Bradford K. Barber daybook and marriage record, 1845-1885
1 volume
This 137-page volume consists of records and accounts of Baptist minister Bradford K. Barber of Galway and Charleston, New York, and various locations in central and western Wisconsin, between 1845 and 1885. The volume consists of three primary parts: a section dated between 1845 and 1849, containing accounts related to public school finances in Galway; a section documenting personal, ministerial, and civil activities and accounts, between the 1840s and 1868; and a section documenting marriages over which Barber presided between 1859 and 1885.
Between 1845 and 1849, Bradford Barber received Galway, New York, public school money from the town collector for visiting schools, providing and examining reports, and examining teachers. He paid out teachers' wages and public library monies. In the 1840s and 1850s, Rev. Barber recorded financial transactions associated with the First Galway Baptist Church and the Baptist Church of Charleston, New York. From the late 1850s through the 1860s, the accounting pertained to expenses associated with churches at Oxford and Moundville, Wisconsin, as well as accounts related to farming. He also documented prayer meetings and covenant meetings at Moundville, Oxford, and Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, and money collected from foreign missions and subscriptions. Some entries contain lines of scripture or subjects of Barber's sermons.
The volume also contains 50 pages documenting marriages presided over by Rev. Barber between 1859 and 1885. The marriages largely took place in western Wisconsin, with weddings located at Oxford, Jackson, New Haven, Springfield, Manchester, Buffalo, Milton, Tomah, Farmington, Osceola, Warren Mills, Albion, and La Grange. For most of the marriages documented, Barber included the names of the husband and wife, names of their parents, where the newlyweds were born, where they currently lived, the husband's occupation, their "color" (all of them are listed as "white"), the ceremony performed, and names of witnesses.