Acknowledgment of George B. Willson that he has bought Harriet Lane Johnston’s Wheatland estate
Description
Acknowledgment of George B. Willson that he has bought Harriet Lane Johnston’s Wheatland estate for $20,000, half to be paid now and the rest in installments; sale includes plants for the garden, bookcases in library, 2 cows, one horse, all farming implements; she may continue occupying the house until 1 July next with free supply of ice, fruit, and vegetables. Approved by Harriet Lane Johnston. Written on Harriet Lane Johnston’s stationery. 120 Park Street, [Baltimore].
James Buchanan Papers, Penn State University Libraries,
https://libraries.psu.edu/findingaids/1458.htm
Related Item Notes
James Buchanan Family Papers
MG-96 James Buchanan Collection
Historical Society of Pennsylvania microfilm
Photograph collections
Curatorial collections
Wheatland Mansion
Notes
May 2020 PastPerfect Conversion
Access Conditions / Restrictions
Please use digital images and transcriptions when available. Original documents may be used by appointment. Please contact archives@lancasterhistory.org at least two weeks prior to visit.
Copyright
Images have been provided for research purposes only. Please contact archives@lancasterhistory.org for a high-resolution image and permission to publish.
LancasterHistory retains the rights to the digital images and content presented. The doctrine of fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder. Fair use includes comment, criticism, teaching, and private scholarship. Any images and data downloaded, printed or photocopied for these purposes should provide a citation. All other uses beyond those allowed by fair use require written permission.
Permission for reproduction and/or publication must be obtained in writing from LancasterHistory. Some items are photocopies from other collections--researchers must obtain permission for reproduction and publication from the owner of the original material.
Persons wishing to publish any material from this site must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright or other use restrictions. Publication fees may apply.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Accession Number
JBMS1995.412
Other Number
JBFP Part 2, Series 2, Subseries 2, Folder 2
Description Level
Item
Custodial History
The James Buchanan Family Papers were collected by the James Buchanan Foundation for the Preservation of Wheatland. This collection was relocated from the Wheatland mansion to the LancasterHistory archives in the Spring of 2009. Digitization of the James Buchanan Family Papers was funded by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, PHMC Appl ID # 201808013051, 2019-2020.
Preferred Citation: Title or description of item, date (day, month, year), Thaddeus Stevens Collection (MG0115), Part 1, Folder # or Object ID, LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. URL if applicable. Date accessed (day, month, year).
Access Conditions / Restrictions
Please use digital images and transcriptions when available. Original documents may be used by appointment. Please contact Research@LancasterHistory.org prior to visit.
Copyright
Images have been provided for research purposes only. Please contact Research@LancasterHistory.org for a high-resolution image and permission to publish.
LancasterHistory retains the rights to the digital images and content presented. The doctrine of fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder. Fair use includes comment, criticism, teaching, and private scholarship. Any images and data downloaded, printed or photocopied for these purposes should provide a citation. All other uses beyond those allowed by fair use require written permission.
Permission for reproduction and/or publication must be obtained in writing from LancasterHistory. Persons wishing to publish any material from this site must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright or other use restrictions. Publication fees may apply.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Accession Number
1973.MG0115F25
Other Numbers
MG-115
Other Number
MG-115, Part 1, Folder 25, Insert 2
Classification
MG0115
Description Level
Item
Custodial History
Added to database 22 September 2022.
Digitization of this document was funded by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, PHMC Appl ID # 202010016624, 2020-2023.
Autograph album of Lizzie H. Shenk, Safe Harbor. Maroon velvet cover. The album includes poetry, messages, and signatures of friends and family.
Admin/Biographical History
Elizabeth Herr Shenk (1869-1934) married Leroy Frey Mayer (1868-1958). Their daughter Kathryn M. Mayer Lichty (1901-1972) and her husband Charles Fouse Lichty (1899-1983) moved to Howell County, Missouri between 1940 and 1950.
Preferred Citation: Title or description of item, date (day, month, year), Collection Title (MG#), Series #, Box #, Folder #, (or Object ID), LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. URL if applicable. Date accessed (day, month, year).
Access Conditions / Restrictions
Please request at the Reference Desk or contact Research@LancasterHistory.org prior to visit.
Copyright
Collection may not be photocopied. Please direct questions to Research Center Staff at research@lancasterhistory.org.
Permission for reproduction and/or publication must be obtained in writing from LancasterHistory.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Accession Number
2022.012
Other Numbers
MG-118
Other Number
MG-118
Classification
MG0118
Description Level
Item
Custodial History
This album was part of a donation to the State Historical Society of Missouri; the items in the donation had no provenance.
The Willie Siple Collection includes photographs, postcards, correspondence, and newspaper clippings about Siple and related to his business and boxing career.
Admin/Biographical History
Wilbur "Willie" Siple (1904-1966) was the operator of Siple's News Stand for many years. He was originally a professional boxer when he was younger, and he had a successful, but short, boxing career. During those six years, Willie fought in 131 exhibitions with 71 wins, 9 losses, 22 draws and 29 KO's. Willie was what was called a "flyweight," weighing only 102 pounds in his heyday. However, Willie's boxing career was cut short after a 1925 automobile accident. Although many people speculated that Willie's loss of his eyesight was because of his boxing career, Willie explained the accident to a local newspaper. According to a sports news article that can be found in the Willie Siple Collection here at LancasterHistory.org, Willie was attempting to fix a car when a car tire exploded in his face, damaging his eyesight beyond repair and blinding him.
However, despite this tragedy, Willie didn't let the accident and blindness take over his life. On September 28, 1935, during the Depression, Willie made a brave move and opened his news stand in the Lancaster City Post Office, and named it Siple's News Stand. Due to an act of Congress, the Rudolph-Sheppard Act of 1935, Willie became "one of the first blind operators to set up shop in Federal Buildings," according to an article in the Willie Siple collection. Willie's news stand featured free news and weather reports, and sold newspapers, magazines, and candy. Rare coins and stamps, a personal passion of Willie's, were also available for purchase. Willie would travel far and wide in order to acquire rare stamps to be sold to stamp collectors. Willie would travel to places like Washington, D.C. Princeton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia in order to buy what were then called "first day issues" of stamps. One newspaper article even calls him a "philatelist," or a stamp expert, much to Willie's surprise. Siple was also extremely passionate about coin collecting, and could identify and appraise coins without needing to see them. Willie also loved to travel, and had even traveled to Canada and all around Pennsylvania with the help of friends.
Willie then became a well-known public figure. He was known for his friendly, talkative personality, and his eye-catching and "loud" shirts. WDAC-FM radio, then a Christian radio station, featured an editorial on Willie, which was subtitled "the personification of good humor." In this editorial, Willie is said to have had a "flamboyant and winning personality," as well as a "belief in man's basic honesty." Despite the fact that Willie was often taken advantage of because of his blindness, and that he "was the victim of an average of $40 worth annually in pilfered stock or dishonest dealings," Willie held on to the belief in the goodness of mankind all his life. This is not to say that Willie was completely dependent on the honesty of his customers. He was able to read dollar bills with his hands, and could tell the difference between each, much to the wonder of skeptical customers, and probably to the dismay of the rare customer who would try and take advantage of him.
Willie became a well-loved figure in the community, and anyone looking through his collection will be able to see just that. Siple was a philanthropist who supported the Tuberculosis Society with the proceeds from sales of Christmas seals (or stamps) for their charity. Willie would also dress up like Santa Claus every year, and would visit infantile paralysis victims. There are also multiple thank-you notes from school classes and the local boys club for his generous gifts of candy.
Many of Willie's friends also willingly helped him with his business, helping him with bookkeeping, driving him to and from work, taking him to lunch, helping take over the stand during lunch, and much more. He called these people his "assistants," and most of them were local business men and women who would take time out of their days to help. These people were unpaid friends, just willing to give Willie a hand. Their kindness, as well as Willie's generosity, show the kinship and kindness in the community that surrounded him in Lancaster city.
This material was part of the Johnny Hauck Collection, MG-63. Because of the specific nature of the material, it was extracted to create a separate manuscript group.
Photographs transferred to the Photograph Collection, 3 November 2017.
Access Conditions / Restrictions
No restrictions.
Copyright
Collection may not be photocopied. Please direct questions to Research Center Staff at research@lancasterhistory.org.
Permission for reproduction and/or publication must be obtained in writing from LancasterHistory.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Other Numbers
MG-6
Classification
MG0006
Description Level
Fonds
Custodial History
This material was part of the Johnny Hauck Collection, MG-63. Because of the specific nature of the material, it was extracted to create a separate manuscript group.
Cataloged prior to July 1997; added to database 8 February 2018.
Muddy Creek Lutheran and Reformed Church Collection
Description
The Muddy Creek Lutheran and Reformed Church Collection contains church records, property records, legal documents, a songbook, and a liturgy book.
Admin/Biographical History
Peace United Church of Christ was formed in the late 1960s by the joining of St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Adamstown and Muddy Creek United Church of Christ. Muddy Creek UCC is one of the earliest German Reformed churches in the area, its founding marked with the first recorded baptisms in January of 1731.
The Linden Hall Seminary Collection contains school catalogs and Linden Hall Echo, the school yearbook. Other items include financial records, fundraising information, school workbooks, and a diploma from 1886.
Admin/Biographical History
Linden Hall Seminary is a girls' school located in Lititz, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1742 by the Moravian community, it is the oldest continuously operated girls' school in the United States.
Preferred Citation: Title or description of item, date (day, month, year), Linden Hall Seminary Collection (MG0010), Folder #, LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Access Conditions / Restrictions
No restrictions.
Copyright
Collection may not be photocopied. Please direct questions to Research Center Staff at research@lancasterhistory.org.
Permission for reproduction and/or publication must be obtained in writing from LancasterHistory.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Other Numbers
MG-10
Classification
MG0010
Description Level
Fonds
Custodial History
This collection was cataloged prior to 1997; added to database 8 Febraury 2018.
Collection contains material pertaining to pageants, festivals, and celebrations in Lancaster County. The majority of the collection pertains to the "Pageant of Liberty," celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (1776-1926), and the "Pageant of Gratitude," commemorating the 200th anniversary of the formation of Lancaster County (1729-1929). Included are scripts, minutes, programs, invitations, correspondence, financial records, tickets, photographs, blueprints, and sheet music.
The John Wise and History of Ballooning Collection contains material about John Wise, a pioneering balloonist from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and the history of ballooning. Articles written by and about John Wise provide information about the man and his career. The bulk of Series 1 is correspondence, research notes, and drafts of "The John Wise Story," by John H. Andrews. Series 2 contains material about the ballooning hobby, other early aircraft, and the history of air mail.
Admin/Biographical History
As an adventurous and inquisitive young boy, John Wise was drawn to the skies above his native Lancaster County. He was fascinated by aerial pursuits and began to conduct experiments. He tied his cat to his homemade parachute and observed the cat's safe descent from a local church steeple.
A keen interest in ballooning developed and Wise became a famous aeronaut. Although balloon ascensions were common at county fairs and carnivals he had never observed an ascension before he made his first one in Philadelphia in 1835. John Wise completed 462 balloon ascensions including Lancaster ascensions from Penn Square and the prison yard.
In the nineteenth century many ascensions were made just for the novelty of the event, but John Wise's approach was from a scientific perspective. Each ascension gave him a chance to conduct scientific investigations of the atmosphere, pneumatics and hydrostatics.
It also gave him the opportunity to develop a more advanced flying machine. Wise was the first to observe the "great river of air which always blows from west to east" in the higher regions of the atmosphere. Today we call this phenomenon the jet stream. He also developed the ripcord safety mechanism.
John Wise promoted the advantages of balloon transportation. In 1843 he conceived a project for crossing the Atlantic Ocean and asked Congress to appropriate $15,000 for the project. Congress rejected the appropriation. Wise suggested a plan to bomb the Castle at Vera Cruz during the Mexican War and during the Civil War the Bureau of Topographical Engineers requested his services as a balloonist. He is credited with the first airmail transportation in 1859.
Detailed descriptions of his ascensions and experiments are found in his book, Through the Air, published in 1873. The last ascent of John Wise took place on September 29, 1879 from St. Louis, Missouri. This flight ended disastrously in Lake Michigan where his balloon fell and his remains lie.
Prepared by the Lancaster County Historical Society, ca. 1995.
The Hubley Collection contains legal documents, case papers, family and military papers, wills, deeds, bills and receipts, indentures for servants and enslaved persons, correspondence, petitions, and church-related information.
Admin/Biographical History
John Hubley and Joseph Hubley were Lancaster attorneys.
System of Arrangement
The legal papers are arranged chronologically. Case papers are arranged
alphabetically by surname of the plaintiff or defendant. Family papers are grouped by the family member's name and chronologically within that name. Box 6 is arranged chronologically.
Collection includes the United Church Women of Lancaster's organizational minutes, reports, financial records, and records pertaining to the Crispus Attucks Project.
