Manuscript Collections

Personal diary kept by unidentified student/teacher in Canton area of St. Lawrence County, N.Y. in 1875.

Some restrictions apply. The collection consists of transcripts and tapes of an oral history project documenting the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY. Interviews are mostly with North Country individuals involved with the local organization of the games. Project headed by Jonathan Rossie, SLU History Department.

The collection consists of 136 glass plate negatives taken between 1895-1910 by Jameson of Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence County, N.Y. The negatives depict families and scenes in the Ogdensburg-Black Lake area.

The Adirondack Collection consists of ephemera, promotional literature, maps, magazines, commercial photo albums, picture books, Seneca Ray Stoddard photographs, and 2 groups of unidentified photographs. Also included are the records of Citizens to Save the Adirondack Park, from 1975-1982.

The Adirondack Park Agency was created July 1, 1971 by executive law article twenty-seven program bill #102. The purpose of the APA was to insure conservation, protection, preservation, development and use of the scenic, historic, ecological and natural resources of the Adirondack Park. Collection consists of the papers of George Davis who served as Wildlife Ecologist for the Temporary Study Commission on the future of the Adirondacks. Mr.

Collection of book-objects from Africa. Includes 8 Ethiopian scrolls and 1 Koranic hornbook from Sudan.

The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, and printed materials by and about Alexander Black. It also contains the papers of Edith O'Dell, including materials from the McClure Syndicate, the P.E.N. Club, the O'Dell New Service and Golden Book Magazine, as well as other business and personal correspondence and biographical material. Finally, it contains a series of letters written to Ms. O'Dell's colleague at The World, Pomeroy Burton, and a collection of the correspondence of editors of the North American Review.

G. Atwood Manley, author, newspaperman, raconteur and outdoorsman, was born on October 31, 1893 and died September 6, 1989 in Canton, New York. He graduated from Canton High School in 1912 and from St. Lawrence University in 1916. While a student he was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and was involved with the college newspaper. Later he became the secretary of the Alumni Association from 1917 to 1944, and an alumni trustee from 1940 to 1950.

Alvah and Enos Beach of Russell, NY, and their brother-in-law David Robinson fought on the Union side in the Civil War. The collection consists chiefly of letters written by Alvah and Enos Beach of Russell, N.Y., while they were in the Union Army during the Civil War. Also includes two photos of Alvah Beach and some material relating to David Robinson, brother-in-law of the Beach brothers.

Benjamin Clark settled in Malone, NY in 1815. He had three sons and one daughter; his son's names were Samuel S., Benjamin W. and Charles. Clark was the first judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1825-1828. In 1819 he was appointed to a building committee to raise funds to build a fireproof clerks office. He also served as Superintendent of the Poor in 1830. From approximately 1826-1851 he and Jacob Wead were one of the principal merchants in Malone owning Clark & Wead, which after Wead's retirement became Benjamin Clark & Sons.

Benjamin M. Kip was born August 27, 1871 in Canton, N.Y. and died October 1, 1957 in Canton. He attended Canton schools and graduated from New York Art School. From 1898 until 1948, when he retired, he was a photographer in Canton. The collection consists of glass plate negatives and various prints that belonged to Benjamin Kip, a photographer in Canton, N.Y. These negatives were used in published souvenir books of Potsdam, Canton, and Gouverneur, N.Y. in the late 1800's.

Harold C. Bohn was a member of the English dept. at Montclair State College in the 1940's through the 1960's. Collection contains clippings, playbills and epherera related to William Shakespeare. Also includes thesis and typescript on teaching Shakespeare in secondary school.

Jacob Jennings Brown founded the village of Brownville NY. After outstanding service during the War of 1812, he was made general-in-chief of the army, a position he held until his death. His son-in-law Edmond Kirby also had a distinguished army career. He also was active in founding a number of businesses in and around Brownville, including the Jefferson Woolen Mill in Dexter. The collection consists of both personal and business correspondence of Jacob Jennings Brown, his son-in-law Edmond Kirby, and their families.

Henry Nielson Brush was born March 12, 1810 in New York City. He was educated at Columbia College, moving to the town of Moira, Franklin County, New York where he owned two large farms, a stone grist-mill and a sawmill. He was the founder of Brush Mills, which today is called Brushton. He married Juanilla Marie de Jouve of Cuba in 1831. Henry was an active member of the Whig party and was postmaster for several years. Brush died November 2, 1872 in Brushton. This collection consists of correspondence, deeds, land contracts, financial records and their wills.

The Canadian Rebellion of 1837 was a movement in Lower Canada toward establishing a French Republic on the St. Lawrence River that was led by Louis Joseph Papineau. During the same year William Lyon MacKenzie led a similar armed revolt in Upper Canada which failed, he then fled to the United States and established headquarters on Navy Island on the Canadian side of the Niagara river and tried to continue the rebellion with the aid of sympathizers from the United States.

Charles Henry Tuck was born April 21, 1881 in Lisbon, New York. Was educated in the Lisbon schools and graduated from Cornell University in 1906. He became the first Director of Extension Teaching at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences - Cornell University. In 1915 he went to China and worked for an agricultural development company. In 1917 the US government sent him to Siberia as head of a special State Department commission to study agricultural conditions among Russian peasants. He married Ethel Pinder in September 1921.

In 1803, Joseph Child moved to the North Country from Pennsylvania with his three sons, Daniel, Samuel, and Moses as the first wave of settlers in the town of LeRay. With them came Moses Moon (Middletown, Pennsylvania) and his son James. Together, they explored the area and purchased lots. When the Moons returned to Pennsylvania, they reported to their friends that this was good land, and a company was formed to make extensive further purchases in the area.

Late 19th century [?] manuscript of children's Christmas stories signed by L. Fidelia Woolley Gillette and Florence L. Gillette.

Christopher Ripley came to Northern New York about 1827 from Ohio and established the C. Ripley and Company in Ogdensburg which lasted three years. He then took employment with Molson Davies and Company in Montreal (Commission Merchants) as their agent obtaining consignments for wheat, flour, beef and pork in the State of Ohio. In 1836 Ripley purchased Matildaville (now Colton) from George Parish. Ripley was unable to resell the land and spent his remaining years trying to recoup his losses. Ripley attended West Point and became a Major-General during the Civil War.

Civil War diary of an unknown soldier. The diary covers August 1, 1864 - May 31, 1865.

Unprocessed collection of papers of several generations of a prominent Ogdensburg family.

Clinton County is the most northern of the Champlain Valley counties and became a county March 7, 1788. Clinton County is bordered on the north by Canada, on the south by Essex County, on the east by Lake Champlain, and on the west by Franklin County. The county has approximately 21 towns and villages with the county seat in Plattsburgh. This collection consists of exhibition catalogues, photo booklet of Lake Champlain, several articles and brochures and a map of French and English grants on Lake Champlain.

The Commercial Advertiser (Canton) was first published in 1873 in Potsdam Junction N.Y. (Norwood) before moving to Canton in 1877. It was one of two weekly newspapers published in Canton until it merged with the St. Lawrence Plaindealer in 1958. The collection consists of a subscription list from 1886-1898 and an account book from 1896-1898.

The Comstock Patent Medicine Company was located in Morristown, St. Lawrence County, N.Y. The collection consists of a printed history of the company by Robert B. Shaw, four metal plates used to print labels for the medicines, and a container of pills sold by a competitor of the company.

Diary kept by Corintha Hall of Norwood, St. Lawrence County, N.Y. from March 1899 to January 1901. First 36 pages contain a ledger of McVickar sisters dated 1883.

Courtland Smithers was born March 20, 1881 in Oswegatchie and moved to Heuvelton with his family in 1888 where he remained for the rest of his life. He worked in the family grocery and bakery store. In later years he went into the coal business, the poultry business and finally a prominent milk dairy farmer from 1916-1946. He was instrumental in starting Poultry Shows and Cattle Shows in the area. He married in 1902. Mr. Smithers was crippled by rheumatism for many years and turned to writing genealogies of many local families and a book "History of Heuvelton and Vicinity".

Cranberry Lake is part of the network of lakes and ponds, connected by streams and canoe-carry trails, which stretch across the central and western plateau of the Adirondacks known as the Lake Region. Cranberry is the third largest body of water in the Adirondack Park; it was nearly doubled in size by the completion of a dam in the spring of 1867. Cranberry Lake region is known for its hunting, fishing, logging and summer camps. This collection was donated by Atwood Manley and consists of his research files and correspondence on the region.

Archie Wright was born July 25, 1891 in Westville, New York and died December 24, 1967 in Ogdensburg, N.Y. He attended Ogdensburg Free Academy. He served as president of the Farmers Union of the New York Milkshed from its beginnings in 1941 until his resignation on January 1, 1957. Before that he was the President of the Dairy Farmers Union of the State of N.Y. during the 1930's. Mr. Wright was the editor and publisher of the "Northeastern Union Farmer" and had a weekly radio talk show.

Lelon Ansil Doolittle was born July 22, 1853 in Russell, St. Lawrence County, NY. He was educated in Russell, St. Lawrence University Class of 1875 and at the University of Wisconsin where he studied law. Lelon died in July 1930 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Betsey (Bessie) Adams Weeks was born April 20, 1851 in Vermont, she was educated in Rutland, Vermont and St. Lawrence University Class of 1876. She married Lelon Doolittle May 4, 1880 in Wisconsin. She died April 25, 1927 in Wisconsin. The collection consists of correspondence between Lelon and Betsey from 1873 to 1881.

Douglas M. Black was president of Doubleday and Co., publishers of Dwight D. Eisenhower's Crusade in Europe. The collection consists of correspondence covering the postwar period and largely concerns Eisenhower's publications with Doubleday. Also includes social correspondence from Mamie. Finding aid available at repository.