We have received a very exciting and important gift from the Yale law library. Details can be found in the following email that was received from that library on October 30, 2015. That same day the digitized files were downloaded and subsequently copies were given to the town office, and to Donovan Bowley (president of the Hope Historical Society) who will pass along a copy to the town of Appleton. The eastern part of Appleton was part of Hope during the period covered by the ledger. Except for a copy of a single page the digitized copies will not be uploaded to this website since it is a very large file. If anyone wants a copy it can be obtained at the town office. Copies can also be obtained at meetings of the Hope Historical Society. First send an email to the webmaster and then bring your computer to the meeting. Eventually we hope to upload text files of the whole document. If you are interested in being part of the team translating the digitized information to text files, please send an email to the webmaster.

After receiving a note of thanks Mike Widener sent the following message:

       I am so glad that the Hope ledger has proven useful and interesting, and our donor will be pleased.
      If you or anyone from the town ever wants to visit the Yale Law Library and see the ledger in person,
      we would be delighted to have you.

       Best wishes,

       MIKE WIDENER

First email from Yale

Cover letter that came with the ledger

Ledger page exampleUntitled Document

What we know about the journey of the ledger