Collections : [The Litchfield Historical Society]

Litchfield County judicial records (2, designated to distinguish them from the collection Litchfield County judicial records (2005-08-0)) (1799-1910) consist of case files and other documents relating to matters involving the Litchfield County Court, the Litchfield Superior Court, and the clerk of the court. These records appear to complement other Litchfield County judicial records found in the Litchfield Historical Society's collections and the Litchfield County Court records held by the Connecticut State Archives.

On March 8th of 1818, Congress passed an Act of Provisions that allowed Revolutionary War Veterans to file a claim of their outstanding war pensions. Included here are pension claims filed by the surviving veterans of Litchfield County (1820-1834). In some cases, veterans had to refile for their pensions in subsequent years and used additional supporting evidence and letters of witness to verify their service in the Revolutionary War.

Miscellaneous records of the Litchfield County Sheriff.

A half-document box of records relating to the Litchfield Equal Franchise League, organized Sept. 5, 1913. It was an auxiliary of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association, which had as its mission the securing of the ratification of the 20th Amendment and preparing women for voting. Frances E. Hickox was the first president, serving 1913-1914. Adelaide Deming served next through at least 1920.

This collection documents the history of The Litchfield Female Academy, Litchfield, Connecticut. Early records refer to the Academy as Miss Pierce's School, Miss Pierce's Academy, and Sarah Pierce's Academy. In the collection are institutional records; correspondence, diaries, journals, school notebooks, and albums of students; papers of Sarah Pierce and the Pierce family; and correspondence of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel regarding her research for her books "Chronicles of a Pioneer School, from 1792 to 1833" , published in 1903 and "More Chronicles of a Pioneer School" published in 1927. Included in the institutional records are works written by Sarah Pierce and her nephew, John Pierce Brace.

The Litchfield Historical Society photograph collection is an artifical collection brought together by staff that contains photographs that primarily were part of the vertical files collection. They are arranged into three series by format: Series 1. Prints; Series 2. Daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes; and Series 3. Glass plates. The content of the prints and glass plates are categorized in this finding aid by subject; the physical objects are arranged by accession.

This collection includes materials pertaining to Tapping Reeve, James Gould, the Litchfield Law School, and alumni of the school. It was assembled by the Historical Society over a period of years. Many of the law books used by Reeve and his students are also held by the Society and can be found through the book catalog. The Society's institutional records document the history of the Tapping Reeve House and Litchfield Law School building.

Records of the Litchfield Mutual Fire insurance company including ledgers, registers, losses, stock accounts, and real estate appraisals. Most of the records are contained in 41 bound volmes. The collection also includes one folder of real estate appraisals from the 1950s.

A note warning a Litchfield resident [name illegible] to remove his fence from part of the highway in front of his land within 30 days or it will be removed at his expense. Signed by Joseph Adams and James Birge, Nuisance Committee.

Connecticut covers (1967-1971); postcards, (circa 1903-1969); envelopes, unknown to Ransom (circa 1883), Pratt & Thompson to Ebenezer Wooster (1886), Flynn & Doyle to George R. Bailey (1913); photographs, including Litchfield High School students (circa 1880s), cabinet cards; publications and ephemera (1910s-1930s); Swamp-Root Almanacs, imprinted with Litchfield Pharmacy and Crutch & McDonald; deeds, F. Nelson B. Smith (1846), Edwin E. Pretiss (1858), and Charles Munson (1867); correspondence, including H. W. Wessells to Perry (undated), Alexander Lamb to James Morris (1797), Mary B. Hannah to relatives (1853-1860), Joseph Conway to Charles Beaman (1914); two Morris Woodruff warrants (1807-1808); Philena Sutliff v. Jospeh Sutliff (1802); order of the Litchfield selectmen signed by Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1782); receipt, James Morris signed by Jedediah Huntington, Treasurer of the State of Connecticut (1789) with notations of interest paid 1790-1792; inquests into the suicides of John Meigs Morgan (1799), Hepsibah Marsh Catlin (1800), Sylvester Vorsburgh (1816), and Lucy Parmalee (1859).