Diven family papers, 1828-1940.

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Diven family papers, 1828-1940.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/63934648

Correspondence, notes, account books, and legal papers of an Elmira family of lawyers and businessmen: Alexander Samuel Diven (1809-1896), vice-president of the Erie Railroad, Brigadier General in the Union Army, and a U.S. Congressman; his sons, George Miles Diven (1835-1909), director of the Erie Railroad and president of the La France Fire Engine Company; and Eugene Diven (1843-1888), an officer of La France; George's son, Alexander Samuel Diven II (1869-1952); and his son Irving Booth Diven (1903-1964). The bulk of the papers concern railroads in central and western New York State, including the Erie, Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley, and their predecessor, constituent, and affiliated lines (including the Cayuga Lake Railroad Company, the Auburn & Ithaca Railway Company, the Chemung Railroad Company, and the Sodus Bay & Southern Railroad Company). The railroad papers include assessment papers, legal papers, some documents relating to construction, maps, and correspondence. There are also deeds, mortgages, land contracts, surveys, tax lists, legal briefs, and correspondence relating to sale of real estate in Allegany County which A.S. Diven, Sylvester G. Andrus, Thomas Noyes, Jervis Langdon, and Thomas R. Brayton purchased from John Barker Church and William J. Forbes in 1852, handled by W.W. Ballard & Company, with M.W. Pike as land agent. Other land papers relate to some ten thousand acres in Rowan County, Kentucky, bought by A.S. Diven from Benjamin Loder in 1872, and managed by Samuel McKee of Louisville; there are many letters from McKee and others relating to the title, activities of timber thieves, squatters, and feuding mountaineers, and timber and ore resources on the tract. There is also various other real estate and business records of the Diven family. Civil War items include a letter from General Henry Warner Slocum describing the Battle of Chancellorville, an account of the Battle of Louisiana by F.A. Roe, and later letters from General James S. Rains describing his experiences during the war.

223 cubic ft.

Cornell University Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7904857

Cornell University Library

Related Entities

There are 29 Entities related to this resource.

Seward, William Henry, 1801-1872

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63g5gp7 (person)

William Henry Seward was born in Florida, Orange County, New York, on May 16, 1801. He was the son of Samuel S. Seward and Mary (Jennings) Seward. He graduated from Union College in 1820, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1822. In 1823, he moved to Auburn, New York, where he entered Judge Elijah Miller's law office. He married Frances Adeline Miller, Judge Miller's daughter, in 1824. Seward was interested in politics early in his career and became actively involved in the Anti-Masonic m...

Church, John Barker, 1746-1818

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vn53br (person)

John Barker Church was an English born businessman and supplier of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He returned to England after the Revolutionary War and served in the House of Commons from 1790 until 1796. He was known for his marriage to Angelica Schuyler, of the prominent American Schuyler family, and being the brother-in-law of Alexander Hamilton....

Douglas, Stephen A. (Stephen Arnold), 1813-1861

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v22v62 (person)

Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. He was one of two Democratic Party nominees for president in the 1860 presidential election, which was won by Abraham Lincoln. Douglas had previously defeated Lincoln in the 1858 United States Senate election in Illinois, known for the Lincoln–Douglas debates. During the 1850s, Douglas was one of the foremost advocates of popular sovereignty, which held that each territory should be allowe...

Cameron, Simon, 1799-1889

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hz233g (person)

Simon Cameron was born in Maytown, Pennsylvania in 1799, to Charles Cameron (d. January 16, 1814) and his wife Martha McLaughlin (d. abt. November 10, 1830). Cameron was the third of five sons; and had three younger sisters. One story claimed that Cameron was orphaned at nine, and later apprenticed to a printer, Andrew Kennedy, editor of the Northumberland Gazette before entering the field of journalism. If Cameron were apprenticed to Kennedy at age nine (~1808) for a then-standard period of ...

Slocum, Henry Warner, 1826-1894

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64m9mx7 (person)

Slocum was born in Delphi, a hamlet in Onondaga County, New York. His father was Matthew B. Slocum, and his mother was Mary Ostrander. He was the sixth of eleven children. He attended the State Normal School in Albany and the Cazenovia Seminary in Madison County. At the age of 16, he received a Public School Teacher's Certificate from the County Superintendent of Schools, and worked occasionally as a teacher for the next five years. On the recommendation of Congressman Daniel F. Gott (Onondag...

Langdon, Jervis

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6db9hn4 (person)

McKee, Samuel, -1813

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69p4jfg (person)

Samuel McKee was born near Lexington, Virginia, in 1774. After formal schooling and studying law in his native state, McKee began practicing law in Somerset, Kentucky. He served as surveyor of Pulaski County, then moved to Lancaster in Garrard County where he also practiced law. From 1802 to 1808 he served in the Kentucky House of Representatives. McKee was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1809 to 1817. During his Congressional service, McKee saw military service as well on the...

Forbes, William Joseph, 1921-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cs3m7w (person)

Diven, Alexander Samuel II, 1869-1952.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6618rqk (person)

Cayuga Lake Railroad.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q02hxd (corporateBody)

Auburn & Ithaca Railway.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zw8v4n (corporateBody)

Chemung Railroad.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b92hcx (corporateBody)

Lehigh Valley Railroad.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qs254w (corporateBody)

Diven, Alexander Samuel, 1809-1896

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fz4ph1 (person)

Born in Catharine, New York, Diven attended the common schools and the academies in Penn Yan and Ovid, New York, and then studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1831, and commenced practice in Elmira. He was member of the New York State Senate (27th District) in 1858 and 1859. Diven was elected as a Republican to the 37th United States Congress, holding office from March 4, 1861, to March 3, 1863. Strongly opposed to slavery, he was the first to draft and introduce measures for the recrui...

Diven, George Miles, 1835-1909.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69q0bx3 (person)

La France Fire Engine Company.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69m1k6x (corporateBody)

Andrus, Sylvester G.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g816q6 (person)

Rains, James S.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68x0rrk (person)

Diven, Irving Booth, 1903-1964.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xb03v3 (person)

Brayton, Thomas R.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61p5st6 (person)

Sodus Bay & Southern Railroad.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z396z0 (corporateBody)

Eaton, Dorman B. (Dorman Bridgman), 1823-1899

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64q7vdp (person)

Cornell, Ezra, 1807-1874

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kh0p3w (person)

Born 1807 in New Britain, N.Y., Cornell helped organize the Western Union Telegraph Co. and was a founder of Cornell University. Died 1874. From the description of Selected letters to Ezra Cornell pertaining to the Russian Extension Company in the Ezra Cornell papers [microform], 1864-1867. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 42067275 Telegraph magnate, philanthropist. From the description of Letter to F. Allen, 1868 April 23. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122535706 ...

Pennsylvania Railroad

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68d3k0m (corporateBody)

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was the largest railroad in the United States in terms of corporate assets and traffic from the last quarter of the nineteenth century until the decline of the northeast's and midwest's dominance of manufacturing, caused by the evolution of the interstate highway system and the advancements in air transportation. Originally created by Philadelphia merchants in 1846, it sought to build a trunk route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh via the Allegheny Mountains to c...

Diven family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qc9fnf (family)

Seward, Frederick William, 1830-1915

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6959z27 (person)

Lawyer; Assistant Secretary of State under Lincoln; son of William Henry Seward. From the description of Collection, 1864-1906. (New York State Library). WorldCat record id: 50991907 American lawyer and politician who served as the acting secretary of state under the Lincoln, Johnson, and Hayes administrations. From the description of Autobiography, ca. 1870. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122550831 Brother of William H. Seward, Secretary of State for Ab...

Noyes, Thomas

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h713qx (person)

Diven, Eugene, 1843-1888.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gf8m8q (person)

Erie Railroad Company

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6np5v4n (corporateBody)