MG-125. EDWARD SHIPPEN THOMPSON COLLECTION, 1684-1941 (bulk 1746-1904).
Born in 1869, Edward Shippen Thompson of Thompsontown, Juniata County, was an avid genealogist and local historian who assembled an impressive collection of family papers and genealogical notes. The collection chiefly consists of materials relating to the Thompson family, founders of Thompsontown. For more than a century this family remained prominent in the commercial and social life of that community and important portions of the papers also deal with the marriage-connected Burd family of Dauphin County, Shippen family of Lancaster County, and Patterson family of Lancaster and Juniata Counties. The collection includes the following letter and newspaper advertisement that refer to African Americans:
BURD AND SHIPPEN FAMILIES
• A letter to Edward Shippen Thompson from Elsie Burd Peale, of November 11, 1828, refers to the "negro Phyllis" and a letter of April 29, 1854 concerns the death and burial of "Phyllis."
• The following advertisement was taken from a newspaper and used as a backing for a cover of The Freeman’s Journal and Philadelphia Daily Advertisement, No. 1076, September 5, 1807: "Eight Dollars Reward-Ran away . . . from Hopewell, Huntingdon County, New Jersey, a dark mulatto boy, . . . calls himself Eben Chambers . . ."