History Commons^™

Ms-041: Thomas Meiser, Company F, 93rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Christine M. Ameduri

All Finding Aids

The bulk of the collection consists of letters written by Thomas to his grandfather and grandmother. It includes miscellaneous correspondence including four letters written to Thomas from his grandparents during his service in the 31st Regiment (Emergency). The collection also includes various bonds, receipts and subpoenas as well as business correspondence relating to George Person (or Parson), Thomas’s grandfather. It contains various tintype photos, mainly of Thomas’s descendents, and a wallet from a bank in Lebanon. Lastly, it contains copies of research relating to Thomas Meiser, transcriptions of his letters as well as a Senior Paper written by Christopher Culig, …

Ms-042: Lt. Sylvester Crossley, 118 Regiment Of Pennsylvania Volunteers, Company H (Corn Exchange), Christine M. Ameduri

All Finding Aids

This diary/journal consists of entries that Sylvester Crossley kept between December of 1864, his sixth month as a prisoner of war in Marion, Georgia, and May 15, 1865, about three months after his escape. It is a first hand account of his day to day life in a southern military prison camp, his experiences while an escapee and eventual return to his unit.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More …

The Slave Birth Register Of Adams County

Adams County History

This record is from a book, deposited in the Prothonotary's office, which shows the dates of birth and registration of 109 children born to slave mothers between 1799 and 1820. Several pages at the beginning of the book are missing, including the page on which are recorded the names of slaveholders whose surnames begin with A. That register might not be the original record, however. [excerpt]

The Slaveholders Of Adams County

Adams County History

This catalog of slaveholder names includes all known slaveholders in Adams County both before and after its split from York County in 1800. Included with each name are the place or places of residence and the year or years of documented slave ownership. In order to achieve some conformity, in certain instances the spelling of surnames is arbitrary, based on experience with what the names actually were or have become.

Distribution Of Slaveholders In Adams County

Adams County History

This roster repeats the names of "The Slaveholders of Adams County," from this journal, separating them, however, by their places of residence. The aim is to give an idea of where in the county slavery was most prevalent and at the same time a glimpse at the national origins of settlers in different areas.

There is a considerable duplication of names, which reflects the movement of families within the county or the establishment of new townships and the incorporation of Gettysburg as a borough. An accounting is given for each distinct place an individual lived, whether by actual move or …

The Slaves Of Adams County

Adams County History

This compilation of named slaves surely does not represent anything near the total number who toiled in the county; without a doubt many are now irretrievable. Of those who can be isolated, a large number may be identified to some extent by age or sex or name of owner, or by a combination of those definers. This list, however, comprises only those slaves whose names are recorded. [excerpt]

Pennsylvania Legislation Relating To Slavery

Adams County History

The following acts have been taken, complete or in part, from the published volumes of The Statutes At Large of Pennsylvania and Laws of Pennsylvania. These extracts are not all-inclusive, but do cover the years 1725/6-1847, from the province's first general statement of the legal standing of blacks, full-blooded and mixed, and the treatment to be afforded them, up to the state's rewritten and strengthened prohibition of the kidnapping of free blacks and the seizing of fugitive slaves. Included are not only acts showing the status and the protection of slaves, whether residents or sojourners, but also those requiring resident …

Adams County History 2003

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

Slaveholders And Slaves Of Adams County, Larry C. Bolin

Adams County History

A close study of the African-American community of Adams county waits to be written. By whatever standards adhered to, however, an in-depth investigation of the subject would be a daunting task at best, and in some areas an all but impossible one. Sadly, the early years, if seen at all, are often barely visible through the mists of repression and slavery. And yet, unfortunate and illogical as it might seem, slave owners very frequently offer the only glimpses of the downtrodden now obtainable....

This study consists of four lists, centered on the names of the county's slaveholders and designed to …

So Far From God And So Close To Stonewall Jackson: The Executions Of Three Shenandoah Valley Soldiers, Peter S. Carmichael

History Faculty Publications

Mount Pisgah Church had long been a place where Orange County Baptists sought salvation and spiritual comfort. Wars have a way of turning such holy places into brutal scenes of killing. Although a battle was never fought on the sacred ground of the church, Pisgah witnessed man's inhumanity on 19 August 1862, when a firing squad executed three deserters from Brig. Gen. William B. Taliaferro's division of Stonewall Jackson's command - all of whom were conscripts from the Shenandoah Valley. Until that depressing afternoon, when veterans formed a hollow square and waited for the condemned, no deserters in Jackson's command …

"He's My Man": Sherman Adams And New Hampshire's Role In The "Draft Eisenhower" Movement, Michael J. Birkner

History Faculty Publications

On presidential primary day, March 11, 1952, wet snow fell steadily over much of New Hampshire, and campaign managers became anxious about getting out their vote. Governor Sherman Adams, manager of the "draft Eisenhower" campaign, had a lot riding on a primary that President Harry Truman had dismissed as little more than "eyewash." By all evidence, Americans wanted change in Washington. The New Hampshire primary results would surely influence the making of a president. Adams knew there was only one thing to do: stop worrying about the weather and start moving his people to the polls.

Understanding Emancipation: Lincoln's Proclamation And The Overthrow Of Slavery, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The most common trope that governs understanding of Abraham Lincoln and emancipation is that of progress. The variations on that trope are legion, and they include notions of Lincoln's journey toward emancipation, his growth in understanding the justice of emancipation, and his path to the Emancipation Proclamation. "Lincoln was," as Horace Greeley put it, "a growing man"; growing from a stance of moral indifference and ignorance at the time of his election in 1860 toward deep conviction about African American freedom by the time of the Emancipation Proclamation less than two years later. That was a generous sentiment, since it …

"The Tenter-Hooks Of Temptation": The Debate Over Theatre In Post-Revolutionary America, Meredith Bartron

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

In Royall Tyler’s 1787 play The Contrast, the innocent and simple Yankee Jonathan unknowingly attends a playhouse, mistaking it for a hocus pocus show. The historian and eighteenth-century theatre manager, William Dunlap, later criticized Tyler’s play because his hero was a clown who misrepresented the new nation that the Revolutionary War created. Tyler’s satirical portrait of his hero, however, is not an attack on the Yankee, but rather a symbol of the ideological conflicts within America. Jonathan repeats the religious charges against theatre, but he also joins in the fun at the playhouse. He is simple and honest, but he …

Ms-040: Woman’S League Of Gettysburg College, Katherine C. Gallup

All Finding Aids

This collection reflects and records almost a century of Gettysburg College history, and the first women's--only organization officially affiliated with and recognized by the college. It is also a prime example of the kinds of activities and movements that were occurring during the Progressive Era in Pennsylvania and the United States. The collection consists of board minutes, minutes from numerous leagues, loose correspondence, convention programs, banquet programs, registrar's reports, treasurer's reports, treasurer's ledger books, handbooks, scrapbooks, photographs, and "Golden Books", volumes of calligraphy pages honoring League donors, service men and women, grandchildren and the like. The processing of this collection …

The Lincoln Enigma: The Changing Faces Of An American Icon, Gabor Boritt

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Nearly a century and a half after his death, Abraham Lincoln remains an intrinsic part of the American consciousness, yet his intentions as president and his personal character continue to stir debate.

Now, in The Lincoln Enigma, Gabor Boritt invites renowned Lincoln scholars, and rising new voices, to take a look at much-debated aspects of Lincoln's life, including his possible gay relationships, his plan to send blacks back to Africa, and his high-handed treatment of the Constitution. Boritt explores Lincoln's proposals that looked to a lily-white America. Jean Baker marvels at Lincoln's loves and marriage. David Herbert Donald highlights …

The Presidency Of Charles E. Glassick, 1977-1989: An Appraisal, Michael J. Birkner

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

On August 1, 1977 Charles Glassick assumed his duties as president of Gettysburg College. With the 25th anniversary of that event approaching, it seemed appropriate to take stock of Glassick's accomplishments. This was an eventful presidency for Gettysburg, as the college began to identify itself less as a worthy, but modest, Lutheran institution of higher learning than as a national liberal arts college. The process of embracing a new identity was not always smooth, but under Glassick's leadership the college prospered. Gettysburg in 1989 remained committed as always to the liberal arts mission it had long espoused, but it did …

Ms-038: Pen And Sword Society Papers, Christine M. Ameduri

All Finding Aids

The purpose of the Pen and Sword Society was, and is today, to honor those, who by their energy and successful efforts in furthering the prestige of the College in the past, show that they are willing and capable of exerting themselves in a special manner in the interest and welfare of the Alma Mater in the future. The collection consists of the official records of the Society between 1904 and 1943.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each …

Ms-043: George Washington Beidelman Collection, Kevin D. Luy

All Finding Aids

The George W. Beidelman Collection holds its most significant information in letters written by George to his father, Jacob. In these letters, George shares his political opinions, religious beliefs, and camp-life descriptions. The core of the collection is the correspondence from August 1, 1862 until November 18, 1862, in which George writes diary-like entries to his father, recounting each day’s activities. Accounts of the fighting at Ball’s Bluff and Fredericksburg are the most detailed battle descriptions. However, the collection’s strength is in George’s astute observations regarding camp life and the political aspects of the war.

In addition to letters written …

Ms-036: Radical Pamphlets, 1965 – 1975, Christine M. Ameduri

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This collection is divided into two sections. Radical Pamphlets, consists of pamphlets on broad topics such as labor, communism, ecology, poverty, racism and women’s rights. The second series is the Peace Movement and consists of pamphlets, papers, newspaper clippings and correspondence dealing with the Vietnam Conflict and Peace Movement in the United States compiled by David Mozes, a friend of Scott, Nancy and Jim Scott, and Michael J. Hobor, Class of 1969.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each …

Ms-018: Robert W. Koons Collection, Christine M. Ameduri

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Robert W. Koons graduated from Gettysburg College in 1943 with an A.B. in English, earned a B.D. from Gettysburg Lutheran Theological Seminary in 1946 and a D.D. from Susquehanna University in 1958. While a student at Gettysburg College he served at various times as President of the Student Christian Association, Literary Editor of the Mercury, Corresponding Secretary of the Pre-Ministerial Association and Treasurer of Delta Phi Alpha and was a member of various other campus organizations. He received Highest Class Honors in his Freshman and Junior years and Class Honors in his sophomore year.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding …

Ms-019: Donald F. Lybarger Collection, Class Of 1919, Christine M. Ameduri

All Finding Aids

This collection consists of an unbound class memorial which has been kept in its original order. The original letters have been removed for archival preservation and replaced with copies. Almost all letters are written from Gettysburg College students stationed in stateside military training camps between 1917 and 1919 and addressed to Lybarger or "Brothers of Phi Sigma." A scrapbook kept by Lybarger while a student at Gettysburg between 1914-1919 includes photographs, programs, dance cards and other college memorabilia.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include …

Thomas Barton's November 8, 1756 Report To The Society For The Propagation Of The Gospel In Foreign Parts

Adams County History

This is a transcript of Thomas Barton's report to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1756,

"It gives me a real concern that I have never been able to send you any Account since I enter'd upon my Mission till now. Our Distresses Here have been such, that in short, I knew not what to write or what to do: These Considerations will I hope still support me in your Esteem, & incline the Honorable Society to Pardon me. - As I intend to be the more particular now, to atone for my past Silence; …

The Benjamin Loan Mills, Barbara Senier, John Senier

Adams County History

Although there was a time when the Benjamin Loan Mills were alive with activity, those days are now gone. They ended a century ago when the gristmill and the sawmill closed in 1901 after yet another fire. When the smoke cleared, Christian Deardorff, the mills' last owner, may have sighed with relief, for he had been trying sporadically to sell the mills for thirteen years, ever since he had rebuilt them after an earlier fire. In 1901, when again faced with fire-damaged mills, Deardorff decided not to rebuild them. In doing so, he also closed the last chapter in the …

Journal Of An Expedition To The Ohio, Commanded By His Excellency Brigadier-General Forbes In The Year Of Our Lord 1758

Adams County History

This is a transcript of the daily journal of the expedition, as written by John Forbes in 1758.

"Friday, 7th of July, receiv'd the Governor's Commission appointing me Chaplain to the 3d Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment, commanded by Colonel Mercer; with a Letter from the Secretary apologizing for my not having the Preference of the other two.-

Wednesday, July 12th. Set off from my own House in York County, & reach'd Carlisle that Night, where I receiv'd the General's Letter, with an invitation to attend the Troops under his Command; & promising me his Protection & Encouragement.-" [excerpt …

Adams County History 2002

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Reverend Thomas Barton's Letter Of November 8, 1756 And Forbes Expedition Journal Of 1758, James P. Myers Jr.

Adams County History

When western York county became Adams county in the year 1800, the area already possessed something of a recorded history reaching back into the late 1730s. Principally in the form of documents relating to administrative, legal, and land-claim issues, these official papers provide us today with valuable evidence of the county's early settlers-who came, when they arrived, where they settled, and occasionally how they got along, or did not get along, with one another and with the colonial Penn government, and later with that of the new state erected during the Revolution. In its earliest period, these documents offer insight …

Holland's Informants: The Construction Of Josiah Holland's 'Life Of Abraham Lincoln', Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

Abraham Lincoln's coffin had lain in the receiving vault in Springfield's Oak Ridge Cemetery for less than three weeks when a dapper, walrus-mustachioed New Englander stepped off the train and checked into Springfield's St. Nicholas Hotel. He was Josiah Gilbert Holland, one-time editor (and still part owner) of the Springfield, Massachusetts, Republican, a nationally popular writer of advice books, and (what would turn out to be most memorably) part of a small circle of admirers and encouragers of an unknown Amherst poet named Emily Dickinson. None of those attributes, however, provided the slightest qualification for the task that brought …

Coercion Gone Wrong: Colonial Response To The Boston Port Act, Jared Peatman

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

On March 25, 1774, the British Parliament passed the Boston Port Act, closing Boston Harbor to commerce. The act was meant to force Boston into paying for tea dumped into the harbor four months earlier during the Boston Tea Party. Parliament believed that the colonies would not support Boston and it would be only a short time before Boston acquiesced and paid for the tea, reestablishing British authority in the colonies.1 They could not have been more wrong. The thirteen colonies were deeply disturbed by the Boston Port Act, and came together in a way that shocked Parliament. Rather than …

Abigail And Mercy, Amber Moulton

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The study of history, by its nature, is constantly evolving, as contemporary society reestablishes values and examines history under a new scope of social priorities. During this process of historical evolution, it is not events alone that take on new importance, but also the portrayal of historical figures themselves, personalities and influences changing from biography to biography over the years. Such has been the case with the historical Abigail Adams, best known for her well-preserved and archived correspondence with her husband, the Revolutionary Founding Father John Adams, among many other acquaintances. Abigail Adams has been portrayed in a number of …

The Tavern In Colonial America, Steven Struzinski

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The tavern in Colonial America, or the “ordinary” as it was referred to in Puritan Massachusetts, was a staple in the social, political, and travel lives of colonial citizens from very early in this country’s existence. Samuel Cole in Boston opened the first tavern on March 4, 1634. It was not long before the demand and necessity for taverns in New England, and throughout the colonies, was overwhelming. In 1656 the General Court of Massachusetts held towns accountable with fines if they did not sustain an ordinary.