PA State Archives

Hours, Directions, & Fees

Research Topics

Online Catalog

Land Records

This collection embraces correspondence, legal, and business documents, and financial accounts originating with various members of the Thompson family, founders of Thompsontown, Pennsylvania. Many important portions of the collection originated with the marriage-connected Burd, Patterson, and Shippen families. The collection includes correspondence of such prominent Pennsylvanians as Pennsylvania Chief Justices Edward Shippen and Edward Burd of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Judge Jasper Yeates of Lancaster, and members of the Thompson family (mostly Robert, James, and William) of central Pennsylvania, among others. The papers are sufficiently complete to provide clear insights into social and economic life along the lower portion of the Juniata River Valley from the days when transportation was almost exclusively by arks floated down the river, through the period of the Pennsylvania Canal, and into the period of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Also found are more recent materials on Pennsylvania canals, including correspondence and photographs, 1965-1972 and undated; financial accounts, 1795-1852 and undated; family genealogical materials, 1812, 1828, 1847-1970 and undated; and legal papers including deeds dating between 1787 and 1851. There is also correspondence concerning law cases and court news between 1965 and 1972, a copy of the declaration of the war in 1812, information on flour sales, and news exchanged with family and friends.

• General Files, 1783-1972, undated. (1 box) {#305m.1}

• The container listings for this Manuscript Group are available for viewing and word-searching in PDF format: [Holdings]