Collection inventory

Special Collections home page

Brockway Family Papers

An inventory of their papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: --
Date: ca. 1965

Biographical History

Tiffany Brockway (1774-1866) brought his family -- including his father, Nathan (1736-1822) -- from Rensselaer County to the central New York area, near what would become Broadalbin, in 1791. The unusual appellation had been Nathan's mother Elizabeth's maiden name; Nathan also had a brother named Tiffany Brockway (b. 1740).

In 1805 Tiffany Brockway and his first wife, Lucy Alvord (1778-1819), settled on a nearby farm called Locust Grove and eventually produced four daughters and two sons. He served as a major in the War of 1812 and for many years as a colonel in the local militia. Colonel Brockway was the first outspoken abolitionist in Broadalbin, and his home at Locust Grove was a known stop on the Underground Railroad that sheltered and assisted fugitive slaves. Brockway and his second wife, Mary G. Owen, had no children, but one of his sons by Lucy Alvord, Tiffany Brockway, Jr. (b. 1813), inherited the farm at Broadalbin.

Members of the Brockway Family were associated with Central New York State, Syracuse, N.Y, and Fulton County, N.Y.

[Portions of this biographical sketch obtained from "Obituaries and Biographies of Broadalbin," compiled by Dave Bixby and available online at http://fulton.nygenweb.net/bios/DBobitsBR.html.]

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Brockway Family Papers consist of biographical material, correspondence, subject files, manuscripts, and published material relating to Colonel Tiffany Brockway, his father Nathan, son Tiffany Jr., and various other family members.

Biographical material includes genealogy notes and biographical sketches of various family members. Correspondence, largely incoming, contains letters to and from various family members, a letter about the family, and transcripts of letters. Subject files include account books, church records, diaries, financial papers, land surveys, legal agreements, newspaper clippings, photographs, settlement of estate, a speech, and unidentified miscellanea. The single item in Manuscripts is a speech by Tiffany Brockway, Jr. Published material contains a hymn by Helen Hale Brockway and a notice.

Arrangement of the Collection

Material is arranged alphabetically.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Subject Headings

Persons

Brockway family.
Brockway, Mary G.
Brockway, Tiffany.

Subjects

Genealogy.

Places

Broadalbin (N.Y.) -- History.
New York (State) -- History.
Syracuse (N.Y.) -- History.

Genres and Forms

Account books.
Biographies.
Correspondence.
Diaries.
Genealogies (histories)
Photographs.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Brockway Family Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mrs. Frederick Fuhrer and Anna B. Easton, 1962.

Table of Contents

Biographical material

Correspondence

Subject files

Manuscripts

Published material

Inventory