{"id":5654,"date":"2026-04-07T09:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/?p=5654"},"modified":"2026-04-07T09:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:25:09","slug":"jonathan-perkins-weethee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/2026\/04\/07\/jonathan-perkins-weethee\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Perkins \u201cJ.P.\u201d Weethee: Understanding Weethee\u2019s Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Kaydence Stamper, History BA ’29, Digital Initiatives Assistant<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"Black<\/a>
Portrait of J.P. Weethee, circa 1850s-1860s. William E. Peters papers, Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Jonathan Perkins “J.P.” Weethee (1812-1899) was an educator, minister, author, and locally known community figure from Athens County, Ohio. His journal<\/a>, dating from 1872 to 1882, has been digitized and made available online through Ohio University\u2019s Digital Archives. I have grown to love Weethee while reading and transcribing his journal. I even started calling him \u201cMr. Weethee\u201d because of how familiar I\u2019ve become with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first started transcribing his journal, the Digital Initiatives unit and larger Archives department didn’t know much about his life and lacked a complete timeline of events documenting the time after he graduated from Ohio University in 1832 to when the journal was written. While transcribing, I took the opportunity to research more about his family, his work, and anything else that Mr. Weethee mentioned in the journal. I found out more about his early life, his travels, and how that time shaped him and influenced what he wrote in his journal. Since then, I have discovered how much he invested in his friends, family, church, community, and of course, his land. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Timeline <\/h2>\n\n\n\n