Olive Armstrong Papers

Tape recorded interview conducted by Linda Greiner in 1986, release forms, biographical information, tape summary, index, color snapshots, computer disk for genealogical data base

Papers of the Armstrong family, centering on James Armstrong (1754-1816), businessman, and his wife, Miriam Mallory Armstrong (1756-1851), daughter of Caleb Mallory and Jane Weller Mallory. A little more than four months before Miriam married Armstrong, her parents and three of their grandchildren were murdered in their home by Barnett Davenport, a crime considered to be the first multiple murder in the U.S. Includes correspondence, accounts, bills, estate records, orders, promissory notes, receipts, writs, and other documents, including records relating to the estate of Caleb Mallory, although none of the papers in the collection mention the crime. The papers chiefly document Armstrong's business activities, including the purchase of 100 clocks from Levi G. and Edward Porter, of Waterbury, Conn., 1809; deeds; receipts (1809-1811) indicating that Armstrong had an interest in Western Reserve bonds and his ownership of a farm in Vermont; papers concerning the involvement of brother Thomas in joint business affairs; business records documenting a variety of financial arrangements between Armstrong and his son Orrin Mallory Armstrong; accounts probably maintained by Orrin Armstrong after his father's death; and business papers relating to the activities of Miriam Mallory Armstrong and daughter Betsy Armstrong Bunnell. Includes letter (1852) written by Betsey Armstrong to Dr. Claudius Ovaitt, of Amherst, Mass., seeking treatment for cancer and a letter (1853 Feb.) written by Betsey Armstrong in Amherst to her two sons relating to her condition; documents of/and concerning various members of the Foster family of Southeast, N.Y. (James Armstrong's daughter Sarah married Tilly Foster); and papers relating to Henry Cramer, second husband of James Armstrong's sister Olive Armstrong. The collection also contains four folders of papers (1827-1831) of and relating to David Porter, who lived near Penn Yan, N.Y., and appears to have been a traveling peddlar, indicating that he spent time in Washington, Conn., in the early 1830s. He may have been related to John F. Bunnell but no specific relationship has been established between him and members of the Armstrong family.

Official organ of the book trade of the United Kingdom.

The culminating volume in The Papers of Henry Clay begins in 1844, the year when Clay came within a hair's breadth of achieving his lifelong goal-the presidency of the United States. Volume 10 of Clay's papers, then, more than any other, reveals the Great Compromiser as a major player on the national political stage. Here are both the peak of his career and the inevitable decline. On a tour through the southern states in the spring of 1844, Clay seemed certain of gaining the Whig nomination and the national election, until a series of highly publicized letters opposing the annexation of Texas cost him crucial support in both South and North. In addition to the Texas issue, the bitter election was marked by a revival of charges of a corrupt bargain, the rise of nativism, the influence of abolitionism, and voter fraud. Democrat James K. Polk defeated Clay by a mere 38,000 popular votes, partly because of illegal ballots cast in New York City. Speaking out against the Mexican War, in which his favorite son was a casualty, the Kentuckian announced his willingness to accept the 1848 Whig nomination. But some of his closest political friends, including many Kentucky Whig leaders, believed he was unelectable and successfully supported war hero Zachary Taylor. The disconsolate Clay felt his public career was finally finished. Yet when a crisis erupted over the extension of slavery into the territories acquired from Mexico, he answered the call and returned to the United States Senate. There he introduced a series of resolutions that ultimately passed as the Compromise of 1850, the most famous of his three compromises. Clay's last years were troubled ones personally, yet he remained in the Senate until his death in 1852, continuing to warn against sectional extremism and to stress the importance of the Union-messages that went unheeded as the nation Clay had served so well moved inexorably toward separation and civil war. Publication of this book is being assisted by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Family history notes relating to the Armstrong and Francis families.

Contains statement of accounts.