Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Samuel M. Janney. Papers, 1790-1922. Accession 24678. Personal papers collection. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Purchased 7 October 1957.

Biographical Information

Samuel McPherson Janney was born 11 January 1801 in Loudoun County, Virginia, to Abijah Janney (1775-1842) and Jane McPherson Janney (1777-1813). After receiving some schooling, Janney was apprenticed at age fourteen to his uncle Phineas Janney (1775-1852) of Alexandria, Virginia, a commission merchant and iron importer. Janney later worked as a clerk and merchant. In 1828, he helped found a cotton factory at Occoquan, Prince William County, Virginia. However, it failed and Janney returned to Loudoun County and opened a girls' school called Springdale Boarding School in 1839. Janney retired about 1854 and devoted himself full time to the ministry, literature, and philanthropy. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) appointed him Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern Superintendency, a position which Janney held until 1871. Janney was a member of the Hicksite division of the Society of Friends, although he was on friendly terms with orthodox Quakers. Janney was an antislavery spokesman from the 1820s until the Civil War. He married Elizabeth Janney (1802-1893) 9 March 1826, and they had at least five children. Janney died in Loudoun County 30 April 1880.

Scope and Content Information

Papers, 1790-1922, of Samuel M. Janney (1801-1880) of Alexandria and Loudoun County, Virginia, consisting of: account books, accounts, agreements, brochures, clippings, commissions, correspondence, day books, deeds, eulogies, extracts, genealogies, grade cards, meeting minutes, memorials, memoirs, memorandum books, notebooks, notes, obituaries, poems, portraits, prayers, receipts, synopses, and travel journals. Collection is divided into four series. Series 1: Correspondence, 1815-1922. Series 2: Miscellaneous papers, 1790-1904. Series 3: Mercantile Accounts and Receipts of Phineas Janney, 1890-1891. Series 4: Account Books, Daybooks, Memorandum books, 1836-1870. The Friends Church Records, 1796-1799, 1815-1816, 1845-1850, three volumes of minutes of the Goose Creek Monthly Meetings in Loudoun County are filed in Church Records as accession 24678d.

Correspondence, 1815-1922, contains letters to and from Samuel M. Janney concerning the Society of Friends (Quakers), religion, slavery, education, business, Indian Affairs, publishing, and personal and family matters. Several letters deal with Quakers, both in Loudoun County, Virginia, and on a national level, and their religious beliefs. Also, letters deal with education, including correspondence about Janney's Springdale School for Girls in Loudoun County and exchange of ideas on education with William H. McGuffy (1800-1873) at the University of Virginia and with Horace Mann (1796-1859) of Massachusetts. Correspondence contains references to Janney's opposition to the institution of slavery. Also of interest is Janney's correspondence regarding his business interests, including his cotton factory in Occoquan, Prince William County, Virginia, and his store in Loudoun County. Collection also contains a commission as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern Superintendency from President Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) and Secretary of the Interior Jacob D. Cox (1828-1900), and correspondence addressed to him as superintendent. Letters between Janney and George P. Morris (1802-1864) and Samuel S. Randall (1809-1991) concern Janney's literary efforts. There are also several letters between Janney and his wife containing family and personal news. Also contains letters from Charles W. Kent (1860-1917) of the Library of Southern Literature to Cornelia Janney (1833-1922) concerning Samuel M. Janney, and letter to Congressman H. R. Snyder (1863-1937) of New York concerning the Bursum Indian Land Bill. Contains genealogical information on the Gray, Summerfield, and Tate families. Correspondents include Lyman C. Draper (1815-1891), John Jackson (1809-1855), Cornelia Janney, Elizabeth Janney (1802-1893), Charles W. Kent, Horace Mann, William H. McGuffy, GeorgeP. Morris, Dillwyn Parrish (1809-1886), Samuel S. Randall, and William Stabler (1795-1852).

Miscellaneous papers, 1790-1904, consists of accounts, agreements, brochures, clippings, deeds, eulogies, extracts, grade cards, memoirs, memorials, minutes, notebooks, notes, obituaries, poems, portraits, prayers, receipts, synopses, and travel journals. Of interest are an obituary, portrait, and synopsis of the funeral of Samuel M. Janney; manuscript chapter of Janney's memoirs; eulogies and memorials for Julia Rebecca Headley (1826-1842), John Janney (1827-1858), and Phineas Janney (1778-1852); extracts (abstracts) from the minutes of the yearly meeting of Quakers of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Eastern Parts of Maryland and Virginia, 1790, 1792; extracts from the minutes of the Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1864; letters to the Quarterly and Monthly Meeting of Friends in Great Britain, Ireland, and Elsewhere, 1792, 1801; manuscripts on various religious subjects; travel journals to the West Indies and to Canada and New England; notebook of John Janney; poems; accounts and receipts of Samuel M. Janney; miscellaneous papers including a deed from Israel Janney of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Phineas Janney of Alexandria, Virginia, selling Phineas all his rights to their father's estate, and an account of the last illness of Elizabeth Janney (d. 1809); and newspaper clippings.

Mercantile accounts and receipts, 1890-1891, of Phineas Janney (1842-1914) of Loudoun County, Virginia, consisting of routine bills for goods bought while a merchant in Loudoun County, Virginia. Some of the firms Janney did business with were Cushing and Company, John J. Thomson, and William T. Dixon of Baltimore, Maryland, and Joel J. Baily and Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Account Books, Daybooks, Memorandum books, 1836-1870, consist of: daybook, 1836-1841, of S. M. Janney Cotton Factory; S. M. Janney executor's and trustee's accounts, 1841-1858; daybook, 1848-1854, for Phineas Janney's general store in Alexandria, Virginia; Farmers Bank of Virginia, Alexandria branch, in account with Phineas Janney's executors, 1852-1860; unidentified cash account book, 1850-1858; ledger, for John Janney's general store in Goose Creek, Loudoun County, 1854-1857, and S. M. Janney and Company general store in Goose Creek, 1859-1860; daybook, 1856-1861, for S. M. Janney and Company general store in Goose Creek; daybook, 1861-1869, for S. M. Janney and Company general store in Goose Creek; account book, 1840-1860, of William Tate; and memorandum book, 1840-1870, of William Tate.

Organization

Organized in three series. Series 1: Correspondence, 1815-1922. Series 2: Miscellaneous papers, 1790-1904. Series 3: Mercantile Accounts and Receipts of Phineas Janney, 1890-1891. Series 4: Account books, Daybooks, Memorandum books, 1836-1870.