Special Collections Department
Special Collections Department - Collections - Subject Guides - Agricultural Collections - Farmers and Farming
Agricultural Collections - Farmers and Farming
ADAMS, WILLIAM M. (1893-1973). Papers, 1927-1959.
Extent: 1.05 linear feet.
Number: MS-304.
Description: Farmer. William M. Adams began farming in Eden Township, Fayette County, Iowa, in 1918. He served as township clerk for Eden Township for many years, and in 1934 was township chair for the Corn-Hog Program, a federal program designed to limit production. Adams was a charter member of the Northeast Iowa Farm Business Association, formed in 1936. Collection includes Adams' farm records (1927-1958), annual reports of the Northeast Iowa Farm Business Association (1936-1938), and records Adams kept as township chair for the Corn-Hog Program (1934).
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
ANDREWS, ELIZUR. Ledger, 1867-1868.
Extent: 0.21 linear feet.
Number: MS-332.
Description: Farmer of Southington, Hartford County, Connecticut. Ledger includes detailed accounts of Andrews' farm organization, inventory, plantings, crop harvesting, and sales, as well as household and dairy accounts.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
BARKER, CELESTIA LEE (1846-1913). Papers, 1860-1987.
Extent: 0.21 linear foot.
Number: MS-246.
Description: Farmer and teacher. Celestia Lee was born on April 23, 1846, in Springwater, New York. Her family moved to Macksburg, Madison County, Iowa, in 1855. In September 1863, Lee left home to attend a seminary in Indianola, Iowa. In November 1863 she went to stay with her sister and brother-in-law, Huldah Lee Bennett and Gorton Bennett, in Fontanelle, Iowa. There she taught school until her marriage in 1866 to William Beeson Barker. Barker had served in Company H of the 23rd Iowa Infantry Regiment during the Civil War and was wounded at Big Black River Bridge in 1863. After the war the couple farmed in Iowa, eventually moving to Lamar (and later Denver), Colorado. The Barkers had five children. Collection includes a journal of Celestia Lee Barker, spanning the years 1863-1904. The majority of entries, written during the Civil War, describe her work on her family's farm, social activities, attendance at church meetings, and visits to family throughout central Iowa. She also describes her training to be a teacher and her efforts to assist in keeping a boarding house. There are also a few entries after 1866, usually written on birthdays or anniversaries, in which Barker discusses her marriage and family.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
BERG, TOSTEN O. (1841-1917). Papers 1868-2008.
Extent: 0.21 linear feet.
Number: MS-631.
Description: Tosten O. Berg came to North America from Norway with his family in 1852; the family settled first in Quebec and later in Wisconsin. Berg moved to Emmet County, Iowa, in 1866. In 1867 he married Thuri Paulson Flatland, and the couple had a farm three miles south of Estherville. Tosten and Thuri Berg farmed their land until their retirement in 1900, and the farm stayed in the Berg family for over 100 years. The collection contains tax receipts (1868-1914) from the Tosten O. Berg farm as well as genealogical information about Berg and his family.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
BERGESON, ROLLO (1911-1993). Papers, 1965-1989, n.d.
Extent: 2.33 linear feet.
Number: MS-309.
Description: Banker and philanthropist. Rollo Bergeson was one of the principal architects of the plan to develop Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa, one of the first such endeavors in the United States. Bergeson also donated a 26-acre tract that later became part of Living History Farms. A native of Sioux City, Iowa, he lived most of his life in Des Moines. Bergeson graduated from the University of South Dakota and from Duke University Law School. Collection documents the creation of Living History Farms and its predecessor, a project Bergeson called Interstate Farms. It includes legal documents; correspondence with various investors and participants, including Iowa State University professor and politician William G. Murray; and newspaper clippings. It also includes descriptions of the various financial maneuvers undertaken to purchase the land for Living History Farms and some photographs of the site, among them photographs of Bergeson and Murray together. A sketchbook containing conceptual illustrations of Interstate Farms is also part of the collection.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
BURCHETT, WAYNE O. AND GAYLE CARNS. Papers, 1855-2009, n.d.
Extent:1.93 linear ft.
Number: MS-355
Description: Wayne Burchett raised Herefords on the farm which had been in his family for three generations. The collection documents the Burchett and Carns families from the middle of the nineteenth century and includes correspondence, diaries, birth records, autograph books, account books, business records (cattle, ranch and accounting), deeds, photographs, news clippings, brief histories of the century farm, wills and obituaries, genealogical records of Wayne's family, 4H record books and related records, and a description of the collection's documents
Status: Processed.
Finding aid: Online.
BURNS, LLOYD D. (1825-1892). Diary, 1857-1860.
Extent: 0.21 linear foot.
Number: MS-111.
Description: Farmer. Lloyd Dwight Burns lived in Dallas County, Iowa, from 1848 until his death in 1892. He married Minerva Jane Adams in 1846. Burns farmed in Sugar Grove Township in Dallas County and was the county's first judge. Diary covers the years 1857, 1858, and 1860, and contains information on the weather; purchases; marriages solemnized; and attendance at political meetings, the literary society, lectures, magic shows, and church. Burns took an active interest in politics, read widely, and loaned money readily. Included are accounts of two trips to the Dakota Territory in May and July 1860 in which he describes the topography, trees, and crops of the area.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS. Records, 1973-1990.
Extent: 1.3 linear feet.
Number: MS-413.
Description: Founded in 1973, the Center for Rural Affairs in Walthill, Nebraska, is largely concerned with the decline of the family farm. The purpose of the center is to generate public thought on social, economic, and environmental issues and government policies affecting rural America, with emphasis on the Midwest and Plains regions. The center is dedicated to agricultural reform designed to save human and natural resources, communities, and local farm ownership. Collection includes annual reports, publications such as brochures and newsletters, project materials, conference materials, and bank statements.
Status: Container listed.
Finding Aid: Unavailable
FARM AID. Collected Materials, 1987-1998.
Extent: 0.21 linear foot.
Number: MS-394.
Description: Farm Aid was established in 1985 to raise public awareness of the plight of the American family farmer and to assist families dependent on agriculture. Farm Aid provides funds to farm organizations, churches, hotlines, and service agencies that provide direct assistance to farm families. The group also provides program grants to organizations working to develop long-term solutions to problems facing the family farmer. Farm Aid is best known for its annual fund-raising concert featuring prominent musicians. These materials, collected by Earl M. Rogers, include requests for donations, a program for the Farm Aid VII concert held in New Orleans, Louisiana, and copies of Farm Aid's newsletter, Farm Aid Update.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
GABLE, ASENATH (1840-1907). Journal, ca. 1901.
Extent: 0.21 linear foot.
Number: MS-112.
Description: Asenath Hampton was born in Virginia in 1840. Her family moved to Ohio in her infancy, and in 1855 she went to Black Hawk County, Iowa. After her marriage to Solomon Levi Gable in 1856, she and her husband began farming in Crawford County, Iowa. In 1901 Asenath Gable began her "Biographic Sketches of the Hampton and Gable Families," the journal in this collection. She made ten handwritten copies of the journal and presented them to her children. The sketches tell not only of her ancestry but of her own life as well, recounting the hardships and rewards of farming.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
GROOMES, EDMUND (1905-1973). Papers, 1938-1939, 1942-1973.
Extent: 4.62 linear feet.
Number: MS-054.
Description: Iowa Master Farmer and public speaker. Edmund Groomes was born in Menlo, Iowa, in 1905, and began farming in 1925. Groomes attended Drake University in 1934. He was involved in public education, serving in various state education associations, and he wrote a book on his experiences, The Boards and the Bees (1967). He gave numerous speeches and radio talks, becoming well known for his humorous approach to speech-making. The collection includes biographical information; correspondence; materials on the Iowa Association of School Boards and the Iowa Council for Better Education; radio scripts; speeches; a film; printed materials; and photographs.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
GROSS, C. J. (DUTCH) (1897-1964). Soybean Photographs, 1929.
Extent: 0.21 linear foot.
Number: MS-230.
Description: Farmer. Collection consists of five photographs taken in 1929 of a soybean field and horse-drawn harvesting equipment in Jefferson, Iowa. Soybeans were still a novelty in the Midwest at the time. Hard times helped spread their use as a farm crop, as soybeans were unaffected by the European corn borer, a real advantage in the 1920s when this pest began to spread. Margaret Mae Gross wrote about this collection in December 1990: "In 1929, my father, C. J. (Dutch) Gross, raised soybeans on the land of Floyd Mahanay in Jefferson, Iowa. This was one of the first soybean fields in this area. Mr. Mahanay had wanted to try soybeans on his land, and the fellow renting his place wanted no part of it. The Mahanays and my parents were good friends, so he asked my father to do the planting and harvesting; we lived on a rented farm just across from the Mahanay land. When the beans were harvested in the fall of 1929, most of the crop was sold to others for seed; the largest consignment went to Henry Field (a seed company)."
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
HAMILTON, CHARLES K. Papers, [1850-1932].
Extent: 0.21 linear foot.
Number: MS-163.
Description: Farmer of Wayne County, Iowa, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Collection contains legal documents, tax bills, household expenses, promissory notes, and a ledger dealing with a farm sale.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
HEARST, CHARLES J. (1904- ). Papers, 1935-1968.
Extent: 3.57 linear feet.
Number: MS-003.
Description: Third-generation owner and operator of Maplehearst Farm, a livestock operation near Cedar Falls, Iowa. Charles J. Hearst was born in Cedar Falls in 1904 and graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1924. Hearst was a member of the foreign policy committee of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, the Black Hawk County Board of Education, the Cedar Falls Rotary Club, and many local, state, and national governmental agencies. He was associated with the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farm Institute, and the Farm Policy Council, and he was a director of the Producer's Commission Association of Chicago. Hearst was a member of the 1947 Iowa Farm Bureau Federation trip to study conditions in postwar Europe, and was later invited to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee studying the Marshall Plan. In 1955, he was chosen to be a member of the American agricultural delegation to the U.S.S.R., part of an exchange program begun in that year. Collection includes correspondence, diaries, speeches and articles, printed materials and photographs documenting the Russian-American agricultural exchange (1955) and the Iowa Farm Bureau European trip (1947). They also concern Hearst's activities with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Advisory Committee on Feed Grains and Wheat, the Iowa Higher Education Facilities Commission (1964-1968), the Center for Agricultural and Economic Adjustment (Iowa State University), the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, and the United States Farm Policy Council. Correspondents include Robert K. Buck, Harold E. Hughes, and Estes Kefauver.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
HOLTON FAMILY CENTURY FARM. Records, 1936-1942.
Extent: 0.21 linear foot.
Number: MS-086.
Description: Ruby A. Holton grew up on a farm near Decorah, Iowa, settled by her Norwegian immigrant ancestors. Her grandfather farmed the land from 1853-1900, and her father and his family were on the land from 1900-1912. For the period 1912-1935 her parents lived in Decorah, and from 1936-1942 the Farmers National Company managed the farm. Collection contains records and reports on the management of the farm by the Farmers National Company.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
HORTON, IVA VERONA (1892-1982). Papers, 1941-1982.
Extent: 1.26 linear feet.
Number: MS-183.
Description: Farm wife, teacher, and journalist. Iva Brooks was born in Lake County, Illinois, in 1892. She attended schools in Iowa and Illinois, and taught in rural schools in Clarke County, Iowa, for three years. She married John Samuel Horton in Albia, Iowa, in 1914; they had four children. Horton was active in the Iowa Farm Bureau Women. She was also a reporter for the Osceola, Iowa, newspapers and a guest columnist for the Des Moines Register. The collection includes biographical material, travel journals, and diaries documenting farm life from the 1940s to the 1960s in Clarke County, Iowa.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
IOWA CENTURY FARMS. Records, 1850-1900.
Extent: 1.5 linear feet.
Number: MS-096.
Description: Collection consists of materials solicited from the owners of Iowa Century Farms, honored by the state of Iowa during the American Revolution Bicentennial observations. It contains correspondence from owners of Iowa Century Farms responding to a request for information, deeds, mortgages, journals, reminiscences, farm records, and photographs. Topics covered include immigration from European countries, breaking prairie sod, the grasshopper invasion, severe winters, drought and disease, and the joys of surviving the rigors of settlement.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
IOWA FARMSTEAD PICTURE COLLECTION, 1870-1910.
Extent: 1.66 linear feet.
Number: MS-390.
Description: Collection contains engravings, lithographs (some hand-colored), and photogravures depicting farmsteads and stock farms in Iowa circa 1870-1910. Typically, prints originally appeared in such vintage atlases as the A. T. Andreas' Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, the Atlas of the State of Iowa, and other publications. Most of the prints have multiple images.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
IOWA WEATHER AND CROP BUREAU. Iowa Crop Statistics by Counties, 1890-1934, Recorded by Charles Reed, ca. 1935.
Extent: 1.41 linear feet.
Number: MS-291.
Description: Manuscript volume (152 pages) containing crop statistics by county in Iowa, 1890-1934. These statistics were recorded by Charles Reed of the Iowa Weather and Crop Bureau around 1935. The manuscript includes data on average and total yields of staple crops, acreage of staple crops, and a table recording annual prices for crops.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
LEFFLER, JOHN M. (1885-?). Papers, 1917-1973.
Extent: 1.3 linear feet.
Number: RS 21/7/68.
Description: Farmer. John M. Leffler was born in Van Buren County, Iowa, in 1885 and received a degree in animal husbandry from Iowa State University in 1910. Collection contains Leffler's records for a farm in Bonaparte, Iowa, from 1917 through 1973.
Status: Container listed.
Finding Aid: Available in Special Collections.
LUDWIG, JOSEPH W. (1912-2002). Papers, 1939-1987.
Extent: 2.14 linear feet.
Number: MS-311.
Description: Farmer. Joseph Ludwig farmed near Fort Atkinson, Iowa, on an Iowa Century Farm in the hands of his family for more than a century. Collection consists of five account books from the Ludwig family farm, covering the years 1939-1948, 1949-1958, 1959-1969, 1970-1979, and 1980-1988. It also contains a 1974 article in the Des Moines Register on the Ludwig farm and photographs, including one aerial photograph of the farm and photographs of Joseph Ludwig and his sister Agnes.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
MEADE FAMILY. Papers, 1924-1987, undated.
Extent: 0.63 linear foot.
Number: MS-565.
Description: Farmers. Margaret Meade and her four sons, James, John, Nicholas, and Patrick, immigrated from Ireland to the United States to escape the Irish potato famine in 1853. John settled in Johnson County, Iowa, and James settled in Cedar County, Iowa, both as farmers. James later moved with his family to Johnson County. Collection includes a family history, taped interviews, transcripts of interviews, desk diaries, notes, and a cash book.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
MILLS, WILLIAM H. Papers, 1869-1941.
Extent: 1.3 linear feet.
Number: MS-417.
Description: Story County, Iowa, farmer. Collection includes correspondence, farm business ledgers, business and tax receipts, and miscellaneous publications.
Status: Unprocessed.
Finding Aid: Online.
NEGUS, JESSE (1831-1922). Journal, 1860- 1902.
Extent: 0.21 linear foot.
Number: MS-124.
Description: Farmer. Jesse Negus was born in Damascus, Ohio, in 1831. He married Rachel Mather in Springdale, Iowa, in October 1858, and they took possession of a farm in Cedar County, Iowa, north of West Branch, in December 1858. The couple had three children, two of whom died in childhood. A son, William P. Negus, was married in 1894; he and his wife lived on a farm that adjoined his father's. Self-educated, Jesse Negus was a devout Quaker, a great reader, and was interested in newer farming methods. The journal records his daily activities and includes an biographical letter from Mrs. Lloyd Henderson, his granddaughter.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
PASCAL, DESCARTES L. (1870-1937). Papers, 1890-1937, n.d.
Extent: 12.04 linear ft.
Number: MS-091.
Description: Farmer of Clinton County, Iowa. Descartes J. Pascal became interested in corn breeding in 1902 and won contests for his ears of corn, including an award for the finest ear at the National Corn Exposition of 1908. Collection consists of a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings, pamphlets, awards, articles, ribbons, and post cards. Also included are 180 glass plate negatives and two tintypes made by Pascal, documenting rural Iowa from the 1890s through the 1910s.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
PIKE, HERBERT W. (1912-1989). Papers, 1918-1989.
Extent: 6.84 linear feet.
Number: RS 16/03/53.
Description: Farmer and businessman. Herbert W. Pike was born in Monona County, Iowa, and received a B.S. from Iowa State University in agriculture in 1933 and an M.S. in economics in 1939. Pike worked as a land assessor for Bankers' Life, served a brief tenure as an extension assistant, served in World War II, and farmed near Whiting, in Monona County. He took part in the agricultural tour of the U.S.S.R. in July 1955. Active in the Iowa Republican Party, Pike served on various committees. Governor Robert D. Ray appointed Pike to the Governor's Educational Advisory Council and the Iowa 2000 Committee. He served on the Citizen's Advisory Council of the Iowa Cooperative Study of Post High School Education. Pike was also active in banking issues, serving on the Federal Land Bank of Omaha's Advisory Committee and the Committee on Agricultural Credit of the Federal Farm Credit Bureau. Pike submitted essays on his interests to U.S. News and World Report, Wallaces' Farmer, and local newspapers. Later in his life, Pike became interested in alternative energy sources. He took part in a six-city tour of the East and Southeast in 1980 in which he surveyed developments in alternative energy. Collection contains biographical information, correspondence, personal business records, clippings, government documents, and photographs. Most of the collection documents Pike's 1955 trip to the U.S.S.R., including souvenir books, periodicals, scrapbooks, clippings, and photographs. Notebooks and binders contain material on Pike's undergraduate work, military training, and professional career. Sporadic information on Pike's land assessment work around the Midwest and Texas is included. Personal records include tax records from 1918-1944 for the Pike farm. Correspondents include Gerald Ford and Robert Ray. There is also correspondence with Iowa State president James Hilton on the local activities of the National Farmers Organization and personal correspondence between Pike, his wife Marian, and his parents. The collection also includes documents concerning lobbying activities of the Iowa Farm Bureau and legislation affecting conservation, roads, and taxation from 1967-1985. It contains transcripts of Pike's testimony before a Senate sub-committee and the U.S. House of Representatives on the 1971 Farm Bill.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Available in Special Collections.
RAE, GEORGE (1840-1907). Papers, 1861-1905.
Extent: 0.21 linear foot.
Number: MS-002.
Description: Farmer and Scottish immigrant. George Rae settled in Maine in 1861 and later went west to find land to farm. He came to Dow City, Iowa, where he lived until his death. He married Jean Wilson in 1866 and served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1876 to 1877. Collection contains letters of character reference from Scotland; letters from relatives in Scotland; Rae family records; tax receipts from Crawford and Harrison counties, Iowa (1865-1886); obituaries; and two diaries. A George Rae diary recounts his westward migration from Saco, Maine, to Iowa from April to December 1865. Rae described cities and countryside he traveled through, farms and pieces of land he considered buying, and train and riverboat travel on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Also included in the diary are his expense list, some sawmill records, and some school rules. A diary of his daughter Jenny documents a 1904 trip to Los Angeles, California. While sightseeing in the Los Angeles area is mentioned, most of the diary is concerned with relatives and evangelistic services she attended.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
REASONER, JOSEPH C. (1892-1976). Reminiscences, 1964-1975, undated.
Extent: 1.26 linear feet.
Number: MS-182.
Description: Farmer and insurance agent. Joseph C. Reasoner grew up on a family farm four miles northeast of Humboldt, Iowa, and was a life-long resident of the Humboldt area, eventually taking over the family farm. From 1915 to 1920, Reasoner vaccinated and fed hogs for the Fort Dodge Serum Company. It was a large operation, involving 500 to 1,000 hogs at a time. In 1920, failing health caused Reasoner to give up farming. He became an insurance salesman, remaining in that business for years. Reasoner spearheaded efforts to restore the Lake Nokomis Dam in Humboldt on the West Des Moines River after a flood damaged it in 1969; the dam was named after him in honor of his efforts. His nephew, television news analyst Harry Reasoner, spoke at the dam's dedication in 1971. Collection contains 23 transcripts of oral history interviews and reminiscences of life on the farm from 1900 to 1920. These include memories of raising vaccinated hogs for hog cholera serum; reminiscences of Frank Gotch (1878-1917), a Humboldt native who became a world champion wrestler; and memories of ice harvesting, crops, livestock, country schools, and a trip to the Chicago stockyards at the turn of the century. The collection also includes artifacts and newspaper clippings.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
RUDOLPH, DANIEL. Ledgers, 1877-1895.
Extent: 1.66 linear feet.
Number: MS-331.
Description: Farmer and wholesale dealer in grain, flour, and feed, of Bethlehem, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Collection contains two ledgers. The first contains records of grain purchased; the second contains records of farm stock and labor costs as well as accounts for a church and cemetery in Schoenersville, Pennsylvania.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Available in Special Collections.
SAMSON, CONRAD (1918- ). Papers, 1983.
Extent: 0.21 linear foot.
Number: MS-152.
Description: Factory worker, part-time farmer, and developer of a land use proposal. Conrad Sampson was born on a farm near Honeyford, North Dakota; his family moved to Iowa in the 1920s. Sampson attended public schools in Iowa through the ninth grade. He developed a land use proposal designed to solve the social, economic, and environmental problems of the American family farm. Collection includes Sampson's writings on land use taxation.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
SCHIPULL, RUDOLF E. Papers, 1919-1982.
Extent: 1.47 linear feet.
Number: MS-176.
Description: Farmer of Goldfield, Iowa. Collection includes record books covering the years 1919-1920 and 1939-1982, containing inventories of machinery, stock, and crops; and cash receipts and expenses. It also includes a journal of cattle breeding records for the years 1922-1944. Of special note is a record of expenditures for Schipull's 1938 Studebaker, a car he won from the Procter and Gamble Soap Company for "writing the best reasons (not over 25 words)" why he used Ivory soap. Schipull was active in local cooperatives and other organizations, and he often served as an officer on the board of directors of these groups. The collection includes a number of their reports and other publications.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
ULLEM, BENJAMIN (1870-1957). Papers, 1907-1927, 1980.
Extent: 0.92 linear feet.
Number: MS-234.
Description: Farmer. Benjamin Ullem was born near Centerville, Iowa. He was married to Laura Brandon in 1893, and the couple began farming northwest of Iconium, Appanoose County, Iowa, on land that had been in the Brandon family since 1843. They were engaged in grain and livestock farming until Laura Ullem's death in 1919. Benjamin Ullem later married Mary Caylor. They remained on the farm until 1950, when they moved to Centerville. Collection consists of a commercially produced log book used by Benjamin Ullem to maintain his business records primarily for the years 1913-1927. It includes records, receipts, and legal documents as well as information on livestock, gardens, and kitchens. Pages 304-306 of the volume appear to be minutes of a meeting regarding a dispute over telephone lines. Both Ullem and his father-in-law, Thomas Brandon, are mentioned in the minutes.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
UNDERWOOD, SARAH. Papers, 1857-1861, n.d.
Extent: 0.21 linear feet.
Number: MS-694.
Description: Horace and Sarah Tefft Underwood had a farm approximately two miles outside of the community of Princeton, Iowa, which is located on the banks of the Mississippi River just north of Davenport in Scott County. This collection consists of handwritten letters from Sarah Underwood to her family in Kingston, Rhode Island. The letters discuss activities on the farm including meals, farm work during harvest time, and butchering the animals. Other topics include the Iowa weather, some of the buildings in the community such as the school house and the grain mill, and barge activity on the Mississippi River.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
VAN ZANDT FAMILY PAPERS. 1838-1990.
Extent: 3.15 linear feet.
Number: MS-213.
Description: Farmers. Henry C. Vanzant (1816-1905) was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina. Vanzant (the family later changed the spelling of its name to Van Zandt) moved with his parents to Kentucky and then to Tennessee. In 1848, newly married to Nancy McKeown, he moved with his wife and other family members to Agency, Iowa. They farmed there from 1850 through at least 1882 on 210 acres owned by George Wilson, a Lexington, Missouri, banker. Collection includes correspondence, diaries, legal documents, memorabilia, and photographs. Henry Vanzant's correspondence, the bulk of the collection, spans the years 1838 to 1887. Primarily family correspondence, it also includes a number of letters from Henry Vanzant's landlord, George Wilson. Well-informed and articulate, Wilson often commented on local and national events of the time, including the Gold Rush, emigration to the West, politics, and the economy. The collection also contains the Civil War letters and three diaries of Henry Vanzant's brother, William Vanzant (?-1864), who served with the First Iowa Battery and was at the Battle of Pea Ridge, the Battle of Arkansas Post, and the Seige of Vicksburg. It includes World War I letters of Henry Vanzant's grandson, Ralph Van Zandt, who entered the Army in July 1918 and was shipped overseas in September 1918. He suffered a shrapnel wound on November 5, 1918, and was still hospitalized when the Armistice was signed. His unit stayed on in Europe until May 1919. The letters between Ralph and his parents and sisters depict the war both from the soldier's view of the situation in Europe and the civilian's view of the home front in Iowa.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
VIBBER, R. S. Land Abstracts, 1880, 1988.
Extent: 0.21 linear foot.
Number: MS-205.
Description: Farmer. Collection includes abstracts outlining the property owned by R. S. Vibber in Farley, Dubuque County, Iowa, dated March 8, 1880, and an explanatory letter from Vibber's great-niece in 1988.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.
WINBORN, JOHN THOMAS (1887-1972). Records, 1909-1943, 1981, 1985.
Extent: 1.35 linear feet.
Number: MS-190.
Description: Farmer. John Thomas Winborn began farming near Sharon Center, Iowa, in 1909 after his grandmother, Emily Weeks, asked him to run her farm. Winborn married Mabel Schwimley on September 7, 1910. The couple lived on Emily Weeks' farm until 1915, when they bought a farm a mile east and moved to the larger house on that property. In 1938 Thomas formed a partnership with his four oldest children. Collection consists of farm records from 1909 to 1938. It also includes two family histories: "J. T. & Mabel + Seven : Memories of Growing Up on an Iowa Farm circa 1919-1950," by Alice C. Winborn Thompson (1985); and "Aaron Winborn Herd Book," by Lewis A. Winborn (1981). Both are illustrated with family portraits.
Status: Processed.
Finding Aid: Online.