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Massachusetts (West) (297 collections) SCUA

Stetson, William B.

Finding aid

William B. Stetson Account book, 1856-1870.

1 vol. (0.1 linear feet).
Call no.: MS 348 bd

As a young man in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, William B. Stetson (b. ca.1836) earned a living by performing manual labor for local residents. Most of his work, and increasingly so, was found in the range of tasks associated with lumbering: chopping wood, sawing boards, making shingles and fence boards. By 1870, Stetson was listed in the federal census as a lumberman in the adjacent town of Leverett.

Stetson’s rough-hewn book of accounts provides detail on the work and expenditures of a young man from Shutesbury, Massachusetts, in the years just prior to the Civil War. Carefully kept, but idiosyncratic, they document a working class mans efforts to earn a living by whatever means possible, largely in lumber-related tasks. His accounts list a number of familiar local names, including Albert Pratt, Sylvanus Pratt, Charles Pratt, Charles Nutting, E. Cushman, John Haskins, and J. Stockwell. Set into the front of the volume are a set of work records dated in Leverett in 1870, by which time Stetson had apparently focused his full energies on lumbering.

Subjects

  • Leverett (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century
  • Lumber trade--Massachusetts--Leverett
  • Lumber trade--Massachusetts--Shutesbury
  • Shutesbury (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century

Contributors

  • Stetson, William B.

Types of material

  • Account books

Stockbridge, Levi, 1820-1904

Finding aid

Levi Stockbridge Papers, 1841-1878.

(2 linear feet).
Call no.: RG 003/1 S76
Levi Stockbridge, ca.1853
Levi Stockbridge, ca.1853

Born in Hadley, Mass., in 1820, Levi Stockbridge was one of the first instructors at Massachusetts Agricultural College and President from 1879-1882. Known for his work on improving crop production and for developing fertilizers, Stockbridge was an important figure in the establishment of the college’s Experiment Station. After filling in as interim President of MAC in 1879, he was appointed president for two years, serving during a period of intense financial stress. After his retirement in 1882, he was named an honorary professor of agriculture.

The Stockbridge Papers include correspondence, personal notebooks, travel diary, journal as a farmer (1842-1845), writings, lectures, notes on experiments, clippings, photocopies of personal and legal records, and biographical material, including reminiscences by Stockbridge’s daughter. Also contains auction records, notebook of Amherst, Massachusetts town records (1876-1890), and printed matter about Amherst and national elections, including some about his candidacy for Congress on Labor-Greenback party ticket 1880. Also contains papers (13 items) of Stockbridge’s son, Horace Edward Stockbridge (1857-1930), agricultural chemist and educator, including a letter (1885) from him to the elder Stockbridge, written from Japan while he was professor at Hokkaido University.

Subjects

  • Agriculture--Experimentation--History
  • Agriculturists--Massachusetts--History
  • Amherst (Mass.)--Politics and government--19th century
  • Greenback Labor Party (U.S.)--History
  • Japan--Description and travel--19th century
  • Legislators--Massachusetts--History--19th century
  • Massachusetts Agricultural College
  • Massachusetts Agricultural College--Students
  • Massachusetts Agricultural College. President
  • Massachusetts Cattle Commission
  • Massachusetts--Politics and government--1865-1950
  • Stockbridge family

Contributors

  • Stockbridge, Horace E. (Horace Edward),1857-1930
  • Stockbridge, Levi, 1820-1904

Types of material

  • Diaries

Stocking, George, 1784-1864

Finding aid

George Stocking Account Book, 1815-1850.

1 vol. (0.25 linear feet).
Call no.: MS 486 bd

The shoemaker George Stocking was born on May 23, 1784, on his family’s farm in Ashfield, Mass., the second son of Abraham and Abigail (Nabby) Stocking. At 25, George married Ann Toby (1790-1835) from nearby Conway, with whom he had nine children, followed by two more children with his second wife, the widow Mary Jackson Shippey, whom he married on Dec. 16, 1840. George succeeded Amos Stocking, his uncle, in the tanning and shoemaking business at Pittsfield, Mass., where he died on Christmas day 1864.

George Stocking’s double column account book documents almost 35 years of the economic activity of a shoemaker in antebellum Ashfield, Massachusetts. Although the entries are typically very brief, recording making, mending, tapping, capping, or heeling shoes and boots, among other things, they provide a dense and fairly continuous record of his work. They also reveal the degree to which Stocking occasionally engaged in other activities to earn a living, including mending harnesses and other leatherwork to performing agricultural labor. The book includes accounts with Charles Knowlton, the local physician was was famous as a freethinker and atheist and author of Fruits of Philosophy, his book on contraception that earned him conviction on charges of obscenity and a sentence of three months at hard labor.

Subjects

  • Ashfield (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century
  • Knowlton, Charles, 1800-1850
  • Shoemakers--Massachusetts--Ashfield

Contributors

  • Stocking, George, 1784-1864

Types of material

  • Account books

Stockwell, E. Sidney

E. Sidney Stockwell Papers, 1910-1928.

7 boxes (3.5 linear feet).
Call no.: MS 691
Sid Stockwell
Sid Stockwell

A member of the Massachusetts Agricultural College class of 1919, Ervin Sidney Stockwell, Jr. (1898-1983) was born in Winthrop, Mass., to Grace Cobb and E. Sidney Cobb, Sr., a successful business man and owner of a wholesale dairy. Entering MAC as a freshman in 1915, Stockwell, Jr., studied agricultural economics and during his time in Amherst, took part in the college debate team, winning his class award for oratory, and dramatics with the Roister Doisters. He performed military service in 1918 at Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Camp Lee, Va. Stockwell went on to found a successful custom-house brokerage in Boston, E. Sidney Import Export, and was followed at his alma mater by his son and great-grandson.

The extensive correspondence between Sidney Stockwell and his mother, going in both directions, provides a remarkably in-depth perspective on a typical undergraduate’s life at Massachusetts Agricultural College during the time of the First World War, a period when MAC was considered an innovator in popular education. The letters touch on the typical issues of academic life and social activity, Stockwell’s hopes for the future, his military service and the war. Following graduation, Stockwell undertook an adventurous two year trip in which he worked his way westward across the country, traveling by rail and foot through the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana, Washington state and California, taking odd jobs to earn his keep and writing home regularly to describe his journey. An oral history with Stockwell is available in the University Archives as part of the Class of 1919 project.

Subjects

  • Agricultural education--Massachusetts
  • Massachusetts Agricultural College--Students
  • Montana--Description and travel
  • North Dakota--Description and travel
  • Washington--Description and travel
  • World War, 1914-1918

Contributors

  • Stockwell, E. Sidney
  • Stockwell, Helen Cobb

Stoddard, Forrest S., 1944-

Woody Stoddard Papers, ca.1970-2007.

27 boxes (40.5 linear feet).
Call no.: MS 826
Engineers climbing a turbine, Tehachapi, Calif., Aug. 1992
Engineers climbing a turbine, Tehachapi, Calif., Aug. 1992

A visionary of modern wind power, Forrest “Woody” Stoddard was a graduate in aeronautics from MIT (BS, 1966; MS 1968) and an early member of the UMass Amherst “wind power mafia.” After service with the Air Force, Stoddard returned home to Amherst, Mass., in 1972 to pursue a doctorate in Ocean Engineering and to take part in the emerging field of alternate energy. Joining the vibrant, interdisciplinary group at UMass gathered around William Heronemus, he began a dissertation in wind turbine dynamic analysis (1979), earning selection as lead developer of the famed 25kW Wind Furnace 1 (WF-1) turbine. To carry research into practice, Heronemus, Stoddard, and other UMass graduates joined US Windpower (later Kenetech), the country’s first producer of large wind turbines and promoter of early wind farms. A tireless advocate for wind power and alternative energy, Stoddard was highly regarded as a researcher but also as a teacher and mentor of a generation of engineers who populate the industry. Nearly coincident with his untimely death on Jan. 25, 2007, the American Wind Energy Association awarded Stoddard its Lifetime Achievement Award.

As a participant in the early years of the wind power group at UMass, Stoddard’s papers offer insight into an engineer’s experiences in the fitful growth of the wind power industry. The collection is rich in engineering data on turbine dynamics and other aspects of wind power and the extension of academic research into the nascent wind power industry, and it includes an interesting array of both personal and professional photographs and correspondence.

Subjects

  • U.S. Wind Power Associates
  • University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Department of Mechanical Engineering
  • Wind Energy Center (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
  • Wind Furnace 1
  • Wind power
  • Wind turbines--Aerodynamics

Contributors

  • Heronemus, William E.

Types of material

  • Photographs

Strong, Noah Lyman, 1807-1893

Finding aid

Noah Lyman Strong Account Book, 1849-1893.

1 box (0.5 linear feet).
Call no.: MS 187

Operator of a sawmill and gristmill in Southampton, Massachusetts, later an owner of tenements and other real estate in Westfield, Massachusetts. Includes lists of gristmill and sawmill products, the method and form of payment (cash, barter for goods, or services such as sawing or hauling), real estate records, and miscellaneous personal records (school, clothing, board, and travel expenses for his niece and nephew; accounts for the care and funeral of his father-in-law and the dispensation of his estate; a Strong family genealogy; town of Westfield agreements and expenses; a list of U.S. bonds that Strong bought; and money lent and borrowed, among others).

Subjects

  • Barter--Massachusetts--Southampton--History--19th century
  • Boardinghouses--Massachusetts--Westfield--History--19th century
  • Clapp, Anson--Estate
  • Fowler, Henry
  • Grist mills--Massachusetts--Southampton--History--19th century
  • Guardian and ward--Massachusetts--History--19th century
  • House construction--Massachusetts--Westfield--History--19th century
  • Millers--Massachusetts--Southampton--Economic conditions--19th century
  • Railroad companies--United States--History--19th century
  • Sawmills--Massachusetts--Southampton--History--19th century
  • Southampton (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century
  • Strong family
  • Strong, Noah Lyman, 1807-1893--Finance, Personal
  • Westfield (Mass.)--History--19th century
  • Westfield (Mass.)--Social conditions--19th century

Contributors

  • Strong, Noah Lyman

Sunderland (Mass.)

Finding aid

Sunderland Town Records, 1620-1912.

4 reels (0.5 linear feet).
Call no.: MS 409 mf

Although the Connecticut River Valley town of Swampfield was set off from Hadley in 1673, European settlement there was decimated by King Phillip’s War and with continued turmoil in the region, the town was not resettled by Europeans until after the turn of the eighteenth century. Officially incorporated as the town of Sunderland on Nov. 12, 1718, the town’s economy has been rooted in agriculture, taking advantage of the valley’s rich soils.

The five reels of microfilm of Sunderland’s records include vital records and information on town meetings, militia, and town finances.

Subjects

  • Sunderland (Mass.)--History

Types of material

  • Microfilm

Taylor, Levi E. (Levi Ely), 1795-1858

Finding aid

Levi E. Taylor Daybook, 1836-1843.

1 vol. (0.25 linear feet).
Call no.: MS 483 bd

The wheelwright Levi Ely Taylor was born in Longmeadow, Mass., on Nov. 17, 1795, the son of Nathaniel and Jerusha Taylor. Marrying a woman from Rocky Hill, Conn., Laura Peirce, he settled in Longmeadow and built a prosperous life for himself in his trade. His eldest son, Newton, followed him into the business.

Taylor’s daybook contains careful records of a wheelwright from Longmeadow, Mass., documenting his varied work in the repair of carriages. The transactions that appear in the volume range from making whiffletrees to shortening wheels, making and fitting out carriage seats, and painting and varnishing vehicles, with occasional forays into selling goods such as wheelbarrows and straw cutters.

Subjects

  • Carriage industry--History--Massachusetts--Longmeadow
  • Longmeadow (Mass.)--History
  • Wheelwrights--Massachusetts--Longmeadow

Types of material

  • Daybooks

Thayer Family Industries

Finding aid

Thayer Family Industries Ledger, 1847-1855.

1 vol. (0.2 linear feet).
Call no.: MS 238 bd

The Thayer family operated a small manufacturing complex on the Deerfield River in Charlemont, Massachusetts. Businesses included a sawmill, a foundry, a shop for the manufacture of axes and edged tools, and a tannery. Ledger documents their businesses and reflects the exchange economy of rural Massachusetts.

Subjects

  • Axe industry--Massachusetts--Charlemont--History--19th century
  • Barter--Massachusetts--Charlemont--History--19th century
  • Charlemont (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century
  • Charlemont (Mass.)--Rural conditions--19th century
  • Foundries--Massachusetts--Charlemont--History--19th century
  • Kingsley, Edmond
  • Manufacturing industries--Massachusetts--Charlemont--History--19th century
  • Sawmills--Massachusetts--Charlemont--History--19th century
  • Tanneries--Massachusetts--Charlemont--History--19th century
  • Thayer family
  • Thayer, Alonzo, 1817-
  • Thayer, Ruel, 1785-
  • Thayer, Ruel, 1824-
  • Tinsmiths--Massachusetts--Charlemont--History--19th century

Types of material

  • Account books

Totman, Conrad D.

Finding aid

Conrad D. Totman Papers, 1800-2005.

65 boxes (53 linear feet).
Call no.: MS 447
Conrad Totman in his office
Conrad Totman in his office

A scholar of the history and culture of early modern Japan, Conrad Totman began his career as a student of ornamental horticulture at the University of Massachusetts. After graduation in 1953, Totman served in the army for three years in South Korea where got his first taste of Japanese culture during leave. His experiences in Japan piqued his scholarly interest, and upon his return to the states with his new wife Michiko, he finished college at UMass and did his graduate work at Harvard where he received a doctorate in 1964 for a study of politics during the Tokugawa period. Totman held academic positions at UC Santa Barbara, Northwestern, and Yale before retiring in 1997.

The bulk of the collection documents Professor Totman’s education and professional work as a scholar and teacher of Japanese history. Dispersed throughout is a treasure trove of information on Japan in general, and particularly on his specialties: early modern Japan and forestry and environmental management. An enormous, highly influential, and cherished part of Totman’s life is his family, and the Totman clan is well represented in this collection. Reams of genealogical material document the rich heritage of the Totman family, including the transcribed love letters and diaries of his paternal grandmother and biographies of Totman ancestors, as well as hundreds of letters written between Michiko and her family in Japan.

Subjects

  • Afforestation--Japan--Akita-ken--History
  • Agriculture--Japan--History
  • Agriculture--Korea--History
  • Conway (Mass.)--Genealogy
  • Dairy farms--Massachusetts
  • Family farms--United States
  • Farm life--United States
  • Forest management--Japan--Akita-ken--History
  • Forest policy--Japan
  • Forests and forestry--Japan
  • Human ecology--Japan--History
  • Human ecology--Korea--History
  • Japan--Civilization--American influences
  • Japan--Environmental conditions
  • Japan--History--1952-
  • Japan--History--Restoration, 1853-1870
  • Japan--History--Tokugawa period, 1600-1868
  • Japan--Politics and government--1600-1868
  • Korea--American influences
  • Korea--Environmental conditions
  • Korea--History--1948-1960
  • Lumber trade--Japan--History
  • Tokugawa, Ieyasu, 1543-1616
  • Totman family
  • United States--Army--Medical personnel--Correspondence

Contributors

  • Drew, Raymond Totman, 1923-1981
  • Lewis, Gertrude Minnie, 1896-
  • Totman, Conrad D
  • Totman, Ruth J

Types of material

  • Genealogies
  • Letters (Correspondence)
  • Memoirs
  • Photographs
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