Waugh family papers

The records of the Thomas F. And Martha R. Waugh family document a portion of that family's history from 1876-1955, with the bulk of the material dating from 1879 to 1923. The collection consists primarily of correspondence between family members, with an emphasis on a rural family's life, although it also contains information about the life of a young working woman. All but three of the letters, which were written by Helen, were written to Helen or her mother, Martha, by other family members and friends. Also included in the documents are a ledger/journal containing both farm business and personal records, a family genealogy, and a history of the First Presbyterian Church, Bowling Green, written by Helen Waugh.

The documents are useful from a sociological perspective for their coverage of daily farm, household, school, social, religious, political, cultural, and recreational activities of a rural northwestern Ohio family in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There are also many references to the activities of other relatives and friends in the area. Illnesses and deaths frequently are noted, as are doctors' visits and treatments. Notations often are made of weather and crop conditions, with daily weather entries in the journal. Clothing descriptions and fashion notes, along with specific references to patterns and fabric, also can be found in the collection. References are also made to President Harding's death and burial in Marion in 1923, and to a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan in the same year.

Daily entries of income from farm produce and expenses for goods and equipment were made in the ledger/journal in September 1876, 1879, 1884, 1894, 1904, and 1910-1914.

Frank's letters from Tri-State Normal School document the life of a young man in college at the turn of the century and include accounts of classes and professors, classmates, romances, church, clothes, local crops and weather, recreation, his boarding arrangements and costs, homesickness, and illness, which resulted in his death.

For students of women's history, the letters from Martha Waugh convey a fairly good picture of the daily life of a family woman in a rural environment in the 1880s, 1890s, and early 1900s. Unfortunately, the life of a young single working woman is not so well documented. Only three letters are from Helen to her family while she was selling books in Georgia. They do give some indication of her life-style, working and traveling in 1912, with references to the ocean, the countryside, work, friends, illness, recreation, and a complete program of reading of the classics for Howard.

The genealogy gives birth, marriage, and death information plus anecdotes of ancestors of Thomas Waugh.

The history of the First Presbyterian Church of Bowling Green was written in 1955 by Helen Waugh on the occasion of the church's 100th Anniversary.