Brief Description: This collection contains correspondence between Oscar Lewis and his family in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. The letters are primarily to his wife Ida and detail the difficulties Lewis faced while living in North Dakota. Among the letters is one incorrectly dated September 38, 1889, describing the lynching of a man named Will Lycan. The proported lynching happened after Lycan supposedly burned down his employer's barn. Lewis's narrative of the event, and the event itself, is called into question by the fact there are newspaper articles in the Grand Forks Herald, describing Lycan's comings and goings through Grand Forks well into the 1900s. Also, while there were several fires during September 1889, none of them match Lewis's description of events. In the instances of arson during that period, neither the victims nor the perpetrators in any of the cases mentioned by the Grand Forks Herald, matched those named by Oscar Lewis.

Record Series Number: OGLMC/1580

Created by: Lewis, Oscar (1860-?)

Volume: 0.25 Linear Feet

Acquired: 06/13/2010.

Access Restrictions: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections

Subject Index

Languages of Materials

Acquisition Notes: Dr. Bruce Dembling, Charlottesville, Virginia  Donation; 2011-3079

PreferredCitation: (Description of Item). Oscar Lewis Papers. OGLMC 1580, Box #, Folder #. Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.