The Jesse Smith Papers are organized by document type. Correspondence, 1816-1868 (arranged chronologically) consists of about 400 letters relating chiefly to the private life of Jesse Smith and his immediate family, including a few letters addressed to his son, Dr. Theophilus Smith. His correspondents were chiefly in Pennsylvania and Virginia. There is a great deal of genealogical material found in the letters, particularly those letters from the Rev. Theophilus Smith of New Canaan, Connecticut.
Church records are from the Bethel and Ebenezer congregations, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, 1822-1835. Also included in this section are the papers relating to the trial of Jesse Smith before the Synod of Blairsville in 1834.
There is one folder concerning legal cases, 1836-1846, and two folders of unsorted miscellaneous business papers of Jesse and Theophilus Smith. Some indentures are included with the correspondence in chronological order.
The 15 volumes of the diaries of Jesse Smith date 1816-1840. Portions of his diaries are included in letters to his wife and are filed in the correspondence. Also included are four diaries of Mrs. Rachel Elder Whitby Smith, 1835-1836.
Included are account books of Jesse Smith, 3 volumes, 1820-1831, and an account book of Theophilus Smith, 1 volume, 1836, when he was working for William Siggins at Youngsville, Pennsylvania.
The collection contains 59 volumes of Jesse Smith's handwritten sermons, delivered mainly in the 1820s and 1830s, and finally, a miscellaneous collection of notebooks dealing with medicine, law, poetry, and song. His school records are included here, as well as the tax list for Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, for 1833.
