"On April 17, 1865, eighteen year old John Rakestraw left the family farm in Bart Township, Lancaster County, to attend Unionville Academy, a small Quaker boarding school in Chester County. During the time he was away his two older sisters wrote to him regularly. Ten of those letters have survived and they provide a candid and often painfully honest glimpse of life on a Lancaster County farm in the 1860's. Diaries and ledgers kept by John's father, William I. Rakestraw , provide additional insight into that that time and place." [excerpt from the text]
3 p. ø., 9-14, [2] p., 1 ø., 13-335, [2], 336-530 p. incl. front. (port) illus., facsim. plates, ports., maps, facsims., coat of arms, fold. geneal. tab. 24 cm.
Notes
Maps on lining-papers; folded genealogical table mounted on back lining-paper.
"There have been 200 copies ... printed--after which the type was destroyed."
Abraham Rudisill was born in Hanover PA on April 14, 1811, and entered the Pennsylvania Conference of the United Brethren Church in 1871 at the age of 60. A truly unique personality, he was a soldier throughout the Civil War, including the Battle of Gettysburg. He was also a self-educated scientist who contributed many articles to scientific journals. As much at home with Greek and Hebrew as with English, he was also a scholar and writer - and for a while he published a paper called The Monthly Friend. More information about Abraham, along with many of his letters, can be found at https://www.lycoming.edu/umarch/chronicles/2012/RudisillCombined.pdf.
"By following the story of my great-grandmother Isabella Ford's life, and adding to it with information from available sources, I have been able to get a better understanding of the circumstances of Lancaster's free blacks. Her story provides a sense of life in mid-nineteenth century Lancaster County and shows how free black families held their own, despite an environment that was often unfriendly and that restricted their opportunities by both law and custom."
