Collection Overview
Title: Oscar Lewis Papers, 1847-1899
Predominant Dates:1889-1891
ID: OGLMC/1580
Creator: Lewis, Oscar (1860-?)
Extent: 0.25 Linear Feet
Date Acquired: 06/13/2010
Languages: English [eng]
Scope and Contents of the Materials
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.
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions:
Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections
Acquisition Source:
Dr. Bruce Dembling, Charlottesville, Virginia
Acquisition Method:
Donation; 2011-3079
Preferred Citation:
(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.
Processing Information:
Materials processed by Maureen Hukill, Special Collections intern, in July 2013.
Box and Folder Listing
- Box 1
- Folder 1: Biographical Information
- Folder 2: Correspondence, Oscar to Ida, June 1889
- Folder 3: Correspondence, Oscar to Ida, July 1889
- Folder 4: Correspondence, Oscar to Ida, August 1889
- Folder 5: Correspondence, Oscar to Ida, September 1889
- Folder 6: Correspondence, Oscar to Ida, October 1889
- Folder 7: Correspondence, Oscar to Ida, November 1889
- Folder 8: Correspondence, Oscar to Ida, December 1889
- Folder 9: Correspondence, Oscar to Ida, December 1889
- Folder 10: Correspondence, Oscar to Ida, 1889
- Folder 11: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, January 1890
- Folder 12: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, February 1890
- Folder 13: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, March 1890
- Folder 14: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, April 1890
- Folder 15: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, May1890
- Folder 16: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, June 1890
- Folder 17: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, July 1890
- Folder 18: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, August 1890
- Folder 19: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, September 1890
- Folder 20: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, October 1890
- Folder 21: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, November 1890
- Folder 22: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, December 1890
- Folder 23: Correspondence, Oscar to Ida, January, 15 1891
- Folder 25: Correspondence, to the Lewis Family, Undated
- Folder 24: Correspondence, Oscar to Ida, June 10, 1899
- Folder 26: Correspondence, to Ida Lewis from her Cousin Lena, 1847