"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]
Alta California : embracing notices of the climate, soil, and agricultural products of northern Mexico and the Pacific seaboard : also, a history of the military and naval operations of the United States directed against the territories of northern Mexico, in the year 1846-'47 : with documents declaratory of the policy of the present administration of the national government in regard to the annexation of conquered territory to this union, and the opinion of the Hon. James Buchanan on the Wilmot Proviso, &c
Description of area: p. 9-12; history and documentation: p. 13-64.
Anti-annexation tract.
Summary
The 1847 publication briefly address climate soil and agriculture in Alta and Baja California in chapter I. The following eight chapters consist of communications from the U.S. Government consisting of instructions in the event Mexico declared war, justification of and motives for war, various reports to Washington, communications with Mexican officials in Alta California, accounts of the military operations in California, the articles of capitulation entered into at Rancho of Cowanga on January 13, 1847, all of which are interspersed with personal observations and comments by the author. The final chapter deals with the question of whether slavery would be allowed in California, the policy of the South and its motive for a slave market and emigrants to California and Northern Mexico [from California State University's Digital Commons]
"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."
Contains statements by various Pennsylvania officials.
Library holds the German original.
Attributed to Henrich Schweitzer, Philadelphia, printer based on typographical evidence.
Shaw and Shoemaker 14953.
Summary
This resource is a pamphlet concerning the 1808 Pennsylvanian gubernatorial election between Democratic-Republican candidate Simon Schneider (Snyder) (1759-1819) and Federalist James Ross (1762-1847). The writers of the pamphlet were alerting the public to what they believed were threats to their freedoms if Snyder were elected: "Free Voters of Pennsylvania! Read the following pages, and consider what to do before it is too late. The time is extremely important: be alert, otherwise your freedom will disappear for ever, and all the famous rights and privileges will be sacrificed on the alter of anarchy." The pamphlet includes testimonials from area persons who were worried that Snyder would call a convention to change the constitution in order to take away the rights of poor men to vote and to establish a military tribunal about the rights of conscience.
