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

This volume contains records of the Union Sabbath School (District 4) in Ashland, Ohio, between 1874 and 1884. It includes meeting minutes and information; notes on readings, prayers, and singing; names of student speakers; attendance; numbers of members raised; class rosters; and elections. School activities included going on picnics, singing songs from the book "Dew Drops," and sometimes giving questions to students to consider before the next meeting. Also laid into the volume are three letters written between 1908 and 1915, addressed to Karl B. Smith from Mrs. E. H. Naromon, his landlady, and Dorcas, his aunt.

This volume contains records of the Union Sabbath School (District 4) in Ashland, Ohio, between 1874 and 1884. It includes meeting minutes and information; notes on readings, prayers, and singing; names of student speakers; attendance; numbers of members raised; class rosters; and elections. School activities included going on picnics, singing songs from the book "Dew Drops," and sometimes giving questions to students to consider before the next meeting.

Laid into the volume are three letters written between 1908 and 1915, addressed to Karl B. Smith from Mrs. E. H. Naromon, his landlady, and Dorcas, his aunt.

The minute book of the United Sons of Salem Benevolent Society describes the business proceedings of a mid-19th century African American self-help organization. A hybrid of an insurance agency and charitable operation, the United Sons bound together members of the African American community of Salem, New Jersey, providing a social network, a financial safety net, and support in the event of illness or death.

The minute book of the United Sons of Salem Benevolent Society is a rare survival of a mid-19th century African American self-help organization. A hybrid of an insurance agency and charitable operation, the United Sons bound together members of the African American community of Salem, New Jersey, providing a social network, a financial safety net, and support in the event of illness or death. The Society also made small, usually short-term loans to its members to assist in their business endeavors.

The first 18 pages of the minute book contain the constitution of the United Sons, including a preamble and 25 articles, plus the signatures of eighteen founding members. Six of these men appear to have signed, the other twelve making marks. Thereafter, typical entries in the minute book are very brief, including notice that meetings began with "singing and prays," and tersely summarizing the business at hand -- the election of officers, the induction of new members, society discipline, and the disbursement of funds to compensate sickness and death.

The constitution of the Society is of considerable historical value in explicitly laying out the reasons for forming the Society and providing a highly detailed overview of its structure, ideology, and operations. Providing the names of many of its members and their contributions and roles within the organization, the remainder of the book is a valuable key to examining the social and financial relationships among members of the African American community during a critical period of history.

This volume contains the constitution and meeting minutes of the Upper Alton Presbyterian Sabbath School Society, recorded between 1842 and 1850. Minutes often included the names of teachers present and the number of students, separated by gender.

This volume (6" x 7.5", about 225 pages) contains the constitution and meeting minutes of the Upper Alton Presbyterian Sabbath School Society, recorded between January 5, 1842, and July 14, 1850. The first 2 pages are comprised of the society's constitution, along with the names of 20 members, followed by around 225 pages of weekly notes. The group's secretaries regularly recorded brief meeting minutes every Sunday with occasional gaps, most notably between April 1846 and June 1848. Meetings generally opened and closed with prayer or singing, and the minutes often include the names of teachers present and the number of students in attendance, separated by gender. Some sets of minutes, especially those composed at the beginning of each calendar year, note additional occurrences, such as officers' resignations and the results of the group's annual elections. On January 19, 1845, the society read a communication about the death of a devout Seneca Indian boy, and on January 21, 1849, the society mourned the loss of a girl who had previously attended Sabbath school meetings. The minutes dated after January 1850 refer to teachers' accounts with the group's library, and the minutes from February [1 or 7], 1850, consist of a list of Sabbath school scholars. The Upper Alton Presbyterian Sabbath School Society's secretaries between 1842 and 1850 included Benjamin Walker, Samuel H. Archer, Moses H. Long, Eliakim Thorp, E. Cunningham, and James Newman.