Fitch Family Papers

The Fitch Family Papers contain an interesting blend of family and town history manuscripts. The papers of Jabez Fitch include some of his diaries for 1757-1792 (including two of French and Indian War campaigns), a court transcript book from Norwich and Preston, Connecticut, for 1780-1789, as well as correspondence, deeds and other 18th - 19th century material. The second generation of Hyde Park Fitches is represented by correspondence, deeds, poetry, school essays an debates, account books and miscellaneous other papers. Material for later Fitch Family members includes correspondence, deeds, insurance and estate papers, bills and receipts, and newspaper clippings. The post-1840 papers in the collection are a blend of Fitch material and manuscripts from other local families, some of whom were related to the Fitches and each other by marriage. These later papers include: two letters from June - Oct. 1844 by a Fitch who joined the Millerites; a substantial block of correspondence 1860-1862 of Samuel Sumner, jr., who lived in Kentucky just before the Civil War and then served as a Lieutenant in the 5th Regiment Vermont Volunteers from August 1861 until his death in battle in July 1862; Sumner, Child, Noyes correspondence; letters from Herbert Macy Sherwin while he was stationed in the Philippines from 1914 to 1918; and a miscellany of various other family papers and material.

In addition to the family papers, the collection also contains a group of Hyde Park town papers. These include early proprietors' records, local school papers for 1798-1845; individual and town tax records for 1798-1840; material from 1799 to 1844 pertaining to town roads and highway taxes, militia papers for 1840-1841, Civil War enslistment rolls, and a variety of other town records.

The collection has been divided into the following categories: correspondence and miscellaneous papers; deeds, poetry; Fitch family papers; papers pertaining to other families; anonymous manuscripts and fragments; and Hyde Park town papers. Each has been arranged chronologically within itself. The Hyde Park town papers have been placed by themselves at the end of the collection, in box one.