“Garden Journal” of William J. Ward, circa 1850

The papers in the William J. Ward Collection span a period of 186 years, from 1725 to 1911, with the vast bulk of material covering the years 1806 to 1892. The materials consist of personal and business correspondence, printed materials, a garden journal, financial documents, and indentures, deeds, land plats, and other legal documents relating to Ward’s career as an attorney in Baltimore City, Maryland. The collection has been arranged within a framework of six series based on document type, which is discussed in greater detail in the series description.

The bulk of the material represents the life of William J. Ward (1808 – 1892), his correspondence with his children, and the various legal documents generated by his legal practice. The majority of this material spans the years 1833 – 1892. Correspondence between Ward and his children, falling between the years 1844 – 1846, chiefly concerns family affairs and gives evidence to the geographical mobility of the Ward family, where Charles Ward communicated from New York City, George Ward remained in Owings Mills, Maryland, and William J. Ward, Jr. traveled the country from Baltimore to Kansas. Most of the family correspondence is between William J. Ward and William J. Ward, Jr., and was written from father to son as Ward, Jr., began his career at the Virginia Military Institute c. 1869. Although most of the correspondence centers on the Ward family, there are also letters concerning Charles Warner, Jr., whose sister Annie Warner married William J. Ward, Jr., and whose father held a close relationship with William J. Ward, and a series of business correspondence from C. Stokem and Company covering the year 1876, and likely relating to one of Ward’s legal cases. Financial documents in the collection are mostly receipts, stock certificates, and tax records for individuals other than the Wards, with the names of John Albright, Joseph and Elisabeth Nagel, Daniel Pope, and John Robertson and “Robinson” (these last two appear to have been the same individual) occurring the most frequently. These receipts from personal accounts were likely involved in Ward’s handling of civil court cases, and particularly of note are a series of bank checks for the Commercial and Farmer’s Bank of Baltimore from 1816. Particularly interesting in Ward’s personal financial receipts are the records of his daughter’s and his trips to their dentist, Dr. Coyle, in 1878. Legal documents in the collection consist of indentures, statements of character, depositions, and notes on law cases. Included in this set of legal documents are a series of printed court trial records for the Miltenberger's Lessee vs. Charles Warner, as well as several land plats that appear to have been involved in this case, which was a land dispute. The printed materials in the collection consist of an incomplete “Family dictionary,” printed in 1725, a copy of the Treaty of Paris, printed in Baltimore in 178(?), a pattern book from 1905, and a sermon written by an anonymous layman to the Baltimore Ladies’ Commission for Southern Relief in 1866. Correspondence between William J. Ward and a Texan, L. A. Thompson, from March 14, 1866 reveals that this sermon was, in fact, written by William J. Ward, and placed within the context of the letter, which illuminates Southern concerns with Reconstruction, also hints that Ward was a Southern sympathizer.