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Margaretta Walton Family Papers

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Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. 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

Call Number:
RG5.159
Repository:
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Extent:
2 linear ft. (4 boxes)
Language:
English
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item or series here], RG5/ 159, Margaretta Walton Family Papers, 1812-1961, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Date:
1812-1961 (inclusive)
Creator:
Walton, Margaretta, 1829-1904, Fallowfield Monthly Meeting of Friends, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends (Hicksite : 1827-1955), Griscom, Sarah M., 1839-1895, Hull, Hannah Clothier, 1872-1958, Whittier, John Greenleaf, 1807-1892, Kersey, Jesse, 1768-1845, Walton, Joseph S. (Joseph Shoemaker), 1792-1876, and Walton, Jesse Pusey, 1825-1859
Form:
Diaries
Abstract:
Margaretta Walton (1829-1904), eminent Quaker minister of Ercildoun, Chester County, Pennsylvania. The collection contains diaries and correspondence of Walton and her husband, Jesse Pusey Walton; business papers and memorabilia; sermons; and related papers. Also included in the collections are journals (1836-1853) of her father, Joseph Shoemaker Walton, who was companion to several Quaker ministers.

Margaretta Walton (1829-1904), eminent Quaker minister of Ercildoun, Chester County, Pennsylvania, left an extensive series of journals (1846-1902) describing her spiritual growth, travels in the ministry, and family life. She was the daughter of Joseph Shoemaker and Abigail (Mann) Walton and a birthright member of Fallowfield Monthly Meeting. Her parents were farmers and active Quakers; their diaries reflect their work with Indians in New York State and other visits accompanying Quaker ministers, including Joseph Kersey.

In 1854, Margaretta married Jesse Pusey Walton (1825-1859), a distant cousin. After his death from consumption, she devoted herself to Quaker service and worship. As well as serving as a visiting minister, she served as clerk of the Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly Meeting. In the last two decades of her life, she lived with her brother George's family, first with George and his wife, and later with their son, Joseph Solomon Walton, who became headmaster at the George School in 1901.

The Walton family was a long-time Quaker family, with many generations of the family active in Quaker concerns. Margaretta Walton devoted her life to Quaker ministry and affairs, and her correspondence reflects this, with accounts of Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, and other types of meetings and of the messages of ministers. The collection contains diaries and correspondence of Margaretta Walton and her husband, Jesse Pusey Walton; business papers and memorabilia; sermons; and related papers. Correspondents include Hannah Clothier Hull, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Sarah M. Griscom. Also included in the collections are journals (1836-1853) of her father, Joseph Shoemaker Walton, who was companion to several traveling Quakers ministers, especially Jesse Kersey.

The collection is divided into seven series.

  1. Diaries and journals
  2. Memorabilia
  3. Business papers
  4. Sermons by Margaretta Walton
  5. Pictures
  6. Correspondence
  7. Reference Material

  1. Diaries and Correspondence, Margaretta Walton, 1829-1904, compiled by George A. Walton and J. Barnard Walton, 1962.

Accession information:

Donor: George A. Walton, 1963

The collection was given by George A. Walton, grandnephew of Margaretta and Jesse Pusey Walton.

The papers were sorted, labeled, and annotated by the donor who also donated the Joseph Solomon Walton Papers, RG5/ 158, and whose own papers were given to Friends Historical Library by the George School (George A. Walton Papers, RG 5/ 157). The order and the folder units and titles have been retained, with papers organized chronologically within each folder.

See also:

  1. RG 5/158, Joseph Solomon Walton Papers
  2. RG 5/157, George A. (George Arthur) Walton Papers

The following materials, originally part of the collection, have been recatalogued:

  1. Marriage certificate, 4/13/1854, Margaretta Walton to Jesse Walton, filed in Chart Case

Subject

Publisher
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Finding Aid Author
FHL staff
Finding Aid Date
1963
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research

Use Restrictions

Some of the items in this collection may be protected by copyright. The user is solely responsible for making a final determination of copyright status. If copyright protection applies, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns to reuse, publish, or reproduce relevant items beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to the law. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/.

Collection Inventory

Margaretta Walton, 1846-1902, with gaps.
Box 1
Physical Description

23 items

Jesse Pusey Walton (husband of Margaretta), 1855-1858.
Box 1
Physical Description

3 items

Scope and Contents

Includes notes on his travels as companion of itinerant Friends' ministers to the following places:

Physical Description

11 items and fragment

Ohio, 1836.
Box 1
To Indians of New York State, Cattaraugus, 1845.
Box 1
New York, Long Island, Nantucket, 1841.
Box 1
Baltimore Yearly Meeting, 1850.
Box 1
East Wellville (Ohio?), 1852, 1853.
Box 1
Warrington and Centre Quart. Mtg., in company with Eliz. Newport and Hannah Lukens, 1853.
Box 1
Across the Allegheny Mountains, n.d.
Box 1
Philadelphia, n.d.
Box 1

Grammar book English Grammar...Originally Compiled for the Use of West-Town Boarding School, Pa., 1834.
Box 2
Scope and Contents

By John Comly. Published in Phila., Kimber & Sharpless.

Copy book, 1841.
Box 2
Piece books, 1841, 1848.
Box 2
Autograph book, 1847.
Box 2
Phrenology of M. Walton, written by John L. Capen, 5/17/1865.
Box 2
Quotations from Scripture and other sources.
Box 2
2 English composition books, 1845.
Box 2

Will (copy) of Margaretta Walton, 2/9/1900.
Box 2
Business and financial correspondence of M. Walton, 1855-1901.
Box 2
Business papers of Jesse P. Walton, 1850-1856.
Box 2

Sermons by Margarette Walton, ca. 1866-1900.
Box 2

Margaretta Walton.
Box 2
Physical Description

3 pictures

Margaretta Walton and husband, Jesse P. Walton.
Box 2
Physical Description

3 pictures

Margaretta Walton, Jesse P. Walton and David Walton, father of Jesse.
Box 2
Physical Description

2 pictures

Margaretta Walton in a group picture.
Box 2
Margaretta Walton and the "4 boys" (grandnephews?).
Box 2
Joseph S. Walton, father of Margaretta.
Box 2

Letters from Margaretta Walton, most to relatives, 1854-1872.
Box 2
Scope and Contents

Includes a diary of Margaretta Walton's Virginia trip with Hugh and Anne T. Foulke (8/1868) and letter from Jesse P. Walton to Joseph S. Walton, her father.

Margaretta Walton to relatives and others, 1880-1900.
Box 2
Letters from Margaretta Walton to her niece, Abigail Foulke, 1892-1904.
Scope and Contents

Includes a letter containing a brief description of a wedding in the Clothier family home, 2 letters from Abigail Foulke to Margaretta Walton, and 6 letters from various authors to Abigail Foulke.

Correspondence of Jesse P. Walton and Margaretta, 1849-1854.
Box 3
John G. Whittier, 3/8/1881.
Box 3
John G. Whittier, 4/26/1889.
Box 3
H. Clothier (Hull), 8/10/1890.
Box 3
Scope and Contents

Describes scenery on visit to Alaska.

Sarah Griscom, 8/29/1894.
Box 3
Scope and Contents

Mentions preparations for opening year at the George School.

J. Dunbar Wright, 5/1/1898.
Box 3
Scope and Contents

Describes "beautiful Japan."

A.D. Sharpless, 8/9/1899.
Box 3
Scope and Contents

Includes mention of the uniting of Instruction and Household Committees at the George School.

Hannah Clothier, 7/20/1898.
Box 3
Scope and Contents

Announcement of her engagement to Dr. William I. Hull.

Sarah Cooper, 10/14/1902.
Box 3
Scope and Contents

Refers to the death of Howard Jenkins.

Blanche Early, 1899-1902.
Box 3
From the family circle, 1861-1900.
Box 3
Lydia Foulke (sister), 1852-1883.
Scope and Contents

Includes a description of the Polyglot Petition against intoxicating liquors and opium and a copy of a note from Phillips Brooks to Whittier on his 84th birthday.

Friends from school days, 1847-1854.
Box 3
Edward Hopper, 1879-1889.
Box 3
Mann family, 1853, 1859.
Box 3
Anna Mary Martin and other cousins, 1846-1853, 1901, 1902.
Box 3
Preston family, 1893-1901.
Box 3
New York Waltons, 1848-1853.
Box 3
Scope and Contents

Includes photograph of J. Dunbar Wright.

Sharpless family, 1879-1900.
Box 4
Deborah Stubbs (niece), 1895-1900.
Box 4
Letter from Dean Elizabeth Powell Bond, 5/10/1904.
Box 4
Memorial prepared by Fallowfield Monthly Meeting, read and approved by Western Quarterly Meeting held at London Grove, 1/23/1905.
Box 4
Memorial published in Friends' Intelligencer, by J. Rushmore, 5/21/1904.
Box 4
Correspondence of George Walton and Olive Floyd regarding book on Phoebe Anne Thorne.
Box 4
Postcard of the painting by Charles Yardley Turner, "Moved by the Spirit".
Box 4
Scope and Contents

The family believes the speaker in the picture is Margaretta Walton (See letter in this same series, Esther F. Sharples to George Walton, 1/20/1958, with an account.)

Letters from the Walton family from Cattaraugus, 1833-1855.
Scope and Contents

Recipients include Deborah F. and William Wharton, Solomon and Sarah Pusey. Also includes a circular from the Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children on the Reservation.

Scope and Contents

Recipients include John Comly, William and Sarah Sharpless, Amos Willets. Also includes:

Two journals of visitation by Joseph S. Walton and Jesse Kersey, 1840, 1850.
Box 4
Scope and Contents

Visits were to New Jersey and Virginia Meetings, 1840, and Maryland and Virginia Meetings, 1850.

Minute for Joseph S. Walton as companion for Ruth Pyle, visiting Friend, 10/20/1836.
Box 4
Statement by Friends to Indians, Council House, 10/4/1847.
Box 4
Scope and Contents

Includes notes from donor, 1961, with information about Joseph S. Walton and his work with the Indians, together with two volumes from Joseph Walton's personal library.

Miscellaneous papers kept for reference by Margaretta Walton.
Box 4
Scope and Contents

Mainly verse

Ten Year Club Articles of Agreement.
Box 4
Facsimiles of 2 letters by George Washington and one by Mary Pemberton, 1778.
Box 4
Scope and Contents

Concerning permission to send supplies to Quakers imprisoned at Winchester, Va.

Print, Suggest