Osborne family.

Three generations of the Osborne family are represented in this collection. There are, in addition, papers from an earlier generation of the Coffin, Pelham and Wright families. Major figures in the collection are described in the following historical sketch.

The papers of Peter Pelham (b. Dec. 18, 1785) form the earliest body of records. As a U.S. Army officer in the War of 1812, he was wounded and captured by the British, then returned to American lines in exchange for British prisoners. After the war Pelham was promoted to captain and stationed in the Florida Territory as a sub-agent for Indian affairs. Among his correspondents between 1812 and 1826 were Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, Col. Henry Atkinson, who was his uncle, Col. Henry Leavenworth, and Col. Josiah Snelling. Later, as an Army recruiter, Capt. Pelham toured the Middle States and traveled the frontier from St. Louis to the Upper Mississippi. Correspondence and military orders are dated from such outposts as Camp Cold Water, St. Peters, Detroit and Prairie du Chien. Pelham married Martha Coffin, the sister of Lucretia Coffin Mott and the daughter of Nantucket and Philadelphia Quakers. They had one child, Marianna. Capt. Pelham again dispatched to the Florida Territory, died on July 10, 1826, near Pensacola.

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