Your Questions Answered

From: Melody Spencer

Question: Where can I locate more information on Mary (Robinson) Spencer and the Merritt women who were founders of the Salem Anti-Slavery Society in 1834 in MA?

I'm also looking for information on Thomas Spencer (Mary's husband) and William Dodge who founded the Salem Men's Anti-Slavery Society with Grosvenor as President, Dodge as Vice-President, and Thomas Spencer as head of Board of Counselors.

So little seems to be written about these people who worked decades in the Anti-Slavery movement. Thomas Spencer organized an apprentice & work program for black youths. Dodge, a schoolmaster founded a school for Blacks in the 1820's.

I would like to do a historical write-up on these families, but I'm not having much luck with my research. Can you give me additional direction in my search for more data?

Answer: Dear Mrs. Spencer,

I don't think that you have any choice but to throw yourself on the mercy of the reference staff of the Phillips Library in Salem, Mass. This Library includes the collections of what was once known as the "Essex Institute," an institution with wonderful materials on Salem and the other parts of Essex County.

Here's the URL for the Phillips Library Webpage that gives you information on how to get help from them: http://www.pem.org/museum/lib_research.php

Good luck with your research.

Where can I find that eyewitness quote? Perhaps it's in Emmons Clark's "History of the Seventh Regiment," but I can't locate a copy right now. I am hoping that my library will come up with it, but if it's not there, I don't know where else it might appear. I know I read it in a book about a year ago, but forgot to note where. Hope you can help!

Answer: Dear Mr. Sloan,

I’m glad to learn that I’m not the only one who relies on a once-serviceable brain (rather than note-taking) to recall the source of a lively quote.

I can suggest some additional books you might want to check for the quote on the 7th Regiment N. Y. State Militia Infantry. This is the best website on the NY 7th Regiment (Militia), and the books cited there seem to be an authoritative list.

http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/historic/reghist/civil/infantry/ 7thInfNYSM/7thInfNYSMMain.htm

William Roehrenback’s The Regiment That Saved the Capital is clearly your best bet in secondary sources.

These websites give some background on New Year’s customs around the world:

http://wilstar.com/holidays/newyear.htm

http://www.annieshomepage.com/newyearshistory.html

http://www.123newyear.com/newyear-traditions/

I suspect you’re most interested in your family’s own traditions -- including corned beef and cabbage for New Year’s. As you’ll see, this seems to be a combination of several traditions. Using cabbage or some other green leafy vegetable is a widespread practice, I found. The combination of corned beef and cabbage, I was surprised to find, is fairly new – probably dates from the late 19th century. It wasn’t a widespread tradition in Ireland because Irish peasants were too poor to buy much meat. The traditional dish there was cabbage and bacon, which was relatively inexpensive and wasn’t used in great quantities to flavor the cabbage. It seems that cooks of Irish background learned the virtues of corned beef from Jewish neighbors in places like New York’s Lower East Side. Corned beef (which was far more traditional on the Continent than in the British Isles) was cheaper in their new American neighborhoods than bacon, so they just introduced a new cured meat to the cabbage and invented a new tradition.

http://www.fabulousfoods.com/holidays/newyears/ny.html

http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/stpatricksday/?page=history7

Where did your family live when they began using corned beef and cabbage for New Year’s? And what part of the world did they come from? This has turned into a fascinating piece of culinary-cultural history.

From: Sherri Duncan

Question: I am a History major at the University of Central Oklahoma. I am looking for the papers of John Weeks a Union soldier of the 36th Illinois. I am needing primary source information regarding the Battle of Pea Ridge. I am hoping you can help guide me to this information. I am looking for any accounts of the battle in letters, and an account of the death of Brigadier General Ben McCulloch.

Answer: I have plenty of material for you, but I also have a question. You say that you're "looking for the papers of John Weeks a Union soldier of the 36th Illinois ". Do you know that Weeks's papers survive? If so, what is your reference for this? I can't find any of Weeks's papers listed in online guides to manuscript collections, but you may have seen something to which I don't have access. Let me know your reason for asking about Weeks's papers, and I may be able to help.

I assume that you're an undergraduate, but I don't know whether you're working on a term paper or an honors thesis. I'm sure I've given you more citations that you'll want, but I won't apologize for that. Let's get going:

Not much on the Web for you. The Parks Service administers the Pea Ridge Battle site: http://www.nps.gov/peri/.

This, site, quite frankly, is better in terms of giving your some original documentation: http://www.civilwarhome.com/pearidge.htm.

Now the serious stuff. I searched "America: History and Life" for articles and disssertaions; "ArchivesUSA" for manuscript collections; and "WorldCat" for darned near everything. You'll find some items listed in more than one set of search results, but that's better than not finding them there at all. In "America: History and Life," a database that provides access to entries for journal articles, doctoral dissertations and books reviews. I've attached the results from that. Ask a librarian at the Chambers Library for help in getting any journal articles that sound interesting and that aren't available to you there. Interlibrary loan of photocopies of such articles is very easy to do.