Papers, 1733 and 1787-1943 document agricultural, educational, and religious concerns among members of the Shuler and Houck families in Lexington and Orangeburg Counties of South Carolina. Letters, ca. 1850-1853, from William Alexander Houck (1826-1874) while enrolled at the Lutheran Seminary (then located in Lexington, S.C.) include courtship letters to Mary M. Haigler of Orangeburg, S.C., whom he later married, convey information on the school, and are document social conventions of the time. Also present is the text of remarks, ca. 1853, made by Houck upon the retirement of seminary professor Ernest Lewis Hazelius (1777-1853). A letter, 19 May [1853], from Houck reports an invitation from the Rev. [Stanmore R.] Sheppard of Newberry, S.C., "to come up and spend the vacation with him, and assist in his protracted meetings." Following his ordination in 1853, Houck served Lutheran congregations in Orangeburg and Lexington counties. The Houcks' daughter Amanda married Dr. Joseph Linn Shuler in 1874. A native of Lexington County, S.C., Shuler (b. 1846) served in the Confederate Army, and the collection includes two Civil War letters from him, 11 Mar. [1864] and 16 July 1864. The latter, written from Petersburg, Va., and addressed to his mother, tells of the Yankee shelling of the city and Shuler's desire for news and provisions from home. After the war, J.L. Shuler studied medicine at Washington University, Baltimore, Md. His courtship letters to Mannie, as Shuler addressed Amanda, discuss family and social activities and farming. In 1874, anticipating her marriage to Shuler, Amanda decided not to return to Staunton Female Seminary in Staunton, Va., a decision, of which her principal disapproved. J.I. Miller advised her in a 27 July 1874 letter that if she chose to marry rather than return to school she would be committing "a mistake that will be life long in its effects." Following their marriage, the Shulers lived at Selwood in Lexington County, S.C., and attended St. Michael's Evangelical Lutheran Church. Four manuscripts dating from 1896 document a controversy in the church between the pastor and church member George S. Swygert. The church council, of which Dr. Shuler was a member, mediated the disagreement, which apparently was resolved when Swygert sent an apology "for his hasty words in the church and before the council."; a letter of the same time period, dated 25 June 1898, with attachments, from J.W. Stokes, Orangeburg, S.C., reports problems with mail delivery between Columbia and Irmo, S.C. Short texts of sermons, 1871-1872, record services preached by the Rev. William A. Houck. Bound volumes include a field notebook, 1917-1919, kept by Master Engineer Karl B. Shuler, 37th Platoon, 56th Engineers during World War I that includes a photograph of a woman in driver's seat of a car with another woman standing, and sketches with layouts for mounting an anti-aircraft machine gun. The collection also contains three early land papers from Orangeburg District, S.C., consisting of: a grant, dated 4 June 1787, with plat for two hundred seventy-eight acres laid out to Lewis Clakely, that is signed by governor Thomas Pinckney. The second, 3 Dec. 1800, signed by Governor John Drayton, grants ninety-five acres of land to Jacob Seigler. The third, 18 June 1802, conveys the first tract of Lewis Clakely's land to Jacob Seigler, silversmith. Another important early document is a petition, 16 Aug. [1812], "To the Rev'd Members of the Lutheran Convention confined in Gilford [N.C.]" concerning "the lukewarmness and carelessness of hearing of the Gospel" among members of the faith and urging "that you may make such rules and regulations, to the organization of the Church of Christ, and that there may be an ingathering of thousands of those who are now wandering on the dark mountains of errer to sing His praises in the great Congregation of His people." The earliest item reflects the Lutheran faith of the family and their descent from German-speaking immigrants from Switzerland who arrived in S.C. during the mid-eighteenth century.Published materials include a 1733 volume of sermons for the church year, printed in German Fraktur script, titled: Johann Arndt's Postille : das ist, Geist-reiche Erklarung der Evangelischen Texte durchs gantze Jahr... (1733); and two newspapers published by the Lutheran Church: The Young Lutheran, published in Greenville, Pennysylvania (issue for Jan. 1895, Vol. II : No. 7), and Lutheran Messenger, published in Laurel, Mississippi (issues for June and Dec. 1930, Vol. I : No. 4 and 9)
