Digitized Content from the Daniel Torrey Papers | Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

The digitized content of the Daniel Torrey Papers consists of personal and business papers dating from 1832-1869 of Daniel Torrey, a shop owner and craftsman who lived in Illinois and Missouri in the mid-1800s. Daniel Torrey (1808-1896) was a scythe maker and owned a wagon and blacksmithing shop in Payson, Adams County, Illinois. He married his first wife, Florinda Thompson in Maine in 1830, and together they had three children. In the 1830s the Torreys moved from Maine to Quincy, Illinois, and later, to Payson, where he established his shop. After his first wife's death in 1842, he married Priscilla Blood, and together they had seven children. In 1856 they moved to Missouri and, after 1870, to Fairbury, Nebraska. The digitized content consists of materials from Torrey's time in Maine, Illinois, and Missouri, and includes a small notebook, filled with diary entries; personal and business documents and financial records, including a letter from his second wife's relative, Amos Blood, regarding an order of steel ploughs and other farm equipment; and home remedies for common illnesses.

The Daniel Torrey Papers (1832-1869) MS 844 were partially digitized in 2018. Items are available online at the University of Illinois Digital Library. A preservation copy of the item is available to IHLC and digital preservation staff at the Library Digital Repository:https://medusa.library.illinois.edu/collections/1353