Anna Mercur (Mrs. Macklon Mercur) lived with her husband in Towanda, Pa., on the eve of and soon after the outbreak of the Civil War. She had several sisters who lived in the South, including Lizzie Buford (Mrs. T. Buford) of Eufaula and Clayton, Ala.; C. A. Swift, a minister's wife in Waymandsville, Ga.; Helen B., a boarding school operator in Wilmington, N.C.; and Caro, who operated a boarding school in Eufaula. Helen B. had at least two daughters, Lizzie, a teacher, and Helen. C. A. Swift had at least one daughter, Helen W. Swift, who attended Caro's boarding school. The collection includes twelve letters, August 1860-July 1861, received by Anna Mercur from her sisters and other relatives and friends. The prewar letters provide the candid opinions of women, from both the northern and southern viewpoint, on the secession crisis and the outbreak of the Civil War. The letters comment freely on the Republican Party, John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, the Crittenden Resolution, and abolitionists. Wartime letters express similar sentiments and document problems sending mail to the North, financial strains, and anxiety over the activities of sons and husbands organizing to fight for the Confederacy. Other topics in the letters are boarding school life in Eufaula, Ala., and Wilmington, N.C.; family events; and the reading habits of family members and friends. Also included are a photograph, ca. 1880s-1890s, of a woman on a casino boardwalk in Monte Carlo, Monaco, and a clipping, 1930, documenting the ancestry of George A. Jewett of Des Moines, Iowa.
