Francis P. Willits (born 1856) was a farmer in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. He is credited as among the first to cultivate mushrooms in the United States, importing spores in 1892 to grow on his farm. The Willits family papers, circa 1850-1971, consist largely of family photographs, with additional materials including deeds, genealogical materials, and correspondence. Of special interest are a minute book of the Concord Mushroom Co., Inc. (1959-1971), and a typescript draft of
A Quaker Forty-Niner: The Adventures of Charles Edward Pancoast on the American Frontier.
Held at: Concord Township Historical Society [Contact Us]
This collection, compiled mostly by Edwin D. Buckman of Philadelphia, contains genealogical records pertaining to the Buckman family of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and many related families, such as the Blakers, Burgesses, and Hestons. The majority of the material consists of handwritten notes which trace the family from its roots in England and Edward Buckman (1623-1670), a Quaker of Sussex County. The Buckmans eventually settled near Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, approximately thirty miles north of Philadelphia. This collection consists of forty-seven volumes, all in modern library bindings. The volumes’ contents vary from histories of the Buckmans to papers on related families to abstracts of minutes from Friends' meetings. There are also notes and charts on the Buckman family by generation, newspaper clippings, and a few family papers such as deeds and correspondence. A few of the volumes contain indexes of other volumes.
Held at: Historical Society of Pennsylvania [Contact Us]