Call Number:

SC.230

Repository:

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Extent:

.1 linear ft. (.1 linear feet (13 folders.))

Date:

1786-1894 (bulk)

Creator:

Carman, Thomas, 1815-1899, Carman, Catharine Williams, and Carman family (Carman, Thomas, 1815-1899)

Form:

Diaries

Abstract:

The collections contain journals, correspondence, and miscellaneous Quaker papers. A small journal kept by Thomas Carman, 1864 and 1867, describes his travels which included upstate New York, Baltimore, and Richmond (where he attended general Quaker meetings and visited African American services). Also a photocopy of a journal kept by Catharine Williams, describing a trip to Iowa in 1864 where she attended Yearly Meeting. Correspondents include Benjamin Angell, Edward Dorland, George M. Sisson, and Jeremiah Hubbard. Quaker materials include a 1786 manuscript describing a newspaper article on Quakers in France, an 1805 acrostic by William Hawkins devised for Mary Roach who was accompanying a traveling minister, copied poems and essays on religious themes, and a folder of miscellaneous materials which reflect the Carmans' support of organizations such as the Friends Academy at Union Springs, N.Y., a fair held in New York City to raise funds for freedmen, the Home for the Friendless sponsored by the American Female Guardian Society, First Day School Association, and Friends Association for the Relief of Colored Freedmen. Thomas's journal and the correspondence provide insight into the interests and controversies among Quakers in the mid-19th century, instigated by the evangelical movement in American Christianity. Also a photograph captioned, "Meeting at Sycamore Valley by B.C. Hobbs of Indiana, one of the Executive Committee"

Thomas Carman was a Quaker of Hector Township, N.Y., the son of William and Phebe Carman of Scipio Monthly Meeting. In 1840 he married Margaret Williams, daughter of Obadiah and Ruth Williams. She died in 1875. In 1877 he married Catharine Williams (1810-1890), an elder in Hector Monthly Meeting (Orthodox) and Margaret's sister. Thomas and Catharine were active in Quaker concerns including the education of freedmen, and Thomas traveled with Quaker ministers in 1864 and with Benjamin Angell in 1867 (d. 1868) who was an acknowledged minister of Queensbury Monthly Meeting.