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The Lyman Gardner papers contain the Civil War correspondence of Mr. Gardner, who served in the 26th Ohio Infantry Regiment, and a later account book which documents his work in the Ohio lumber industry.

The bulk of Lyman Gardner's collection consists of a series of letters to his parents in Ohio, including two letters to his brother and sister. The collection also contains a few brief articles announcing births, deaths, and marriages in the Gardner family. A ledger of his personal accounts and of his lumber business can be found in this collection as well.

Gardner's letters center around food, clothing, and money. He does not possess much understanding of why he is participating in the war. He views his service as a dutiful obligation, though he neither explains why he is dedicated to the Union, nor what he believes the Union cause to be. Gardner's letters reveal a strong religious background.

Gardner's letters serve as an account for his action in the Atlanta Campaign, and his regiment's assignments in Chattanooga, Tenn., Huntsville, Ala., Nashville, Tenn., New Orleans, La., and Irwin, Tex. He goes into some detail of his skirmishes, but the majority of his letters are filled with requests for supplies and money. Overall, Gardner seems to enjoy his involvement in the army and does not express a particularly strong desire to return from it.

M. T. Bennett, Jr. & Co. kept this pre-printed business ledger of detailed information about shipments of coal by this Fall River, Massachusetts, company (87 pages used out of 384 total). Each entry includes the date, No. of Pock., name of vessel, received/credited to, delivered/charged to, article (i.e. type of coal), No. of B. L., tons & 20th, price of freight, gross freight, advance to captain, discharging, net freight, invoice price, amount of invoice, and other remarks. The company's letterhead reads "M. T. Bennett, Jr. & Co., wholesale and retail dealers in Delaware and Hudson Canal company's Lackawanna, 'Fulton,' Stout,' (Lehigh,) Scranton, Wilkesbarre and Bituminous Coal."

M. T. Bennett, Jr. & Co. kept this pre-printed business ledger of detailed information about shipments of coal by this Fall River, Massachusetts, company (87 pages used out of 384 total). Each entry includes the date, No. of Pock., name of vessel, received/credited to, delivered/charged to, article (i.e. type of coal), No. of B. L., tons & 20th, price of freight, gross freight, advance to captain, discharging, net freight, invoice price, amount of invoice, and other remarks.

Laid into the volume is a partially printed receipt for "cargo" shipped aboard the schooner W. S. Mount, paid July 30, 1877. The printed header reads "M. T. Bennett, Jr. & Co., wholesale and retail dealers in Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's Lackawanna, 'Fulton,' Stout,' (Lehigh,) Scranton, Wilkesbarre and Bituminous Coal."

The first section of this volume contains 73 pages of accounting records for the New York and Canada Line, which shipped cargo on the Northeast Atlantic seaboard and along the St. Lawrence Seaway. The entries date from 1869 to 1873. A second section of the volume contains accounting and inventory records for an unidentified slate company, between 1889 and 1910. The final page contains a single entry by an unknown party for a lumber purchase in 1921.

The first section of this volume contains 73 pages of accounting records for the New York and Canada Line, which shipped cargo on the Northeast Atlantic seaboard and along the St. Lawrence Seaway. The entries date from 1869 to 1873 and they contain varying levels of detail, such as boat names; Captains' names; expenses (such as towing and freight fees); Captains' compensation; monetary details (such as monies exchanged by cash or check, and rates based upon a gold standard); and cargo (such as salt, coal/egg coal, pitch, rosin, clay, tobacco, and provisions).

Destinations referenced include:

• Albany, New York
• Burlington, Vermont
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Cornwall, Canada
• Fort Edward, New York
• Hillsborough, New York
• Montréal, Canada
• New York, New York
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Québec, Canada
• Richelieu, Québec, Canada
• Whitehall, New York

The second section of the volume, consisting of 24 pages, contains accounting and inventory records from 1889-1910 for an unidentified slate company.

The final page contains a single entry by an unknown party for a lumber purchase in 1921.

This account book (88 pages) contains information about a saloon owner's personal and professional expenses from January 1889-December 1890. Internal evidence suggests that this may have been the Leonard Brothers Saloon, located on Edmond Street in St. Joseph, Missouri.

This account book (88 pages) contains information about a saloon owner's personal and professional expenses from January 1889-December 1890.

The owner recorded daily accounts of cash, stocked goods, and expenses on facing pages. He purchased beer from the Anheuser-Bush Brewing Association, the August Nunning Brewing Company, the St. Joseph Brewing Company, the M. K. Goetz Brewing Company, and other suppliers. He also bought whiskey, rye, gin, cider, soda water, and cigars. Business-related expenses included electric lighting, foods, insurance, licenses, and laborers, such as a watchman and a "colored man" (p. 33). Personal expenses included groceries, shoes, medical care, opera and theater tickets, a "hired girl," streetcar passes, membership dues, and taxes.

The Suckley family papers provide documentation of family life, mercantile business, and the Methodist Church in antebellum New York City.

This Suckley collection is only a small residuum of a much larger collection, yet what remains provides important documentation of several aspects of nineteenth century life, particularly relating to commercial life in antebellum New York City and the Methodist Church.

Boxes 1 and 2 consists primarily of in-coming correspondence dated between 1791 and 1839, centering on the personal and professional life of George Suckley, with the earliest material originating in the family of his first wife, Miss Lang, in England. The letters contain some information on English Methodism (1:1-6, 16-18). Of particular interest are the letters of the Methodist missionary, Francis Asbury (1:10-11) and of the wife of Richard Reece, who began his itinerant ministry in 1787 (The Christian Advocate and Journal, May 13, 1846, contains a brief sketch of Reece's life). The letters of Catherine Rutsen Suckley and Joseph Holdich include discussions of the Methodist Church in America, and the missionary Freeborn Garretson, is discussed in several letters (1:21-23,25,26,32).

George Suckley's business correspondence includes dealings with the English firm of Holy, Newbould and Suckley (1:33-42,47) and two sets of letters from agents who Suckley retained to manage his vast land holdings, John Reed in upstate New York and John Rangeley in Maine. Among the personal correspondence are several letters from Philadelphia lawyer(?) Cornelius Comegys and letters from three of George Suckley's sons. John Lang Suckley wrote frequently to request money to pay his servants; Rutsen Suckley assisted in managing his father's properties, and Thomas Holy Suckley was a college student.

Box 3 contains family correspondence written after George's death in 1846. Among the family members represented are George's children Rusten, Mary, and Thomas Holy Suckley, and his grandson Dr. George Suckley (1830-1869). George's letters are the most intrinsically interesting, as they were written during a period in the 1850s when he was practicing in Oregon and Washington Territory and considering land investments in California. During this same period, Dr. Suckley was the recipient of several letters from David and Jack Green (apparently cousins of some sort). One item (3:39) relates to George's Civil War service. The later correspondence heavily concerns New York charities. One interesting letter (3:52) is a stableman's apology for drunkenness on Christmas.

Boxes 5 through 9 are arranged in folders by subject. Of particularly interest are materials that document the various New York City rental properties owned by Rutsen Suckley, recording rents collected and upkeep expenses between the 1840s and 1870s. The cost of living in New York can be calculated from bills and receipts for a wide range of products and services.

The West family papers are comprised of approximately 1,400 letters, letter books, documents, and financial records pertaining to Reverend Samuel West and his two sons, Benjamin and Nathan P., of Boston. The bulk of the collection (approximately 900 items) relates to business concerns, particularly to Benjamin West's sugar refining firm.

The West family papers are comprised of approximately 1,400 letters, letter books, documents, and financial records pertaining to Reverend Samuel West and his two sons, Benjamin and Nathan P., of Boston. The bulk of the collection (approximately 900 items) relates to business concerns, particularly to Benjamin West's sugar refining firm.

The Correspondence and documents series consists of approximately 150 items, dating from 1679 to 1880; the bulk of these are dated between 1759 and 1826. Though the majority of the material within the series pertains to business affairs, several groups of letters relate to other topics. One early group of letters concerns Samuel West's move from Needham, Massachusetts, to Boston's Hollis Street Church, and another group to a Boston committee's proposal to alter the municipal government in 1815, which includes its lengthy report [September 25, 1815]. In addition, the series contains personal and family correspondence, though to a lesser extent. Primary correspondents within the series include Caleb and Joshua Davis, Benjamin West, Enoch H. West, Samuel West, Richards Child, Mills Olcott, Samuel and Ephraim May, Sarah Plimpton, George Cheyne Shattuck, and Elisha and Elizabeth Ticknor.

The collection's two Letter books belonged to Benjamin West, and hold copies of 166 outgoing letters, dated 1803-1827, related to his various business affairs and the settlement of his uncle's estate, as well as personal matters.

The Financial records series contains three subseries: Bills and receipts, Sugarhouse accounts, and Account and expense books. The series contains approximately 300 bills and receipts dating from 1748 to 1824, primarily pertaining to labor, repairs, and donations to various Boston societies and institutions. About 600 sugarhouse accounts (1796-1823) record financial transactions associated with Benjamin West's sugar refining business, and include accounts, bills, and receipts. The four books cover Benjamin's West's personal accounts and expenses between 1797-1799 and 1811-1827; the first of these concerns West's service in a local militia, as well as his other financial matters, including numerous accounts for clothing, tobacco, and trips to the theater.

Legal documents within the collection are divided into two subseries, covering Land and real estate (1707-1824) and other Legal documents (1738-1834). The first subseries consists of approximately 60 items, which relate to mortgages, indentures, and other agreements about land around Boston and in Charlestown, New Hampshire. The West family frequently dealt with the Wheelock and Metcalf families when purchasing land. The second subseries is comprised of approximately 75 miscellaneous documents, including material related to Samuel West's interests in Needham, Massachusetts; bills from Nathan P. West's time at Harvard College (1788-1792); and the family's additional business and legal concerns.

The Printed and miscellaneous items series consists of approximately 20 items, dated 1714 to 1825. Among these are broadsides, including programs for Samuel West's internment services and various anniversaries, and partially printed school reports. Miscellaneous manuscript items are 13 statements of Christian faith; manuscript music for several hymns; two books kept by Nathan P. West, including a copybook of mathematical problems and exercises (1792-1807) and a commonplace book (1798-1813) with medicinal recipes West used in his drugstore; and scattered quotations. The copybook also includes a small drawing of a skull next to a bottle of borax on its inside cover.