Meigs family.

Montgomery C. Meigs (1816-1892), was a career army officer who graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1836. Meigs spent the majority of his career in the Army Corps of Engineers, directing engineering projects from 1852 to 1882. He is most famous for his superb service as Quartermaster General of the Union Army during the Civil War. Montgomery C. Meigs married Louisa Rodgers (1817-1879), daughter of Commodore John Rodgers and Minerva Denison Rodgers (1784-1877).

Three children of Montgomery's and Louisa Rodger Meigs are represented in the papers, Mary Meigs Taylor (1843-1930), John Rodgers Meigs (1842-1864), and Montgomery (Mont) Meigs (1847-1931). Mary Meigs Taylor married an Army Colonel, Joseph Hancock Taylor. John Rodgers Meigs served in the Union Army and was killed in 1864 by Confederate guerillas. Montgomery C. Meigs believed that his son was killed because of Montgomery's position of Quartermaster General.

Montgomery Meigs followed his father and pursued the career of a civil engineer in the Army Corps of Engineers, working on navigation and flood control dams on the Mississippi River. Most of Montgomery's working life was spent on the northern parts of the river near Keokuk, Iowa and Rock Island, Illinois. Montgomery Meigs married Grace Lynde (1859-1925). Montgomery and Grace had six daughters, of whom five are represented in the papers: Mary Meigs Atwater, Grace ("Dick," "Richard") Meigs Crowder, Emily ("Tim," "Timmy") Meigs Fales, Louisa ("Spidge," "Weesy") Meigs Green, Cornelia Meigs, and Alice ("Po," "Posey") Meigs Orr.

Cornelia Meigs (1884-1973), is the most notable of the Meigs children. Cornelia, the fifth of six sisters, was born in Rock Island, Ill. Like several of her older sisters she attended Bryn Mawr College, where she received her A.B. degree in 1908. In 1915 she published her first book, The Kingdom of the Winding Road, and followed it with more than twenty-five other children's books. Later in life she wrote several books for adults, among them The Violent Men, in 1949, and in 1953 she was part author and editor of a comprehensive critique of children's books, A Critical History of Children's Literature.

Montgomery and Grace's other daughters are also featured in the papers. The other children wrote voluminous letters describing their experiences both at home and abroad. Daughter Mary married Max Atwater, a mining engineer, whose work took them to South America in 1908. Another daughter, Grace, studied medicine in Austria and Germany in 1911-1912. Alice, married Arthur Orr, a young diplomat, and was in Paris during World War I.