| Abstract:
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Henry Onderdonk (1804-1886) of Queens County, Long Island, New York, was an educator
at Union Hall Academy, and an historian and author of many works based on his research
among local records. The Onderdonk papers include manuscript versions of Onderdonk's
historical works; notes and transcriptions taken by Onderdonk from private journals,
church and local government records, and newspapers; correspondence from historians,
genealogists and others often conveying information requested by Onderdonk; and scrapbooks
of newspaper clippings covering the 1820s to 1868, with some earlier and later dated
material. The bulk of the material concerns the geographic area encompassing present
day Queens and Nassau counties, though the other two counties on Long Island, Kings
and Suffolk, are also represented. The historical manuscripts, notes and extensive
correspondence in the collection tend to center around Onderdonk's research into the
American Revolution, Quakers, churches, agriculture/animal husbandry, and genealogies,
all with a focus on Long Island. Perhaps the most prominent correspondent is James
Fenimore Cooper, whose three letters concern Loyalist Oliver de Lancey. Among the
many other correspondents are historians George Bancroft, E. F. Ellet, E. B. O'Callaghan,
Jeptha Root Simms, and Jared Sparks. The several scrapbooks in the collection, also
with a Long Island focus, concern a number of subjects, principally electoral and
partisan politics, agriculture, temperance, announcements and public notices for a
wide variety of events, such as school openings, church dedications, auctions, cultural
talks, etc., crimes and accidents, court proceedings, Civil War recruitments and drafts,
and railroad developments, among other matters.
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