Ohio University Archives - Athens, Ohio

Cover of Loah Dow's Photo Album

Loah was the granddaughter of Ann Eliza Wainright


Yesterday my family history companion, Julie Jones, traveled with me to Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. As part of the Alden Library, there is an archives collection that I've linked to this post. I discovered about six months ago that they had housed in their collection scrapbooks, diaries, photo albums, etc. that had been put together by the Broadwells and related families.

Ann Eliza Wainright, sister of Britton, married Henry Broadwell from Mt. Carmel, Clermont County, Ohio. I discovered that both the Wainrights and Broadwells had come from Morristown, New Jersey to Ohio. The families probably knew each other there.

Henry and Ann Eliza Broadwell had as many as many as 11 children. Married in Cincinnati in 1834, the family is listed as living in Canaan, Athens, Ohio in the 1860 Census.

Although Ann Eliza is not in my direct family line, as a sister of Britton, I was interested in what I might find. IT WAS A GOLD MINE!

In one of the diaries I found an entry written by Ann Eliza Wainright Broadwell on her 50th wedding anniversary. She is saddened by the fact that this is the second year she's had to celebrate the anniversary without her husband.



The photo album had quite a few surprises. The first was a picture of Henry Broadwell and his wife Eliza Ann Wainright. They were the parents of Amanda Broadwell and grandparents of Loah. Loah had quite a photo album.

Loah was a child of privilege. The archives had a scrapbook from her time as a student at Ohio University. I think she graduated in 1915. It held rent receipts ($7.10 for three weeks of board), dance favors, tickets, sorority items, etc.

There was also a "sewing book" that she had created for her sewing class at OU. It had neat samples of various types of stitching, hemming, button holes, pockets, etc. She was very talented, but it made me wonder what her major was.


There was a priceless picture of Henry Broadwell's parents, John and Phebe Lindsley Broadwell. Boy, does she look happy. We photographed the back of it where it listed their names and the names of some descendants.
















The photo album identifies this as a picture of Ruth Broadwell Bean. Ruth was one of the children of Henry and Ann Eliza. I'm sure she was named after her grandmother, Ruth Wainright.










Which leads to the best find of all. In the album was a picture of "Grandma Wainright." I believe it is a picture of Ruth Wright Wainright, wife of William and mother of Britton and Ann Eliza.
The notes on the back were not very clear, but also described her as the Great, Great Aunt of someone whose name I cannot read. I made sure to copy the picture with the handwritten identification in view.

If you follow the link attached to this post, you can read in detail about the materials they have housed in the archives. Luckily for us, someone had the forethought to donate these materials.

Note: You can click on the title of this blog entry and be linked to the information re: the files held in the archives at Ohio University.

Odds 'n Ends - Evansville, IN

Since I am now semi-retired, I've had more time to pursue some of the leads that always are on the back burner of any family genealogist's plate. My niece, Julie Jones, has graciously agreed to accompany me on some of these adventures.

Two weeks ago, we traveled to Evansville to try to research the Ryans, another Irish part of my heritage that I will eventually write about in a separate blog. We visited the Willard Library, a great old library in Evansville that is said to be haunted and has 24 hour a day "ghost cams" on their website.

The next day we visited the Indiana Room in the Evansville Main Library. They had a great picture of the Evansville riverfront as it would have appeared at the time our ancestors lived there.

On the way back to Cincinnati we stopped in Corydon, IN to see the Civil War battlefield where Morgan and his Raiders first fought as they crossed into the "North". Britton Wainright died of heat stroke on his march to confront Morgan. Corydon is about 14 miles from New Albany where Britton lived.

I was surprised what a small area is preserved. There is a small monument acknowledging the northerners who died in the skirmish and the southerners who died on the reverse side. A sign tells us that the cabin on the property was moved from a nearby location to give a feel for the type of cabins that people called home at the time. They also had a typical cannon of the time. Julie humored me and agreed to be photographed near it.





We traveled on to New Albany and the area where Britton's blacksmith shop had once been located. It is now an area of charming stores located a couple of blocks from the city's farmers' market.