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Walton-Kite Family papers
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Held at: Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections [Contact Us]370 Lancaster Ave, Haverford, PA 19041
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Joseph Walton (1785-1853) was a Quaker bookseller in Philadelphia. He married Abi Kite Walton (1787-1865), daughter of Benjamin and Rebecca Walton Kite (1765-1840), in 1813. They had nine children: Rebecca (1814-1859), Charles (1815-1892), Joseph (1817-1898), Mary Harper (1819-1857), Henry (1821-1821), Anna (1822-1882), Abby (1825-1861), Samuel (1827-1899), and Jane (1830-1872).
Rebecca Walton (1814-1859), eldest child of Joseph and Abi Kite Walton, was a teacher at Friends Select School in Philadelphia. She never married.
Joseph Walton (1817-1898), son of Joseph and Abi Kite Walton, was a graduate of Westtown School and Haverford College (class of 1836). He taught at Westtown School for about ten years, edited the Orthodox Quaker periodical The Friend, and served as Clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. In 1858, he married Lydia Lippincott at Chester Monthly Meeting in Moorestown, New Jersey.
Samuel Walton (1827-1899), son of Joseph and Abi Kite Walton, moved to Ohio in 1847, and in 1854, married Sarah James Edgerton, daughter of James and Anna (Hall) Edgerton, at Stillwater Monthly Meeting, Belmont County, Ohio. The family moved to Philadelphia in 1854, but returned to Ohio in 1857, where Samuel had a dental practice. Samuel and Sarah are both buried at Stillwater Monthly Meeting, which was the center of Wilburite Quakerism in Ohio. They had five children: Joseph J., James (1857-1951), Anna, Samuel Francis, and Abby.
The collection consists predominantly of the papers of the Walton family, but also contains Kite family and Fawcett family papers.
Correspondents include: Rebecca Walton Kite (1765-1840), Joseph Walton (1785-1853), Rebecca Walton (1814-1859), Lydia Lippincott, Sarah Edgerton Walton, Asa Garretson, and Benjamin Hoyle (ca. 1798-1875).
Topics include: divisions in Ohio Yearly Meeting, discussions of the Wilbur-Gurney controversy, attending Meeting in Philadelphia and other places, family, religious and health issues, and some few references to events of the day. The collection also contains the diaries of Joseph Walton (1817-1898), covering the years 1847-1855; Rebecca Walton (1814-1859), for the years 1844-1847; and Samuel Walton (1827-1899), for the years 1847-1853. There is also a 1789 manuscript survey map for the property of Henry Drinker in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, genealogical information on the Walton and Kite families, and a small number of pictures.
The Walton-Kite Family papers were donated to Special Collections, Haverford College in 1989 by Edward C. Fawcett. The papers of Jehu Fawcett, of Salem, Ohio, the donor's great-grandfather, came through William Taber.
Original processing information unknown. Revised by Allison Hall; completed June, 2020. Reboxed and finding aid revised October 2022 by Andrea Brokate Castillo.
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- Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections
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The collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).
Collection Inventory
Letters from Evans, William; Garretson, Asa; and Hoyce, Benjamin. Some anonymous items. Yearly Meeting for Sufferings, Thomas Evans, wrote to Comissioner of Internal Revenue to access Secretary of War, who could not do anything for him. Garretson demurs fighting in the Civil War on religious grounds of conscientious objection and writes of his appeal. Hoyle and an anonymous person writes on redivisions in Ohio Yearly Meeting and Gurneyites.
Letters from Abbott, Ruth; Bennett, Joshua; Branson, Anna; Dewees, J. and R.; Elkinton, Alfred; and Elkinton, J.S. Dewees discusses Gurneyites.
Letter from unknown writer to Mary H Walton. Kite, J's parody on Gray's Elegy and a handdrawn map of San Diego Bay.
Kite, Mary (1792-1861). 7 items. On family topics, opening of Haverford Meetinghouse, the imprisonment of the husband of an unnamed "coulerd friend" (he had been recognized as the former slave of a woman in Baltimore) (1834), health, religion. Mentions "Gurneitte bewilderment."
Philadelphia. 2 items. On family, religious topics, various Friends; John Wilbur visiting Meetings seeming not to meet any opposition
Refers to Sarah and Angelina Grimke, Richard Jordan and others; says that if enslaved people knew how much she loved them "they would be willing I should partake of there labour." Retired from (Friends) Select School and visit to classroom led by Daniel B. Smith at the new Haverford School (1934); treatment of African Americans; family news
Kite, Rebecca Walton (1765-1840). Philadelphia. 6 items. On family topics, health, various Friends, Meeting.
4 items.
Lightfoot, Jane. 2 items and fragment. Behavior of a camp of Union soldiers, family news. Luke, William to Joseph Walton.
To Anna Walton. 3 items. Building at Westtown (School).
To Rebecca Walton. Philadelphia. 7 items. Health, including prescriptives; notes that Walton is teaching at Westtown School; attends Meeting, visits a "coloured woman" under charge of the Northern Sewing Society whose members sew for the poor of Northern Liberties and Kensington.
3 items. Various Friends, including John Wilbur and Meetings in New England.
Shaw, Margaret to Joseph Walton. Sandy Spring, 1812-1813. 2 items. Various Friends at Meeting, including mention of Charity Cook; reports of Native Americans in the Midwest and attacks and "massacres" by them (1812). Shaw, Sarah to Joseph Walton. Sandy Spring, 1812.
Shoemaker, Mary to Joseph Walton. Ohio, 1811. Smith Rebecca to Sarah Edgerton. Stillwater, 1845. Vail, Abigail and John. n.d. 2 items. Trying to raise funds for a Friends school which would serve in place of the City College.
Walton, Abby or Abi (1825-1861) to parents. Bowling Green, 1847. On her trip and family matters. Walton, Anna (1822-1882). 1858-1871. 2 items. [celebration of African Americans on the adoption of the 15th amendment (1871)] and family matters and various Friends mentioned. Walton, Anna (1859-1954). 1889-1890. 2 items. [visited by Sen. Chase and Rep. O'Neil and at least one in their company visited the Pres. on a trip to Washington, D.C.; family matters, various Friends; also trip to London. Walton, C[harles?, 1815-1892]. Walton, James (1857-1951). 1873. 2 letters from school.
8 items. attending Meeting, various Friends and family, business
Walton, Joseph J. (1855-1889). 2 items. Walton, Mary S. 6 items. attending Meeting, various Friends and family, health.
Walton, R[ebecca] (1814-1859). 19 items, including correspondence with Lydia Lippincott. Includes: [Wilburites prediction of gloom as witnessed by the appearance of a comet (1843); a trip through New York state (1847); mention of separation in Ohio Yearly Meeting (1854 and 2 mo 18th 1855), separations in Iowa and Indiana Yearly Meeting (fragment, Sept. 20, n.y.; reference to large sum which Henry and Alfred Cope were to distribute to the poor (fragment, n.d.); many references to Thomas B. Gould (10 mo. 23 1854), references to Walton's work as a teacher, family, health, various Friends, attending Meeting]
Walton, Samuel (1827-1899) to Susanna Lightfoot. 1849. [reports extensively on trip from Morristown, N.J. through Wheeling, Baltimore and return to Philadelphia]. Walton, Samuel F. (1861-1945) to Samuel Walton. 1889. [on monetary issues]. Walton, Sara and James. 1937. 1 item.
Walton, Sarah J. Edgerton to family and friends. 11 items. attends meeting, discusses family, visiting, accepting proposal of marriage from Samuel Walton
Walton, Sina. 1919-1923. 2 items. Warrington, Hannah. 1866. Wood, Sarah. Brooklyn, 1853.
2 volumes and fragments. 5 mo 1847: First journal covers trip west from Susquehanna through Pittsburgh, Wheeling, W. Va. to Mt. Pleasant, Ohio (visit to David and Rebecca Updegraaf), learned art of surveying, recited poetry, attends Meetings; 8 mo 1849: 2nd journal covers trip west from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, where he attends Meetings, sees various Friends, discusses John Wilbur; also several journal sections from various periods including 1854-1855.
Partial transription of Vol. 1 of Rebecca Walton's journal.
Describes events in his own Meeting (Philadelphia), including various Friends speaking; Walton traveled around to many Meetings within P.Y.M. describing events and Friends. On 8 mo 25 1848, Walton starts out for Ohio Yearly Meeting in company of Elizabeth Allen and Susan Lightfoot, and again in 1852, Walton traveled to Niagara and Ohio. Trip to Ohio starting 8 mo 25, 1848 p78-87. Joseph Stanton p86. p100 Uncle Joseph Kite m Rebecca Walton 2/28/1850. p131 Uncle Nathan Kite m 10/29/1851. p139 Sister Jane m Benj. H. Lightfoot 6/10/1852. p138 Jesse Bonsall 5/10/1852. p140 Trip to Niagara and Ohio. p153 death of Joseph Walton 3/9/1853.
Written by Abby W. Brown and read at Kite family reunion, n.d.
By children of Benjamin and Rebecca W. Kite
Map. Survey map, 1789? and documentation for Henry Drinker's land in Northumberland Co., Pennsylvania
Also biographical note
Walton, Joseph (1785-1853). Certificate of further credit toward the purchase of land in Indiana, 1821. Partially printed. Walton, Joseph and Abi Kite. Marriage certificate, 5 mo. 6th 1813. Signatures include: Nathan Dunn, Thomas Wistar, Thomas Savery, Richard Humphreys, Clement Biddle, Benjamin Ferris, Roberts Vaux and others.
Letters from Norman Walton Swayne to Francis Walton and Anna Walton. Family trees. Other such records.
Including: photograph of painting of Thomas Kite; silhouette of Thomas Shillitoe; English photo postcards, 1927