Samuel R. Slaymaker II, White Chimneys Collection, Series 2
Description
The Samuel R. Slaymaker II, White Chimneys Collection, Series 2 was carefully curated by Mr. Slaymaker and contains papers dating from the mid-eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. This series is primarily composed of correspondence related to business, railroads, legal affairs, and personal matters. The personal letters are rich in details of social history and genealogy. Legal documents include estate papers for the Fleming, Slaymaker, Leech, and Boyd families. The remaining documents include land surveys, receipts, tickets, accounts, bonds, and wills.
System of Arrangement
The Samuel R. Slaymaker II, White Chimneys Collection is divided into six series according to the original order; Series 1, 2 and 4 have been cataloged and are available for research.
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
Restrictions are noted at the item level.
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-268, Series 2
Classification
MG0268
Description Level
Series
Custodial History
Added to database 8 August 2022.
Much of this series was microfilmed by the Pennsylvania State Archives. The microfilmed items are noted within the finding aid and the microfilm is available in LancasterHistory's Research Center.
American Revolution Bicentennial of Lancaster County Collection (MG-20)
Description
This collection gives information on the activities of the 200th celebration of the American Revolution in the Lancaster area. Folders 32 to 41 cover the celebration in Greater Lancaster. Folders 42 to 51 touch upon the activities of Lititz, Solanco, Lampeter-Strasburg, Elizabethtown, Cocalico, Columbia, New Holland, Pequea Valley, Washington Boro, Penn Manor, Millersville, and Marietta. The collection contains minutes, programs, photos, financial vouchers and newspaper clippings, audio tapes. The six volumes that make up the Bicentennial Celebration, April 1971- February 1977 scrapbooks are a compilation of published materials such as newspaper articles, magazine articles, broadsides, brochures and pamphlets. The materials relay information about the actions of the Lancaster County Bicentennial Committee including meetings, mailings and events. The committee chose the "Hands of Liberty" theme for the committee and upcoming celebration. The theme was present on every mailing sent out by the committee and can be found on most of the materials within the scrapbooks.
Collection contains correspondence, poetry, and newspaper articles.
Admin/Biographical History
Blanche Nevin (1841-1925), artist and poet, was born in Mercersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of John Williamson Nevin, a theologian, teacher, and minister, and Martha Jenkins, daughter of the politician and iron master at Windsor Forges, Robert Jenkins. When Dr. Nevin became the president of Franklin & Marshall College in 1855, he moved the family to Lancaster. They moved to Windsor Forges (or Windsor Place) from 1856 to 1858, while Dr. Nevin acted as executor of his mother-in-law's estate, and then moved permanently to Caernarvon Place on Columbia Avenue (the present site of Degel Israel Synagogue). The Nevin children were well-educated and cultivated for society, as their parents had been.
Blanche was the nation's first noteworthy sculptress. In 1889, she sculpted the statue of Revolutionary War General Peter Muhlenberg, which stands in the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. She also sculpted the bust of President Woodrow Wilson. Lancastrians are most familiar with her Lion in the Park (1905) at Reservoir Park and her horse drinking fountain (1898) at the intersection of Columbia Avenue and West Orange Street. Blanche composed a number of poems and set several to music; many were inspired by Lancaster County, her travels, and family and friends. Her poems include: "Great-Grandma's Looking-Glass" (1895), "One Usual Day" (1916), and "To My Door" (1921).
She bought Windsor Place in Caernarvon Twp. in 1897, restored the mansion house and the name Windsor Forges, and added a studio. Furniture and other influences from her travels adorned the house and grounds. She also owned a house in Manasquan, New Jersey; spent time with friends in New York and Philadelphia; and traveled a great deal, especially during the winter.
Her obituary in a Lancaster County newspaper states, "The simple, unpretentious neighbors of Miss Nevin never questioned her foreign ideas and eccentricities, but accepted her for the true, human qualities which she so abundantly possessed."
Collection contains photographs, many labeled and dated, and two scrapbooks. One scrapbook contains newspaper articles concerning the military and professional life of Captain Groff. The other scrapbook contains military records including special orders, certificates, passes, correspondence, and government requirements. There are also newspaper articles, maps, and other memorabilia.
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 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.
The Judge Joseph Wissler Collection documents his fifty-five year career as a lawyer and judge. He recorded and categorized criminal court cases in a handwritten volume. Two scrapbooks contain his certificate of admittance to the Lancaster County Courts, letters, photographs, and newspaper clippings about criminal cases.
Admin/Biographical History
Joseph Buch Wissler was born in Clay Township, Lancaster County on 7 August 1892. Wissler attended Lititz High School and later graduated from Franklin and Marshall College. He earned his law degree from Harvard University. Wissler became a member of the Lancaster Bar Association, of which he was president in 1964 and 1965. He returned to practicing law as a local attorney after holding the position of District Attorney of Pennsylvania from 1924 to 1928. In 1941, Wissler was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and served in that position for twenty-nine years. Judge Wissler served in the law profession for over fifty-five years. Phi Beta Kappa of Franklin and Marshall College made Judge Wissler an honorary member in 1950 and the college presented him with an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1952. He was also a member of the Lancaster Tucquan Club from 1949 to 1969.
Collection consists of family records of Mary Leaman Schlemm. Includes Sunday school booklets, property deeds, military booklets, invitations, telegrams, flower pictures and photographs, baptismal and marriage certificates, telegrams, and a Stehli Silk Mill booklet.
Admin/Biographical History
Debra Smith, former Executive Director of the Lancaster County Historical Society, conducted an interview with Mrs. Schlemm and compiled this biographical information:
Mary Leaman Schlemm's father, Isaac D. Leaman, Sr., came from England. He had 11 children, five died at birth including two sets of twins. Her siblings who were still living at the time of the interview were Alverta Leaman Miller, Isaac Leaman, F. Pauline Leaman, and Lester Leaman.
Mary was born in 1900. Her brother, Lester, was born in 1895 and was a member of the 42nd Rainbow Lodge. She started working at the Conestoga Cotton Mill No. 1 at the age of 13. Her father let her quit school to begin working there, under the condition that she continue her education in the evenings at Wade's Business School. She was a good friend of Wade's daughter so she was able to go to school free of charge. Young workers at the Cotton Mill were required by Pennsylvania law to take a minimum of two hours of schooling until age 16. Mary took four every evening at Wade's school in order to get her high school diploma. She met her husband, Raymond A. Schlemm, at the Cotton Mill. He later worked 33.5 years at the Stehli Silk Mill, and then at Dewalt.
Mary worked at the Cotton Mill five years and then married in 1918. She left when she became pregnant and went to work at Leinbach's Department Store after the birth of her son, James. One of the pictures in this collection is of the Leinbach employees at a company picnic at Accomac Park in 1921. Mr. Leinbach is in the center of the picture with his girlfriend at his right shoulder. His wife is down the line above the "D" in Darmstaetter, the girl wearing white nylons.
Mary's son, James, served during World War II. The orientation lecture and WW II photo are his. Several pictures are of conventions of the Golden Eagle Lodge, an auxiliary which met across from the Moose Lodge on E. King Street. The family was a member of First Reformed Church in Lancaster and the Sunday School papers in this collection were her children's.
