Multigenerational Archive of a Pennsylvania Family, Spanning More Than a Century [Pennsylvania Presbyterian Church Civil War World War II] Hill, George; Hill, Harriett; Weeks, W.C.; et al. Americana - General,Archives,Conflicts and Wars,Letters and Manuscripts,Women

A broad archive, mainly of letters, spanning over 130 years. The letters were mostly sent between members of the Hill family of Pennsylvania and other families (Lewis, Hosack, and Weeks) that married in. In the nineteenth century, George Hill (1815 1895), his wife Harriet Lewis (1820 1852), and their two oldest daughters Jane Hosack (1842 1878) and Harriet Hill (1844 1928) are the main correspondents; in the twentieth, letters are mainly from Cornelia (1863 1948) and Charlotte (1874 deceased) Lewis, Harriet Lewis nieces, and the family of Nancy Weeks (1909 1992), her great-granddaughter-in-law. Weeks also had several correspondents in Europe immediately after World War II. Earlier letters discuss family affairs, temperance societies, and church business George Hill was a Presbyterian minister, and writes to his family from trips to the General Assembly. For instance, he describes the 1843 Assembly: "We have dispatched a good deal of business this week in the Assembly. The question which detained us longest was with regard to the right of Elders to impose hands in the Ordination of Ministers, this was discussed for the greater part of two days, and finally decided against the right to impose. But of all the questions which have yet come before us none has excited so much interest or called forth half the feeling which the question on the approval of the records of the Synod of Pittsburgh did. The committee on the records took exception to the mention of the Synod on the subject of Temperance [.] On this I let them know my mind at considerable length, and in the course of the proceedings voted down the very same proposition which was adopted by the last Gen. Ass. on the subject of Temperance." (May 27, 1843) At the same time, Hill was preaching around Pennsylvania and Ohio to raise funds to start the Blairsville Female Seminary, which was open from 1851 to 1913. Among his travel correspondence is an interesting description of antebellum Athens, Ohio: "On Tuesday morning I rode 6 or 7 miles to Athens [.] which is wholly given over to abolition. This subject is to that people The one thing needful . It is the law and the gospel; it [is] philanthropy, patriotism, morality and religion. It swallows up everything else and enlists the sympathies & energies of the people to the exclusion of almost everything besides." (January 29, 1844) By the outbreak of the Civil War, Jane and Harriet are young adults, and Harriet gets involved with the war effort. She writes to her stepmother, Abigail Hawes: "I was in sewing for the Soldiers yesterday. I made a Havelock. I guess there were over thirty ladies there sewing. The Bardstown ladies are making clothing for Capt. S[?] s company. They leave on next Monday. [.] I went in early last Monday morning to see our company off. The flag was presented by Mr Beaumin to Capt. Nesbit. Then Mrs Thompson & Luther Martin presented Testaments & Prayer Books (some of Mrs. McAfee s work) they then marched up to the depot followed by men women & children. Such a sight I never witnessed. Some of the soldiers (large men) cried like children bade goodbye to every body men that I never saw before came up & bade me goodbye & then turned their heads away to hide the tears. [.] But to go back to our Sewing Society you ask will they really do anything ? I tell you they really have done something. Made seventy five shirts (& intend making so many more) of blue & red flannel, & forty five or fifty Havelocks, about thirty five towels, eighty pin cushions (or needle books). Then when the company went away the ladies supplied them with either a blanket or a comfort apiece [.] The ladies also intend making bandages or something to fasten tight round their stomachs to keep them from taking dysentery so readily." (June 4, 1861) Harriet notes that Abigail doesn t "seem to be much disturbed about the war" (May 20), though she requests that although "We all admire your patriotism [.] be sure & dont se