Illinois family.
Born in 1929 in Chicago, Illinois, Marion Gridley Hitchcock was the second child of William and Ruth Gridley. Oldest daughter Gloria, born in 1927, developed a mental illness in her late teens, which, as Ruth's diary illustrates, had a major impact on the life of her parents. Marion Gridley graduated from Grinnell College and in 1953 married Stephen Hitchcock, an entomologist. After working in a research lab while Stephen finished his Ph.D. in California, the couple settled in Connecticut to raise their two children and many pets. After Marion's mother died in 1965, William Gridley remained in Wilmette, Illinois, to care for Gloria. It became increasingly difficult for William to tend to Gloria while still working as a Chicago accountant and maintaining the large family house, and Gloria eventually became a patient at the Elgin State Hospital. This collection also contains original correspondence ca. 1860-1910 of Marion's great-aunt, Josephine "Jophie" Wheat Gridley. Jophie's husband Woodbridge was the older brother of Marion's paternal grandfather, Eben Channing Gridley. Josephine Wheat was born in 1841 and grew up around Amboy and Lee Center, Illinois. She married Yale graduate Russell Woodbridge Gridley in 1865 and they settled in Amboy where he ran a general store, frequently making business trips to his hometown of Candor, New York. Despite suffering from poor health, Jophie stepped up as the family matriarch at a young age following her mother's death and was much loved. Her correspondence begins around the time older brother George went missing in the Civil War, having been killed in the 1862 battle of Perryville. Josephine's younger sister Adelaide married Jophie's brother-in-law Eben, and she died from complications following the birth of their only child in 1874. The youngest Wheat sister, Alice, married Martin Garrison in 1874 and they had one daughter, but a scandalous affair on his part in 1882 led to their divorce. Younger brother Frederick "Fred" became a businessman and never married. Jophie also refers to several half-siblings like Nellie and Willie from the second marriage of Jophie's father, Lyman Wheat, to Harriet Lucretia Nash. Jophie and Woodbridge had three children: Harry (1866-1953), Grace (1868-1913), and Alice (1880-1930). Harry attended Beloit College, from which he wrote many humorous letters. Grace was an active young woman until a mysterious illness left her catatonic for several months, and she was committed to a mental hospital. Alice attended Rockford Female Seminary and diligently corresponded with her mother. None of the children married. Additionally, after the death of Jophie's sister in 1874, Jophie became a surrogate mother for Adelaide and Eben's daughter, Addie. Nicknamed "Birdie," Addie later married and became Addie Gridley Smith, and she always referred to Jophie as "Mamma." When Addie was a teenager, Eben married second wife Alice Mary (Smith) Gridley, and they had several children, including Marion's father William Whiting Gridley in 1893. Education was prized in the Gridley family, and Jophie's children, nieces, and nephews all attended Midwest schools and colleges. Woodbridge died in 1913, and Jophie followed in 1921. William Whiting Gridley regularly returned to Amboy in his later years to tend the Gridley cemetery plots, often bringing Gloria along.
From the description of Gridley-Hitchcock family papers, 1860-2007, bulk 1860-1970. (Newberry Library). WorldCat record id: 695692849
