The collection contains holograph and printed letters, broadsides, and the Oct. 1948 issue of the Pennsylvania History journal containing an article, "The Erie War of the Gauges," by Donald H. Kent. The letters, 1848-1854, include: James Skinner, acting clerk to the Erie town council, letter to G.J. Ball, 23 Jan. 1848, concerning tolls for the Erie and Waterford Turnpike, local Whig politics in Erie County, the Mexican War, a list of laws which should be repealed, and mentions the spread of smallpox; J. Skinner to Wm. Nicholson, 16 Jan. 1854, defending Pennsylvania's right to profit from the railroad trade; retained copy of a letter, G.J. Ball to R. Rundle Smith, chairman, Railroad Committee, Philadelphia City Council, 7 March 1854, concerning the break in gauge and the Sunbury and Erie Railroad's importance to Philadelphia; J. Skinner, Harrisburg, to Wm. Nicholson, 29 March 1854, concerning the health of Mr. Ball and decrying attack on Erie citizens as outlaws and barbarians. Also, printed handbill The Erie and Ohio Railroad, 1 Feb. 1849, Harrisburg, addressed on verso to M. Swartzwelder, esq., concerning the Erie and Ohio Railroad bill that exempts the railroad from paying tonnage tax to Pennsylvania; printed open letter to the Erie Councils, 14 Nov. 1853, from the Committees on behalf of the North East and Erie Rail Road and the Erie City Rail Road; undated printed memorial to the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, signed by James Cooper, president, and Philip M. Price, secretary, Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company, seeking an act authorizing the railroad to extend their road from the western terminus at Erie harbor to the Ohio line. Also, two printed broadside poems, History of the Erie War in Twelve Parts, by F.L. Fitch, drum major, Part First, and Railroad Excitement Dec. 1853, by F.L. Fitch; three printed broadsides, The First e-Pistol of John, Chapter I, Second e-Pistol of John, Chapter II, and Third e-Pistol of John, Chapter III.
