Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

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Collection

Bucks County (Pennsylvania) Agricultural commonplace book, 1815-1829

1 volume

This commonplace book, produced by an anonymous farmer from the Bucks County, Pennsylvania, region primarily contains passages relating to farming and husbandry. Along with farming accounts and documentation of livestock, agriculture, and dairy production, the commonplace book also features material on the Agricultural Society of Bath. Newspaper clippings comment on medicine, recipes, and farming. Illustrations of fences, sheep, floor plans, property drawings, and a detailed diagram of the "cropping plan" for 1826 appear in the volume.

The creator of the volume references European agricultural societies, data and agricultural systems, and popular agriculturalists, such as George Culley (1735-1813) and Charles de Lasteyrie (1759-1849). The volume provides detailed information on growing crops, managing soil, and tending to livestock.

Collection

Cambridge (N.Y.) account book and journal, 1806-1808

1 volume

This volume contains financial records, journal entries, planting lists, and other content related to a farmer and fur trader in the early 19th century.

This volume is comprised of financial records, journal entries, planting lists, and other content related to a farmer and fur trader in the early 19th century.

Financial accounts are divided into 3 sections:
  • Undated list of prices for animal skins, "Expences Coming to Pennsylvania," and "Expences at the quitting" (1 page)
  • Chronological accounts (11 pages, February 1806-March 1806; September 1806-November 1806; and undated)
  • Double-entry accounts (9 pages, February 1806-May 1806)

Several individuals, including Sidney Wells, Matthew Gibson, and Daniel Whipple, are represented in both chronological and double-entry records. Most entries pertain to skins from mink, muskrat, and martin, and to manual labor tasks such as cutting grubs, drawings logs, and rafting. Other accounts concern sundries, a knife, a watch, and "a Balance between Guns."

The volume contains 3 pages of notes and journal entries about the author's travels from Cambridge to towns in Pennsylvania (2 pages, February 1806-July 1806); and from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Lansingburgh, New York, via New Jersey and New York City (1 page, August 1806). His notes refer to travel by land and water.

Two pages concern crops planted at Cambridge in May 1808, including potatoes, beans, cabbage, corn, peas, beets, and oats. The volume also has an 8-page list of names and numbers; drawings of a compass rose and geometric shapes; signatures of James Peters and Lydia M. Peters; a very rough sketch of an "apple machine" (apparently for coring or peeling and apple) below which is written the name "George Washington"; and page of manuscript sheet music for the "Duke of Halstein's March."

Collection

Daniel Morgan collection, 1764-1951 (majority within 1764-1832)

63 items

The Daniel Morgan collection is made up of financial records, legal documents, correspondence, and other items related to General Daniel Morgan and to Willoughby Morgan, his son.

The Daniel Morgan collection is made up of 63 financial records, legal documents, correspondence, and other items related to General Daniel Morgan and to Willoughby Morgan, his son. The majority of the collection consists of accounts, bonds, promissory notes, and other documents pertaining to Daniel Morgan's financial affairs. Accounts and invoices record Morgan's purchases of clothing, wagon-related equipment and services, and other items. Some of the later items do not concern Morgan directly but have his legal endorsement. Also included are two outgoing letters by Morgan, a 9-page legal document about a lawsuit against Morgan, and a deposition that Morgan gave in a different dispute. Other items are a bond regarding Morgan's marriage to Abigail Curry (March 30, 1773) and Morgan's political address to the citizens of Allegheny County about politics and the militia (January 17, 1795). Three of the documents pertain to enslaved and free African Americans (November 6, 1773; June 13, 1789; and March 28, 1799). Later items mostly pertain to the estate of Willoughby Morgan, Daniel Morgan's son. James Graham wrote two letters to unknown recipients in 1847 and 1856 about his efforts to write Daniel Morgan's biography, which he subsequently published.

Printed items include a map of the surrender of Yorktown (undated), a newspaper article from a Winchester, Virginia, paper about the possible disinterment of Daniel Morgan's remains (August 18, 1951), and printed portraits of Daniel Morgan with manuscript and facsimile autographs.

Collection

Marblehead (Mass.) legal and financial documents, 1730-1812

27 items

This collection is made up of 27 legal documents and financial records pertaining to residents of Marblehead, Massachusetts, between 1730 and 1812.

This collection is made up of 27 partially printed legal documents and financial records pertaining to residents of Marblehead, Massachusetts, between 1730 and 1812. Sixteen items are statements of monthly and annual taxes that individual Marblehead residents owed between 1780 and 1812; most are addressed to Benjamin Lancey (or Lansey). The remaining items pertain to financial agreements, real property ownership and sales, and shipping. Two indentures concern the division of large residential buildings and provide detailed information about the rooms and passages belonging to each owner. One financial document relates to the town's fishing industry, and two relate to the schooner Sally: a bill of sale and an insurance policy.

Additional legal documents include an appointment of guardianship and a plaintiff's bill for legal costs incurred during a case in the Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the Middle Circuit.

Collection

Pennsylvania Iron Furnace collection, 1777-1809

15 items

The Pennsylvania Iron Furnace collection is made up of accounts, receipts, and correspondence pertaining to iron furnaces in the state of Pennsylvania in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The Pennsylvania Iron Furnace collection is made up of accounts, receipts, and correspondence related to iron furnaces in the state of Pennsylvania in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Of the 11 financial records, 9 pertain to the Joanna Furnace in Berks County, Pennsylvania, including tax receipts and accounts related to its founders. An early document between Samuel Van Lear and James Old (September 11, 1777-May 25, 1782) and records of iron received from the French Creek Slitting Mill (June 4, 1802-December 14, 1802) are also present. The collection has letters written by Peter Astor at the Green Lane Forge (July 30, 1783), Robert Coleman at Elizabeth Furnace (February 7, 1798, and April 14, 1798), and Waters Dewees at Laurel Forge (April 11, 1803). The correspondence mostly concerns financial affairs.

Collection

Phebe Plant collection, 1801-1830s (majority within 1814-1819)

53 items

The Phebe Plant collection is mostly made up of personal correspondence between Plant and her friend Martha Barnes, especially regarding their religious convictions, as well as letters to Plant's mother, Rebecca Hearsey. Other items include a religious diary and poetry.

The Phoebe Plant collection (53 items) is mostly made up of personal correspondence between Plant and her friend Martha Barnes, as well as letters to Plant's mother, Rebecca Hearsey. Martha Barnes wrote to Phebe Plant from 1814-1819, often discussing her religious convictions and, on one occasion, a religious experience with an auditory component (April 21, 1818; in letter dated April 16, 1818). In a letter dated March 1815, she discussed her reaction to a book about Harriet Newell. Plant's letters to Barnes are mainly contained in an 18-page set of retained copies, which includes entries dated from December 19, 1814-November 30, 1815. Plant wrote about her Christian convictions. Other items by Plant include a religious diary with infrequent entries (July 2, 1816-June 15, [1817], 12 pages) and a poem "composed on the death of a wife" (1818).

After Plant's death in 1819, Martha Barnes occasionally wrote to Plant's mother, Rebecca Hearsey, offering condolences and reflecting on her friendship with Plant. The collection also contains letters that Rebecca Hearsey received from members of the Judd family and others; an account about the estate of Joseph Plant of Southington, Connecticut; and an invoice addressed to the Hearsey family (June 12, 1815).