in defense of his former partner Key, who was accused in a book by Stanton-intimate Don Piatt [Memories of the Men Who Saved the Union] of being the "evil genius" behind McClellan. He acknowledges Key's influence but lays the credit for McClellan's failure at his own feet.

Dickson writes of Lincoln with respect and affection -- but with clear-eyed honesty. In the "Unwritten History" he analyzes Lincoln's character and political talents, noting both strengths and weaknesses, and using first-hand experiences to support his views. Another essay, "Abraham Lincoln at Cincinnati," written for Harper's Magazine in 1884, describes Lincoln's visits to the city during the course of his career. It discusses his long relationship with Stephen A. Douglas, and describes his legal and political acumen and the force of his personality.

Although a bystander rather than an office-holder, Dickson remained politically informed and involved throughout his life, and virtually all of the correspondence in this collection concerns political issues. The strongest set of letters are from George William Curtis, avid social reformer and editor of Harper's Weekly. During a correspondence of over 20 years the two commiserated and argued over the fortunes and philosophy of the Republican party and its leading lights. Topics of discussion include the Grant administration, the Hayes presidency, Roscoe Conkling, Grover Cleveland and civil service reform, tariff issues, the character and career of James Blaine, the Harrison administration, various Republican office-holders, and their shared view of the decline of their beloved party. Near the end of his life Dickson resigned his membership in the Lincoln Club and supported the Democrats in their tariff reform efforts, joining with his friend Curtis in condemning the Republican party as "a boodle party" which has lost its "moral enthusiasm."

This is a small and somewhat disparate collection featuring many correspondents, but it is unified by the theme of politics from the point of view of an "old school" Republican. Dickson watches and writes with distaste as his party betrays, in his eyes, the ideals of its originators, to become the voice of corporate power and government by class division. An important related topic is the character and political methods of Abraham Lincoln, especially as expressed in his relationship with McClellan in the early days of the Civil War. Of particular interest is Dickson's characterization of the President's politically expedient views on emancipation, as contrasted to the strongly anti-abolitionist sentiments of McClellan and many of his fellow-soldiers. The quality of the Dickson Papers far outweighs the size of the collection, for there are few letters which do not have significant content on the conflicting currents of wartime and post-war Republican politics.