Summary Information
Jesse Smith Papers
1816-1868
Pennsylvania Mss E
1.2 c.f. (3 archives boxes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Jesse Smith, a Pennsylvania Presbyterian minister and teacher. Included is family correspondence, 1816-1868, containing much genealogical information; diaries, 1816-1840; personal account books, 1820-1831, 1836; papers on legal cases and miscellaneous business papers; fifty-nine volumes of manuscript sermons delivered mainly in the 1820s and 1830s; and records of the Bethel and Ebenezer Presbyterian congregations in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, 1822-1835. Smith was defrocked in 1834 on a charge of drunkenness.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-penn00e ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Jesse Smith, Presbyterian minister and missionary of Clarksburg, Virginia and Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, was born in Shelburne, Massachusetts in 1785, the son of Asa Smith. In 1799, he moved with his parents to Halifax, Vermont. He graduated from Williams College in 1815 and removed to Clarksburg, Harrison County, Virginia, where he taught school and served as a missionary. He remained at Clarksburg until 1823, with the exception of 1821, when he resided in Woodstock, Shenandoah County, Virginia. In 1823, he removed to Young Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, where he served as minister of the Ebenezer and Bethel congregations until 1831, when he removed to Rose Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. The Synod of Blairsville revoked his commission as minister on the charge of drunkenness in 1834, and for the remainder of his life he served as a school teacher. He removed to Perry Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, in 1848 and reminded there until his death on March 21, 1851.
Reverend Smith was married twice and had four children. His first wife was Juliet W. Armstrong of Clarksburg, Virginia, the daughter of Mrs. Catharine Armstrong. She died on July 13, 1827, and left three children: Theophilus, born September 21, 1817, Juliet Catharine, and Harriet Ann. On April 14, 1829, Jesse Smith married Rachel Elder Whitby (Mrs. George Whitby) (December 27, 1806-February 12, 1840). They had one daughter, Sibble Mariah. Theophilus Smith became a doctor and eventually settled in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Scope and Content Note
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.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Mr. and Mrs. Franklin E. Bump, Wausau, Wisconsin, March, 1953.
Processed by Jack T. Ericson, November 10, 1963.
Contents List
|
Correspondence
|
|
|
Box
1
|
1816-1829
|
|
|
Box
2
|
1830-1868, undated
|
|
|
Box
2
|
Church Records for Bethel and Ebenezer, Penn., 1822-1835
|
|
|
Box
2
|
Legal Papers, 1838-1846
|
|
|
Box
2
|
Business Papers, unsorted
|
|
|
Box
3
|
Diaries, 1816-1840
|
|
|
Box
3
|
Account Books, 1820-1836
|
|
|
Box
3
|
Sermons, 1820s and 1830s
|
|
|
Box
3
|
Miscellaneous notebooks
|
|
|
