Guide to the Ann Henshaw Gardiner Papers, 1753-1970
[top]Descriptive Summary
TitleAnn Henshaw Gardiner Papers, 1753-1970
Creator
Gardiner, Ann Henshaw
Extent
3,588 Items
Repository
Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Language
English.
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Administrative Information
Access RestrictionsCollection is open for research.
However, patrons must sign the Acknowledgment of Legal Responsibility and Privacy Rights form before using this
collection.
Also, all or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. Consequently, there may be a 24-hour delay in obtaining these materials.
Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library to use this collection.
Use Restrictions
The copyright interests in The Ann Henshaw Gardiner Papers have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the section on copyright in the Regulations and Procedures of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], The Ann Henshaw Gardiner Papers, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University.
Provenance
The Ann Henshaw Gardiner Papers were acquired by Duke University through purchases and gifts 1965-1984.
Processing Information
Processed by: Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library Staff
Completed ca. 1984
Encoded by Stephen Douglas Miller
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
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Collection Overview
The Ann Henshaw Gardiner Papers begin in the early years of the settlement of Berkeley County, Virginia, with two pioneer families, those of Captain William Henshaw of Springfield MIlls, Mill Creek, and of William Snodgrass of Clifton Mills, Back Creek. Both groups married into other prominent families of the region, so that their papers furnish two hundred years of local history and genealogical material for Berkeley County. The Andersons, the Verdiers, the Turners, the Evanses, the McConnells, the Pendletons, the Robinsons, and the Rawlingses, among others, appear throughout the collection.
The early letters are predominantly business in character, concerning the land transactions of John Turner, the surveyor of Berkeley County who registered the land titles of many local families. He was related to the Snodgrass family through his marriage to Ruth Rawlings.
By 1814, the correspondence is centered in Robert Snodgrass and his brother Stephen. As Berkeley County produced wheat in abundance, the sale of flour from its mills became increasingly important. The Henshaws of Mill Creek in particular left records of sales of large quantities of flour on the Alexandria and Baltimore markets. The Snodgrasses in this period were also milling although their records are not as numerous for their sales.
Both the Henshaws and the Snodgrasses were involved in the political affairs of Berkeley County. Levi Henshaw (1769-1843) was a gentleman justice of the peace, captain of militia, a member of the county court and of the Virginia House of Delegates, and sheriff in 1840. Robert Verdier Snodgrass (1792-1861) was commissioner of county revenue, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and colonel of the 67th Regiment of Virginia Militia. Their papers reflect these offices, both in the correspondence and in the legal papers. Levi Henshaw (1815-1896) married Sarah Ann, the daughter of Robert Verdier Snodgrass, thus uniting the papers of both families.
Berkeley County was an agricultural community, whose conditions were reflected in references to slaves in estates, as runaways, and for sale or hire.
Robert Verdier Snodgrass was concerned in both Democratic politics and legal business with Charles James Faulkner. His son-in-law, Israel Robinson, wrote to Snodgrass of political conditions in Washington, D. C. where he was an office holder. (Later Israel Robinson became clerk of the county court, a judge, and a Confederate general) The son of Robert Verdier Snodgrass, Stephen, became postmaster at Hedgesville, Va., in 1855.
By 1860 the settlement of various family estates reveals a maze of Snodgrass relatives. A letter from a cousin in 1860 comments on John Brown's raid and the arrival of the Japanese Embassy in Washington.
The outbreak of the Civil War shows divided political opinion in the family. In 1862, a letter describes the condition of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in wartime and of the Negroes in Washington, D.C., where slavery had been abolished. Stephen Snodgrass, a Unionist, did not have an easy time at Hedgesville during the war, and he had to have papers attesting his loyalty. On May 12, 1865, comment is made upon the assassination of President Lincoln.
Henshaw papers predominate after 1865. Business is dull; the collection of money, difficult.
As the family has scattered, letters of cousins come from many places, and grandchildren write to Sarah Ann (Snodgrass), the widow of Robert Verdier Snodgrass.
The first William Henshaw (1736-1799) in Berkeley County had married Agnes Anderson. William was the son of Nicholas Henshaw who came from Philadelphia to Berkeley County; thus Nicholas is the settler, William the first of that home. In 1886 correspondence begins about the history of the Anderson family; letters continue into the twentieth century.
By the 1890's Valley of Virginia Henshaw and her sisters, Mabel and Francis Little Henshaw, begin to write letters about genealogical matters; in particular, the Rawlings family is the subject of great interest.
Mabel Henshaw married Dr. Samuel H. Gardiner. Her concern for history led her to teach at Shepherd College, Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, W. Va., where she also served as librarian. Mrs. Gardiner was a district chairman of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association with correspondence in 1915 and 1916 which reveals the methods women were using to insure the pas sage of the woman suffrage amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Gardiner, Miss Ann Henshaw Gardiner, historian, scientist, and teacher, founded nursing education at the Duke University Hospital in 1930.
Between 1926 and 1930, Mrs. Mabel Gardiner wrote to many friends who remembered details of family weddings in the mid-nineteenth century. As late as 1940 she corresponded with R. B. Woodworth on the history of the Tuscarora Church and other Berkeley County churches. A picture of the Tuscarora Church is with these papers. (See Picture Cab. II-7)
The heart of the Ann Henshaw Gardiner Papers is the collection of legal papers which date from 1763. Both the Snodgrasses and the Henshaws as justices of the peace and county office holders were involved in a great deal of legal business through the ions . A grouping of legal papers for both families is followed by special sections on land surveys, on estate settlements, and on militia.
The general file of legal papers begins with gants from Lord Fairfax in the 1760s, when Berkeley County was still a part of Frederick County, Virginia. Richard Rigg, the land agent for Lord Fairifax, was the first surveyor in the district settled by the Henshaws and the Snodgrasses. Rawlings family deeds appear in the 1770s.
At the end of the Revolutionary War, John Turner appears as a chain carrier for the land surveys of the County. He became county surveyor, an office which he held until his death in 1811.
Among the family wills is that of Nicholas Henshaw (died 1777). With the deaths of Robert and Stephen Snodgrass in 1830 and 1832, a great deal of administrative work for their estates enters the papers, as Robert Verdier Snodgrass was appointed executor for both men. (Robert V. Snodgrass was the sone of Stephen Snodgrass) David Hunter and Israel Robinson are the clerks of the county court in these early documents.
Schools, roads, runaway slaves, the hiring of servants mail are concerns Which occupy the papers. With the death of Robert Verdier Snodgrass in 1861, his estate is settled and the legal papers belong to the Henshaws from that date.
The second division of legal papers concerns the settlement of a number of estates, usually those of relatives . The Turner and Gorrell families had intermarried with the Snodgrasses and Henshaws. The earliest papers dating from 1798 contain the will and estate inventory of Joseph Evans. Israel Robinson was executor of the estate of Elan Miller in 1849.
A large group of legal papers concerns the acquisition of land, basic in Virginia economic life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Survey plats began in 1753 in old Frederick County, which had been established in 1738. From it Berkeley County was created in 1772. The first surveys, made for the Rawlings and Morgan families, were for land purchased from Lord Fairfax. Richard Rigg, his surveyor, signed the plats showing the Fairfax grants. Rigg is followed by surveyors Thomas Jones and Josiah Swearingen. Many names of early settlers appear in the survey papers. In the 1780' s a chain carrier, John Turner, began to make surveys. He married Ruth Rawlings, whose land plats are in the papers. John Turner became surveyor for Berkeley County and remained in office till his death in 1810. His son Thomas, who was his deputy, succeeded him as surveyor for the county; The estate papers of the Turner family, elsewhere in the legal papers, show them as early residents of old Frederick County.
In 1803 land office records appear in conjunction with the survey appears. By this time Robert Verdier Snodgrass was a county commissioner of revenue who worked with the Turners in the sale of land.
The Snodgrass family was involved in militia affairs from 1798, when Robert (d. 1830) was a 1st lieutenant in the 67th Regiment 16th Brigade, 3rd Division, Virginia Militia. This county regiment was divided into local companies, each of which was subdivided into classes of roughly seven men. Class rolls, rosters, and officers' lists make up the official papers. By 1820, Robert Verdier Snodgrass was serving as an officer. He became colonel of the 67th Regiment in 1838, thereafter making annual returns.
The constitution of the Berkeley Rangers was drawn up on November 26, 1859, to organize a company of militia from Berkeley County. This company is listed as the Berkeley Border Guards Co. D. 2nd Virginia Infantry, C.S.A. Army, under J.Q.A. Nandenbousch of Martinsburg.
The financial papers are divided between Levi Henshaw I and II and Robert Verdier Snodgrass. Bills and receipts, loans, and household accounts increased as the nineteenth century brought a less self-sufficient life on the farms of Berkeley County. The Snodgrasses no longer lived at the Bill on Back Creek, but had moved to Hedgesville.
With such long family histories in Berkeley County, it was to be expected that descendants of the Henshaws and Snodgrasses should turn to writing the history of their section of Virginia. Valley of Virginia Henshaw was a leader of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Berkeley and throughout West Virginia. Her sisters, Mabel and Frances, were in Martinsburg by 1916. They were the children of Levi Henshaw II and Sarah Ann, the daughter of Robert Verdier Snodgrass.
Mabel (Henshaw) Gardiner wrote a thesis on the history of Martinsburg in 1930 for the degree of Master of Arts at the University of West Virginia. This work was developed into Chronicles of Old Berkeley by Mrs. Gardiner in collaboration with her daughter, Ann Henshaw Gardiner. Published in 1938, this history is based on the Ann H. Gardiner Papers and contains the diaries which Captain Levi and Hiram Henshaw kept on trips to Kentucky, ca. 1828-1830.
Ann Henshaw Gardiner graduated from Shepherd College and went into training in nursing at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She saw service in World War I in a United States Army base hospital in France (U.S. Base Hospital NO. 6). In 1927 she wrote her thesis
"The Development of the External Form of the Squid Embryo,"
at Kansas State Agricultural College for the degree of Master of Science. With the manuscripts of this work are pamphlets and papers of Francis Noyes Balch on Cephalopods.
Broadsides and pamphlets refer to Berkeley County and its history, to estate sales in the county, to the Whig Party, to the militia, and to the Free masons.
Clippings pertain to family members and to the story of Martinsburg and West Virginia. A series of articles by B. F. Voegle on local history is also in clipping form.
Among the miscellaneous material is a manuscript arithmetic book, 1790-1791, which was used by Robert Snodgrass II.
The volumes contain a number of old account books and other records. Family data for the Snodgrasses is preserved in their Age Book, 1821-1861 for each generation from William to Robert Verdier Snodgrass, as well as a list of the family slaves and their ages. Daybooks and farm books date fray 1803 to the 1840's. Four postal card albums, an autograph album, and scrapbooks with many other miscellaneous volumes are in the collection.
At the end of the papers are two albums and two manuscript histories of the first ten years of the Duke University School of Nursing. Pictures, programs, invitations, and clippings in the first album document the beginning of the nursing program in 1930. In the second album are photographs of nursing and laboratory classes
A number of letters, poems, and pamphlets unmounted in albums, conclude the nursing papers On December 27, 1934, the Duke University School of Nursing Alumnae Association was organized with a constitution. A reprint from the Southern Medical Association Journal contains the speeches made in April, 1931, at the dedication of the Medical School. Among the pictures are a number of photographs of members of the various classes of the Nursing School. The Henshaw family is well illustrated by pictures of individuals, their homes, and antique furnishlngs. For further details on this collection, see F. Vernon Aler, History of Martinsburg and Berkeley County, West Vlrginia; Willis F. Evans, History of Berkeley County West Virginia; and A. H. and M. H. Gardiner, Chronicles of Old Berkeley.
119 items and 9 vols., added 5-30-71, are letters, financial and legal papers, and scrapbooks and albums of the Henshaw, Snodgrass, and Gardiner families. Manuscripts of the early nineteenth century pertain to the settlement of estates, land transactions, and the hiring of Negro slaves and their deposition. The volumes center in nine scrapbooks and albums - five of which contain post cards of France and all of which are illustrative of the career of Miss Gardiner.
1 item and 1 cassette tape added, 1-24-73: Copies of the address Miss Gardiner gave at the fortieth anniversary banquet of the Alumni Association of the Nursing School of the Duke Medical Center, April 10, 1970.
2 items added, 5-5-84: Letters written by Robert Verdier Snodgrass to his wife Sarah Ann Snodgrass, in Hedgesville, Va., while he was attending a session of the state legislature in Richmond as a delegate. He describes the city of Richmond and a party given by Governor David Campbell, and mentions political colleagues, a military parade, and the failure of the legislature to elect a United States Senator.
Description from the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library Manuscript Card Catalog.
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Subject Headings
These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.
- Berkeley County (W. Va.)--History--Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, etc.
- Duke University.--School of Nursing--Curricula.
- Gardiner, Mabel Henshaw--Chronicles of old Berkeley.
- Gardiner, Ann Henshaw
- Gardiner family.
- Henshaw family.
- Nursing schools--North Carolina.
- Slavery--West Virginia.
- Snodgrass family.
- West Virginia--History--Sources.
- Gardiner, Mabel Henshaw.
- West Virginia--Berkeley County--Martinsburg.
Detailed Description of Collection
Correspondence Series, 1779-1980
Correspondence, 1779-1859
(10 folders)
Box 2
Correspondence, 1860-1980 and undated
(9 folders)
Diaries Series, 1825-1967
Levi Henshaw (diary and transcript) Nov. 10, 1828-March 25, 1829
Hiram Henshaw (transcript) Jan. 4 1830-May 15 1830
Susan Riddle (transcript) 1861-1864
Ann H. Gardiner
1904-1905
Ann H. Gardiner
1910
Ann H. Gardiner
1911
Ann H. Gardiner
1912
Ann H. Gardiner
1917, vols. 1 & 2
Fanny Henshaw Travel Diary (Western U.S.)
1928
Box 4
Ann H. Gardiner and Fanny Henshaw (travel diary western U.S.)
June-Sept. 1928
Ann H. Gardiner and Fanny Henshaw (travel diary and misc. notes, U.S.)
1929 and 1930s.
Mabel H. Gardiner (travel diary southern U.S. - W. Va. to Fla.)
1938
Ann H. Gardiner (travel diary Fla.)
1938
Ann H. Gardiner
"Exploring the Rocky Mountains"
(travel diary/scrapbook) 1939
Jo [?] and Ann H. Gardiner (travel diary transcontinental U.S.)
1957
Ann H. Gardiner
"Greece"
(travel diary/scrapbook) 1958
Box 5
Ann H. Gardiner
"South America"
(travel diary/scrapbook) 1961
Ann H. Gardiner
"North With the Birds: Scotland, Norway, Lapland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark"
(travel diary/scrapbook) June 1962
Box 6
Ann H. Gardiner
"By Jet to the South Seas and the South Pacific"
v. 1 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1963
Ann H. Gardiner
"By Jet to the South Seas and the South Pacific"
v. 2 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1963
Box 7
Ann H. Gardiner
"By Jet to the South Seas and the South Pacific"
v. 3 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1963
Ann H. Gardiner
"The Land of the Pharaohs - Lebanon"
v. 1 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1964
Box 8
Ann H. Gardiner
"Syria, Jordan, Israel, Athens"
v. 2 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1964
Ann H. Gardiner
"Greek Isles, Turkey, Greece: The Land of the Gods"
v. 3 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1964
Box 9
Ann H. Gardiner
"The Toltecs, Aztecs, and and the Spaniards"
v. 1 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1965
Ann H. Gardiner
"Mayaland"
v. 2 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1960s 10 DIARIES
Box 10
Ann H. Gardiner
"The Book of Kells: A Modern Version"
(travel diary/scrapbook) 1966
Ann H. Gardiner
"Ireland, England"
v. 1 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1967
Box 11
Ann H. Gardiner
"Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia"
v. 2 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1967
Ann H. Gardiner
"Italy"
v. 3 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1967
Ann H. Gardiner
"France, Switzerland, Ireland"
v. 4 (travel diary/scrapbook) 1967
Legal Papers Series
Articles of Agreement 1788-1889,
undated
Bonds 1772-1869
Bounty Land Claims 1845-1855
Deeds 1754-1896,
undated
(2 folders)
Depositions 1825-1858,
undated
Estate Settlement (Joseph Evans)
1798,
undated
Estate Settlement (Abraham & William Gorrell)
1826-1856
(2 folders)
Box 13
Estate Settlement (William B. Gorrell Account Books) ca. 1839-1844
Estate Settlement (John Gray)
1817-1825
Estate Settlement (Joseph Grubb)
1833-1835
Estate Settlement (Levi Henshaw)
1845-1869
Estate Settlement (Elon Miller & Israel Robinson)
1842-1849,
undated
Estate Settlement (Robert Snodgrass)
1823-1861,
undated
Estate Settlement (Thomas Turner)
1723-1821,
undated
(2 folders)
Estate Settlement (John White)
1822-1829
Estate Settlements-Miscellaneous 1809-1852
Judgements 1822-1868
Land Office (Berkeley Co., Va.)
1803-1819,
undated
Box 14
Land Surveys (Frederick Co., Va.)
1753-1772
Land Surveys (Berkeley Co., Va.)
1774-1888,
undated
(4 folders)
Land Surveys (Sleepy Creek)
1751-1805,
undated
Land Records - Miscellaneous 1775-1856,
undated
Leases 1783-1909
Liquor Distillery 1809-1816
Box 15
Military Records 1798-1859,
undated
Miscellaneous 1790-1904,
undated
Postmaster General (Robert Snodgrass)
1853
Powers of Attorney 1801-l859
Road Orders 1818,
undated
Sale Bills 1800-1908,
undated
Summons 1815-1869
Tax Records 1802-1817
Warrants 1809-1868
Wills 1771-1835,
1981
Financial Papers Series
Account Book (Henshaw)
1228-1833
Account Books (Zephaniah & Martha Silver)
1834-1858,
Account Books (Snodgrass)
1816-1844
Account Book (Stephen Snodgrass)
1803-1806 (includes birth & death entries of children)
Account Book (Jacob Thomas)
1897-1870
Bill & Receipts (G. W. Henshaw & Bros.)
Aug 1848- March 1850,
undated
Bills & Receipts (Levi Henshaw) 1798-1849,
(4 folders)
Box 17
Bills & Receipts (Levi Henshaw)
1850-1896,
undated
(2 folders)
Bills & Receipts (Robert Snodgrass)
1798-1886,
undated
(5 folders)
Miscellaneous 1863,
1921,
undated
Miscellaneous (Back Creek Meeting House)
1817,
1830
Genealogical Materials Series
Duvall-Rawlings Family Scrapbook
Duvall-Rawlings Family Miscellaneous
Evans Family Scrapbook
Henshaw Family Charts
Henshaw Family Histories
Henshaw Family Miscellaneous
William Henshaw Chapter of DAR Miscellaneous
Kendall-Cunningham-Snodgrass Family Miscellaneous
Box 19
Patterson-Snodgrass Family Scrapbook
(2 folders)
Robinson-Snodgrass Family Scrapbook
(3 folders)
Box 20
Snodgrass Family Age Book and Notebook
Snodgrass Family Miscellaneous
Verdier Family Scrapbook
Verdier Family Miscellaneous
Unfinished and General
Local History Materials Series
[?] Baptist Church Minutes 1792-1997
Berkeley Co., W Va Miscellaneous
Box 21
"History of Old Berkeley"
by Ann H. Gardiner,
undated
Hedgesville, W.Va.
Martinsburg, W.Va.
"History of Martinsburg and Vicinity, 1778-1926"
by Mabel Henshaw Gardiner (master's thesis), 1930
Miscellaneous
Shepherdstown, W. Va.
Tuscarora Presbyterian Church
Photographic Materials Series
Family and friends (prints), 1860s-1905
Family and friends (prints and negatives), ca. 1900-1980
Family and friends - Shepherd College (prints), ca. 1906
Family and friends (album), 1910-1916 (includes Shepherd College, nurses training)
Family and friends - Mabel Henshaw Gardiner and Fanny Henshaw (printing blocks), ca. late 1800s
Box 23
Family and friends - Mabel Henshaw Gardiner and Fanny Henshaw (prints and negatives), undated .
Family and friends - Graves of Valley Virginia Henshaw and Col. Robert Morgan (prints and negatives), undated
Historic buildings and bridges in Martineburg W. Va. (prints and negatives), undated
Historic maps and documents (prints and negatives), undated
Nursing - WWI in France (album), 1917
Box 24
Nursing - WWI in France (prints and negatives), 1917
Nursing - Duke (album), 1930s
Nursing - Duke (album), ca. 1930-1940
Nursing - Duke (album), 1939-1941
Box 25
Nursing - Duke (prints and negatives), 1939-1940
(3 folders)
Travel - Friday Harbor, Washington (album), ca. 1925-1926
Travel - Friday Harbor, Washington.(negatives), ca. 1925-1926
Travel - Western trip (prints and negatives), 1928-1929
(2 folders)
Travel - Washington and California (prints), 1948
Travel - California (prints), ca. 1960s
Travel - Northwestern U.S. (prints), ca. 1960s
Travel - Nova Scotia (prints), ca. 1960s
Travel - Southwest U.S. (prints and negatives), ca. 1960s
Travel - Miscellaneous (prints and negatives), undated
Scrapbooks Series
Miscellaneous (news clippings), 1882
Miscellaneous (advertisements, scraps), ca. 1889
Notebook (Robert Gardiner family), 1889-1970
Box 27
Notebook (Sheperd College, nurses training), 1891-1919,
1981
(4 folders)
Notebook (educational records), 1901-1974
Box 28
Notebook (nursing - WWI),
May 1917-June 1918
Notebook (nursing - WWI),
June 1918-1919
Box 29
Notebook (miscellaneous), 1919-1940
Notebook (nursing - Duke),
1930-1978
Notebook (miscellaneous), 1930-1978
Box 30
Notebook (miscellaneous), 1941-1978
Notebook (miscellaneous), 1966-1980
Box 31
Notebook (miscellaneous), 1979-1980
Miscellaneous Series
Miscellaneous, 1871-1950s
Arithmetic ca. 1790-1791
Autograph Albums (Mabel Henshaw and Fannie Henshaw),
1882-1888
Clippings, 1908-1930,
undated
Duke University School of Nursing,
1930-1940,
1980
Duke University School of Nursing (clippings), 1935-1923
Duke University School of Nursing (history), 1936
Duke University School of Nursing
(Gardiner portrait), 1980
Duke University School of Nursing (speeches), 1939 - 1970
(2 folders)
Embryology notes, 1927
Invitations, announcements, visiting cards, late 1800s-early 1900s
Box 33
Recipes and remedies, 1800s
Red Cross nursing cap, 1917
Writings, undated
Writings -
"The Chromatophones of Cetapods"
(thesis), 1896
Writings -
"Development of the External Form of a Squid Embryo"
(thesis), 1927
Oversize Materials Series
*
(Note: photocopies of oversized materials are filed in corresponding series above)
Box OB 57
Legal Papers - Deeds, 1754-1850
Legal Papers - Land Office (Berkeley Co., W.Va),
1814-1819
Legal Papers - Land Surveys (Berkeley Co., W.Va), 1790s-1826
Legal Papers - Military, 1814
Genealogical Materials - Henshaw family (DAR applications), undated
Local History Materials - [?] Baptist Church Minutes, 1792-1797
Photographic Materials - Historical documents and buildings (prints), undated
Box OB 58
Scrapbook (clippings), ca. mid-late 1800s
Box OVCB
Certificates 1886-1950
Deed 1819
