Search

Four diaries and a nineteen-page memoir of Allen D. Frankenberry (1841-1909), who served chiefly as an orderly and signalman in the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry from August 1862 to September 1863 and the U.S. Signal Corps in the Department of the Cumberland from October 1863 to June 1865. Frankenberry's diaries are available only on microfilm and are divided into four volumes: Book I, August 20, 1862-September 10, 1863; Book II, September 9, 1864-February 15, 1865; Book III, February 16, 1865-March 8, 1865; and Book IV, January 1, 1868-September 30, 1870. Books I, II, and III document Frankenberry's Civil War service with almost daily entries that chiefly describe his movements (travel in Pennsylvania and Maryland in 1862, Tennessee and Kentucky in 1863, Georgia and North Carolina in 1864 and 1865), foraging for food, rations, camp and quarters, drill, and horses. There is very little information about battles, except for Frankenberry's Signal Corps duty at Kennesaw Mountain and during the battle of Allatoona Pass in October 1864. Topics from the fall of 1864 and early 1865 also include Gen. William T. Sherman, Maj. Gen. John Corse, and prisoners in North Carolina. Book IV tells of Frankenberry's life after the war, including the cutting, sawing, and selling of timber in Point Marion, Penn., and his daily life, including church, home, and marriage. Collection also includes a photocopy of Frankenberry's Civil War memoir. Most of this nineteen-page document, which was written circa 1905, focuses on the Signal Corps during the battle of Allatoona Pass and Frankenberry's return visit to the site of the battle in 1895. He describes the actions and messages of Gen. William T. Sherman and Maj. Gen. John Corse and the gospel song "Hold the Fort."

Manuscript diary of David R. Preston, Presbyterian minister and missionary assigned to Pensacola, Florida, and St. Charles, Missouri, 1828-1829, containing information on the number of missionaries and regularly assigned ministers of the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal churches in the areas, the number of church services held, attendance and interest of the congregations, organization of Bible classes, and Sunday schools. Preston also preached to black congregations and comments on their attendance and attitude. There is comment on the Roman Catholic Church, its activities, means to combat its influence, and its social and business life. Preston also held services in the Escambia River area of Alabama. Names of people living in the areas are given as well as descriptions of land and business enterprises, and opinions concerning future settlement and economic development. The names of U.S. Navy ships in the Pensacola harbor are mentioned with comments on the officers, condition of the ships, and discipline maintained. Conditions and cost of travel by stage and boat are commented on with accounts of Preston's journeys from Philadelphia to Pensacola, and from Pensacola to St. Charles.

Pamphlets include Henry Ruffner's antislavery pamphlet, 1847, and his Union speech, 1856. Subjects of the manuscripts and correspondence include family history; travel; Kanawha Salt Works; schools in Virginia and Kanawha County; Lane Seminary Library; Presbyterian Church; slavery, coal, gas, iron, and timber; Johns Hopkins, Washington and Lee, Harvard, Hobart, Cornell, and Hampden-Sydney colleges; Greenbrier County; Alabama; election of 1904; University of Virginia; Kanawha Valley floods; Venezuela; American Colonization Society; and the Philippine Islands. Persons mentioned or commented on include Philip Doddridge, John Letcher, Hugh Mercer, and Nelson A. Miles. Correspondents include Charles H. Ambler, John Eaton, John P. Hale, H.R. Helper, W.S. Laidley, David L. Ruffner, John W. Wayland, and William L. Wilson.

Letters written by Jacob Pinick, first sergeant of Company A, 32nd Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to John and William McLaughlin in Ohio. The letters detail the service of Pinick's company in western Virginia, Virginia, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. There are many detailed accounts of battles and marches, and expressions of political sentiments of soldiers. There is also a record book of Company A containing rolls and service records, and notes on the history of the company from 12 July 1861 to 27 July 1865, when the company was mustered out, and several letters from members of the Pinick family in western Virginia and Wisconsin.

Fourteen letters, thirteen from J.M. Vandeman of Adams Co., Ohio, a Union soldier in Co. B, 33rd Ohio Volunteer Company, 3rd Division, 9th Brigade, and one from W.T. and H.A. Wright of Webster City, Hamilton Co., Iowa. All are addressed to Miss S. Jane Vandeman in Adams Co., Ohio. The letters from J.M. Vandeman were written between 6 October 1861 and 25 December 1862; the letter from the Wrights is dated 1866. The letters of 1861-1862 were written from various locations in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama and describe life as a Union soldier, including camp life, battles, and hospital stays. In addition to the letters, there is a document dated September 17, 1864, appointing George G. Menelly as 2nd lieutenant, 173rd Reg., Ohio Volunteer Infantry for one year.

The collection consists of: a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings on the explosion at Monongah Mines No.6 and No.8 on 6 December 1907, rescue operations, the inquest, and mine law reforms; photographs of the disaster; maps of the interior of the mines; printed and typescript reports and pamphlets on mining operations; script of a 1952 television broadcast on the disaster; material on mine disasters in Alabama, Pennsylvania, and Illinois; and newspaper accounts of the agitation for the removal of Judge Alston G. Dayton; and on the imprisonment of Miss Fannie Sellins, a labor organizer.

Printed copies of news articles regarding the the legend of John Henry. Both articles regard the research of John Garst, professor emeritus at the University of Georgia, into the historical basis of the legend, particularly the location where the contest occurred. Garst argues that Leeds, Alabama, rather than Talcott, West Virginia, is the likely location where the events that inspired the legend took place.

UMWA international representative and organizer, member of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, director of the CIO Organizing Committee, and vice-chairman of the CIO Political Action Committee Correspondence, legal papers, diaries, clippings, and other papers relate to Bittner's early career in the western Pennsylvania coal fields; his presidency of District 5, UMWA, 1911-1916; and his organizational activities in southeastern Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, northern West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Kansas, 1916-1928. Subjects include labor strife and strikes in West Virginia, 1912-1913, 1924-1928, Alabama, 1920-1921, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, 1911, and Oklahoma and Kansas, 1922; UMWA intra-union affairs; relief for striking miners; Kansas Industrial Court; Workers Communist Party; Red International of Labor Unions; American Association for Labor Legislation; National League of People's McAdoo Clubs; labor trouble in Montana, 1920; the railway assigned coal car problem; and Bittner's activities on various state and national labor boards and committees. There are photographs of mining towns, camps, and tent colonies, labor parades, conventions, demonstrations, and strikes; portraits of labor leaders; and pictures of the Irwin, Pennsylvania coalfield strike of 1911, the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, and the northern West Virginia strikes of 1924-1926. Frank Farrington, William Green, Frank J. Hayes, John L. Lewis, John Mitchell, Philip Murray, and John P. White are included among the correspondents. A detailed listing of the correspondence in boxes 1-7 is available upon request.