Samuel Patterson collection, 1831-1865 (majority within 1835-1853)
0.25 linear feet
The Samuel Patterson collection (73 items) contains letters to Patterson from friends and family members, who discussed sheep farming, the wool industry, finances and business affairs, and family health.
The Correspondence series (69 items) mostly consists of business letters to Samuel Patterson, including early letters from his brother John. The bulk of the letters are dated 1835-1853, pertaining to Patterson's finances, land ownership, and livestock. Patterson owned a farm in Washington County, Pennsylvania, where he raised sheep for wool, and many of his correspondents discussed the wool trade, including writers from Lowell and Sheffield, Massachusetts. A letter by H. Blanchard & Co. concerns the suitability of the South for raising wool sheep and the current state of the market for wool (October 12, 1849), and small wool samples are enclosed in 2 letters (December 20, 1847, and undated). The collection also includes personal letters from Samuel Patterson to his wife Anne and from Patterson's children to their mother. A few of the business letters are addressed to other recipients. In one late letter, Anne Patterson informed her children of Samuel Patterson's death (July 5, 1858).
The Documents series (4 items) contains articles of agreement between "Candy McCue" (signed with his mark) and Samuel Patterson regarding McCue's son William, who was to live with, work for, and be cared for and educated by the Patterson family (November 2, 1824); an indenture between John Walker and Samuel Patterson regarding Walker's sale of a tract of land in Cross Creek Township, Pennsylvania (September 24, 1833); articles of agreement between Samuel Patterson, John Chambers, and James Brown regarding Patterson's sale of land in Plumcreek Township, Pennsylvania (September 15, 1838); and a signed statement pertaining to the construction of a schoolhouse (undated).