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22 items
The Bowman collection contains financial documents, correspondence, and essays related to the family of Samuel Bowman of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Two early receipts, dated 1770 and 1771, pertain to the financial affairs of William Ledlie, Captain Samuel Bowman's father-in-law. Other receipts from the 1790s, indicate Bowman's purchase of "twenty Gallons of Whiskey and one Cask," and a transaction involving a horse; one later financial document records an order for schoolbooks in 1809 made by Jacob Morris, a Revolutionary War colonel.
Several legal documents throughout the collection document land holdings of the Bowman family, as well as additional fiscal matters; these include a sworn statement about Ebenezer Bowman's debts (November 10, 1821), a deed for land owned by the estate of Jesse Fell near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania [1831], and a notice of a pending lawsuit against William Ledlie Bowman (February 20, 1837).
The collection also holds personal correspondence, including, among other material, one anonymous, religious letter (May 29, 1797), and an item about local military recruitment efforts (February 4, 1800). Among the additional materials are a celebratory essay written on July 4, 1825; an article about local lawyer Mr. Phillips, addressed to the editor of the Wyoming Herald; and an essay composed "On Nothing."
351 pages
The jail record for Box Butte County begins in October 14, 1887 and concludes February 14, 1966. The ledger, maintained by the Sheriff, is divided into two parts: first, an incomplete alphabetical register of defendants, and secondly, a chronological record of prisoner's names, crimes, dates of residency, disposition, and financial accounting. The ledger records a variety of infractions, such as drunk and disorderly behavior, assault, adultery, rape, robbery, theft, forgery, gambling, destroying railroad property, and illegal train-riding. The early, less populated years seem to have been fairly free of crime, with only five partial pages devoted to the entire span from 1887 to 1901. The few crimes that were reported are generally very minor in nature.
During Prohibition, the preponderance of crime related to the production, distribution, and consumption of alcohol (e.g. bootlegging, drunkenness, possession of still, and sale of liquor to Indians) With the advent of the automobile, the infractions include moving violations, such as speeding, driving without lights, driving without a license, reckless driving, "joy riding", driving while intoxicated, and auto theft (replacing horse-stealing). At lease two persons, one with Hispanic surname, were jailed for possession of marijuana (1948 and 1950). Given the paucity of data, it is difficult to identify any clear patterns of change in criminal behavior, however, during and after the Second World War, the number of offenders with Native American names appears to increase significantly, perhaps reflecting a trend toward integration into town life.
38 items
Most of the letters (1-25) were written by John Boynton; 23 to his father Isaac, one each to brother-in-law Herman Huntington and sister Hannah. They cover his career as a student and teacher in various locales. The letters reveal Boynton to have been a perceptive, thoughtful young man with strong religious and temperance views and a New Englander's dislike of slavery. His rather strait-laced temperament was relieved by a light-hearted sense of humor and a love of boyish pursuits --hunting, fishing, playing ball. He was warmly appreciative of home and family, and one of his letters (14) muses on the imagined family scene he is missing, speculating on the activities and thoughts of each family member.
Boynton's letters from Mississippi (19-25) are the highlight of the collection. In them he expresses his disapproval of slavery and of southern culture in general (particularly its loose religious ways), while admitting a fondness for the weather, the hunting, the landscape, and the unaffected friendliness of southerners. It is interesting to note that, for one who voices such distaste of slavery, Boynton is clearly racially prejudiced, and does not seem to object to having a servant assigned to him. On a stop-over at a Maryland tobacco plantation, having arrived at night, he records his reactions of the next morning: "Creation. Niggers as thick as toads after a shower. ... Negroes among [the tobacco fields] in every direction. It reminded me, as I looked out upon his fields, of what I have witnessed at home -- a platter of baked beans with a large quantity of black ones among them. No reflections on baked beans by the way."
In Mississippi, he describes the scene from his bedroom window: "There are ten Negroes to every one white person. The labor here is done altogether by slaves. ... about 90 Negroes in the field picking cotton. About an equal number of men & women, some children. You would also see a white man with a whip in his hand following in the rear." Noting the comfort of his situation, he writes that "A Negro boy about 15 years old is at my command any moment. He comes into my room every night about 9 o'clock with his blanket, blacks my boots & shoes, sleeps on the floor in my room, builds me a fire, if I need one in the morning before I am up; brings a pitcher of fresh water, etc. While I am at breakfast he makes my bed, sweeps my room & puts all things in order." Still, Boynton expresses a repugnance of slavery, and looks forward to the day when " I may inhale the pure air of Freedom!" He tires of the constant talk of "land and Negroes," the mania for profit, the violence and lawlessness, and the disregard for religion and the Sabbath. "The sabbath in Mississippi is hell in minerature [sic]. All sorts of games from the horserace & cock-fight down to playing of marbles is engaged in upon Sunday." While he enjoyed his sojourn and much appreciated the high salaries paid to teachers, Boynton never intended to settle in the south. Sadly, he lived only a short while after returning to home and family.
The Boynton papers document the lives of other family members in far less detail. They are mentioned or addressed in John's letters, and are writers and recipients of the twelve letters in the collection which post-date his death. John addressed most letters to father Isaac, a brick-maker, but often inquired after or included messages for his mother, Sibyl; brothers David, Henry, and Royal; and sisters Hannah, Harriet, and Sibyl. A daughter of Hannah Boynton Haynes, Elmira Spaulding, is also represented in the collection.
The rest of the letters (26-38) are to and from other members of the Boynton family and relate largely to family matters, brother Henry's school teaching career, and religion. One poignant letter (30) records the grief of a mother at the death of her baby daughter, as she consoles herself with the thought of her child in heaven. An undated letter from Elmira Spaulding to her mother Hannah Boynton Haynes (36) discusses her life as a millworker in Leominster, Mass.
1 volume
This book contains two editions of the Boys' Excelsior Lyceum's magazine Excelsior, containing essays and poetry by students in Cohoes, New York. The bound volume, third in a series, contains manuscript copies of two issues from the magazine's 4th volume, numbers 15 (March 26, 1861, pp.1-62) and 16 (April 9, 1861, pp.63-97), edited by Charles Francis Doyle and Lizzie L. Giles. Each begins with a lengthy essay addressed to the editor, reflecting an ongoing debate between "John Brown, Esq.," and "Dick" on the merits of slavery and temperance. Both authors utilized Biblical quotations while offering lengthy moral justifications for their positions. Additional essays address a range of topics such as war, gambling, and truth, and a number of poems reflect more lighthearted topics, such as ice skating and kissing. What appears to be a third edition of the magazine, dated May 15, 1862 (30 pp.), is inserted into the volume and tied together with red, white, and blue ribbons. Its topics are similar to those in the previous volume, though the debates on slavery and temperance are not addressed. One essay in this edition, attributed to "Alice," pertains to a visit to "the Washington Hospital" and a discussion with a convalescent soldier.
3 volumes
This collection is comprised of three volumes holding the correspondence and meeting minutes of the Bradford Club, a mid-19th century bibliophilic society that published books about various topics related to American history. The first two volumes consist of 550 letters addressed to the club's secretary, John B. Moreau, often thanking the club for sending copies of its publications and requesting further volumes. Additionally, letters from printers and other collaborators document the contemporary publishing process, including issues related to copyright. The third volume contains the group's meeting minutes, compiled by Moreau throughout the entirety of the Bradford Club's history. Club members often met to discuss the publication of a new historical volume, and their meetings most frequently concerned distribution of the books. A printed circular advertisement for the club's latest publication accompanies each set of minutes. One circular, attributed to "A few Gentlemen in the City, interested in the study of American History and Literature," predates the Bradford Club (April 1859). Additionally, Moreau recorded an inventory for each publication, including a list of the recipients of each individual copy. This volume also holds a printed list of the Bradford Club's subscribers, as well as a manuscript copy of its constitution. Loose documents laid into the volume include financial records related to printing costs and an engraving showing a rock labeled "Washington" in a stormy sea.
8 items
These eight letters, several of which contain more than one letter, were all written from Cincinnati back to the mother, father, and sisters at home in Duxbury. Claudius, Maria, and after she joined them, Lucia, all wrote long, dense letters detailing their experiences in the "western" United States.
The births of Maria's two girls are the focus of three letters. Claudius joked about girls being "all the fashion," and reported that "some think it is a sort of provision in nature to supply the deficiency -- there being 2 males to 1 female in the Western country. At any rate, it is a remarkable fact (as far as our knowledge extends) that most of the children that are born are females" (1831 October 20-24).
Maria's loving letter to her mother after the birth of her first daughter is quite specific. The delivery was quick, and the "pains for the last 1/2 hour were exquisite but very short." Maria told her mother, "as soon as I heard the child cry I began to laugh but the Doctor said I must not laugh or talk for a day or 2, as it would disturb my whole system" (1831 November 21). The doctor also refused to let her drink spirits, because they "cause a fever in the breasts, which is the cause of so many people suffering from the ague &c." Having a child of her own made Maria feel even closer to her mother and her mother's experiences: "I know now what it is to be a mother, and I hope and pray to God that I may make as good a mother as you have been to me, and I hope my child will love me as well as I do you."
The baby died the next summer, but there is no correspondence from that period of time. The next letter is from Lucia and Claudius, announcing the birth of a second daughter, who "looks pretty cross," according to her aunt (1834 February 19-20). Claudius was relieved that this baby, although "not so pretty as our other little one," appeared to have a better constitution. He added, "Maria thinks herself and child being so well is owing to her drinking so much beer . . . every day for a long time when I came from school, I have had to go & bring her a bottle of beer & a gingerbread horseman."
Lucia remained in Cincinnati with her sister's family until they all moved back to Massachusetts in the spring of 1835. In her letters home to her parents and sisters she expressed a desire to return to Duxbury, and even asked her father to send Elizabeth out in her stead, but he must have refused. Lucia's homesickness and the dullness of helping her sister keep house was somewhat offset by her thriving social scene and exciting local events. She had a best girlfriend, Caroline Sampson, and was quite close to Sophia, the nurse. She played chess with Mr. Prescott on a regular basis, and played card games (old maid, whist, and vingt un), and blind man's bluff at parties.
Living with her sister possibly gave her more freedom than she would have had living with her parents. Lucia took long, unchaperoned walks in the woods: "Girls do not often go alone but Miss Matthews and I have been and are going again, as we did not meet with any accident" (1834 August 21), she informed her sister Elizabeth. During the hot summer, she also developed a taste for beer, and wrote that "Maria has porter now all the time I like it very well but I used to hate it" (1834 August 21).
In addition to her more private entertainments, Lucia soaked up exciting civic events. She witnessed a balloon ascension, "the most beautiful sight I ever saw" and election fever (1834 December 22, November 11). Lucia shared her entertaining observations of male behavior during election time with her sister: "The Jackson candidate was Mr. Lytle and the Whig candidate Mr. Storer. They had stages driving about filled with people they kept crossing from one street to another and all of the men in them screaming hurra for Storer and hurra for Lytle. The Jackson men on their stages had hickory brooms stuck all about them I could not think what it meant at first. They looked just like birch brooms. . . . So it was nothing but hurra for Storer and hurra for Lytle for several days."
The open-minded Lucia also took advantage of the numerous opportunities for edification. She reported, "I went last week to hear a black man give an account of the colony at Liberia where he has been spending some time. It was funny to see a black man speaking in a church before an audience but it was something new and quite interesting" (1834 November 11). Mr. Sampson, her friend Caroline's father, invited Lucia to a meeting of the Swedenborgians or New Jerusalem Church, but she had a party to go to instead. Nevertheless, she wrote, "I like to go to their church very much but am not quite a New Churchwoman yet" (1834 December 22). Although she still missed her parents and her sisters at specific moments ("enjoyed myself as well as could be expected without either of you with me"), by the end of her stay in Cincinnati Lucia had really come into her own (1834 December 22).
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.
1 volume
This volume (58 pages) contains meeting minutes pertaining to the administration of a school in Bradford, New Hampshire, from December 22, 1806-April 6, 1829. Residents of District No. 4 met semi-annually and annually to discuss issues such as building maintenance, the construction of a chimney, the supply of firewood, and the opening dates of school terms; some entries include associated costs. The attendees began each meeting by electing officers, who often remained consistent from year to year. At their meeting of April 3, 1809, attendees decreed that parents would be held responsible for any damage that their children did to the school. Later minutes refer to schoolmistresses' board. The volume also contains the copied text of a formal meeting notice dated February 18, 1828.
0.75 linear feet
This collection is made up of correspondence and legal documents pertaining to Martha Bradstreet of northern New York State. Much of the material pertains to Bradstreet's efforts to recover titles to her inherited land along the Mohawk River. The collection also contains materials related to Samuel Bradstreet and a group of Civil War letters from Silas E. Crandall to Phoebe Bradstreet.
The Martha Bradstreet Papers are divided into subseries of Martha Bradstreet Correspondence (126 items) and Martha Bradstreet Documents (25 items). The correspondence, including letters by and to Martha Bradstreet, largely pertains to her legal and financial affairs. Many items concern disputes over the land she inherited in upstate New York. Bradstreet's personal correspondence includes letters that she received from her children while traveling and letters to her children and others about their personal activities, such as her daughter Sarah's return to an abusive husband (November 26, 1840). Bradstreet's children wrote to one another about their personal lives, their mother's legal difficulties, and finances. The series' legal documents concern Bradstreet's New York property disputes, the will of Elizabeth Livius, and a civil suit between Elizabeth C. Bennett and Washington Garlock. A map of Mary Bradstreet's land along the Mohawk River is housed in the Map Division.
The Samuel Bradstreet Correspondence (138 items), dated 1800-1866, reflects the contentious relationship between Martha Bradstreet, her brother Samuel, and her husband, Matthew Codd, particularly with regard to real property and inheritance. The series includes several items written by Samuel's sons and grandsons.
The S. E. Crandall and Phoebe Bradstreet Correspondence (12 items) largely consists of letters that S. E. Crandall sent to Phoebe Bradstreet, whom he addressed as "Mother," while serving in the 17th Army Corps during the Civil War. He discussed his experiences in and around Atlanta, Georgia. He also sent letters before and after his military service about his life in Minnesota and about possible conflicts with the Sioux Indians (June 6, 1863).
The Photograph is a large portrait of a woman, mounted in a card frame.
0.75 linear feet
This collection contains the World War II-era Correspondence of sisters Margaret and Dorothy Brainerd of the Bronx and Kingston, New York, respectively, as well as that of Margaret's later husband, Tony Gioia, who served in Europe during the war. The majority of the letters date between 1942 and 1946, and were written to the sisters by Gioia and other members of the United States military serving in both major theaters of the war. Dorothy received letters from men serving in the army, navy, and coast guard, who described various aspects of military life. One of her most frequent correspondents was her cousin, James Dingman, a corporal with the 65th Fighter Squadron. Along with news of his health and his thoughts on military life, he described a pilot's death during training in Groton, Connecticut (May 7, 1942), and told his aunt, Dorothy's mother Margaret, about an audience with the Pope in Rome (October 25, 1944).
The bulk of the collection consists of letters written by Tony Gioia to Margaret Brainerd, his girlfriend and future wife. Tony wrote of camp life and his related work at Camp Swift, Texas, and of the war in Europe after his unit was stationed there in October 1944. Tony served throughout Western and Central Europe, and frequently described military actions; he also attempted to share a picture of the war from a soldier's point of view, and he warned Margaret that the mainstream media was not a reliable source for such information (December 4, 1944). After the war, he remained in Europe for several months, and described the busy life of American soldiers during the military occupation of Germany. Though the bulk of the correspondence ends in 1946, after Tony's return to New York, the collection contains several letters to both Margaret and Dorothy Brainerd from friends and family in the late 1940s. The collection also holds a handful of letters to Tony Gioia from his parents, written in Italian, and a few written to him by Margaret, mostly after the war. In a series of three letters, William Roosa, a member of the 502nd Infantry Regiment, wrote to his father about his recall to the army and preparation for participation in the Korean War; he wrote one of these from Korea (February 18, 1951).
The collection also holds Newspaper clippings from the war, including several sent from Tony to Margaret during his service in Europe.