Caldwell's Illustrated Atlas

Caldwell's Illustrated Combination Historical Atlas of Washington Co., PA, 1876

Cover of Caldwell's Illustrated Combination Historical Atlas

Caldwell's Illustrated Combination Historical Atlas of Washington Co., PA, 1876 is contemporaneous with Crumrine's "History of Washington County, PA." This atlas has colored maps of all of the townships labeled with the names of thousands of landowners, plus black & white drawings of many towns, boroughs, private residences and farms. It also contains a "business directory" of all of the businesspeople in the county in 1876 including, for many of them, the dates they settled in Washington Co. and the place they were born. Sometimes there is surprising information in this business directory; for example, Mrs. N. McQuown is listed in Donegal Twp. as owning 10 sheep and 31 acres, Post Office Atchison, and under "Business" it states: " John L. McQuown was born 1837, April 12th, was married to Miss Nancy M. Martin on the 24th Feb., 1866. Died Dec. 7th, 1873." In addition to the maps showing thousands of residents of the county and the business directory of each township and town, there are illustrations of many farms, residences, and businesses in the county.

One example to illustrate the multi-faceted aspects of Caldwell's Atlas follows:

L. F. Baker owned a farm in West Pike Township, and his land can be seen on the following township map.

Baker is also listed in the advertising directory portion of the atlas as the owner of 376 sheep, 279 acres, a farmer and "wool grower," born in PA and settled in the township in 1828. He received his mail at the East Bethlehem Post Office.

Lastly, an illustration of his farm appears in the atlas and is titled "Home Farm Residence of L. F. Baker, West Pike Run Tp. Breeder & Dealer in American & Spanish Merino Sheep."

Click here to see the index of the illustrations of farms included in Caldwell's Atlas. Keep in mind that none of the thousands of residents shown on the township or village maps have been indexed.

If you prefer not to purchase the high-quality images of the atlas on CD, images of many of its pages have been posted online at rootsweb although the quality makes some names difficult to read.

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