324 WFCHS

Finding aid created by Archives Staff 09/98. Last revised 12/17

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: Collection is open to all researchers. 

USE RESTRICTIONS: Restrictions may apply concerning the use, photoduplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult a member of the archives staff for information concerning these restrictions. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright.

EXTENT: 0.21 linear feet

CREATOR:  H. B. Kline & Bro. Records

DATE: 1894- 1988, bulk 1894-1895

SCOPE AND CONTENT: This collection contains mainly various documents related to the operation of H. B. Kline & Bro., including receipts and commodity orders, accounts, handwritten business notes, and inventories of stock, dated during the 1880s and 1890s. 

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL: H. B. Kline was a great-grandson of Jacob Kline, a German immigrant who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1735 and later joined several other families in settling in Frederick County, east of Middletown, in 1764. He erected a large flax-seed mill although he abandoned this operation after twenty years in favor of a flour mill which stood southeast of Stephens City in Frederick County, VA. 

At some point in the mill’s history a general store was added. The new structure also included a post office. The mill and the store became a gathering place for local residents as well as a place to purchase goods. The mill ceased operating in the 1920s, although a sawmill remained in use until 1962.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Linda McCarty, “Milling Around: 200-year-old Kline’s Mill was a commercial hub,” The Winchester Star, July 28, 1988, 1, 4; T. K. Cartmell, “The Kline Family,” in Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and their Descendents: A History of Frederick County, Virginia (Berryville, VA: Chesapeake Book Company, 1963), 485-6. 

CITE AS: H. B. Kline & Bro. Records, 324 WFCHS, Stewart Bell Jr. Archives , Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA, USA. 

ACQUISITION INFORMATION: Acquired as a gift. 

ORGANIZATION: 

BOX 1

Kline's Mill – notes regarding the mill, correspondence from Charles Paul Campell, Water Wheel, 1970, 2 pages, manuscript (typescript)

Kline’s Mill – news article, 1988

Bills from companies to H. B. Kline Brothers, unnumbered, manuscript on printed forms:

1894, January-December

1895, January-December

1896, January-December

1897, January-May

Inventory of goods at Vaucluse Station, sold to W.H. Dinges by H.B. Kline & Bro., December 31, 1895, 6 leaves, typescript, photocopy 

Inventory of stock – H. B. Kline & Bro., September 29, 1892, 17 leaves, manuscript on form, photocopy

F. Estes Kline Account Book, Vaucluse, Virginia, 1891, 15 leaves, manuscript, photocopy