Longstreth-Noble Family Papers
Scope and Contents
Papers of the Longstreth family, including family correspondence, extensive financial papers on the Noble and Longstreth properties and estates in Philadelphia, photographs, and scrapbooks concerning Walter C. and Emily Longstreth and Edith Longstreth Wood. Samuel Noble, a Philadelphia tanner, and subsequent generations owned property in the Spring Garden and Northern Liberties sections of Philadelphia, Pa., and in Camden, N.J., and the collection includes various deeds, agreements, and other papers concerning these properties.
Organization:Organized in three series: 1. Correspondence; 2. Financial and legal papers; 3. Miscellaneous.
Dates
- Creation: 1735-1980
Creator
- Litvackoff, Florence Cook, 1897-1989 (Person)
- Longstreth, Thomas B., 1796-1867 (Contributor, Person)
- Noble, Samuel, 1766-1843 (Contributor, Person)
- Longstreth, Samuel N. (Samuel Noble), 1843-1928 (Contributor, Person)
- Longstreth, Walter C. (Contributor, Person)
- Longstreth family (Contributor, Family)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Some of the items in this collection may be protected by copyright. The user is solely responsible for making a final determination of copyright status. If copyright protection applies, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns to reuse, publish, or reproduce relevant items beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to the law. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/.
Biographical / Historical
The Longstreth family were Pennsylvania Quakers who married into the Cook and Noble families. Thomas B. Longstreth (1796-1867) was a Philadelphia building contractor who married Lydia Noble (1803-1879), both active members of Green Street Monthly Meeting. Lydia was the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Tompkins) Noble, members of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Northern District. Samuel Noble was a successful tanner, and his daughter and son-in-law lived on his property until 1861 when they moved to Walnut Lane in Germantown. Thomas B. Longstreth accompanied fellow Quakers John Jackson and George Truman on their visit to the West Indies in 1840 and 1841.
Thomas B. Longstreth was the oldest son of Joseph and Margaret (McKee) Longstreth of Philadelphia. A younger son, Morris and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Cooke Longstreth had five children including John Cooke Longstreth, a prominent Philadelphia attorney who advised his uncle Thomas B. Longstreth on property matters and was executor for his aunt and uncles estate, and also Charles Cooke Longstreth who in 1853 married his first cousin, Sarah Noble Longstreth, the daughter of Thomas and Lydia Longstreth.
Thomas and Lydia had nine children. A daughter, Mary B. (1804-1907) married Benjamin Starr, moved to Indiana and became an active member of Whitewater Monthly Meeting. A son, Samuel N. Longstreth (1843-1928) married Mary Cook at Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (Hicksite) in 1880. He was a businessman and as the oldest son, took an active role in the family finances, especially property inherited from his parents and grandparents. He also served as guardian for the children of his sister Sarah and Charles Cooke Longstreth after Charles death in 1870 and was treasurer of Germantown Preparative Meeting.
Mary Cooks brother, Walter Scott Cook, married Samuel N. Longstreths niece, Helen Longstreth Rowlett. They had two children, Florence Longstreth Cook (1897-1989) who compiled the collection, graduated from Swarthmore College and was a social worker in Philadelphia, and Walter Scott Cook, Jr., a Philadelphia lawyer. Samuel N. and Mary (Cook) Longstreth also had two children. Walter Cook Longstreth (1881-1975) married Emily Corson Poley, He was a prominent Philadelphia lawyer and a pacifist who defended conscious objectors in World War II. He and Emily were active Quakers, members of Green Street Monthly Meeting and Frankfort Preparative Meeting. His sister, Edith Longstreth married William S. Wood and was an artist.
Extent
3 linear ft. (5 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Longstreth family were Pennsylvania Quakers who married into the Cook and Noble families. Thomas B. Longstreth (1796-1867) was a Philadelphia building contractor who married Lydia Noble (1803-1879), and both were active members of Green Street Monthly Meeting. Lydia was the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Tompkins) Noble, members of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Northern District. Samuel Noble was a successful tanner. The collection includes Longstreth family correspondence, extensive financial papers concerning the Noble and Longstreth properties and estates in Philadelphia, photographs, and scrapbooks concerning Walter C. and Emily Longstreth and Edith Longstreth Wood. Samuel Noble, a Philadelphia tanner, and subsequent generations owned property in the Spring Garden and Northern Liberties sections of Philadelphia, Pa., and in Camden, N.J., and the collection includes deeds, agreements, and other papers concerning these properties.
Physical Location
For current information on the location of materials, please consult the Libraries' online catalog: http://tripod.brynmawr.edu
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Deposit, Barbara Tumarkin Dunham, 2002
The collection was given by a descendent of Florence Longstreth Cook Litvackoff. Florence was a Swarthmore College graduate (Class of 1918) and desired that the family papers be given to Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College after her death. They included papers from her uncle, Samuel N. Longstreth, and scrapbooks compiled on his two children, neither of whom had children of their own. Samuel N. Longstreth served as treasurer for Germantown Preparative Meeting.
Separated Materials
Photographs removed to FHL PA collection, PA 114: 3 Cased photographs removed to Cased Picture Collection, PA 107; 3 family albums, most photographs/cartes de visite identified between the three albums;2- 7-1/2 oval photos, Thomas B. and Lydia N. Longstreth (removed from frames); 2 -6 frames oval photo, Julia Ella (Cook) Casselberry and Walter Cook (?) removed from frames; Cook, Helen Longstreth Rowlett. 2 framed photos, with snapshots and letters to Florence from her mother and her brother, Walter, behind the photograph. Letters in Series 1 Correspondence; 10-1/2 x 13 posed photograph of school girls, not identified; 5 large studio portraits, unidentified (Florence and family?); Studio photo, Walter and Florence, various ages; Emily T. Longstreth; ? Longstreth, 3 photos, gentleman with lamb chop sideburns; Loose studio portraits, unidentified; Miscellaneous snapshots of Cook family trips to Europe, New Mexico, mostly 1920s; Walter Longstreth, 1965 peace march; Florences 50th reunion? Swarthmore College.
Germantown Preparative Meeting and Green Street Monthly Meeting records removed to RG 2: Fair Hill burial ground accounts, 1853-1857; Subscription list for Sufferings, Fire of July 9, 1850; Subscription list for school house for Germantown Preparative Meeting, n.d., ca. 1850s; Financial papers, list of members and attenders, Germantown Preparative Meeting, 1891-ca. 1907.
Longstreth Family Bible transferred to FHL Bibles
Narrative of a Visit to the West Indies in 1840 and 1841 by George Truman, John Jackson and Thomas B. Longstreth. Philadelphia: 1844. Inscribed by Thomas B. Longstreth to his wife, Lydia.
Processing Information
The collection was received unsorted. Books were removed and transferred to book stacks when appropriate. Genealogical material in family Bibles photocopied and added to Series 3. Longstreth family Bible removed to FHL Bibles, other Bibles returned to donor. Pictures stored in FHL PA (Picture Collection) and cased photographs (PA 107). Papers concerning the Fair Hill Burial Ground and funds raised for Friends affected by the Great Fire of July 9, 1850, were transferred to Green Street Monthly Meeting. Papers concerning Germantown Preparative Meeting, including the subscription list for a school house (now Greene Street Friends School) and financial papers and list of members and attenders 1894-1898 transferred to Germantown Preparative Meeting, RG 2.
Subject
- Longstreth, Thomas B., 1796-1867 (Person)
- Noble, Samuel, 1766-1843 (Person)
- Longstreth, Samuel N. (Samuel Noble), 1843-1928 (Person)
- Longstreth, Walter C. (Person)
- Longstreth, Emily Corson Poley, 1887-1865 (Person)
- Wood, Edith Longstreth (Person)
- Longstreth family (Family)
- Cook family (Family)
- Noble family (Family)
- Title
- Longstreth-Noble Family Papers, 1735-1980.
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
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