Marcia Grover Church Bates Family Papers

Since most of the correspondents were related by birth or marriage, the letters in this series are often about family members or mutual acquaintances. The letters also often talk about life in Amherst, Ashfield, and Worcester, Massachusetts.

Folder 8 holds letters of reference written for Frederick Church by William Brooks, James Paige, and J.B. Lindsay of the Massachusetts Agricultural School and Albert Smiley of Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York.

Letters to Lucia Church represent a large segment of this series. Most of the letters are from her daughter Cornelia during the years 1932-1937 when Cornelia worked as a librarian at the Worcester Free Library. These letters discuss Cornelia's work at the library and life in Worcester. Many of the other letters sent to Lucia Church are from her husband's family in Ashfield.

Folder 25 contains letters of sympathy written to Gertrude Church Salter's husband's parents upon the death of Gertrude, Leonard, and Leonard 3rd in the LaSalle Hotel Fire in Chicago, in June 1946. The majority of these letters are from Leonard's colleagues at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota.

This series is arranged alphabetically by recipient of the letters and within each folder the letters are arranged chronologically.

This series contains deeds, a will, a map and mortgage forms relating to the migration of various members of the Bassett Family from Cape Cod to Ashfield, Massachusetts and the subsequent settlement of different generations of the family in Ashfield.

The folders are arranged alphabetically by subject and material is arranged chronologically within each folder.

The account books record day-to-day expenditures of the various family members. Among the subjects recorded are amounts spent on food, clothing, postage, housekeeping supplies and laborer's wages.

Folder 21 holds an account book kept by George Church of orders from his nursery in Ashfield for the years 1912-1914.

The folders in this series are arranged alphabetically by the name of the individual who kept the account book and chronologically by date.

The majority of these diaries depict details of the lives of the members of the Church Family of Ashfield, Massachusetts. On several occasions, writing in the diary was taken over by another family member if circumstances prevented the diarist from writing. For example, a note on March 12, 1921 in the diary summaries of George and Isabel Church indicates that Isabel takes over the diary from her father. Also, while Isabel is in the hospital in 1936, her sister Helen records entries in her diary. Finally, after Isabel's death in 1951, Helen continues to write in Isabel's 5 year diary of 1848-1952.

Topics covered include the weather, gardening, family news, and letters sent and received.

The diary summaries in this series consist of matters of interest that were copied from George Church's diaries by his daughter Isabel.

This series also contains several diaries of William Luther Bates who was a motorman for the Amherst and Springfield Railway and later for the Holyoke Street Railway Company. His 1913 diary contains timetables for the local schedules that he ran.

Also included is a transcription by Bernice Allen MacDonald of a diary kept by her grandfather Henry Grover (Lucia Church's father) in Montague, Massachusetts in 1873.

The diaries are arranged alphabetically by the name of the diarist and then chronologically by date.

An oral history conducted with Marcia Church Bates and family genealogical material make up Series 5. The oral history was conducted in 1999 as part of the Amherst Oral History Project which was sponsored by the Amherst Historical Society. Folder 78 contains an audio tape of the interview along with an information sheet and notes. On the audio tape, Marcia speaks about growing up in Amherst, frequently visiting family in Ashfield, teaching in a one room schoolhouse and running the Bates Store with her husband.

The genealogical material in Folder 79 includes obituary notices of various family members and handwritten family genealogical notes.

Series 6, Photographs, is arranged into two folders. Folder 80 includes photographs of various members of the Church family. Photographs of note are: George Church in his peach wagon at the 150th anniversary celebration of Ashfield, Fred Church's high school portrait, Lucia Church in Prescott, and Lucia Church in front of Thompson House on the campus of the Massachusetts Agricultural School. Folder 81 consists of photographs of family members other than the Churches.

Folder 82 holds miscellaneous memorabilia related to the family, including: a brochure for the Mohonk Mountain House, a leaflet from the dedicatory ceremony at the Belding Library in Ashfield and a reunion notice from Sanderson Academy.

Folder 83 contains memorabilia relating to Massachusetts Agricultural College (later, University of Massachustts). Included are commencement programs for the Class of 1902 (Frederick Church) and the Class of 1932 (Gertrude Church Salter). The folder also contains a poem which was written (ca. 1948) for the seventieth birthday of Alexander MacKimmie, a professor at the School and a neighbor of the Churches on Pine Street.

Folder 84 contains writings by various family members. Included in this folder are stories about Prescott, Massachusetts (one of the towns that was taken for the Quabbin Reservoir) and several issues of a fictional newspaper that was created by the Church children.

This series is arranged in folders by type of material and then chronologically by date within folders.