PA State Archives Hours, Directions, & Fees Research Topics Online Catalog Land Records

 

 

 


Manuscript Group 379
STATE FENCIBLES COLLECTION
1875-1885, 1891, 1898, 1911-1981
17 cubic feet

The Old Guard State Fencibles, 1813-1981, was a military organization raised in Philadelphia in 1813 as part of the Pennsylvania militia and continued as a unit in the National Guard until independent battalions were abolished around 1900. The unit then was chartered as a Philadelphia quasi-military unit and continued as a social club.

The collection contains a State Fencibles Roll of Active Members, 1871-1874, that records each member's name, residence, occupation, and date of enlistment and a Roster of State Fencibles Battallion, 1st Brigade of National Guard of Pennsylvania, 1871, 1886-1896, that provides in addition to the above information, the name of the company to which attached, hair and eye color, complexion, height, dates of enlistment and discharge, and reason for separation. Other records present include Company Enlistment and Descriptive Books, 1871-1891; Roll Book of Honorary and Lifetime Membership, 1884-1890; Record of Company Regiment, 1890-1908; and the Record of the Medical Department, 1893-1898 that provides such information as condition of the nervous and vascular systems, girth of chest at rest and under inspiration and expiration, circumference of abdomen, and the possible presence of hernia, varicocele, or varicose veins. The balance of the collection consists mainly of newsclippings in scrapbooks, 1875-1885, 1891, 1898, 1904-1957, which detail the social activities of the organization. There are also two volumes of minute books of monthly meetings dated 1811-1932 and 1947-1961 respectively and correspondence, photographs and loose newsclippings dating from the periods 1876-1886, 1899, 1908-42, and 1963-81.



PA State Archives Hours, Directions, & Fees Research Topics Online Catalog Land Records