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The Ashbaugh family papers consist of the incoming correspondence of Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Ashbaugh of Brown County, South Dakota, written primarily by their children and other family members in Iowa and throughout the Midwest. The letters provide detailed depictions of daily farming life near Sac City and Terril, Iowa, in the first decade of the 20th century.

The Ashbaugh family papers consist of the incoming correspondence of Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Ashbaugh of Brown County, South Dakota, written primarily by their children and other family members in Iowa and throughout the Midwest. The letters, written from a number of Iowa locales, chronicle farm life in the early 20th century, and include detailed descriptions of a number of farming activities as well as news of the family, which remained close despite being somewhat scattered. Many of the Ashbaugh family members planted corn, and the letters reveal a good deal about the intricacies of growing and harvesting in the region. Several later letters in the collection originated from the South Dakota Ashbaughs' grandchildren, who provided delightful updates on their lives, including the games and other leisure pursuits that occupied their time away from school. The collection also includes several documents licensing E. E. Ashbaugh as "an Exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church" in Sac City and Fort Dodge, Iowa, from 1885-1889.

This collection contains 3 letters written by members of the Coon and Howard families in Lakeview, Michigan; Waukee, Iowa; and Orchard Park, New York, in the late 1800s. The women of the Howard family contributed to each of the letters, describing their farms and sharing aspects of their everyday lives.

This collection contains 3 letters written by members of the Coon and Howard families of Lakeview, Michigan; Waukee, Iowa; and Orchard Park, New York, in the late 1800s. Hiram Cornwell of Lakeview, Michigan, wrote the first letter to his sister-in-law, Jane Coon of Belleville, New York, noting the difficulties of earning a living in Michigan (November 11, 1877). Phebe Howard contributed to the letter, suggesting that Jane move to Michigan, where land was cheap and weaving work was available.

Ida H. Elliott wrote the second letter to her mother from Waukee, Iowa, on September 22, 1889. Elliott discussed her work tending the house and farm, her children's school, her sale of chickens, and the quantities of crops they had stored, including potatoes, sweet corn, and apples.

Lena B. of Orchard Park, New York, sent the final letter to her sister, Miss E. Blanche Coon of Sandy Creek, New York (postmarked March 24, 1890); she commented on the family and described a trip to Buffalo, New York, including the cost of velvet and a photographer's rates.

The Morgan family papers contain the correspondence of three generations of the Morgan family of Ohio, Iowa, and Colorado. Primarily spanning the 1850s and 1880s-1890s, the papers document the Morgans' support for abolition and social reform, as well as their teaching, farming, and business endeavors.

The Morgan family papers consist of 292 letters and 7 documents relating to 3 generations of the Morgan family, primarily in Ohio, Iowa, and Colorado. The collection spans 1834-1913, with most of the items clustered in the 1850s and the 1880s-1890s, with little representation of other decades.

The Morgan siblings wrote nearly all of the approximately 117 letters dating from the 1850s. Their correspondence provides family news, details on their teaching careers, and updates on their health. As the Morgans were very politically and intellectually engaged, they also discussed their opposition to slavery, opinions on various reform issues, and attendance of lectures by such figures as Sojourner Truth (August 25, 1851) and Henry Ward Beecher (January 30, 1856). Eliza Morgan's letters address such topics as bloomers (September 15, 1851: "I can walk faster than ever now and much farther without being tired") and spiritualism (April 18, 1852: "New mediums are being developed constantly all through the country, near and far & some of our nearest neighbors…Milton Maxwell is a shaking medium--that is the spirits can & do shake him [and others too] without his being able to control himself in the least."). Another subject in which the siblings shared an interest was education. Sue Morgan, in particular, wrote of a desire to make it more commonly available: "how much better it is to educate the mass of the people than to confine knowledge to the few[.] if all had an equal chance and were equally educated what a vast amount of suffering and crime might be prevented and Oh what a good leveler would it be to society…" (February 4, 1851).

In the 1880s and 1890s, the most prolific letter writers were Joshua Morgan's sons, Charlie and Wendell. Their letters concern farm life in Colorado and Nebraska, including a boom period for Holyoke, Colorado (March 17, 1888). Sometime during this period, Charlie and Wendell went into business together in Colorado, and this is reflected in their letterhead. The later letters in the collection contain more business-related material and represent more correspondents outside the Morgan family. Many letters (primarily from John Burns and Peter Young) focus on the ongoing care of Celinda Spiker, a relative of Susan Spiker.