Henry B. Atherton papers

The papers of Henry B. Atherton contain personal, family and business correspondence, journals and diaries, college writings and speeches, newspapers, clippings and scrapbooks, photographs and photo albums, printed material including programs, broadsides, publications, legal documents including mortgage deeds, bills, receipt and tax returns, Civil War pension material, as well as sketches and watercolors. The material chronicles Atherton’s life from his student days at Dartmouth College, his service as captain of Company “C” 4th Regiment Vermont Volunteers during the Civil War, his work as a lawyer in Nashua, NH and as the editor of the “New Hampshire Telegraph.” Of note is his Civil War correspondence with his family which provides a record of his actions on and off the battlefield. In 1862, he took in a 16 year-old escaped slave named Henry Turner, nicknamed “Vort,” as his servant. After Atherton was injured in the war, he took “Vort” home to Vermont where he was taken into the family and educated. Correspondence and journal entries document “Vort’s” journey. Other family members represented here include his first wife Abbie (Armington) Atherton, his second wife Ella (Blaylock) Atherton, his parents Roxana and Jonathan Atherton, his brothers Joseph V. Atherton and Solon Atherton, his sister Ellen Atherton, his children Maude, Henry F., and Blaylock and to a lesser extent other members of the extended Atherton and Armington families. Some genealogical material created by Henry B. Atherton and his decendants, including Lynne Atherton, is also included.