Atkins Family Papers Reference Collection

This collection consists of 133 copies made from selected materials in the Atkins Family Papers at The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.  The Atkins family were early settlers in Ashtabula County, Ohio.  The Bancroft’s collection of Atkins Family Papers document their participation in the anti-slavery movement from 1836 through 1950.  The copies (solicited by Oberlin College’s second archivist in 1988) comprise correspondence of Josiah Atkins (1757-1828), who served in the Ohio Militia as a surveyor and justice of the peace, and Mary Atkins Lynch (1819-1882), who married John Lynch (1824-1900).  Mary began her teaching career in Ohio and New York, and went on to Benicia, California, where she was principal of Benicia’s Young Ladies Seminary from 1854 until 1867.  Originally much of the material in the Bancroft’s Atkins Family Papers was pasted in three scrapbooks by Harvey Russell Gaylord (1805-1862), Mary's brother-in-law through her older sister, Stella Maria (1808-1882).