Manuscripts of Early National and Antebellum America

51 letters. Most of the letters in this group were directed to William H. Anderson of Lowell, Massachusetts (1836-1902), an 1859 graduate of Yale who in 1859-60 taught school at Sligo Plantation near Natchez, Mississippi. The letters were written by David P. Williams, the Mississippi planter for whom Anderson worked; Joel J. Hough, a classmate of Anderson's who taught at a nearby plantation; and J. Oscar Teil, who followed Anderson as teacher at Sligo. Many of the letters were written from the South to the North during the secession crisis of 1860-61, and contain extended comment on the deepening sectional divide, in Natchez, New Orleans, and elsewhere. MSN/EA 5038-1 to MSN/EA 5038-51. [Finding Aid]

120 items. A collection consisting mainly of 55 personal letters, including courtship letters, directed to Amanda Bellamy (later Amanda Smart, ca. 1810-1845) of Warrenton, North Carolina and Petersburg, Virginia. There are also letters received by Amanda's daughter, Mollie Smart, and other family papers. MSN/EA 5041-1 to MSN/EA 5041-26. [Finding Aid]

1 letter. A letter of around 2,000 words written by Gideon Bingham (1815-1850), a book or periodical salesman traveling on the steamer Albatross along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The letter describes life and commerce along the rivers between Cincinnati and Memphis. The addressee, Bingham's sister Nancy M. McCollum of New York City, wrote extensively across the address panel in forwarding the letter to a third party. MSN/EA 5018-1.

42 letters; six additional manuscripts. The manuscripts in this collection were retained by the family of Abel and Elizabeth Eastman Blanchard, of Peacham, Caledonia County, Vermont. Most are personal letters written to Vermont by five of the couple's sons, Benjamin, Lewis, Mark, Abel, Jr., and Barnes Blanchard, who from ca. 1809 to 1827 left New England to seek to establish themselves at locations in Canada and western New York state. Most of the letters date from the 1810s and 20s. By the latter decade the Blanchards and their families had congregated on farms around Centerville, New York, in what is now Allegany County. Among the topics frequently discussed are the economic prospects of western New York generally, the impact on the area of the War of 1812, and internal improvements. MSN/EA 5031-1 to MSN/EA 5031-48. [Finding Aid & Images]

1 letter. A letter written and signed by Amasa Braman (b. c1760) of Sutton, Massachusetts, to Dr. John Green of Worcester. The letter describes the medical case of a Miss Woodward. MSN/EA 5017-1.

82 manuscripts; envelopes; 1 printed item. The majority of the items in this group are personal letters written to John E. Brownlee (1827-1900), in the years following his emigration from Killyleagh, County Down, Ireland to the United States. Brownlee arrived in New York in 1851. He worked as a ship's baker before purchasing a farm in Portage Township, Potter County, Pennsylvania, in the remote north-central part of the state (1856). By the 1870s Brownlee had established a successful lumber manufactory, John Brownlee & Sons, at North Wharton in Potter County. He was married in 1851, to Elizabeth Savage (1827-1883), also of County Down. Thirty-two of the manuscripts in the collection predate 1860; most of these are letters written to John and/or Elizabeth Brownlee by relatives or acquaintances who either preceded or followed the couple to America. Six of these letters were written from Ireland. As a persistent theme, these earlier letters treat the personal and vocational adaptations necessary in making the transition from the old world to the new. Among the most frequent correspondents are Brownlee's father, Robert Brownlee (1805-1885), a baker, who emigrated in 1854 (ten letters); and two stepbrothers, Thomas Lowry Young (1832-1888) and Hugh Young (1832-1912), natives of Killyleagh who emigrated in 1847 and 1850, respectively. Both the Youngs enjoyed successful public careers. After serving in the army for much of the 1850s, Thomas Young (eight letters) was admitted to the bar and became a prominent Cincinnati attorney and Republican politician, serving two terms as U.S. representative from Ohio. Hugh Young (six letters) farmed in Potter County and worked in journalism before becoming a successful Pittsburgh financier. Post-Civil War papers in the collection include a small number of business letters directed to John Brownlee, as well as a pair of Brownlee's account books (with content dating mostly from the 1870s); a group of personal letters to John and/or Elizabeth Brownlee from the early 1880s, whose prevailing topic is Elizabeth's failing health; and a number of letters written by and to the Brownlee children, six of whom appear to have survived to adulthood. The Brownlees and their extended family were Protestants, of Scots descent. MSN/EA 0504-1 to MSN/EA 0504-77. [Finding Aid & Images]

1 letter. A personal letter written and signed by Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832), signer of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. senator from Maryland. The letter, written when Carroll was eighty-three, deals with legal matters and is addressed to Major General Robert Goodloe Harper at Baltimore. MSN/EA 5009-1.

198 letters, some with envelopes; 7 records. Most of the letters in this collection were directed to the Whiting, Vermont home of the widow Mary Norton Casey and her son, the farmer Daniel N. Casey, in the 1840s and 50s. Sixty-three were written by Mary N. Casey's daughter, Mary A. Casey Newman (b. 1820), as a student at Troy (NY) Female Seminary and as a teacher at plantation schools and academies throughout the American South. Nineteen were written by another Casey daughter, Louise (b. 1829), who likewise attended Troy and taught school in the South. The balance were written by and/or to other Casey family members and their near neighbors, the Needhams, who intermarried with the Caseys during the period covered by the correspondence. MSN/EA 5032-1 to MSN/EA 5032-80. [Finding Aid]

87 letters. At least 74 of the 87 letters in this group were written to Clarissa Chadwick (c1775-1851) of West Cambridge (now Arlington), Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Chadwick, who never married, received the letters over the course of more than fifty years (1798-1850), from perhaps eighteen different correspondents. The greater number appear to have been written by female friends, and are primarily personal and/or social in content. A much smaller accumulation of letters within the group was written by and to members of the Whittemore family, also of West Cambridge. MSN/EA 5000-1 to MSN/EA 5000-87.

1 letter. A letter written and signed by the publisher George W. Childs during his brief (1860-61) partnership with J. B. Lipincott. The letter is addressed to the legal writer and novelist Austin Abbott. MSN/EA 5034-1.

36 manuscripts. George Walker Crawford (1798-1872) was a prominent Georgia Whig whose political career included terms as state representative (1837-42), U.S. representative (1843), and governor (1843-47). In 1849-50 he served in Zachary Taylor's cabinet as secretary of war. He is best remembered, perhaps, for his central role in the resolution of the Galphin Claim, a scandal that shook the Taylor administration and the Whig party in the spring of 1850. The papers include 28 letters written to Crawford, by almost as many different individuals; most of these date from his years as governor and cabinet member, and most are political in content. Several were written by Whig party members of some repute, including John M. Berrien of Georgia and Edward Carrington Cabell of Florida. There are in addition eight non-epistolary manuscripts, four of which pertain to the Galphin Claim. MSN/EA 0500-1-F1; MSN/EA 0500-2 to MSN/EA 0500-33. [Finding Aid & Images]

13 letters. Charles Cogswell Doe (1830-1896) of Derry, Rockingham County, New Hampshire was recently graduated from Dartmouth College when he embarked on a trip west to visit his brother in Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin. Eleven of the letters in the present collection were written by Doe during this trip, three on the journey west and eight from Janesville. In addition to personal and family news the letters (which range in date from September to December 1849) provide a good deal of description of life in Janesville and the surrounding area, from finance, business and agriculture to religious and social matters. In later life Doe became a jurist of great note, and was New Hampshire's chief justice from 1876 until his death. MSN/EA 5035-1 to MSN/EA 5035-13. [Finding Aid]

3 letters. A group of three letters written between the Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer Sylvester Graham (1794-1851) and Charles G. Havens (1808-1888) of New York. The letters (two by Graham, one by Havens) have to do with fundraising for the Grahamite cause and with Graham's breach of confidence in publishing of a letter from Havens. Among the fundamental tenets of the Graham system were vegetarianism, the consumption of whole wheat bread, abstinence from alcohol, and chastity. MSN/EA 5039-1 to MSN/EA 5039-3.

13 letters. Thirteen personal letters written by the French immigrant Antoine Garrigues de Flaujac, mostly directed to his mother in France. The letters describe his experiences in Haiti and the Caribbean (1803-04), and in the area around New Orleans, Louisiana (1804-07). MSN/EA 5040-1 to MSN/EA 5040-13. [Finding Aid]

1 letter. A brief letter written and signed by Hannibal Hamlin (1809-1891) as United States senator from Maine. The letter is directed to a General R. Jones. MSN/EA 5003-1.

1 letter (4 pages). A letter of around 2,000 words written by an unidentified resident of the mill town of Greeneville, New London County, Connecticut, on 2 November 1839. The addressee is a nephew, David B. Hunt, in New York. In rejecting a request for financial assistance, the author describes the economic "trouble and derang[e]ment among our [cotton] manufa[c]turing establishments." He goes on to attribute the slump to a judgment of God against the institution of slavery and its enablers. MSN/EA 5030-1.

76 letters. Seventy-six letters written by or to William and Marilla Clay Houghton of Caledonia County, Vermont, and eight of their eleven sons and daughters, 1832 to 1850. Notable among these offspring was the printer and publisher Henry Oscar Houghton (1823-1895), to whom 28 of the letters in the collection are directed, when Houghton was in his teens and 20s. There are also a number of letters written from Alabama, by the many family members who migrated there. MSN/EA 5036-1 to MSN/EA 5036-75. [Finding Aid]

1 letter (2 pp.). A letter written from Detroit by the Roman Catholic bishop Peter Paul Lefevre, discussing conditions in the diocese to which he had just been appointed as administrator. Lefevre describes the diocese (comprising the state of Michigan and Wisconsin Territory) and its Catholic population, and discusses financial difficulties, the confiscation of church property by the state, and the need of the church to further its expansion. The letter is in French, and is addressed to a Monsieur Vergaussen in Ghent. MSN/EA 5029-1.

1 letter. A single manuscript letter from John Kelly, a Catholic priest, to an unnamed Protestant clergyman and the Chairman of the local Clerical Meeting, 1837 or 1838. Kelly explains why Catholic clergy generally remain aloof from temperance societies. MSN/EA 5038-1. [Finding Aid]

13 letters and 1 poem. A group of letters written mostly by officers of the Black Ball packet Liverpool, describing the ship's calamitous maiden voyage of July 1822. Nine days out from New York, on 25 July, the 496-ton Liverpool (William Lee, Jr.) struck an iceberg and sank. Thirty-six passengers and crew were rescued by a fishing vessel after five days in the ship's open boats, and were taken to St. John's, Newfoundland. One passenger, an infant, failed to survive. Eleven of the manuscripts in the group were written by Hewlett T. Coles, Liverpool's second officer. Coles began the first of his letters—all are directed to his wife, Catherine Vanderbilt Suydam (b. ca. 1801)—on 17 July. He continued writing after the wreck, from Liverpool's boats, from St. John's, and ultimately from the schooner Eliza, which transported the crew back to New York. The last of his 10 letters was written on 25 August, off Long Island. There is also a ballad recounting the wreck, in 20 stanzas, composed by Coles aboard Eliza. Coles' manuscripts are at once fervent love letters and an epistolary diary, recording his adventure as events unfolded. The group also includes two supplementary accounts of the disaster. In a three-page letter written on his return to New York, on 26 August, Capt. Lee informs his father of the "Total Loss" of the ship, describing the wreck and its aftermath. And in another letter to the Lee family, written the following day, William L. Woodard—Capt. Lee's 21-year-old nephew, sailing on Liverpool in an unidentified capacity—recounts the same events in greater detail. MSN/EA 5022-1 to MSN/EA 5022-14. [Finding Aid & Images]

1 letter. A brief letter written and signed by the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), complying with an autograph request. MSN/EA 5012-1.

22 letters, some with envelopes. A collection of letters written or received by the merchant seaman James A. Loughead, a Philadelphia native. Loughead (b. c1805) is the author of nine of the letters; these date from 1829 to 1842 and are directed to his wife, Elizabeth Jones Loughead (b. c1815), in Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey. Most were written from New Orleans, and discuss both maritime matters—Loughead was first officer aboard a number of commercial vessels—and the couple's personal and domestic affairs. An additional eleven letters were written to James Loughead by his parents, Robert and Martha Loughead, from Philadelphia (1827-28) and Londonderry, Ireland (1846-50), where Robert Loughead was United States Consul. The seven letters from Ireland, addressed to Captain James Loughead in Camden and written exclusively by Robert, speak of living abroad, of keeping up with U.S. politics, and of the increasingly disastrous state of the Irish economy (and attendant starvation) in 1846-47. Two additional letters (1826 and 1840) were written by Elizabeth Jones Loughead to her husband. MSN/EA 5026-1 to MSN/EA 5026-23. [Finding Aid & Images]

23 letters. Twenty-two of the letters in this group were written by Elizabeth Johnson Means to her friend and relation Elizabeth Greene Hubbard (1817-1895) of Boston. Hubbard, who in 1841 married Edward Buck, was a daughter of Massachusetts state supreme court justice Samuel Hubbard. The letters span a decade following Elizabeth Means's marriage and removal to Concord, Massachusetts from Andover in January 1840. An additional letter was written by Elizabeth's husband, Reverend James Means, also to Elizabeth Hubbard. The letters deal primarily with matters of friendship and family, with some mention of intellectual and spiritual life in Concord and Andover. MSN/EA 5001-1 to MSN/EA 5001-23.

1 letter. A letter written and signed by Ely Moore (1798-1860) as United States representative from New York. The letter, addressed to secretary of the navy Mahlon Dickerson, seeks Dickerson's support in gaining Isaac F. Doughty a lieutenant's commission in the Marine Corps. MSN/EA 5010-1.

1 letter. A patronage letter written and signed by the Brooklyn lawyer and future state supreme court justice Nathan B. Morse, to Greene C. Bronson (1789-1863), then collector of customs of the port of New York. MSN/EA 5015-1.

2 letters. A pair of letters written by John Munn, a New England native lately settled as a merchant and banker in Canton, Madison County, Mississippi, to his sister, Maria Munn, of Vermont. Much of the content is personal, but each letter also contains a good deal of anti-Abolitionist sentiment. "I have lately written articles," Munn says, "urging a separation of the union as our only salvation, for nothing short of it will give the south peace . . . . as the tide of Abolition is fast overflooding the entire North, they will soon attempt the liberation of our slaves by legal enactment, when a civil war must ensue." (8 July 1836). MSN/EA 5024-1 to MSN/EA 5024-2.

58 letters. Fifty-one of the 58 letters in this group were written to James Witter Nicholson (1773-1851), in New Geneva, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The Nicholson family, originally from Maryland, is today best remembered for its long and distinguished service in the navy. James W. Nicholson's father, Captain James Nicholson (1737-1804) was ranking captain in the Continental navy during the Revolution. After the war he became a leading figure in New York anti-Federalist circles, serving for a time as president of the Democratic Society of that city. One of James W. Nicholson's five sisters, Hannah, was the second wife (m. 1793) of Albert Gallatin, secretary of the treasury under Jefferson and Madison. The community of New Geneva had in fact been founded by Gallatin and several partners, including James Nicholson, as a speculation; after 1799 the partnership dissolved, but Nicholson remained at New Geneva to oversee Gallatin's interests. Most of the letters to James were written by three of his sisters: Maria Nicholson Montgomery (1775-1868; 38 letters), Catharine Nicholson Few (9), and Jehoiadden (Adden) Nicholson Chrystie (3). Maria's letters to her brother are relatively evenly spaced over nearly forty years (1804-1842); for much of this time, from 1809 to 1828, she was married to John Montgomery (1764-1828), U.S. representative from Maryland and, later, mayor of Baltimore. Though these are essentially family letters, there is a good deal of commentary on political and military matters, especially during the War of 1812. The group also includes eight letters between members of the Chrystie family of Albany, New York, into which Adden Nicholson had married. MSN/EA 5002-1 to MSN/EA 5002-58. [Finding Aid & Images]

1 letter. A letter, discussing legal matters, written and signed by the New York lawyer William Curtis Noyes (1805-1864). MSN/EA 5016-1.

1 letter. A letter written and signed by the journalist and poet Eliza Henderson Otis (1796-1861). The letter pertains to a gift for the poet H. W. Longfellow. MSN/EA 5013-1.

16 letters, 1 land deed, and 3 miscellaneous manuscripts. A group of personal letters, mostly written by and to members of the Page family (of Cornville in Maine) and the Moore and Butler families (of New Hampshire). Figuring particularly prominently in the correspondence are the sisters Eliza Page Kinsman (1790-1880) and Abigail (Nabby) Page Moore; the latter's marriage to Enoch Moore of Deerfield, New Hampshire is the most obvious link between the family names represented in the correspondence. Content consists primarily of family news. MSN/EA 5004-1 to MSN/EA 5004-19.

6 letters (25 pages). Letters describing the author's activities in and around Mountain City, Kansas Territory (later Central City, Colorado Territory) during the Pike’s Peak gold rush of 1858-1861. MSN/EA 10001-01.

1 letter. A letter written and signed by David Porter (1754-1808), as master of the revenue cutter Active of Baltimore. The letter, expressing a grievance, is addressed to Robert Purviance, collector of customs of the port of Baltimore. Porter was father of Commodore David Porter, USN (1780-1843), and grandfather of Admiral David Dixon Porter (1813-1891). MSN/EA 5008-1.

1 letter (3 pages).< A letter written home by the cook and steward of the New Bedford whaleship Margaret Scott, during its 1841-1844 voyage to the Pacific. MSN/EA 10008-01.

67 letters, 6 additional manuscripts, and 1 printed item. A group of 67 letters, mostly personal, written by or to members of the Richards family of Massachusetts and Illinois, chiefly during the late 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s. Thirty-three of the letters were written by George H. Richards (1816-1903), a Massachusetts native who, in 1837, moved west, pursuing his trade as a carpenter and establishing a farm near Hillsboro in Montgomery County, in south-central Illinois. A series of 19 of these letters, dating from 1837 to 1843 and addressed to his brother Henry (b. ca. 1819) in Boston, chronicles the early years of George's settlement in the West. These speak of life in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri (where Richards first worked as a builder) and in Illinois, with commentary on the agriculture, language, social customs, and politics of these regions. A second series of 14 letters of George Richards (1856-58) was written during a stay in Charleston, South Carolina and, subsequently, from Hillsboro. In 1842 Richards married Irene Huse Lincoln (1813-1857), whose parents owned a farm near the Richards family property in Roxbury, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. Twelve letters in the correspondence were written wholly or partly by Irene Richards, many of them from Hillsboro in the 1840s to her sister or parents, describing, alongside family news, her adaptation to life in Illinois. Also, there is a largely unrelated group of twelve personal letters (mostly 1839-41) written to Henry Richards by Frederick H. Whitney (b. ca. 1815), a native Bostonian removed to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was engaged in business and eventually came to run a soap and candle manufactory. The letters of George and Irene Richards are substantial and quite literate; several sheets of George's poems are included among the letters. MSN/EA 5023-1 to MSN/EA 5023-73. [Finding Aid]

1 letter (2 pages), with address leaf. A letter written on 21 April 1824 by fur trader Rix Robinson (1789-1875), from an American Fur Company trading post at the mouth of the Grand River in Michigan Territory. The letter is directed to Robert Stuart (1785-1843), the company's director of trade at Michilimackinac, and requests that a boat deliver supplies and pick up furs gathered over the winter. MSN/EA 5028-1.

1 letter. A letter written partly by David Sawyer Rowe (b. 1814) and partly by his wife, H. N. Rowe. The letter describes Manchester, New Hampshire, and the female academy at which David Rowe had recently begun teaching. MSN/EA 5019-1.

1 letter. A personal letter written and signed by future commanding general of the army Phil Sheridan (1831-1888), as a West Point cadet. The letter is addressed to his sister Mary, and describes, with some sarcasm, the ceremony wherein Sheridan receives his warrant as cadet. MSN/EA 5014-1.

29 letters and 3 miscellaneous manuscripts. A group of personal and some business letters written by and to members of the extended family of William Sims (b. 1801), of Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio. Among those figuring prominently in the correspondence are Sims himself (a Scottish immigrant who settled in Dayton in 1823) and the families of his daughters Isabella Sims Akins and Sara Sims Ashcroft. MSN/ES 5027-1 to MSN/EA 5027-30.

19 letters. The central figure in this small family correspondence is Abraham Skinner, Jr. (b. 1789), a young man embarking on a career in trade in Brookfield, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Skinner was the son of the physician Dr. Abraham Skinner (1756-1810) and Sarah (Sally) Faulkner Skinner (1763-1846), of Acton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Fourteen of the 19 letters in the group were written to Abraham Jr., and three others were written by him. Other family members figuring prominently in the correspondence include Sarah Skinner (the author of six letters, wholly or in part) and Abraham Jr's younger brother, Henry (b. 1792), also the author of six letters. Most of the letters are brief; some, especially those from Henry Skinner, touch on matters of business as well as personal and family news. Two letters from Abraham Jr. to his father seek medical advice. Of particular note is a letter to Skinner from Jabez Upham (1764-1811), then U.S. representative from Massachusetts' 10th Congressional District, regarding election returns from Brookfield (13 November 1808). MSN/EA 5025-1 to MSN/EA 5025-19.

1 vol., 22 cm., 91 leaves, with 177 pages of manuscript entries. A letter copy book containing about 125 pieces of outgoing military correspondence written by 1st Lt. James S. Swearingen of the U.S. Army, during service at the frontier post of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 1806 to November 1807. During this time Swearingen was ranking officer of Pittsburgh's small garrison. The letters deal with recruiting, desertion, supplies, Indian affairs, and other matters. Many of the letters are directed to Washington, most notably to Col. Henry Birkbeck (Chief of the Artillery Corps) and Henry Dearborn (Secretary of War under Jefferson). In several of the letters (December 1806) Swearingen relays his knowledge of "the supposed expedition carried on under the direction of Col. [Aaron] Burr"—the Burr Conspiracy. The book also contains a few copies of letters received, receipts, and other documents. MSN/EA 5037-1-B. [Finding Aid]

15 letters. A series of letters written from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa by Theron S. Talmage (b. 1834 in Greenville, Greene County, New York), to his friend and fellow evangelical Francis H. Wakeley (b. c1832) of Greenville. Eleven of the letters were written from Beloit, Rock County, Wisconsin, where Talmage arrived in 1854 with thoughts of proselytizing and studying for the ministry. Talmage writes of his religious calling and of the more secular pursuits that came to occupy his time: working on the farm of his brother-in-law (during the summer); teaching school (during the winter); and, ultimately, working as an itinerant salesman for a reaper manufacturer. Talmage also has a good deal to say of the village of Beloit and its environs. MSN/EA 5021-1 to MSN/EA 5021-15.

1 letter. A personal letter written and signed by Roger Brooke Taney (1777-1864) as chief justice of the U.S. supreme court. The letter is written to Jervis Spencer. MSN/EA 5005-1.

1 letter. A personal letter written and signed by Daniel Waldo (1762-1864), Congregational minister and one of the last surviving veterans of the Revolutionary War. The letter, written when Waldo was one hundred years old, dispenses advice on living "a long & happy life". MSN/EA 5011-1.

1 letter. An undated personal letter written and signed by Daniel Webster (1782-1852) as United States senator from Massachusetts. The letter is written to the financier Samuel B. Ruggles, and probably pertains to a large loan Webster negotiated in 1839, with his Western lands as collateral. MSN/EA 5006-1.

1 letter. A personal letter written and signed by Thomas Tucker Whittlesey (1798-1868) as United States representative from Connecticut. The letter, written to F. S. Wildman, discusses the Graves-Cilly duel of 25 February 1838. MSN/EA 5007-1.

2 letters. The Jesuit priest Edmund J. Young (1822-1892) taught literature and rhetoric at several American colleges, most notably Santa Clara in California. The collection includes a letter written to Young at Mt. St. Mary's College in Maryland (1846), and one written by him when he was teaching at Holy Cross College in Massachusetts, advising a young man contemplating the priesthood (1859). MSN/EA 5033-1 to MSN/EA 5033-2.