Eli Zook Correspondence, 1861-1867 | Earl H. and Anita F. Hess Archives and Special Collections

Scope and Contents: The Zook correspondence spans the years from 1866 to 1886 and consists of letters sent to the Zook family. The letters cover a wide variety of topics relevant to the personal lives of the Zooks' friends including financial discussions, the weather, marriages, cigar sales, day to day happenings, church services and singings, disease, and meeting arrangements. This type of conversation via letter was done as a method of engaging in “kin work” in order to maintain close family ties with Eli Zook while he was living away from the Lancaster Amish settlement. There are 37 letters in this collection, 26 of which are written in English, with the remaining being written in a script closely resembling Pennsylvania Dutch. These letters were sent to Eli Zook while he was staying in the Big Valley and end when he marries Mattie Fisher and returns to Lancaster County.