Description
The Helberg Collection consists of three Vermont farm ledgers (1806-1842); Underwood
family Vermont land records (1792-1836); Bliss and Woodward-Underwood family genealogies;
T.J. Edson Iowa and Wisconsin land records (1856-1867); and, T.J. Edson's Civil War
correspondence, other Civil War papers and pension records (1867-1916).
Background
Five New England families: the Blisses, the Edsons, the Tylers, the Woodwards and the
Underwoods, are represented in this collection. The Bliss family lived at Fairlee, Orange
County, Vermont, while the Tylers evidently lived and farmed slightly to the north in the
vicinity of Bradford (1806-1834). Nothing is known of their relationship to the other
families represented in this collection save that all apparently originated in the same
area of east central Vermont, for John Underwood Jr. likewise lived and farmed in the
vicinity of Bradford (1819-1841). In the next generation, T.J. Edson fought with the 38th
Iowa Infantry during the Civil War in the course of which he was stationed at Vicksburg,
Miss. and later at Brownsville, Tex. Edson wrote copiously throughout the War to his
family in Iowa. He was married (1858) to Amine Woodward whose family had intermarried
with the Underwoods and had been friendly with the Blisses. Some members of these
families had evidently moved from Vermont to Johnstown Center, Wisc., where Amine
Woodward's family lived, sometime after 1840.