J. W. Jenkins

An obituary for lawyer J. W. Jenkins

Thomas Bell

An obituary for legislator Thomas Bell

Thomas Bell

An obituary for legislator Thomas Bell

Thomas M. C. Logan

An obituary for legislator Thomas M. C. Logan

J. W. Jenkins

An obituary for lawyer J. W. Jenkins

Thomas M. C. Logan

An obituary for legislator Thomas M. C. Logan

Mt. Pleasant Library: Reading among African Americans in 19th Century Rush County

In frontier Indiana, beginning in the 1820s, several settlements of free African Americans grew and flourished. Many of the settlers came from Virginia and North Carolina, where earlier settlers, many of them Quakers, had originated. One of those settlements, called the Beech Settlement, developed in Rush County, Indiana, from the late 1820’s. Like other African Americans in antebellum U.S., the settlers of the Beech were anxious to educate themselves and their children. Indeed, the lack of access to education in the South was an important motivation for migration. Despite the difficulties and hard work of creating farms on the frontier, they early on established schools and churches in their communities. Further, the residents of the Beech went beyond teaching and organized a library that was organized, maintained, and used during the years 1842-1869. This article aims to create a portrait of a community of mid-19th century rural African American readers and users of their community library

"Sparse and Multiple Traces": The Literacy Practices of African-American Pioneers in the Nineteenth Century Frontier

Article is included in an edited volume based on papers presented at a conference held at the Finnish Literature Society and the University of Helsinki, August 20-22, 2014.The Beech Settlement in central Indiana was one of several communities of African Americans that flourished in the nineteenth century. This settlement was unique in that its settlers, led by a core of highly literate individuals, organized a circulating library. The circulation records and meeting minutes of the Board of Directors survive, as well as a list of some of the books that were held in the library. This article examines the surviving documents and other primary materials to portray a community of readers, writers, orators, and educators, who, although denied legal access to education until their migration, had learned to read and write, and had developed the skills to create a thriving community of readers.Reading and Writing from Below: Toward a New Social History of Literacy in the Nordic Sphere during the Long Nineteenth Century (NORDCORP, 2011-2014

Las Vegas Daily Optic, 02-10-1906

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