Joshua B. Maule (1806-1887) of Colerain, Belmont County, Ohio, was an important Quaker leader in the Wilburite Separations in Ohio in 1858 and 1863. An ultra-conservative, his followers were known as "Maulites," a sect that did not survive beyond his death.

The son of Jacob and Jane (Baldwin) Maule, he was born in Radnor, Pa. His father was an elder in Radnor Monthly Meeting. The family aligned with the Orthodox Quakers in the schism of 1827-28, and although Joshua attended Hicksite worship while apprenticed in Baltimore, Md., he retained his membership at Radnor Monthly Meeting. In 1831, he transferred on certificate to Short Creek Monthly Meeting (Orthodox) in Ohio, and in 1862 he was disowned from that meeting and led a group known as Maulites which created a General Meeting in 1863.

In 1832, he married Sarah N. Ecroyd at Muncy Monthly Meeting, and they had three sons: James E. (1828-1862), Jacob (1840-1933), and Henry E. (1851-1855). Sarah Maule died in 1872, and in 1875, Joshua married Hannah T. Cope, the daughter of Darlington and Sally (Thomas) Cope of Chester County, Pa. Hannah had accompanied Joshua Maule's friend and fellow Quaker minister Hannah Hall of Ohio on her ministry to England in 1874. Joshua and Hannah Maule had one child, Sarah (1876-1968).

Joshua Maule opposed Benjamin Hoyle, Clerk of Ohio Yearly Meeting (Wilburite), for his moderate approach to the schisms in New England Yearly Meeting. In 1863, he withdrew from the Wilburite (Middleite) Yearly Meeting to create a General Meeting (Primitive). Maule wrote articles and books on the issues dividing the Society of Friends, and he corresponded with many of the persons involved. He gathered the correspondence and kept copies of some of his own correspondence, much of which he used in his book Transactions and changes in the Society of Friends and incidents in the life and experience of Joshua Maule. With a sketch of the original doctrine and discipline of Friends. Also a brief account of the travels and work in the ministry of Hannah Hall. In particular, he saved the correspondence of his brother-in-law, Thomas B. Gould, a extreme Wilburite of Rhode Island Monthly Meeting who vehemently opposed the Gurneyite approach, and of his friend Hannah Hall, a convinced Friend also from Short Creek Monthly Meeting. Gould's visit in 1854 precipitated the schism in Ohio Yearly Meeting into Gurneyite (now Evangelical Friends) and Wilburite (Conservative) factions. The Conservatives split again in 1863 when the Maulites withdrew to create a General Meeting. In 1867, the General Meeting was divided by a schism divided over an epistle from Fallsington General Meeting. In 1870, Joshua Maule withdrew from the so-called Maulites, according to Maule, because of a disagreement about Hannah's ministry which was not authorized by the General Meeting. Maule's family then became an independent meeting.

The papers contain the journals, religious writings, and correspondence of Joshua Maule. Maule wrote articles and books on the issues dividing the Society of Friends in the mid-nineteenth century, and he corresponded with many of the persons involved. He gathered the correspondence and kept copies of some of his own correspondence, much of which he used in his book Transactions and changes in the Society of Friends and incidents in the life and experience of Joshua Maule. With a sketch of the original doctrine and discipline of Friends. Also a brief account of the travels and work in the ministry of Hannah Hall. In particular, he saved the correspondence of his brother-in-law, Thomas B. Gould, a extreme Wilburite of Rhode Island Monthly Meeting who vehemently opposed the Gurneyite approach, and of his friend Hannah Hall, also of Rhode Island Monthly Meeting (Conservative) who traveled widely in the ministry. The collection is organized in four groups: 1. Journals and writings; 2. Correspondence sent; 3. Correspondence received; 4. Miscellaneous.

Correspondents include: Jacob Maule, father of Joshua; Jane Shipley; Joel Walker; Martha and Thomas B. Gould; E. Pittfield; Rachel Maule Phillips, sister of Joshua; Joseph Snowden, brother-in-law of Joshua; James Maule, son; Rachel Patterson; Israel Buffington; William Waring; W. Hodgson; Charles Evans; David Heston; Solomon Lukens; George F. Read; Joseph Maule, cousin; Hannah Forsythe, Westtown, 1860; Benjamin Maule; William Hall, Jr.; Jacob Maule, son; Clayton Lamborn; Joseph Maule, brother; Thomas Lamborn; John Sargent; Daniel Pickard, of England, on visit of Hannah Hall; S.M. Smith, niece; C.S. Schaeffer, on donations to freedmen, 2mo 15, 1871; John H. Ecroyd, brother of Joshua's first wife, Sarah, after her death; S. Maule, nephew; Joseph Armfield, of England, on visit of Hannah Hall; Hannah Hall; William Hill; Ethan Foster, Westerly, R.I.; William Reid, Newburyport, R.I.; John P. Maule, cousin lawyer in Nebraska; Edward Maule, cousin, Nebraska; John E. Southall, Newport, R.I.; James B. Cotton, escort of Hannah Hall in Australia and New Zealand; Phebe A. Whitson, friend of Rachel Maule Phillips; Gilbert Cope, West Chester, Pa., concerning Cope Genealogy; Ellen P. Cope; Mary B. Hopkins; R. and E.L. Maule, nephew and niece; James E. Hoge; John Chambers; Dr. G.B. Kirk; Samuel Tomlinson; Sarah Maule, Joshua's daughter by his second wife, Hannah T. Cope; Charles Wright; Hannah Cope (later Maule) and her Cope and Thomas family relations.

The Williams Family Papers contain the diaries, correspondence and a small number of miscellaneous paper of Quaker teachers who lived in Mississippi and Texas in the post-Civil War Period. The diaries, 1869 and 1871-1873, of Edward Williams include accounts of removing to the South to teach freedmen and his December 1871 meeting with American Satanta andBig Tree, Kiowa chiefs who were incarcerated in the penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. The correspondence, largely to family in Ohio, describe daily life and schools. By 1874, the letters reflect increasing financial and social pressures as the new structure for public school cut pay to teachers and limited free education to age 14. By 1876, Edward Williams wrote that their situation and that of African Americans in Texas were "surrounded by uncertainties." The papers are organized in three groups: Journals, Correspondence, and Miscellaneous Papers.

Edward F. Stratton (1876-1968) was a Quaker from Salem and Barnesville, Ohio. He was the son of Edward and Mary (Raley) Stratton. In 1902, he married Clara E. Frame at Stillwater Monthly Meeting, Ohio. He served as Curator of the Salem Quarterly Meeting records and was Librarian of the Friends Society, Salem, Ohio. In 1964, he moved to The Walton, a Quaker boarding home in Barnesville, Ohio, where he maintained an avid interest in preserving the history of Ohio Quakers. As Curator of Salem Quarterly Meeting Records, Edward F. Stratton was involved with the deposit of Ohio Hicksite and western Pennsylvania Quaker records in Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College in the early 1960s.

This collection of miscellaneous papers, largely concerning Ohio Quakers, were collected by Edward F. Stratton, Curator of Salem Quarterly Meeting, Ohio, and an amateur historian. They include genealogical information, historical research papers, miscellaneous correspondence, and Quakeriana. Of particular interest is an 1804 report of the Committee on Indian Concerns, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, with a letter from Sawhe asking for aid for his tribe. Also letters and reports on yearly meetings which describe the Wilburite-Gurneyite controversies and copies of testimonies by prominent Quakers, including Elias Hicks and Thomas B. Gould, and Ann Branson. The papers are organized into three groups: Edward F. Stratton correspondence; Genealogical and historical papers, Salem Quarterly Meeting; and Miscellaneous Collected Papers. The Collected Papers are arranged chronologically.