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Oxford PA Library Has Excellent Resources for Local & Family History Research

Peters Papers and Oxford Press on microfilm are two excellent resources for doing genealogical and local history research at Oxford Library.
The Peters Papers and the Oxford Press on microfilm are two excellent resources for doing genealogical and local history research at the Oxford Public Library.

The region has many helpful research repositories for those studying the past and many are found tucked away in the corner of our community libraries.  One of those great places for studying Chester County’s and the area’s heritage is the Katherine B. Alexander Memorial Library in Oxford, PA.  Serving Southern Chester County, it is an old institution, the first in the County and the third oldest in PA, it having been established in 1784.

Over the decades I have stopped there periodically to use the local history resources, and a project I am working on took me up that way a few days ago.  Each time, I visit I am reminded of the value of these local history collections, tucked away in the corner of our public institutions.  In addition, the Oxford Area Historical Association maintains its materials there, strengthening resource for studying genealogy and local history.

In the collection is a long run of the Oxford Press, a particularly well-produced weekly newspaper.  The publisher knew what sold newspapers, cram them with creative, original copy from a broad area.  They succeeded and each week the broadsheet covered the main stories, while also providing the “local news of three counties – Chester and Lancaster, Penna, and Cecil County, MD.”

It is one of the best papers in this region that I encounter for getting column from many of the smaller villages in the tri-state region.  Each week the pages are filled with social happenings and smaller news pieces, as the special correspondents wrote in from out-of-the-way places, making sure virtually nothing was missed.  Or as the Press noted in its masthead: “happenings in town and country condensed by alert correspondents for busy readers.”  This serial is available at the Oxford Library from 1866 to 1970s.

The Peters’ Papers are another excellent resource, making the past accessible.    Sometime back in the 1980s or so a Mr. Peters spent untold hours examining those old weeklies to carefully extracting the local reporting and create indexes.  His nearly 30 notebooks are very helpful, as the Oxford Pa is not on microfilm and thus is not text searchable.   But thanks to the labors of Mr. Peters, there is an index and I am able to quickly find topical materials.

Of course, there are plenty of 19th and early 20th century maps, business directories, local histories and lots more.  Thank you Oxford Public Library for preserving the region’s past and making it broadly available to everyone as we study genealogy, local history or some other subject.

Oxford Press
The Oxford Press and its local columns are an excellent resource for family and local history research.
Peters Papers at Oxford Library
The Peters Papers at the Oxford Public LIbrary

Old Commercial Maps for Delaware & Maryland Available from Philadelphia Free Library

McLear and Kendall Carriage Factory hesamere 1882
McLear & Kendall Carriage Factory, French Street, Wilmington, by the Hexamer General Survey. Source: Philadelphia Free Library

While digging up some historical records on a Delaware property earlier this week, I discovered a large body of helpful online maps published by the Philadelphia Free Library. This urban institution has substantial online collections, including a large holding of maps.

The resources that helped with my investigation was the Hexamer General Survey collection. Between 1866 and 1895, Ernest Hexamer sketched out detailed plates on nearly 3,000 industrial and commercial properties in the Greater Philadelphia area.  These meticulous illustrations included breweries, textile mills, printers, car works, dye and chemical plants, planning mills, and much more.  The renderings were created for fire insurance underwriters and are similar to the Sanborn Maps, which are available for many Delmarva communities.

Hexamer was a German immigrant, according to the blog, Hexamer Redux. “He began his career creating insurance maps in New York City.  In 1856, he moved to Philadelphia and established the fire insurance map business in the city.”

For researchers on the upper part of the Delmarva Peninsula, there are a many industrial plates from Wilmington, as well as New Castle and Cecil counties. The Star Bone Phosphate Works at Rothwell Landing is the only one for Kent County, DE.  Companies such as the Jackson & Sharp’s Delaware Car Works, Bancroft and lots of others are represented in the records.

In addition to floor plans similar to architectural drawings lots of additional details are provided. There are notes about the construction, fire protection, occupancy, and other elements of interest to an insurance carrier.  Many include perspective sketches of the actual building, which is great.

This will be a valuable resource for many Delmarva researchers. Thank you Philadelphia Free Library for providing this excellent resource.

 

providence mill hexamer 1890
Providence MIll, Wm. M. Singerly, 1890 by Hexamer General Survey; Source: Philadelphia Free Library.
new castle mills hexamere phila free library 1886
New Castle Mills, New Castle, DE., 1887 by Hexamer Surveys. Source: Philadelphia Free Library

 

jackson and sharp phila free library hexamore 1872
Jackson and Sharp Rail Works, 1872, by Hexamer General Survey. Source: Philadelphia Free Library

 

10 Maryland Newspapers Available on Library of Congress Site

The Historic Maryland Newspaper Project at the University of Maryland Libraries is an ongoing effort to digitize historic newspaper content across the state.   During the first year of this important project, the University has scanned several titles from Baltimore.  There are also serials from Cumberland and Hagerstown.

All ten titles that have been completed are available for free access on the Library of Congress website.  Next year additional newspapers from other parts of Maryland will be added.  The free, digital access to newspapers is such a valuable resource for genealogists and local history researchers.  Of course, there are many newspapers in the State, so the archivists have years of work waiting for them.

Click here to go to a link of the Maryland newspapers now available from the Library of Congress to determine which serials are available and which years for those products have been made available.

Maryland newspaper, Maryland Free Press
The Maryland Free Press from Hagerstown, Maryland, Oct. 31, 1862. Source: Library of Congress
Maryland newspaper, Civilian & Telegraph
The Civilian and Telegraph from Cumberland, Maryland, March 17, 1859. Source: Library of Congress

19th Century Travel Guide for Travel between Philadelphia and Baltimore Helpful for Local History Researchers

The Stanton Railroad Station
The Stanton Railroad Station, From the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Guide via Hathi Trust http:hathitrust.org

When we hit the road these days for a trip to some unfamiliar destination, we often consult travel directories and guidebooks. These handy sources, whether online or on the printed page, are packed with information about a place, providing details for sightseeing and accommodations

They were there in the 19th century too, filling the need of itinerant types for information to orient them to things on their journey to unfamiliar places.  While there are a number of works available from the 1800s for the Delmarva Peninsula, I recently worked with two as I prepared for a Delaware Humanities forum talk for the Newark Historical Society.

My talk was about the social history of railroading in Delaware and I was reorienting it to matters more of interest to the heritage group’s members. So I surfed over to the Digital Library of America, an excellent portal for starting online searches.  That search yielded the sought after reference, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Guide published in 1856 by Charles Dare.  This little volume was designed, the author said, to communicate information that was most interesting to passengers over the route.  Dare updated his first publication with a second issue in 1877.

The handy guide described for the traveler the route from Philadelphia to Baltimore, providing pages of details about the destinations on the upper Delmarva Peninsula, such as Claymont, Bellevue, Wilmington, Newport, Stanton, Newark, Elkton, North East, Charlestown and the Susquehanna River crossing. As the miles rolled by on those long ago journeys the guide described items of interest for sightseers and provided practical destination information on local accommodations.

There are also plenty of sketches. The author offered a special thanks to D. C. Baxter for his work, the transformation of “photographs of scenery upon the route into well-executed wood engravings.”  The maps were done by J. E. Larkin.

Just as this guide was handy to people living in the 19th century, the modern day researcher will find it helpful for understanding places along the road.  Fortunately these rare books have been digitized by academic libraries and are now readily available for on demand use.  I purchased a copy of the original work from a rare book dealer in New England probably 30 years ago.  Otherwise it would have taken a time consuming trip to a special collections or large academic library.

But as digitization expands our easy contact with heritage-related materials, it helps advance our understanding and appreciation of our past as practically everyone has the ability to conveniently access rare materials.  The physical copy of the e-resource I was using is located at the Harvard University Library.

Proposed railroad bridge between Perryville and Havre de Grace
Proposed railroad bridge between Perryville and Havre de Grace. Source: Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Guide, via www.hathitrust.org
The Newark Train Station.\
The Newark Train Station. Source: Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Guide, via www.hathitrust.org