This collection contains Frank E. Witmer's original 1879 diary, as well as a transcription and index prepared by Dr. David H. Wallace. The diary provides a detailed record of the daily activities of all members of the family. He primarily records the work involved in running a truck farm--planting, maintaining, and harvesting crops, and preparing for market. Other entries of interest include helping a neighbor move a carriage house; building a hog pen; canning; attendance at several Mennonite churches in the area; the process of moving from one house and barn to a new house and barn on the property; frequent visits between relatives and neighbors; and a few mentions of school and the leisure activities of the young men.
Admin/Biographical History
In 1879, Franklin E. Witmer (1855-1931), at age 23, was the eldest son of Aaron L. Witmer, farmer of West Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and his wife Mary Ann (Herr) Witmer. The household also included his younger brothers Abraham (Abram), 21, and Jacob Elam (Elem), 19; two school-age girls Sarah Dunlap, 13, an apprentice servant, and Hettie Fritz, 8, a ward of Mr. and Mrs. Witmer; and for part of the year a teen-age boarder-farm hand , Thaddeus (Thad) Brackbill. In Frank's diary, each person's activity was recorded daily, almost as if he had set himself a deliberate project to do so.
Mr. Witmer's truck farm embraced fields of grain (wheat, oats and rye), several acres of tobacco, a varied fruit orchard, a large truck garden, and a greenhouse for vegetables and flowering plants, a small herd of dairy cattle, some hogs and chickens; enough variety to make year-round weekly visits to market in Lancaster. During the year the family moved into a new house, raised a new barn, stables, hog-pen and chicken-house, and rented the old house and barn to a tenant farmer, Jacob Dieter.
The Witmers were Mennonites, regularly attending church in Lampeter Twp. and Strasburg, and occasionally in New Providence and Lancaster. Sarah and Hettie and briefly Elam, attended the Lampeter School. Their chief source of entertainment seems to have been visiting among their extended Witmer and Herr families and neighbors, although Abram and Elam sometimes attended "singing school" and the Lampeter Lyceum and did some "driving about" of an evening. Only Abram seems to have had a special girlfriend.
Although all the men of the family did everything in the way of farm chores, each of the boys also had a specialty. Frank, the oldest, had his own corn and tobacco patches to tend and market, Abram tended to concentrate on the greenhouse and truck-garden, and Elam helped his father provide veterinary services to other farmers in the area.
Frank Witmer married Mary Ann Herr on November 30, 1881; he continued general farming in West Lampeter Township, died there on December 10, 1931, and was buried in the Mennonite cemetery in nearby Willow Street, Pennsylvania.
This history was prepared by Dr. David H. Wallace.
Please use transcription and index, MG0847_F002 and MG0847_F003.
Original diary may be used by appointment--contact research@lancasterhistory.org at least two weeks prior to visit.
Copyright
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Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Accession Number
2021.011
Other Numbers
MG-847
Other Number
MG-847, Folder 1
Classification
MG0847
Description Level
Item
Custodial History
PDFs of the transcription and index are attached to the correlating records.
Long's Park Amphitheater Foundation, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Access Conditions / Restrictions
Please use digital images. Original documents may be used by appointment--contact Research@LancasterHistory.org prior to visit.
Copyright
Researchers may access the digital files and the history of Long's Park Amphitheater and the Summer Music Series for educational and research purposes according to United States copyright law. (see below)
The reproduction, in any form, of copyrighted material is governed by the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). Under certain "Fair Use" conditions specified in the law, institutions are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction, including for educational and research purposes. If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a reproduction for purposes beyond "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Collection contains the research materials of R. Harold Barton on the mills and bridges of Lancaster County. Included are field notes, working papers, photographer's negatives, and postcards. Indexes are available listing mills by name and location, and bridges by name.
Four notebooks are the finished product of the mills and bridges research of R. Harold Barton. These notebooks are in the library under Barton, R. Harold on the online catalog (LC621.85, B283, v.1-v.4). The notebooks constitute 1 cubic ft. of the collection.
The remaining six boxes are located within the manuscript collection. These boxes house working papers, field notes, worksheets, notebooks, photographs, negatives, additional albums of photographs and other miscellaneous material relating to Lancaster County bridges and mills.
Mr. Barton uses a numerical system to locate bridges and mills by township or by the names of the streams, rivers, runs and creeks. Three indexes have been prepared: one lists the bridges by name, one the location by town or townships, and one the names of the mills.
There are a few notes related to Lancaster County gunsmiths, missionaries, and Indian traders.
System of Arrangement
Collection is arranged by township, number, and index.
Transcription of the diary of Frank E. Witmer, 1879.
Admin/Biographical History
In 1879, Franklin E. Witmer (1855-1931), at age 23, was the eldest son of Aaron L. Witmer, farmer of West Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and his wife Mary Ann (Herr) Witmer. The household also included his younger brothers Abraham (Abram), 21, and Jacob Elam (Elem), 19; two school-age girls Sarah Dunlap, 13, an apprentice servant, and Hettie Fritz, 8, a ward of Mr. and Mrs. Witmer; and for part of the year a teen-age boarder-farm hand , Thaddeus (Thad) Brackbill. In Frank's diary, each person's activity was recorded daily, almost as if he had set himself a deliberate project to do so.
Mr. Witmer's truck farm embraced fields of grain (wheat, oats and rye), several acres of tobacco, a varied fruit orchard, a large truck garden, and a greenhouse for vegetables and flowering plants, a small herd of dairy cattle, some hogs and chickens; enough variety to make year-round weekly visits to market in Lancaster. During the year the family moved into a new house, raised a new barn, stables, hog-pen and chicken-house, and rented the old house and barn to a tenant farmer, Jacob Dieter.
The Witmers were Mennonites, regularly attending church in Lampeter Twp. and Strasburg, and occasionally in New Providence and Lancaster. Sarah and Hettie and briefly Elam, attended the Lampeter School. Their chief source of entertainment seems to have been visiting among their extended Witmer and Herr families and neighbors, although Abram and Elam sometimes attended "singing school" and the Lampeter Lyceum and did some "driving about" of an evening. Only Abram seems to have had a special girlfriend.
Although all the men of the family did everything in the way of farm chores, each of the boys also had a specialty. Frank, the oldest, had his own corn and tobacco patches to tend and market, Abram tended to concentrate on the greenhouse and truck-garden, and Elam helped his father provide veterinary services to other farmers in the area.
Frank Witmer married Mary Ann Herr on November 30, 1881; he continued general farming in West Lampeter Township, died there on December 10, 1931, and was buried in the Mennonite cemetery in nearby Willow Street, Pennsylvania.
This history was prepared by Dr. David H. Wallace.
In 1879, Franklin E. Witmer (1855-1931), at age 23, was the eldest son of Aaron L. Witmer, farmer of West Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and his wife Mary Ann (Herr) Witmer. The household also included his younger brothers Abraham (Abram), 21, and Jacob Elam (Elem), 19; two school-age girls Sarah Dunlap, 13, an apprentice servant, and Hettie Fritz, 8, a ward of Mr. and Mrs. Witmer; and for part of the year a teen-age boarder-farm hand , Thaddeus (Thad) Brackbill. In Frank's diary, each person's activity was recorded daily, almost as if he had set himself a deliberate project to do so.
Mr. Witmer's truck farm embraced fields of grain (wheat, oats and rye), several acres of tobacco, a varied fruit orchard, a large truck garden, and a greenhouse for vegetables and flowering plants, a small herd of dairy cattle, some hogs and chickens; enough variety to make year-round weekly visits to market in Lancaster. During the year the family moved into a new house, raised a new barn, stables, hog-pen and chicken-house, and rented the old house and barn to a tenant farmer, Jacob Dieter.
The Witmers were Mennonites, regularly attending church in Lampeter Twp. and Strasburg, and occasionally in New Providence and Lancaster. Sarah and Hettie and briefly Elam, attended the Lampeter School. Their chief source of entertainment seems to have been visiting among their extended Witmer and Herr families and neighbors, although Abram and Elam sometimes attended "singing school" and the Lampeter Lyceum and did some "driving about" of an evening. Only Abram seems to have had a special girlfriend.
Although all the men of the family did everything in the way of farm chores, each of the boys also had a specialty. Frank, the oldest, had his own corn and tobacco patches to tend and market, Abram tended to concentrate on the greenhouse and truck-garden, and Elam helped his father provide veterinary services to other farmers in the area.
Frank Witmer married Mary Ann Herr on November 30, 1881; he continued general farming in West Lampeter Township, died there on December 10, 1931, and was buried in the Mennonite cemetery in nearby Willow Street, Pennsylvania.
This history was prepared by Dr. David H. Wallace.
Samuel E. Dyke was a noted authority on the Pennsylvania rifle and wrote on this subject. Collection consists of articles, correspondence, photographs, research notes, and working papers on firearms. Also included is information on gunsmiths, the Rockford Foundation, the Heritage Center, cabinetmakers, grandfather clocks, and the Armstrong Cork Company. 1670-1985
Les reports de Sir William Jones, chevalier ... De divers special cases cy bien in le Court de banck le roy, come le Common-banck in Angleterre. Cy bien en le darreign temps del ̕reign de roy Jaqves, come en la̕nn de roy Charles. I. [1620-1640] Queux fueront adjudge en les dits courts en le temps en que il fuit justice en ceux. Colliges par luy mesme, et imprimee per lo̕riginal south son maine propre en francois remanent in les maines de Dorothy Favlconberge, & Lvcy Jones, files & executrices del ̕dit justice
Printed by T.R.N.T. for Thomas Basset and Richard Chiswel, at the George near Cliffords Inne in Fleet-street, and at the Rose and crown in St. Paul's church yard,
Printed by George Sawbridge, William Rawlins, and Samuel Roycroft ...,
Date of Publication
1679.
Physical Description
2 pts. in 1 volumes ; 39 cm (fol.)
Notes
Part 1 covers the period 1-10 Edward III (1328-1338); part 2, 17-39 Edward III (1344-1367) with the omission of some years.
Part 2 has title: Le second part de Les reports des cases en ley, que furent argues en le temps de tres haut & puisant prince, roy Edward le Tierce. Ore nouvelment imprimes, corriges & amendes, avec les notations & references a l'abregement de l'tres reverend & tres sage juge de cest royaulme, Fitzherbert.
LHO spine labels: volume 1: Reports, Edward II - volume 2 Reports Edward 3d part 1; - volume 3 Reports Edward 3d part 2 - volume 4 Reports Henry 6 part lst; - volume 5: Reports Henry 6, part 2nd; Edward 4th - volume 6: Reports Edward 5th, Richard 3, Henry th7th & 8th.
Les Reports des cases argue & adjudge in le temps del' roy Edward de Second, et auxy memoranda del' Exchequer en temps le roy Edward le Primer : Solonq ; les ancient manuscripts ore remanent en les maines de Sir Jehan' Maynard, chevaler, serjeant de la ley al Sa Tres Excellent Majesty le roy Charles le Second. Ovesq ; un perfect table des matters en les dits cases de temps del' roy Edward le Second, colligee per le mesme serjeant
Printed by G. Sawbridge, T. Roycroft, and W. Rawlins, assigns of R. Atkins and E. Atkins,
Date of Publication
1678.
Physical Description
[2], 685, [64], 43 pages ; 39 cm (4to)
Notes
Text in law french.
Known as Part 1 of Maynard's edition. cf. Legal biblio. Brit. commonwealthnatition, 1:312.
Signatures (summary): A-M/2 B2 C-4R/4 A-S/2.
Jasper Yeates's Colonial Law Library.
Yeates's signature at top of title page.
Book number 786 as assigned by Yeates.
LHO spine labels: volume 1: Reports, Edward II - volume 2 Reports Edward 3d part 1; - volume 3 Reports Edward 3d part 2 - volume 4 Reports Henry 6 part lst; - volume 5: Reports Henry 6, part 2nd; Edward 4th - volume 6: Reports Edward 5th, Richard 3, Henry th7th & 8th.
