Beschreibung:

spanning the time period of 1848-88 with 37 manuscript letters, many with covers or self covers and 11 partially printed and manuscript documents. They begin in Athens, Ohio, and are mainly from the Perkins family and the Thompson family. Most are to a Rev. Abner M. Thornton of the United Brethren of Christ, an early evangelical protestant church in America. These letters continue until 1861 when it appears from the last letter written by Rev. Thornton that he is in poor health, and his shaky handwriting only seen in this letter would indicate that he was speaking the truth. These early letters are mainly from other traveling or circuit-riding ministers of this church to Abner, speaking of the hardships on the road with terrible weather, poor food, poor hospitality, trackless wilderness and terrible road, sickness and even death encountered by several fellow circuit riders. Others talk of the greater church meetings and decisions of the elders and committee members concerning matters of doctrine, fellow preachers and whether some should be sanctioned for nonconformity in their teaching. One later letter even warns Abner of others trying to have him sanctioned, but assuring him that his friends at the meeting stopped that attempt. One letter lists resolutions of the church concerning members who hold slaves and recommend that all who will not free their slaves be expelled from the church. Another is dealing with settling the estate of a fellow circuit-riding preacher, deceased, apparently somewhere in Illinois and discusses whether it might be worthwhile to publish his day logs, but advises against it, thinking that it would not be received by the reading public very well. The later letters appear to be mainly written by and to Abner's daughter Julie. Sometimes it is quite hard to tell who is related to Abner, due to the free use of terms such as Brother, Sister and Father among this group of very religious people. She appears to have moved west first to Kansas and later to the Denver, Colo., area, while Abner remained in south central Ohio, around Pickaway County and the town of Athens. One of her letters home to Ohio tells of a recent Indian Battle near her. The documents in this archive include a manuscript, one dated Dec. 7, 1852, recognizing the right of Abner to perform legal marriages in Ohio, several others are copies of marriage certificates where he was the presiding minister. The counties that Abner performed marriages in and preached in during his 35-year career include all of the following and likely others: Ross, Fairfield, Pickaway, Gallia, Hocking and Lawrence. There is also an interesting illustrated document being for the Fremont Town Company, Breckinridge Co. Kansas, for one share of five lots in the town of Fremont, dated 185?, about the time that Julie moved west. It has an illustration of an Indian along left margin, and is signed by the president of the company W.B. Swisher, 5.5" x 9". An interesting archive of a long vanished way of life with some interesting insights into the hardships endured by our early Christian Revivalist Clergy in the Midwest of the 1850s. Condition: All with normal folds, many with tears and a few with some losses, most VG to VG- and only a few G to P.