Hamilton (Family : Ft. Wayne, Ind.)

Allen Hamilton (1798-1864) came to America from Northern Ireland when he was eighteen years old (probably in 1818) and settled in the area that became Fort Wayne, Indiana. He traded with Native Americans, opened a dry goods store, and eventually became a banker. In 1828 he married Emerine Jane Holman (1810-1889), the daughter of Jesse Lynch Holman and Elizabeth (Masterson) Holman. They had 10 children: Eliza Hamilton (1832-1835), Andrew Holman Hamilton (1834-1895), Bessie Allen Hamilton (1836-1839), Thomas Hamilton (1838-1840), Erin Hamilton (1841-1842), Montgomery Hamilton (1843-1909), Mary Hamilton Williams (1845-1922), Emerine Jane Hamilton (1848-1856), Ellen Holman Hamilton Wagenhals (1853-1922), and Margaret Vance Hamilton (1854-1931). Andrew Holman Hamilton married Phoebe Ann Taber Hamilton (1841-1932); they had five children, Katherine Hamilton (1863-1932), Jessie Marie Hamilton (1865-1960), Agnes Hamilton (1868-1961), Allen Hamilton (1874-1961), and Taber Hamilton (1876-1942). Montgomery Hamilton married Gertrude Corrine Pond Hamilton (1840-1917); they had five children, Edith Hamilton (1867-1963), Alice Hamilton (1869-1970), Margaret Hamilton (1871-1969), Norah Hamilton (1873-1945), and Arthur Quintus Hamilton (1886-1967). Mary Hamilton Williams married Henry Martyn Williams (1843-1917); they had two children, Allen Hamilton Williams (1868-1960) and Creighton Hamilton Williams. Ellen Holman Hamilton Wagenhals married Samuel Wagenhals (1843-1920); they had six children, Margaret Hamilton Wagenhals (1881-1974), Katherine Hamilton Wagenhals (1883-1966), Herbert H. Wagenhals (1885-1966), Mildred Hamilton Wagenhals (1888-1973), Winfred R. Wagenhals (1891-1893), and Hildegarde Hamilton Wagenhals Bowen (1894-1979).

Allen Hamilton's own lack of education made him ambitious for his children: the sons attended American colleges and German universities; the daughters were sent to Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. The family was an extremely close-knit one; the two sons built homes near their father's and the grandchildren were raised together almost exclusive of outside friendships.

The most prominent of these relationships can be found in the correspondence of Jessie and Agnes Hamilton (sisters), Edith and Jessie Hamilton (cousins), and Alice and Agnes Hamilton (cousins). These women were born in the 1860s, brought up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and educated at Miss Porter's School. The earliest letters date from 1878, but the bulk of the correspondence was written between the 1880's and the 1930's. These letters detail day-to-day life at the Hamilton compound in Fort Wayne, at Miss Porter's School, and later in the various careers these women followed.