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Gove-Meader 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
The Meader and Gove families emigrated from England to America in the mid-1600s. John Meader (1625-1715), arrived in New England from England in the mid 1600s. His descendant, Joseph Meader was born on September 22, 1788, in New Hamphire to Joseph Meader (1753-1820) and his second wife, Elizabeth Gould (1756-1814). He married Mehitable Varney in 1810. He was a farmer and an acknowledged Quaker minister at Sandwich Meeting in New Hampshire. He died on January 28, 1864. In the Wilburite Separation, his family aligned with the Wilburites in 1845.
Valentine Meader was Joseph Meader's brother, born on August 6, 1777, in New Hampshire. His mother, Abigail Field (1759-1784), was the first wife of Joseph Meader (1753-1820). He was a carpenter and a Quaker minister. He traveled widely in the ministry and died of an illness during one of his religious visits in 1837.
In 1830, Joseph Meader's daughter, Mary Meader (1817-1901) married Levi Gove, a descendant of John Gove (1604-1647/8) who had settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony shortly before his death. Later generations settled in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, and many were members of the Society of Friends. Levi Gove (1802-1885) was the son of Moses Grove (1774-1851) and his first wife, Hannah Chase (1776-1831). He was a farmer who lived in Lincoln, NH, South Berwick, ME, and Lynn, MA, and had been married twice before. With his marriage to Mary Meader, he affiliated with the Wilburite Friends. His children from earlier marriages included Hiram (b. 1828) who lived in Nebraska for a time; Mary (1829-1864) who married Johnson Stout and lived in Hesper, Iowa; Eliza (1833-1855) who married Nicholas Guindon; Ruth (18334-1878) who married Job Batty. Levi and Mary (Meader) Gove had two children: William Henry Gove and Eliza Hetta Gove.
This collection contains letters and miscellaneous papers of members of the Gove and Meader family, New England Wilburite Quakers. The correspondence is largely addressed to Levi and Mary (Meader) Gove from their siblings and children who eventually scattered to Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska and elsewhere. Some of the letters express the frustrations with the separations dividing Friends.
The papers were organized into two series: :
- Ser.1 Correspondence which includes letters from three generations of the Gove-Meader family
- Ser.2 Miscellaneous
Gift of Sharryn Taylor, Acc. 2013.030
The donor wrote that she had purchased the papers at auction about 20 years previous in Florida. William Henry Grove, who published the Gove Family genealogy, had vacationed there shortly before his death in 1920, and his sister Maria Sawyer resided in Florida.
People
Subject
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- FHL staff
- Finding Aid Date
- 2014
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Friends Historical Library believes all of the items in this collection to be in the Public Domain in the United States, and is not aware of any restrictions on their use. However, the user is responsible for making a final determination of copyright status before reproducing. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/.
Collection Inventory
From Charlotte, VT, expressing resignation
Physical Description1 folder
Most are letters to Mary and Levi Gove from their children and other Gove family members.
Physical Description1 folder
Most are letters to Mary and Levi Gove from their children and other Gove family members. Includes a letter from Miriam G. Chase from Salt Lake City, UT. She was a sister of Levi and became a Mormon.
Physical Description1 folder
Most are letters to Mary and Levi Gove from their children and other Gove family members.
Physical Description1 folder
Miscellaneous letters including one addressed to Eliza Hetta Gove, daughter of Levi and Mary Meader Gove, dated 2 mo 23, 1924.
Physical Description1 folder
Miscellaneous letters, most to Mary Meader.
Physical Description1 folder
Most concerning Joseph Meader's properties
Physical Description1 folder
Joseph Meader to Mehitable Varney, Sandwich Monthly Meeting, 1810, 10 mo 20. Levi Gove to Ruth Varney, 1826, 10 mo, Starksborough (incomplete).
Physical Description1 folder
A copy of the complaint from Berwick Monthly Meeting for aligning with the independent meeting (Wilburite branch).
Physical Description1 folder
Joshua Meader, North Berwick, ME. Names his wife Phebe and brothers Joseph and Valentine. Also Mary, daughter of his brother Joseph and others.
Physical Description1 folder
AMs copy of a letter from Horatio Wood to George M. Eady concerning the reaction of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to an epistle from New England Yearly Meeting
Physical Description1 folder
Ms detailed account of the debate concerning New England Yearly Meeting in Philadelphia Yearly Meting, fragment of a letter
Physical Description1 folder
Includes specifications and a sketch of meeting house benches
Physical Description1 folder
Including receipts, fire insurance
Physical Description1 folder
Research on the Gove and Meader families.
Physical Description1 folder
Most about death. "Thoughts on seeing infant corpse," "The Beauty of Death," "Lines written on the island of Ella," "Lines to M. on the death of here Mother," "To a Friend," (1850), "Ruins of Time" by Valentine Meader, "A dream" (prose)
Physical Description1 folder