Collection of Ellmaker family papers, including original papers of the first immigrant, John Leonard Ellmaker of Germany. Papers include correspondence, genealogy charts, deeds and legal papers. newspaper clippings, photographs, articles on Jacob Eichholtz, and a diploma and teachers' certificate. There is also a blank book with paper made at Ephrata Cloister in 1796.
Preferred Citation: Title or description of item, date (day, month, year), Collection Title (MG#), Box #, Folder #, (or Object ID), LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. URL if applicable. Date accessed (day, month, year).
Access Conditions / Restrictions
No restrictions. Please request at Reference Desk or contact Research@LancasterHistory.org prior to visit.
Copyright
Collection may be photographed. Please direct questions to Research Center Staff at Research@LancasterHistory.org.
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.
Classification
MG0071
Description Level
Fonds
Custodial History
Cataloged prior to 1997. Added to database 23 October 2018.
Herr, Benjamin B. Guardian of Susan Salome Lefevre.
2 items, 2 pieces
Access Conditions / Restrictions
Please use digital images and transcriptions when available. Original documents may be used. Please contact research@lancasterhistory.org prior to visit.
Copyright
Images have been provided for research purposes. Please contact research@lancasterhistory.org for a high-resolution image and permission to publish. There is no fee for publication.
Collection contains the original and typed copies of correspondence describing life in the gold fields of California in the 1850s, an account of crossing the desert on the way west, and a journal describing the sea voyage home. Also, two newspaper images relevant to the gold rush and Mr. Hackman's obituary. He sent many letters home to his family in which he related the details of his experience, hardships of finding gold, the high prices and lack of provisions, observations of life in mining towns, his health, and asked for news from home. He also wrote letters to his sweetheart, Harriet B. Miller asking her to write him back, and his uncle, regarding family financial information.
Admin/Biographical History
David Baer Hackman (1827-1896) was the second child of David Heistand Hackman and Susanna Frantz Baer. He was a third cousin, once removed, of Milton Hershey. David left Lancaster in the fall of 1849 with the hope of finding gold in California. In the spring of 1850, he went to Ohio and joined others headed west. They boarded a steamboat in Cincinnati that was bound for St. Louis and then travelled by wagon train to Sacramento City, where they arrived in September 1850. David found enough gold to buy food and supplies, and then had modest success in 1853. In 1854, he decided to return home, this time travelling by steamer and train from San Francisco to New York via Panama.
The adventure of travelling westward and his life in the gold fields of California are described in detail in David's journal and correspondence. He sent many letters home to his family in which he related the details of his experience, hardships, the prices and lack of provisions, observations of life in mining towns, and asked for news from home.
David also wrote to his sweetheart, Harriet B. Miller (1829-1870), the daughter of Adam and Rebecca Miller of Manheim. Although he did not receive any letters from her, they reunited upon his return to Lancaster in 1854 and married soon after. They had one son named Augustus, who became a minister. Harriet passed away in 1870. David later married Ella C. (1851-1907) and they had five children, Frank, Mabel, Harry, Walter, and Edith.
David's obituary shows that he was involved in the grocery, clothing, hat, and shoemaking businesses. In the 1860 Census he is listed as a hatter, and in 1880 as a saloon keeper. He was well-liked and respected in the community. David and Harriet are buried in Manheim Fairview Cemetery.
The Diffenderffer Family Papers collection contains items that have been passed down through generations of the Diffenderffer family. Deeds for tracts of land in New Holland date back to the creation of New Design, the village that preceded New Holland. Correspondence and some manuscripts pertain to J. P. McCaskey's life and accomplishments. F. R. Diffenderffer's manuscripts on Easter Day and Conrad Weiser are preserved with this collection, as well as poems, a program for the C. Elvin Haupt School, and a claim of F. R. Diffenderffer & Co. against the State of Texas.
Preferred Citation: Title or description of item, date (day, month, year), Collection Title (MG#), Folder #, (or Object ID), LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. URL if applicable. Date accessed (day, month, year).
Deeds in folders 1-18 were a gift of Fianna Diffenderffer and the Diffenderffer family, 4 November 2006.
Items in folders 19-23 were a gift from her nephew, David Diffenderffer, 14 August 2006.
Access Conditions / Restrictions
Restrictions are noted at the item level--please use photocopies or transcriptions for those items. Other original documents may be used by researchers--contact Research@LancasterHistory.org prior to visit or request at Reference Desk.
Copyright
Collection items may be photographed. Please direct questions to Research Center Staff at Research@LancasterHistory.org. Permission for reproduction and/or publication must be obtained in writing from LancasterHistory. Persons wishing to publish any material from this collection 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
2006.MG0410_NOV
Other Numbers
MG-410
Classification
MG0410
Description Level
Fonds
Custodial History
Cataloged by HST, November 2008. Added to database 28 July 2021.
The David B. Landis Collection consists primarily of his personal and business correspondence, as well as his poetry and writings. Of special interest are a booklet with a synopsis autobiography of his life and his picture. There are also family papers, genealogy, membership cards, and obituaries.
Admin/Biographical History
David Bachman Landis was born in Landisville, Pennsylvania on 12 February 1862, the son of Israel C. and Mary M. Landis. As a school boy, he worked in his father's dry goods store and published a paper for boys titled Keystone Amateur. He began his printing career by apprenticing at the Inquirer Printing and Publishing Company in Lancaster in 1878, and in 1883 he opened his own job printing office in Landisville where he published the Village Vigil.
Mr. Landis moved to Lancaster in 1888 and started Pluck Art Printery. He started out in Lancaster by publishing Pluck, a magazine dedicated to the fields of printing and photography, but soon devoted his business to commercial and society printing. The name was changed in 1914 to Landis Art Print.
Printing, however, was not his only passion. He was an avid bicyclist and belonged to the Lancaster Cycling Club and the League of American Wheelmen. Through these organizations, he helped to improve the condition of roads in Pennsylvania. He was active in the Lancaster County Historical Society, the Pennsylvania German Society, the Ben Franklin Club, and Grace Lutheran Church. He wrote poetry and essays, and dedicated many pieces to friends and family.
David B. Landis married Nora K. Baker of Landisville in 1885. They had four children. Nora passed away in 1910. David married his second wife, Bertha L. Cochran, in 1914.
The Dr. George B. Kerfoot Collection contains medical lectures, mostly given by Dr. Kerfoot. Topics include surgery, epilepsy, colds, injuries of the head, digestion, the senses, phrenology, and morality and science.
Admin/Biographical History
"Dr. George Barrett Kerfoot, M.D., returned to Lancaster to establish a practice in medicine in the Spring of 1830 after graduating from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. That year he also married Elizabeth B. Reed.
From 1830 to 1843, Dr. Kerfoot expressed strong sympathy in lectures for such pseudo sciences as phrenology & Mesmerism, also promoting lectures and courses at his Anatomical Hall. Dr. Kerfoot opened a drug store and placed advertisements for the patent medicines which he sold there. In 1838, Kerfoot conducted a much publicized, sensational electrotherapy experiment on the body of Henry Kobler, a convicted killer, hanged for the murder of Lazarus Zellerbach. An April 1843 newspaper advertisement stated that Dr. Kerfoot was ending his drug and patent medicine business in order to concentrate on "the practice of medicine, surgery and obstetrics." Three weeks after the April 1843 advertisement, Eliza opened a millinery shop, with "Spring fashions" and a "supply of bonnets."
In 1843 the Kerfoot family resided on Center Square next to the Lancaster Bank. George was then aged 35; Eliza (Reed) Kerfoot, 36; children: Ann Louisa Kerfoot, 12; George Kerfoot, Jr., 9; William Dale Kerfoot, 6; Eliza Reed Kerfoot, 4; Emma Kerfoot, 2; and the family's live-in servants. In 1847 a daughter Sweetie H. Kerfoot was born and in 1848 their daughter Emma Kerfoot died.
In the 1840's Dr. Kerfoot served on the City Council, as a Democrat, and on the School Board. Dr. Kerfoot provided expert testimony in Lancaster criminal court in the 1847 Haggerty trial in which the insanity defense was used, and also in the 1851 Knepley trial at Harrisburg.
Dr. Kerfoot was a recording secretary for the Pennsylvania State Medical Society and charter member of the Lancaster City & County Medical Society. He was a Mason and became District Deputy Grand Master; was a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge and a promoter of the Lyceum movement; held membership in the Temperance Society; St. James Episcopal Church; allegedly wrote some for The Lancaster Intelligencer. Dr. Kerfoot practiced medicine until his death in 1851.
>Most of this information, quoted verbatim or paraphrased, is from: "Competing in the Medical Marketplace in Jacksonian America: The Creative Strategy of Dr. George Barrett Kerfoot," by Thomas R. Winpenny. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/106207258/george-barrett-kerfoot
Manufacturers' Association of Lancaster Collection
Description
The Manufacturers' Association of Lancaster Collection contains legal documents concerning property and lease agreements for 26-28 N. Queen Street and the Woolworth Building. The material also includes a membership directory, annual reports, conference materials, and correspondence for the Manufacturers' Association of Lancaster.
The Denues Family Papers contain documents related to the professional and military career of Charles Denues, as well as information about the Denues family. This collection also contains Civil War era items, including a $20 South Carolina note, and a presidential ticket from the 1864 election.
Admin/Biographical History
Charles Denues was born on 28 August 1923 in Shrewsbury Pennsylvania. He married Fannie Haines on 21 August 1859, and the couple had 8 children. Before enlisting to fight with the Union Army, Denues was a lawyer and a school teacher. In 1862 he enlisted, and became captain of the 135th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, Company E on 12 August 1862. On 24 May 1863 he was honorably discharged with the rest of his company.
The David Lynch Collection consists of personal and business correspondence. The bulk of the collection is political and legal correspondence between David Lynch, Esq. and James Buchanan. There are also personal and business letters of David Lynch, Mrs. David (Mary) Lynch, Robert S. Lynch, as well as letters to President James K. Polk.
The Invoice and Receipt Collection contains billheads for purchases from Lancaster County businesses or by residents of the county. These invoices and receipts show some or all of the following information: the name of the customer, item(s) purchased, cost, location and description of business, date of purchase, and date of payment.
Billheads from the Commissioners' Orders for Payment Collection (MG0182)
Advertising and Promotional Collection (MG0153)
Notes
Preferred Citation: Title or description of item, date (day, month, year), Invoice and Receipt Collection (MG0253), 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-253
Classification
MG0253
Description Level
Fonds
Custodial History
The Invoice and Receipt Collection was formerly called the Bills of Sale Collection. The title of the collection was changed on 25 August 2021 to reflect the items in the collection.
This collection was originally cataloged prior to 1997 and the finding aid is updated as items are added. Added to database 25 August 2021.
The Medical, Dental and Veterinary Collection contains records of doctors and a midwife who practiced in Lancaster County. Susanna Rohrer Müller's account book is a record of her work as a midwife from 1791 to 1815. The other volumes in this collection contain medical school notes, records of births, ephemera, and medicinal formulas.
This collection contains business and family records for members of the Heinitsh family. Account and ledger books contain records of the drug store and a dry goods store. Personal records show the estate settlement for Charles Heinitsh, including an inventory of his household and kitchen furniture in 1804. Records for Heinitsh's Furniture and Carpet Store include stock inventory books, carpet books and order books.
The Pennsylvania Freeman, New Series Vol. VIII No. 49, 4 December 1851. The bulk of this issue covers the trial of Castner Hanway, who was being tried for treason for his involvement in the Christiana Riot (also known as the Christiana Resistance) on 11 September 1851. The article describes and explains the proceedings of the trial and includes multiple testimonies from witnesses, such as members of the search party, residents of Christiana, and those who were attacked and injured during the resistance. These testimonies provide multiple accounts and perspectives of the Christiana Resistance. There are descriptions of the courtroom and the Black men on trial, Lucretia Mott, and the defense of Hanway by Thaddeus Stevens.
While the majority of the issue is coverage of the trial, there are also articles on other topics. "Come to the Fair" is an announcement of the upcoming Fifteenth Annual Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society Fair at the Sansom Street Hall on December 16. "A Thanksgiving Discourse" is a transcript of a speech delivered by Rev. William H. Furness on 27 November 1851. "Thanksgiving among the 'traitors'" is a short article that describes the Thanksgiving dinner served to those who were imprisoned for treason. "The Co-operative committee" includes a list of members of the committee and its purpose. The remaining items include a notice of the death of Rebecca Bustill, proceedings from the thirty-second U.S. Congress, and advertisements.
Admin/Biographical History
The Christiana Resistance, commonly referred to as the "Christiana Riot" occurred in September of 1851 in Christiana, Pennsylvania, a borough in Lancaster County. The events known as the Christiana Resistance include an attack from slaveholders in Maryland on the inhabitants and home of William Parker a free black man living in Christiana, Pennsylvania. The slaveholders crossed the state border, and attempted claim and return the freedom seekers as their property, under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
The violent confrontation resulted in the death of Edward Gorsuch, a slaveholder, and the escape of William Parker to freedom in Canada. Edward's son, Dickinson Gorsuch, was wounded and taken to the farm of Levi Pownall, where the Pownall family nursed him back to health. Historically, this event challenged the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and is considered a precursor to the Civil War.
Please use digital images and transcriptions when available. Original documents may be used by appointment. Please contact research@lancasterhistory.org at least two weeks 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
2020.News.1416
Other Numbers
Newspaper #1416
Other Number
Newspaper Collection #1416
Classification
Newspaper_#1416
Description Level
Item
Custodial History
Processed and finding aid prepared by TS and EM, Spring/Summer 2021; revised by HST, 3 September 2021. Added to database 3 September 2021.
The papers in this Pennsylvania Railroad Collection are largely the documents of legal actions against the Pennsylvania Railroad. Among the items are property records, agreements, a construction contract, correspondence, and a proposal for a footbridge.
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. Persons wishing to publish any material from this collection must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright or other use restrictions.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Other Numbers
MG-131
Other Number
MG-131
Classification
MG0131
Description Level
Fonds
Custodial History
This collection was cataloged prior to 1997. Added to database 7 September 2021.
This small Iron Industry Collection contains orders for pig iron and bar iron, a schematic plan, and historical information about the iron industry in Lancaster County. Mount Hope Furnace, Hopeland Forge, Martick Works, and Hershey Machine & Foundry are among the businesses represented.
Photograph of No. 1 furnace [Chickies] built 1845, rebuilt 1887. (2-27-04-13)
Photograph No. 2 furnace [Chickies] built 1854, rebuilt 1889. (2-27-04-12)
Notes
Preferred Citation: Iron Industry Collection (MG0155), Folder #, Insert #, 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. Persons wishing to publish any material from this collection must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright or other use restrictions.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Other Numbers
MG-155
Other Number
MG-155
Classification
MG0155
Description Level
Fonds
Custodial History
Processed and finding aid prepared by DT, 1998-1999. Added to database 9 September 2021.
The photographs in Folder 1 were transferred to the Photograph Collection on 27 October 2017.
This collection contains stock certificates for businesses and associations in Lancaster County and this region, or for shares held by residents of Lancaster County.
Preferred Citation: Title or description of item, date (day, month, year), Collection Title (MG#), Folder #, (or Object ID), LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. URL if applicable. Date accessed (day, month, year).
Access Conditions / Restrictions
Original documents may be used by researchers--contact Research@LancasterHistory.org prior to visit or request at Reference Desk.
Copyright
Collection items may be photographed. Please direct questions to Research Center Staff at Research@LancasterHistory.org.
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.
The Transportation Collection contains documents regarding turnpikes, railroads, Conestoga Traction Co., Conestoga Transportation Co., and the Red Rose Transit Authority. The types of items include correspondence, financial papers, business papers, stock certificates, tickets, schedules, maps of routes, and a blueprint.
Preferred Citation: Title or description of item, date (day, month, year), Transportation Collection (MG0123), Folder #, LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
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.
The Benjamin Witmer Collection contains family photographs, a printed copy of Benjamin Herr's journal, judgment bond, correspondence, and a Lehigh University progress report. Within the collection are genealogies for Letitia Herr Malone, the DuBois family, and the Witmer family, as well as a copy of a genealogy chart of the Witmer family.
