Manuscript Collections

The North Country Railroad collection is an on-going collection of materials relating to railroads in the North Country of New York. It was acquired over many years by gift and purchase from a number of sources. The collection consists of stock certificates and bonds, photographs, broadsides, timetables, and business papers and ledgers of railroad companies.

An extensive collection of magazines that explore all aspects of nudism including philosophy, lifestyles, camps, and societal issues.  Titles include American Sunbather, American Nudist, American Nudist Leader, Nudism Today, Sunbathing Annual, Sunbathing Review, Sun Love, and a number of foreign titles.  The collection was donated to St. Lawrence by William Hull of Canton in 2006

Orson Reyonlds of Bombay, Franklin County, New York, enlisted in the 6th New York Heavy Artillery. The collection consists of 25 letters written to his wife

Owen D. Young was born on October 27, 1874 in VanHornesville, New York, educated at St. Lawrence University and Boston University. He died July 11, 1962 in St. Augustine and is buried in VanHornesville, New York . The Young collection documents five decades of national and international business and political history, including the post World War I reparation period which saw Young as the key figure in the Dawes Plan of 1924 and the Young Plan of 1929 with its provisions for the still existing Bank of International Settlements.

David Parish arrived in America (Philadelphia) in 1805 from Antwerp. In 1807 Gouverneur Morris, a family friend, told Parish of the property in northern New York that was for sale. In 1807, with Joseph Rosseel as his land agent, he began purchasing land in St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties. Parish with Rosseel's help proceeded to make Ogdensburg into a main forwarding station on the St. Lawrence River and built sawmills, gristmills and help set up farmers and businesses in the area. He developed the iron and lead industry, opened shipping trade on the St.

Parrish Wells was born November 12, 1890 in Johnstown, New York. He was educated at the University of Rochester and graduated as a Civil Engineer. Mr. Wells worked as a hydraulic engineer in Rochester, New York and in 1946 he moved his family to Plattsburgh, New York where he remained until just before his death in October 1963. He had for many years a great interest in the French and Indian War and did research all over the state.

Paul Fletcher Jamieson was born on August 8, 1903 in Iowa. He was educated at Drake University, Columbia University and taught English at St. Lawrence University from 1929 to 1965 when he retired. Jamieson, a crusader for the opening of the Adirondack waterways for recreational use, has been involved in hiking, canoeing, showshoeing and camping in the Adirondacks for over 50 years. He is an acknowledged expert on the Adirondacks and a member of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers by virtue of climbing all peaks of 4000 feet and more.

Philip Harnden, a community activist and passionate gardner, was a founding member of two organizations whose papers are part of this collection. Alternatives to War and North Country Gardener, and the founder of North Country Garden School.

Alternatives to War described itself as "a coalition of people in northern New York who advocate a sensible and nonviolent approach to resolving national and international conflicts".   It was formed shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the lead up to the war in Afghanistan.

Logbook containing accounts, maps, and newspaper clippings for lots sold in Potsdam, N.Y. by W. M. Hitchcock. Also included is Trustee book for school district no. 6, 1842-1892.

Preston King, politician, was born October 11, 1806 in Ogdensburg, New York. He was educated in Ogdensburg and graduated from Union College in 1827. He passed the bar after a study of law in Silas Wright's office. In 1830 he established the St. Lawrence Republican. From 1831-1834 he served as postmaster in Ogdensburg at which tine he was elected to the Assembly. From 1834 until 1847 he was a member of congress and also served from 1849 to 1853. Mr. King was involved in the Canadian Rebellion of 1837-38. In 1854 he left the Democratic party and joined the Republican party.

Pryce Lewis was born in 1828 in Newton, Wales and emigrated to the United States in 1856. During the Civil War, he was employed by the Pinkerton Detective Agency and worked as a spy for the Union in Richmond, Va. He was captured and sentenced to be hanged but managed to escape death because of his British citizenship. After his release he served as bailiff and special detective officer of Old Capitol prison in Washington, D.C. until the end of the war. In January, 1868 he married Maria Thwaites. They had two children, Mary and Arthur.

Richard Collins Ellsworth, was born July 17, 1875 in Canton, N.Y. and died there on September 21, 1948. Ellsworth was a member of the St. Lawrence University Class of 1895, served for 26 years on the Board of Trustees (1922-1948) holding the office of secretary for 20 years (1922-1943) and as curator and founder of the Richard C. Ellsworth Museum. He was recognized as an outstanding authority on north country history, and had a particular interest in railroad and circus history.

Robert G Cottrell (1896-1958) a native of Gouverneur, NY attended area schools and graduated from Gouverneur High School in 1916. In 1917, he enlisted in the United States Army where he served in England and Germany during World War I. Robert received honorable discharge from the Army in August 1919. He returned to Gouverneur, NY and where he married Erdine Morris (1894-1983) in 1922. Mr. Cottrell worked several jobs after returning to civilian life. In 1944, he became village clerk and remained in that position until his retirement in 1952.

Robert Gilmore of Ellenburgh, Clinton County, New York, served with the N. Y. S. Volunteers 91st Regt., Company G. The collection consists of 13 letters; 2 small broadsides, and a used patriotic cover with cancelled stamp. Correspondence details Gilmore's army life at Fort McHenry, Hatches Run and his recovery at Campbell Hospital after he was wounded.

Robert C. McEwen was born January 5, 1920 and died June 15, 1997 in Ogdensburg, New York. He was educated at Mount Hermon private school, University of Vermont, and graduated from Albany Law School in 1947. In 1952, McEwen married Anita M. "Pat" Sharples. After service in the Army Air Force, McEwen returned to practice law in Ogdensburg in 1946. On January 5, 1964 he entered the New York State Senate as a Republican and served for 10 years.

Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was born in Tarrytown, NY and spent much of his early life in and around New York City. In his late teens he studied painting with William Merritt Chase. He studied architecture at Columbia University before withdrawing to become an artist. Painters Robert Henri and Abbott Thayer were later teachers. His first solo show was in 1907 in Manhattan.

Scrapbook of newspaper and magazine clippings by and about Rudyard Kipling assembled by Nathan Ford Giffin, St. Lawrence University class of 1895. Also contains 1 letter (tls) from Kipling.

The Russell family originated in England with the first ancestor settling in Massachusetts. John Leslie Russell was born at Fairfax, Vt., February 11, 1805 and moved to Malone, N.Y. in 1807 with his family. He was educated at the University of Vermont graduating in 1826. In 1829 he moved to Canton, N.Y. and practiced law there until 1844. He was also a postmaster. He married Mary S. Wead of Malone in 1832 and they had four children, Adeline, Mary J., Sibyl and one son, Leslie W. who became a lawyer in Canton.

Scrapbook kept by Hugh Kelly about events and people of Russell, St. Lawrence County, N.Y. between 1881 and 1963.

St. Lawrence County is the largest county in New York State and has the longest frontage on the St. Lawrence River. St. Lawrence County is bordered on the north by the St. Lawrence River, the south by Lewis, Herkimer and Hamilton Counties, on the east by Franklin County and on the west by Jefferson County. The county has approximately 47 towns and villages and 1 city with the county seat in Canton.

The idea of a "seaway" dates back to 1892 when U.S. Rep. John Lind of Minnesota sponsored a resolution in Congress for a joint U.S.-Canadian investigation into the possibility of building a deep-draft waterway from the head of Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1921 the International Joint Commission recommended that the U.S. and Canada enter into a treaty for a joint power and navigation project on the St. Lawrence River and Roosevelt recommended it again in 1943 but each time was rejected by the Senate.

Seymour Siegel was born September 12, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois. He was educated at University of Chicago, received his M.H.L. in 1951 and D.H.L. in 1958 from Jewish Theological Seminary, New York City where he was a professor of Jewish Ethics and Theology. He was the author of hundreds of articles, editor of two books, lecturer, and was an authority on religious law. He served as Director of the United States Memorial Holocaust Commission, opened the door for the ordination of female rabbis, and articulated the Conservative view on abortion.

Silas Wright, Jr. was born in 1795 in Amherst, Massachusetts, the fifth child of Silas and Eleanor (Goodale) Wright.  After graduation he studied law at Sandy Hill, New York and was admitted to the bar in 1819. Silas Wright Jr. began his law practice in Canton, New York where he lived with his father's friend Medad Moody whose daughter, Clarissa, he married in 1833. 

Sol Feinstone, philanthropist, collector of Americana was born in Lithuania in 1888 immigrated to the United States in 1902 at the age of fourteen and died in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania on October 17, 1980. With no elementary or high school education he first entered the University of Missouri, transferred to Syracuse University where he received a bachelor's in 1915 and master's in 1916, degrees in Forestry and spent two years at the University of Pennsylvania in their graduate chemistry department.

Solomon Barrett Jr. was born in Washington, Mass. April 1, 1800 and died in Madrid, N.Y., November 19, 1882. He was a teacher and an author of several grammars including Barrett on the Languages and The Principles of English Grammar. He traveled extensively in the United States and Canada but returned and lived most of his life in Madrid, N.Y. The collection consists of newspaper and magazine articles on Solomon Barrett, two copies of his book Principles of English Grammar, and a manuscript subscription book he used when selling his work in New York State and Canada.

The Southworth family in St. Lawrence County goes back to Rev. Constant Southworth, minister at Brick Chapel, Canton, who came from Vermont in 1820. In 1836 the family returned to Vermont but Egbert Henry Southworth, a young boy, remained with the Leonard family. He had various jobs throughout his life; a merchant selling from a cart between Plattsburg and Utica, a clerk for Ebenezer Miner in Canton, a sawmill operator, as well as jobs in the butter and cheese industry, before he turned to farming. He was known as a progressive farmer by building modern barns and using modern methods.

The "St. Lawrence and North Country Studies Award" collection was started in 1992 and was renamed the "Josephine G. Mentley St. Lawrence and North Country Studies Award" in 1995. The competition is sponsored by the Friends of Owen D. Young and Launders Libraries for the purpose of supporting and encouraging student research projects on institutional or regional topics.

Lists of births, deaths and marriages recorded in the Town Clerk's offices of all 25 St. Lawrence County towns then organized between the years of 1847 and 1850.  The collection is organized alphabetically by town.  The collection was given to St. Lawrence University by Mary Smallman.

The St. Lawrence Figure Skating Club was established May 5, 1953 and has its headquarters at Appleton Arena, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY. The purpose of the club is to encourage instruction, practice and advancement of the members in school figures, free skating, dancing, and all types of figure skating. The St. Lawrence Figure Skating Club is affiliated with the United States Figure Skating Association. This collection consists of correspondence, financial statements, minutes of meetings, rules and regulations of the club, its constitution and by-laws.