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This collection contains 11 volumes of writings and additional manuscripts, ca. 1793-1818, composed or transcribed by Halliday Jackson. These manuscripts primarily relate to his observations on more Seneca Native American life, some of which were later published in Civilization of the Indian Natives or, a Brief View of the Friendly Conduct of William Penn Towards Them in the Early Settlement of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Marcus T. C. Gould; New York: Isaac T. Hopper, 1830). Of Irish heritage, Halliday Jackson (August 31, 1771 - February 9, 1835) was a member of the Society of Friends who lived in New Garden, Pennsylvania and later moved to Darby, Pennsylvania. As a missionary, Jackson instructed on various pursuits. From 1798 to 1800 and at other times, he took part in Quaker missions to the Seneca Native Americans, which were organized by the Indian Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. More specifically, between September 1 and October 4, 1806, Jackson traveled to Seneca settlements in western New York to inspect farms, fields, and mills that he and his fellow Quakers had earlier helped the Native Americans establish. In addition, while residing in Darby the 1820s, Jackson, a temperance advocate, served as secretary of the Darby Association for Discouraging the Unnecessary Use of Ardent Spirits. On March 18, 1801, Jackson married Jane Hough (May 23, 1775 - December 28, 1830) and together they had 12 children, including a son also named Halliday, who was a published author and poet. Following Jane’s death on June 13, 1833, Jackson married Ann P. Paschall (1792 - 1874), a Quaker minister born to Samuel and Mary Price Gibson of Darby. Halliday Jackson and his first wife are buried at Darby Friends Cemetery. The Chester County History Center also has two volumes of diaries kept by Halliday Jackson, 1793-1794 and 1810-1834. Other Halliday Jackson papers are at Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College (See: https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/5182haja) and Haverford College Quaker and Special Collections (See: https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/hcmc-950-101). less

This digitized diary of Rebecca Townsend Brown describes time spent accompanying her husband, career army officer Major William H. Brown, during his service with the 18th more Infantry in Arizona and Montana in 1879. Rebecca Townsend was born circa 1840 to Washington Townsend and Elizabeth B. Townsend. She married William Harvey Brown (a widower) in July 1868. Their children were Bertha, who was born in 1869 in Tucson and died as an infant; Ethelbert Washington Townsend, who lived from 1870 to 1941; and George Harvey Townsend who died in March 1887 at age four years. William H. Brown died in 1883, and Rebecca T. Brown died in 1890. Both are buried in Oaklands Cemetery in West Chester. In the diary, Rebecca Brown describes the family’s transfer from a post in Arizona to a yet-to-be-built post in Upper Montana near the Canadian border. Decisions about stages of preparation for the journey including the disposition of possessions and farewells to people are mentioned. Also discussed are the various modes of transportation along the journey (by rail, steamship and overland) and the conditions and challenges of each throughout their travel. Several references are made to concerns about Indians in areas along the way. After arrival in Montana in May (having left Arizona in April), diary entries for the next five months describe living in tents; the weather, including tornados and thunderstorms; swarms of mosquitoes, the lack of supplies needed to build a post, and the shortage of basic food staples. By October, Townsend describes the appropriation of funds by Congress and how little of that money makes it to such an outpost, noting the cuts taken by subcontractors. She references the U. S. Postal Service, and also expresses frustration with the government’s lack of support for the post, questioning why they are there. less

The digitized diaries of Walter Finney consist of three volumes with accompanying typed transcripts and date from 1778 to 1786. The diaries document Walter Finney’s observations more and notes during his service in the Revolutionary War, and as a witness to negotiations with Native American tribes after the War. A typed transcription of each diary, which adheres to Finney’s grammar and spelling, has been scanned and is included at the end of each volume in the collection. For ease of use, the order of scanned pages from the original diaries follows the same order presented in the typed transcripts. Walter Finney was born in New London, Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1748, the son of William (1701-1751) and Jean Stephenson Finney (1706-1751). Except for his military service during the Revolutionary War and immediately afterward, he resided on and cultivated his family farm in New London. According to Chester County and its People, by Wilmer W. Thomson, Finney was active in pre-Revolutionary War activities, including a meeting at the Chester County courthouse on December 20, 1774 “for the purpose of choosing a committee to carry into execution the association of the Continental Congress.” The following month he was appointed to a provincial convention in Philadelphia that recommended both the making of salt peter, a component of gunpowder, and the insuring of a proper supply. Eventually, Finney himself learned how to make salt peter and taught others how to do so. Walter Finney enlisted in the American revolutionary army as a Lieutenant, then rose to Captain and Major. As his diaries record, he spent his wartime service in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and several southern states. He suffered a head wound and was captured by the British and served his incarceration on a New York prison ship. After the war, Finney joined the State Society of the Cincinnati, a fraternal and hereditary organization founded in 1783 to commemorate the Revolutionary War. Following the Revolution, Finney seems to have taken part in treaty negotiations with Native Americans who had sided with the British. Once home in New London, Finney was a ruling elder of his Presbyterian Church, was named a director of the New London Library Company, and pursuant to the Pennsylvania constitution of 1790, Gov. Thomas Mifflin appointed him an associate justice of the Chester County Court on which he served until his death. Finney married Mary O’Hara, and together they had two sons, Walter Jr. and William. Finney died on September 17, 1820 and is buried at Thunder Hill Cemetery, also known as the Finney Family Burial Ground, in New London. Joseph Lee Boyle, a military historian who worked at Valley Forge Historical Park for more than a dozen years, transcribed the first two volumes of Finney’s diaries and published them with commentary in New Jersey History, vol. 121, nos. 1-4, 2003, pp. 23-81 and South Carolina Historical Magazine, vol. 98, no. 2, 1997, pp. 126-152. less

Welcome to the Mengle Memorial Library's Punxsutawney Spirit Collection, a part of the POWER Library: PA Photos and Documents. The Punxsutawney Spirit represents a significant regional newspaper more in central western Pennsylvania. As newspapers have become brittle over time, digitized microfilm will preserve this rare information that provides a glimpse into the culture surrounding Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The Punxsutawney Spirit dates from 1885 to the mid-20th century, and it includes information about the towns citizens, events, and perspectives on larger world events. The digitization of this microfilm collection at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Special Collections and University Archives will greatly enhance public accessibility.Contains copies of the Red Man and the Indian Craftsman, published by the United States Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Also individual issues of the Catholic Herald, the Episcopal Record, and more. Pennsylvania newspapers will continue to be added. less

Items include a report on the 1907 Dar Mine Disaster relief efforts; the Twin Shaft mining disaster investigation, 1986, Early Indian history along the Susquehanna River, more Problem of the Irish in America speech, 1886, American Freeman, 1867. less

This collection contains periodicals, both newspaper and magazine in format, from the United States Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, as well as Pennsylvania State documents and more other digital versions of works on the Native American populations of Pennsylvania. less

Three scrapbooks full of photographs, postcards, newspaper clippings, etc. pertaining to Kinzua and Corydon townships, the Cornplanter Grant and the Seneca Nation, the Kinzua Dam, the more Allegheny Reservoir, etc. less