Bibliography and Acknowledgements
With special thanks to our lead transcriber Virginia Haverstic for her work on uncovering the secrets of the Chapin-McNeil letters. Her hard work was in large part responsible for making this publication possible. Additionally, Haverstic's genealogical research uncovered key records and materials that were an important part of the interpretation of the letters.
Sean Blocher-McTigue was the volunteer who originally initiated the process of transcribing the letters and believed they were worthy of their own online exhibit. He was a critical part of the of the overall organization of the Chapin-McNeil papers.
Illinois Secretary of State website: https://www.ilsos.gov. Blocher-McTigue used this site to review marriages licenses and Civil War Service.
National Park Service Civil War Website: https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/index.htm . Blocher-McTigue used this site to cross reference with the Illinois Secretary of State website for military service records. He then used the letters to corroborate the locations of the sought battle companies by using where the letter was written.
Boston Public Library: https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S75C342444 . The Boston Public has a copy of Orange Chapin’s Genealogy book and has digitalized the book for internet access. The Genealogy book served as a critical foundational piece filling in the some of the blanks of familial relations that the letters could not provide. It also revealed some unique information regarding certain relations that was never touched on in the letters. It does, however, not have the names of all the Chapin family that arrived in Champaign county. The 1860 Champaign County census mentions members of this family that did not make it into the genealogy book for an unknown reason.
Kansas Historical Society: https://www.kshs.org/p/post-offices/11307 . The Kansas Historical Society hosts records of post office establishment and closure. Blocher-McTigue used this information as part of a search for a town in the area of Minneapolis Kansas that appears to no longer exist.
Behrens, Robert H. From Salt Fork to Chickamauga. Urbana Free Library, 1988.
Broidrick, Annie Laurie Harris. “Recollections, 1893: Scan 16.” In A Recollection of Thirty Years Ago, 1893. Annie Laurie Harris Broidrick, 1893. https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/01301/#folder_1#1.
Burt, R. W. War Songs, Poems and Odes. J. W. Franks & Sons, 1906.
Gates, Henry Louis. “How Reconstruction Still Shapes Racism in America.” Time, April 2, 2019. https://time.com/5562869/reconstruction-history/.
Holt, R. George Washington Carver. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran and Co, 1943
Jones, Mary Ellen. Daily Life on the Nineteenth Century American Frontier. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Kremer, Gary R. George Washington Carver: A Biography. Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2011.
Lause, Mark A. Free spirits: Spiritualism, Republicanism, and Radicalism in the Civil War Era. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016.
Library of Congress. "Reconstruction and Its Aftermath." Library of Congress, 2018. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-odyssey/reconstruction.html
Lincicome, D. (2000). Our Village History: Philo- Center of the Universe.1875-2000.Village of Philo.
McMurry, Linda O. George Washington Carver, Scientist and Symbol. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
National Archives. “Homestead Act (1862).” National Archives, July 29, 2021. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/homestead-act.
National Parks Service. "Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction." National Parks Service Andrew Johnson National Historic Site Tennessee, August 14, 2023. https://www.nps.gov/anjo/andrew-johnson-and-reconstruction.htm
National Park Service. “Camp Butler National Cemetery: Springfield, Illinois.” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/illinois/camp_butler_national_cemetery.html.
Rogers, Robert M. The 125th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry: Attention Battalion! Gazette Steam Print, 1882.
Village of Philo. “History of Philo, IL,” 2023. https://villageofphilo.com/history-of-philo/.
Other Notes: Some Marriage Licenses were not found. Mary Burt’s marriage to Thomas Burt was not found. This is likely a result of that license not being available outside of a paywall, and that Mary married in the state of Ohio and not Illinois. Marcia Bocock’s marriage license has not been found for presumably the same reason.