Guide to the McNish Family Papers,
1773-1926

Miscellaneous material from Salem, Washington County, N.Y. includes papers (1774-1810) of Alexander McNish, constable, assessor, and later coroner of Salem; enumerations of real and personal property of early settlers; land accounts; deeds; wills; merchandising statements; early school records; letters from relatives in Aughentober, Northern Ireland, discussing the high price for land and consequent emigration to America, reaction to American complaints against abuse of neutral rights, and offering indentures in return for transportation; a letter (1808) from a Representative in Congress on the embargo; recipes; contracts, bills of costs, trustee accounts, and other papers (1811-1813) relating to the building of Washington Academy; diaries of Darley McNish (1888-1891); and correspondence of Darley and Sarah McNish (1874-1926).

Additional papers of Alexander McNish include correspondence and legal papers, chiefly concerned with the payment of rents and sale or leasing of lands in the Salem area, merino sheep raising, tax and debt collection, and inquests and other duties McNish performed as constable, coroner, and U.S. mail contractor. Also, letters dealing with politics and family matters, the latter including several from relatives in Ireland and in Ohio and Kentucky. Farm labor and produce accounts, fragmentary diary entries, and weather records of William McNish (1 vol., 1827-1853). Correspondents include W. M. Adam, William Barnes, William Boyd, John Doty, Eliakim Elmore, John Kerr, R. J. Meigs, Samuel Prince, W. Raleigh, Edward Savage, John Savage, Alexander Steele, James Steele, James S. Stewart, William Story, David Thomas, John Williams, and David Woods.

See Accession Folder for more detailed descriptions of contents.