I opened a yellowed folder, filled with equally yellowed, folded scraps of brittle paper. Inside were five letters–single sheets, folded numerous times, and addressed and mailed. No envelopes, no staples, no tape. Just folded correspondence. It was a series of four letters from 1827 and one from 1828, written by my five-greats grandfather, John Patterson, to his son, Alexander, my four-greats grandfather. John was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for three terms, representing Mifflin County and living in Tuscarora Township in what was to become, in a few short years, Juniata County. The father-to-son correspondence was unfailingly businesslike, discussing such things as crop prices and the business before…