James Langdon Hill (Class of 1871), 1848-1931
Autograph collection, 1715 - 1928

Biographical Note:
James Langdon Hill, possibly the collector of these materials, was born in Garnavillo, Iowa in 1848. He attended Grinnell College and the Andover Theological Seminary and served as a pastor for Congregational churches in Massachusetts. He was involved with the Society of Christian Endeavor in England and the United Society of Christian Endeavor.

Provenance: unknown

Quantity: scrapbook, notebook, and folders

Scope and Content Note:

This may be an autograph collection of Hill’s; or it may be a collection of historical items collected by various persons. In the collection is a notebook that has one poem written in it; letters and correspondence of Hill’s were found in the notebook.

Items in the large scrapbook may be part of his collection because one of the autographs mentioned in Hill’s letter in the Correspondence file was in the scrapbook. There were other letters in the scrapbook that indicate that some of the items were from different sources and were collected for a type of historical collection. There is a note attached to two, 1840 receipts: “Professor Spencer: Do you have charge of a collection such as these? / E. L. Long” and a letter to Rev. Parker from Lyman Whiting that was enclosed with some historical items: “...[they] have a bit of history in them which leads me to send them to you to dispose of as you think best. If worth keeping in the museum, please put them there; if fit only to be burned, let that be their fate.” Items from the scrapbook that seemed to have a different provenance were put into file folders.

Suggested citation: James Langdon Hill papers, Grinnell College Libraries, Department of Special Collections, Grinnell, Iowa. Ms.01.43.

Contents:
Folders:
Correspondence (J. L. Hill), ca. 1928
Letters: S. Wolcott to Julius Reed, 1832 (from Hill’s collection?)
Letters (from Hill’s collection?) [3 folders]
Bill of sale of slaves (from scrapbook)
Sale of land, July 18, 1828 (from scrapbook)
Items from scrapbook
Postal receipts, 1840-42 (from scrapbook)
Lyman Whiting correspondence and materials (from scrapbook)

Notebook

Scrapbook contents:
Land grant from Pres. James Monroe to James C. Smith for a tract
in Illinois, 1817
[letter in code/shorthand/?]
Commission to Samuel F. Cooper as U.S. Consul from Queen Victoria, 1876
Partial record of a minister’s meeting, 1799
New Hampshire Gazette, Oct. 7, 1756 [facsimile], 1856
Shipping document, 1715
Handwritten pamphlets, 1715?
Photograph of original of “America”
“One of two sermons preached at his own ordination by Nathaniel Sparhawk,
Lyn End, Mass., 1720
“And if the righteous scarcely be saved...” [handwritten pamphlet], 1791
Letters tied together/or diary from Newburg Port, 1772-80?
Letter to James Cummings from Benjamin Allen, 1821
A bond, Barrow to Fantleroy, 1731
Letter to Rev. Jesse Appleton (Pres., Bowden College?), 1803
Bill of merchandise, 1724
Letter to Wm. Pepperell, 1729
A commercial letter to Wm. Pepperell, 1746
Warrant for wages, 1778?
Letter from Joel Barlow, 1785
Receipt, 1805
[Diary, 1766?]
Notebook, 1813-40?
Letter or notes in code/shorthand/?
[Notes], 1729
Handwritten pamphlet, No. 18, 1724 [Rev. Ebenezer Parkman?]
Notes of Joseph Buckminster, 1774-80?
Notes of Rev. Chas. G. Finney
“Articles of Confederation and perpetual union between the states...”
Lancaster: Francis Bailey, 1777. (owned by Lyman Whiting)

Processed by Leslie Czechowski, August 1997