Correspondence, 1818 January-June

The collection contains the papers of Joshua Barney and his descendants. This includes correspondence, financial documents, land records, business papers, military service records, and more. The collection is divided into nine series by family and/or material type. The series are Barney Family, Bonnycastle Family, Everett Family, Yoe Family, Other Families, Land Documents, Miscellaneous, Bound Volumes, and Oversized. These series are then organized by person.

The Barney family material provides a wealth of information about the commodore’s personal life and military service. Letters from Barney to his wife Harriet written during the War of 1812 are a particular highlight of the collection. He wrote home about his day-to-day experiences and successes on the Chesapeake Bay against the British. Barney’s personal letterbook, also included in the collection, contains copies of reports sent to Secretary of the Navy William Jones from April to June, 1814. A large portion of the records are related to land purchases made by Barney in Maryland and elsewhere, including deeds and surveys. The papers of Harriet Barney date from after Barney’s death and include letters and documents regarding her efforts to secure a widow’s pension. Several letters between her and her stepson Louis which discuss family and political matters are also included.

The Bonnycastle papers primarily contain the records of John C. Bonnycastle and is mostly correspondence. These letters discuss business matters, including several regarding the digging of an oil well. An 1856 letter written to Bonnycastle written from Fort Vancouver gives an account of the Cascades Massacre, in which Wasco tribe members attacked white settlers and soldiers along the Columbia River. His military records are also included in the collection. These documents relate to his day-to-day duties, including copies of official orders and supply purchase receipts, as well as his promotion to captain.

The business interests of Isaac Everett are also well represented in the collection. A majority of the correspondence discusses his dry good company and the purchase of land and insurance. Papers related to Everett’s company with Avis Throckmorton are also included. These records represent his work as proprietor of the Galt House and land and slaves purchased on behalf of Throckmorton and Everett. The firm owned several slaves, and the collection contains rosters including value and family of each slave, as well as manumission records. The series also holds the correspondence of Adele Barney Everett, including poems written to her by an unidentified friend, Everett’s letter proposing marriage in 1835, and her brother’s congratulations on the engagement.

The Yoe family series is the largest in the collection. It contains the personal papers of Dr. Richard Tubb Yoe, Mary Shaw Bonnycastle Yoe, and their children Adele Everett Yoe and Richard Rhodeham Yoe. Dr. Yoe purchased a substantial amount of land in Oklahoma from the Department of the Interior during the 1910s to 1930s. Deeds, tax records, and plat maps of this property, mostly in Latimer County are included. Correspondence related to the purchases show that the Yoe family did not live on the land but drilled for oil and sold the mineral and timber rights. Dr. Yoe’s military service as a contract surgeon at Camp Zachary Taylor during World War I is also reflected in the collection. The records include purchase order, official orders, and his discharge papers. Dr. Yoe’s son Richard’s National Guard service records are also included, as well as his payment receipts for War Risk Insurance.

There are also land documents for other related families in the collection, including that of the Coale and Ridgely families. These properties were passed to family members or sold over the years.