Collection
Guide
Administrative Information
Access and
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research.
Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but
does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this
collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections
Department.
Copyright: Please
read The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on "Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use
Unpublished Materials"
Use of Collections: The University of Iowa Libraries supports
access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections.
Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their
fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and
it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery
for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials.
Please read our Use of
Manuscripts Statement.
Biographical Note
Several members of the Guinn
family moved to Iowa Township, Benton County, Iowa from Tennessee,
beginning with Hyrcanus Guinn who came first in March 1846. He was followed by
his brother John. They set up farming about two miles south of what is now
Belle Plaine. In 1850 or 1851, John Guinn relocated and with two other households,
created the town of Guinnville which was platted November 8, 1856. A post office
was established in Guinnville in February 1856. Eventually brothers William and
Andrew Guinn and a brother-in-law, Frank Greenlee also moved to Iowa from Tennessee.
Julia Fidelia Benson married into the Guinn family. Belle Plaine eventually subsumed
Guinnville and the post office was moved to Belle Plaine August 6, 1862.
Scope and
Contents
This small collection consists of legal documents and some correspondence,
much of it having to do with the Benson family. Included are two versions of
a history of Guinnville and a ledger book containing the possessions in the estate
of H. Guinn, which provides a thorough record of the materials required to operate
a farm in Iowa in the late nineteenth century.
Photographs:
Box 1
Acquisition and Processing
Information
These papers
were collected for the
University of Iowa Libraries by
George
Sheets in the late 1950s.
Guide posted
to Internet:
November 2005
Box Contents List
Correspondence
Early histories of Guinnville and Belle Plaine, Iowa
Last will and testament, W. W. Benson (father to Julia Fidelia
(Benson) Guinn), and additional estate papers
Miscellaneous including tax receipts and land sale records
Newspaper clipping concerning sale of property, estate of
W. W. Benson
Photograph, Tom Lawrence, pioneer dry
goods merchant
Record book of H. Guinn, 1890 -- 1891
