Ohio History Journal

Report of the Forty-eighth Annual Meeting      307 SOME EXPERIENCES IN MAKING A STATE HISTORICAL SURVEY. By W. D. OVERMAN The Historical Survey now in progress in Pennsylvania was started in December, 1933 and is under the direction of the State Archivist. The survey was carried on as a state C.W.A. project until March 29, 1934 and since that time has been continued, with

a greatly reduced quota of workers, as a project under the F.E.R.A. At its inception the director contemplated merely an inven- tory of one class of public records, namely those in the County Court Houses. Historians have recognized the necessity of the preservation of local archives, comprising written or printed books, papers or maps, in fact, all of the public records officially produced and received by the officers of a particular governmental subdi- vision. Official correspondence, letter-books, reports, minute- books, wills, marriage records, vital statistics, deed books, assess- ment rolls, tax lists, court records, election returns, militia lists, and all other such documents constitute local archives.

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It has been recognized for a long time that the United States

lags behind Canada and some European countries in the care and

administration of public archives. I would like to recommend for

the consideration of the members of this society a booklet of 16

pages on The Preservation of Local Archives,¹ which was pre-

pared and published in 1932 by the Public Archives Commission

in Washington under the authority of the American Historical

Association. Through the circulation of this booklet and other-

wise, efforts have been made to instruct and encourage public

officials in the safeguarding of these valuable records. Custodians

and users generally appreciate the importance of current local

records for business or administrative purposes. Large property

interests, the settlement of disputes over property, and the ad-

ministration of public revenue depend upon them. But as his-

torical sources, the importance of local archives is adequately

appreciated except by students of history. It is true that local

archives have been used by searchers after biographical and

genealogical information, but within recent years a new concep-

tion of local history has developed and a wider kind of research

is in progress which is already resulting in the production of books

and articles in the fields of national, state and local history. Local

history has been defined as an account of the life of the people

of the local area--their social, economic, political, religious, legal,

institutional and constitutional development. Local archives con-

tain the largest available amount of material of significance to

the writer of local history. The preservation of this material is

indispensable to the reconstruction of the past, and since docu-

mentary evidence is the basis of accurate historical composition,

if these written records are not preserved, there can be no reliable

history.

The unnecessary destruction of archives in many communities

has made it impossible for them to preserve their history in a

complete, much less authentic, form.

In view of this situation, the State Archivist planned a survey

of the County Archives in the State of Pennsylvania. He pro-

 

1 The introductory remarks in this paper relative to the definition and

status of the preservation of local archives has been taken from this pub-

lication.

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Report of the Forty-eighth Annual Meeting      309

 

cured the assistance of an historically minded citizen in each

county who acted as his adviser. The adviser, often a judge, a

lawyer, or a professor of history, gave his time gratuitously. He

received instructions from the director in Harrisburg and his

first step involved the securing of efficient workers. The manner

of procedure was for the adviser to contact the National Reem-

ployment Manager in his county, and together they went over

the cards of the registered unemployed and selected one, two, or

more workers, depending, of course, upon the volume of the

county's records.

As soon as the worker was selected, the County Reemploy-

ment office sent his identification slips to state C. W. A. headquar-

ters in Harrisburg, and to the Director of the Historical Survey.

Supplies and detailed instructions for an inventory of the records

in the County Court House were then forwarded to, the workers.

The various officers in the county had been previously notified

that the worker would appear, and were consequently ready to

cooperate. The adviser, usually a lawyer, was familiar with the

type of records, and the worker was instructed to seek his advice

and assistance in any problem which arose.

The searchers, as these workers in the Court houses were

designated, were urged to familiarize themselves with the general

outline of the county's history. They were expected to ascertain,

for instance, the date of the founding of the county, in order to

know whether the records found were complete from the date

of the county's organization. The searchers were furnished with

sample forms and photostatic copies of portions of a similar sur-

vey which had been made in Illinois some years before. Form

sheets were furnished, covering each office in the Court House,

upon which the workers were to submit their final reports to

the Director. The essential information required from each of-

fice was, first: the name of the class of record, for instance, in

the Recorder of Deeds' Office, there would be several classes of

records such as: record-books of deeds and mortgages, bond

books, commission books, charter-books, plats, surveys, etc.;

secondly: the limiting dates of the records in a particular class;

if any gaps appeared, they were to be carefully indicated; thirdly:

the volume or the amount of the record. If the records were in

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volumes, the searcher noted the number of volumes followed by

the letter v.; if they were in file-boxes, the number of such boxes

was followed by the letters f. b.; and if the records were in

bundles, they were so indicated.

Many of the records were scattered, since it is a common

practice for transcripts to be made of much used record-books, and

the originals then stored in an attic, a basement, or sometimes

destroyed. The workers were careful to examine original rec-

ords when they were in existence and to make an indication of

this on the final report form.

At first it was thought that it would be feasible to have the

workers transcribe vital statistics and marriage records before

1906 (I might add parenthetically that since that date they have

been recorded in the State Capital) but this was not carried out

because the probability of error was too great even in the tran-

scription of this type of record.

This survey of the County Archives progressed so well that

by January 1st the scope of the survey was greatly enlarged, and

included, in addition to the recording of county archives: munici-

pal and borough records, newspaper files, manuscripts in deposi-

tories and in private hands, church records, as well as those of

social and fraternal organizations, and certain types of business

records.

Obviously, this required a large increase not only in the num-

ber of workers, but in the number of supervisors who could di-

rect the work of these investigators, assign various tasks to them,

keep a careful check on the accuracy of their work, and advise

them in making their reports to the Archivist. The State was

divided into ten districts with a supervisor over each. Under

the new arrangement the supervisor was chosen first and his

primary task was that of organization. He supplanted the ad-

viser under the old plan. The supervisor contacted the Reem-

ployment Managers in his district, which included from five to

ten counties, and selected his staff of workers from those avail-

able on the registration list of unemployed persons in each county.

It was the supervisor's next duty to furnish each investigator

with a set of mimeographed forms for each type of record, and

explain in detail, by illustration and example, the exact procedure

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Report of the Forty-eighth Annual Meeting      311

 

in collecting and reporting the data required. The supervisors

were able, in many cases, to get unemployed persons who were,

by virtue of specialized training in history or library work, well

fitted for the work. It was the supervisor's duty to instruct the

investigators in the value to the future historian of the results of

the survey, and to impress upon them the necessity for absolute

accuracy in reporting the data thus acquired.

We were not trying to train these people in the technique

of historical research, for obviously their task was not research

but mere tabulation and description of various materials discov-

ered.

The workers made inventories of municipal and borough

records exactly as in the case of county archives. They went

to all newspaper offices, and made complete inventories of their

files. Each public library, historical society, or other depository

was visited and all collections of manuscripts and newspaper files

listed. Thus far, the investigators were dealing with public or

semi-public records and documents which were easily accessible.

Church records, and manuscripts in private possession, such

as collections of correspondence, business account-books, military

papers, muster-rolls, discharges, pensions, diaries and genealogical

collections, constituted a type of investigation which required

more skill on the part of the workers. The survey has not been

a house-to-house canvas. Workers interview influential people.

those known to have collections, and those known to be inter-

ested in history. After these collections have been listed, the

workers ascertain the names of others having collections or even

a single piece of historical material. Thus by a systematic method

of securing the names of collectors or prospects, workers are

able to list the most important historical sources in a community.

Many valuable documents have been found in the hands of per-

sons who had inherited material of importance to local historians,

but who had little regard for its historic significance. In some

cases our efforts revealed documents of outstanding value. I

called on a gentleman in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, who was the

descendant of Jacob Bowman, a pioneer settler in that region.

When I asked him whether I could talk to him about local his-

tory and had assured him that I was not soliciting his picture

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and seventy-five dollars for a commercial history, he expressed

himself as being entirely unfamiliar with and uninterested in his-

tory, saying that according to his friends he was a crank on music.

I asked him about files of old newspapers and correspondence.

He was perfectly willing to look for materials of this nature

which he said he thought might be in an old desk drawer in the

library. We discovered letters--dozens of them--some personal,

some political and others of a purely business nature. There

were old account-books, newspapers and subscription-lists. He

drew out one subscription-list of the first public school built in

Brownsville in 1796. This practically constituted a census of the

Brownsville of that day, since the number of names was large,

and the subscriptions ranged from ten pounds sterling to fifteen

shillings, indicating the probability that even the poorest citizen

made his contribution. Account-books for The Albany Glass

Works, once located at the mouth of Redstone Creek on the

Monongahela River, and of the Ohio Paper Mill, once located

in the Western Reserve, in which his grandfather had owned a

controlling interest, were also in the collection. The owner be-

came tremendously interested, and remarked that he had not re-

alized the importance of these manuscripts, and as I left him he

settled down in an easy chair to read the entire collection. He

thanked me for calling his attention to the records and said that

if I would come back again soon he would then be able to de-

scribe the contents of the whole so as to afford a more accurate

description of the materials for our survey.

A worker discovered (in Westmoreland County) a rather

lengthy manuscript written by Jeremiah Lochry, one of Brad-

dock's scouts, describing his experiences. This document bore

the date 1755. It was in the hands of a filling-station attendant.

The proprietor of a lunch-room in Washington, Pennsyl-

vania, who owns and occupies the first brick house built in that

city, has a magnificent collection of books and manuscripts which

came down to him from two families of historic importance.

His own name is William Duane Morgan, which represents both

families. He has a land-grant from King George III to Colonel

George Morgan, who was a most important figure in the colonial

and revolutionary periods. Mr. Morgan has the original notes

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Report of the Forty-eighth  Annual Meeting   313

 

which Colonel Morgan kept as Indian Agent at Fort Pitt 1776-

1779, and other manuscripts of that period bearing the names

of many historic personages such as Aaron Burr and Benedict

Arnold, as well as letters from Washington, Jefferson and others.

Much of this collection was found to be of more importance per-

haps to the national than to the local historian. There were sev-

eral volumes of diaries of John Morgan (a brother of Colonel

George Morgan), who founded the University of Pennsylvania

Medical School, and some letter-books of later members of the

family which will be of significance to the local historian. There

were letters of William Duane, secretary of state under Andrew

Jackson in 1833, until he differed with Jackson over the bank

question. There were letter-books of William Duane Morgan,

one time resident of Newark, Ohio and auditor of State. He

was, at one time, a part owner of the Cleveand Plain Dealer and

was owner of the Newark Advocate for a quarter of a century.

In the sub-basement of the Westmoreland County Court

House where steam-pipes produce a heat which will certainly des-

sicate the many valuable records which are stored there, we found

a large amount of official and non-official material.

There were account-books revealing many interesting prices,

such as the following, from the day-book of Benjamin Meason

and Joseph Worthington, for the years 1796-1799:

2 yards calico                         12 shillings

1 pound butter                      10 pence

1 pint whiskey                      1 shilling

1 pound coffee                          3 shillings, 6 pence

1 yard muslin                            3 shillings, 4 pence

Fifteen years later, in the day-book of Samuel Reed the

following prices, then in dollars and cents, were noted:

50 spanish cigars                          2 cents each

1 yard calico                           37 1/2 cents

1 pound tobacco                    50 cents

4 pounds sugar                   $1.00

1 pound coffee                       40 cents

1 quart whiskey                 18 cents

2 bushels wheat                  $1.75

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314       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

If time permitted, other experiences could be recited illus-

trative of the general cooperation of the holders of these docu-

ments, and of the significance of the finding of these often hith-

erto unknown sources for the writing of the history of the Com-

monwealth. The widespread enthusiasm for the project was re-

flected in the many news-items, editorials, and articles on local

history which appeared, and are appearing, all over the State.

These inventories will be printed in the next Series of the

Pennsylvania Archives. It is planned to bring out another volume

of the Archives containing the reports of depositories, such as

local historical societies, and if possible, one to include news-

paper collections. With these guides, the future historian may

readily ascertain the amount and kinds of material available, and

most important of all, its location. The undertaking is large,

and is one that few private institutions or individuals could suc-

cessfully undertake. It is a project which has given relief to a

type of worker for whom there was little planning on the part

of the C. W. A. in general, and it has produced a result which, al-

though seemingly intangible to certain critics, is actually of great

significance in its stimulation of interest in history, its encourage-

ment of the preservation of local history, and the results, in the

form of printed guide books, will be of obvious and inestimable

value.

DR. LINDLEY: I am grateful for the presentation

of this problem and we still have twenty minutes. Dr.

Overman has brought with him some illustrative mate-

rial used in gathering these results. There is now an

opportunity for questions.

After some announcements the Society adjourned

until the afternoon session at two o'clock.

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