Historical and Genealogical Source Material in the Library of the Chester County Historical Society

Historical and Genealogical Source Material in the Library of the Chester County Historical Society MARWOOD DARLINGTON The Chester County Historical Society, located in West Chester, Pennsylvania, was founded in the year 1893. Its purpose, as stated in its charter of incorporation, was "the acquisition and preservation of property and information of historic value or interest to the people of Chester County." To fulfill this purpose the society maintains a regional museum, a library, and three historic houses—the Townsend House, the Brinton 1704 House and the Hopper Log House. It is the purpose of this article to describe the resources of the society's vast library collections. In its wealth of holdings every phase of the county's history is represented. Also included is material on the surrounding counties, the state of Pennsylvania, as well as certain other nearby states. Chester County was one of three original counties founded by William Penn in 1682, the others being Philadelphia and Bucks counties. In the beginning it included a larger area than its present day boundaries. Lancaster County separated from Chester County in 1729, a part of Berks County in 1752 and Delaware County in 1789. Researchers in these other counties should check Chester County records up to their respective dates of separation. The library collections are divided into four main sections—printed material, manuscripts, classified newspaper clipping files and microfilm. Each of these is divided into many subdivisions. PRINTED MATERIAL Printed material includes books, newspapers, pamphlets, pictures, broadsides, maps and the like. These, of course, encompass a wide variety of subjects. Many histories of not only Chester County but also of other counties, the state of Pennsylvania and certain other states are represented. The foremost history of the county is J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, published in 1881. A reprint of this important work was made in 1974, with an added 55 56 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine index. Two other histories of the county are by Wilmer W. Thomson, 1898 and Charles W. Heathcote, 1932. There are two biographical histories: one by Samuel T. Wiley, Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1893 and a two volume work by Gilbert Cope and Henry Graham Ashmead, Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania, 1904. There are a number of township and borough histories. In Chester County there are fifty seven townships, fifteen boroughs and one city. A section in the library is devoted to each, arranged according to subject matter. A special section is set aside for church history. There is an especially large collection of material on the religious Society of Friends. Another section pertains to Black history and another to Indian history. A large collection is devoted to agricultural history, including early publications. Natural history is also included. The military is represented by a number of regimental histories. Books and pamphlets on the Battle of Brandywine, Paoli and Valley Forge contribute to the Revolutionary War period. The library has the Pennsylvania Archives, PMHB, PGM, Delaware Archives, Archives of Maryland, Maryland Historical Magazine, New Jersey Archives, Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, (now New Jersey History), New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, and New England Historical and Genealogical Register. It has also the Pennsylvania German Magazine, the D.A.R. Magazine and Lineage Books, the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, the Historical Register and other books and publications of patriotic Societies. Publications of a number of county historical societies may be found here. It has the printed census of Pennsylvania for the years 1790, 1800 and 1810, as well as the 1790 census for certain other states. County, city and borough directories are on file in the library. An important file of Philadelphia directories begins in 1791. There is also an extensive collection of Almanacs from 1719. The genealogical portion of the library contains histories of many hundred families, their origin and descent from immigrant ancestors. Included in this section are a few manuscript genealogies, photographs and vital statistics. There are also biographies of important historical figures of our county, the state and nation. There are publications such as Egle's Notes and Queries, Your Family Tree, Pennsylvania Traveler-Post and the Genealogical Helper. Indices of Wills and Intestate records of counties of southeastern Pennsylvania from their beginning through 1850 may also be found here. Early Chester County ones are abstracted, listing every name mentioned. A special section is devoted to architecture, the arts and crafts. Works on art, china, clocks, coverlets, dolls, firearms, furniture, industries, glass, lighting fixtures, pewter, porcelain, pottery, quilts, silverware, tinware, toys are among some of the subjects which may be found. There is a large collection of cook books. A number of important periodicals on file are Antiques, Hobbies, The Rushlight, Historical and Genealogical Source Material 57 Spinning Wheel, The Chronicle of the Early American Industries, etc. In regard to architecture, there are on file here the volumes compiled by the Historic American Building Survey on historic buildings within the county. These include a full description of a property, title tracing, photographs and other pertinent data. Work on historical buildings is being continued and their names placed on the State and National Registers. Another phase of the library is works by Chester County authors. The society endeavors to collect all printed works of native Chester Countians and works produced by other authors while residing in the county. The map collection includes atlases, printed maps and xerox copies. Atlases show individual properties. The two earliest county ones are the Witmer Atlas of 1873 and the Breous Farm Atlas of 1883. Also, there is the Smith early survey atlas of Delaware County which includes some Chester County townships. There are maps and atlases of surrounding counties and of the State of Pennsylvania. The newspaper collection of the society includes newspapers of the county from 1808 to the present. Needless to say these papers provide an invaluable source of material both historically and genealogically. A former curator compiled a complete list of these files together with a catalogue of the holdings not only in the Society's collections but also in other depositories. The list also includes periodicals published or printed in the county, the first of which was the Literary Museum or Monthly Magazine, published in West Chester in 1797. The society's holdings include a number of volumes of early Philadelphia newspapers and the reprinted volumes of the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1732-1789 and the American Weekly Mercury, 1719-1723, in facsimile. MANUSCRIPTS The manuscript collection of the Society numbers into thousands of items overflowing the space provided for them. There is material on practically every phase of our county's history. There are autograph albums, business records and account books of farms and industries, church records, cemetery inscriptions, census records, ciphering books, court records, deeds, diaries, inventories, invitations, land drafts, marriage certificates, military records such as enlistments, commissions and discharges, minute books and histories of organizations, papers and speeches by individuals, piece books, politics, transportation and other items too numerous to enumerate. A document of particular interest and value is a volume in which are listed claims by individual citizens of the county for damages incurred at the hands of the British army during the Revolutionary War. Papers of individuals, to name a few, include those of Joshua Harlan, soldier and adventurer; Isaac G. Hayes, physician and arctic explorer; Bayard Taylor, poet, author, traveler and diplomat; Richard Thomas, Revolutionary War officer and 58 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Congressman; Halliday Jackson, the Friend who spent many years on Indian reservations; and William Darlington, physician, botanist, banker and historian. There is a collection of school records, including attendance books which are now important in establishing the age of a person, when no other source is available, for those seeking Social Security benefits. Of great importance are the records placed on permanent loan by the Chester County Court House. These include Tax Transcripts, 1715-1900, Tavern Petitions beginning 1700, early copies of Will books, Treasurer's records, early Court records, Election returns, records of Directors of the Poor, Constable returns, School bills prior to the establishment of the public school system. All of these are a tremendous source of information on the early history of our county. Another important collection relates to our postal history. A record of each post office that has existed within the county has been kept. Also there are hundreds of items on postal history of the county and the postal system in general. A number of early U.S. Postal Guides in the collection have been reprinted and are available for purchase. The William Penn Collection assembled by the late Albert Cook Myers is housed in the library. It numbers into the thousands, including original Penn manuscripts, exact copies and abstracts, written by and about the founder of our state of Pennsylvania. The collection also includes volumes of genealogical records. In the genealogical manuscript collection there are thousands of items, from a small scrap of paper recording some important bit of information to extensive family histories and genealogical charts. Birth, death and marriage records, Bible records, letters, military records and works of the professional genealogist are included. Contrary to what many believe, the valuable Genealogical Manuscript Collection of the late Gilbert Cope, Chester County's noteworthy genealogist, is not in the society's library but may be found in the library of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. The society does, however, have a smattering of his manuscripts and all his printed genealogies. NEWSPAPER CLIPPING FILES The newspaper clipping files are unique. While some historical societies have made some attempt at mounting newspaper clippings, none has as extensive files as these. They are divided into three groups, township, general topics and genealogy. There is a file on each of the fifty seven townships, fifteen boroughs and one city. They cover practically every phase of activity, business houses, cemeteries, churches, history, institutions, lands, organizations, politics, public offices, public and private schools, public works, roads, transportation, etc. The lands clippings include a systematic record of property sale notices from the year 1808 which are invaluable to those tracing the history of their properties. Included along with the Historical and Genealogical Source Material 59 clippings are hundreds of photographs, post card views and maps. The general topic file includes clippings on some of the same subjects as the above mentioned files, but in its content covers more than one township or borough. In addition there are topics such as Battle of Brandywine, bridges, census, costumes, customs, creeks, industries, military, Paoli, place names, post offices, Valley Forge, weather, etc. The genealogical clipping files are alphabetically arranged by family names. If a date is unknown, instead of spending hours going through newspapers for births, deaths, marriages and biographical material, and then perhaps not finding what one is looking for, they can be found here in short order. As do the township files, these include hundreds of photographs. It should be stated, however, the clipping files are by no means complete. Only papers for which there were duplicates were clipped. County papers clipped cover from the present back to the year 1808. Some papers outside the county, especially Philadelphia, have been clipped for items concerning the county and its people. In all, the files are unique in many ways. MICROFILM A large microfilm library, covering the period from colonial times to the present, relates chiefly to Chester County. It includes indices of Wills, Deeds, Orphans Court and other Court records, Tax transcripts, Census records and Road papers. There are church, Bible and cemetery records, miscellaneous genealogical data, letter collections, postal history and newspaper files. In addition, there are microfilms of Chester County data which are housed in other depositories. The printed material, manuscripts, clipping files and microfilm are being added to continually. The society maintains a copying service at a nominal fee. It has certain items, books, pamphlets, prints, maps, etc. for sale. A new periodical of its own, Chester County History, has just been launched. The library of the Chester County Historical Society is visited and consulted through the mail by hundreds each year seeking vital information on a diversity of subjects. It must satisfy the scientist, historian, theologian, educator, student, genealogist and lawyer. It has done so in the past, it is doing so today and it will continue to do so in the future. As this article is being written a fund drive for building expansion is in progress. Added facilities and space for both the library and the museum will benefit alL