The collection contains correspondence, financial and legal records, plus miscellaneous materials generated by the Burt and Noyes families. It includes genealogical records of both families and personal letters. The most significant letters are from William Curtis Noyes, a New York City attorney, and James Van Cleve, a Lake Ontario ship captain who discusses Champlain’s 1615 expedition against the Onondaga Indians and La Salle’s explorations in western and central New York.

The papers contain correspondence, business transactions, local documents and miscellaneous papers from both William and John Gifford. Documents of importance include, John Gifford’s letter describing the Revolutionary War. Also of interest are records of slave purchases in New York, and a petition for exchange of prisoners after the Battle of Monmouth [June 1778].

The Marshall family papers document to varying degrees of completeness the activity of five generations of Holmes, Marshall, DeAngelis and related families who settled early in central and western New York. The papers reveal primarily the internal workings of the family centered around Orsamus and Millicent Marshall: their attitudes and far-flung family relationships, their social position, the rearing of children and their growth, and the travels of and intellectual activities of family members. Other papers of interest are the records of the family legal firm, records and papers relating to the organizations and clubs in which members of the family played a part, and an eyewitness account of the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain, a naval battle of the War of 1812.

The Wood family papers consist mainly of the legal and financial records of Ebenezer, Ephraim, and Amos W. Wood or Woodville, New York. Included are legal summonses, deeds, bonds, affadavits, land survey materials, accounts, and school records. Among the papers are Amos E. Wood's will and property records deeding his land to his six children; a letter by four different correspondence to Amos Wood while he was on a journey to Ohio in 1836; an 1818 contract for the construction of a schoolhouse, giving the location and dimensions and the amount paid to the carpenter, and a printed proclamation from President Van Buren not to participate in hostilities arising in Canada [1838].

The family papers consist primarily of surveying notes generated by, or collected by, various members of the Babcock and Foster families of Oswego County, New York. The bulk of material can be attributed to A.H. Foster, who surveyed Williamstown and Amboy between [1930 and 1870]. The collection also includes field notes, maps, deeds, and mortgages from various surveyors and residents of Oswego County.

The diary consists of one bound diary. The more significant entries in the diary include, his daily activities as both a farmer and logger, his brief descriptions of the War of 1812, particularly the invasion of Fort Ontario (May 1814), and his travels to other parts of central New York.

Personal papers of the Skinner Family. Includes correspondence reflecting the events and activities which affected the lives of early pioneer families in Central New York.

The First Presbyterian Church Records collection contains records, directories, scrapbooks, correspondences and bulletins mainly between two time periods, 1824 to 1916 and 1937 to 1985. The collection was compiled by Elizabeth Hallock and Marilyn Barach at different periods of time.

The collection of legal documents contains deeds, government appointments, a list of Grand Jurors, and a Writ of Subpoena produced in counties of Oswego and Cayuga in the 19th century.

The legal papers consist of court records, reports, and notes on the numerous cases which Powers Fillmore litigated between 1869 and the middle 1880’s. The legal records include documents relevant to the proceedings of the circuit, county, district, and State Supreme Courts of New York State. Earlier documented cases from the 1830’s and 1850’s are present within the collection.