Correspondence, 1841-1876.

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Correspondence, 1841-1876.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191259784

This collection of approximately one hundred letters, for the period 1841 to 1876, were written to Mrs. Sibley (and her daughter) primarily by cousins Mary Ann (Cutler) Waterman (1800-1863) of Clear Branch, Va., and Samary Stedman (McClanathan) Sherman (1805-1898) of Sterling Bottom, Ohio, and their children who settled in various parts of Kansas, Illinois, and Missouri. The letters contain family news and vital records, comments on the weather and crops, religious verses, land and housing policies, recipes, and cures for various diseases, including consumption. There are also rich descriptions of the Sherman and Waterman children's "pioneering" in Kansas and Illinois, including Indian troubles and crop failures, and references to temperance, the coming of the railroads, and the "necessity" for the anti-Roman Catholic movement. Of special note are the many allusions throughout the letters from Northern and Southern cousins to the crisis of the Civil War era, including Mary Ann Waterman's frequent defense of slavery, her reading of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and belief in the South's need for better roads and schools, Mrs. Sibley's sending of abolitionist tracts to her cousin, descriptions of slave beatings and slave rentals, and references to Harper's Ferry, Lincoln's election, the outbreak of war, secession troubles in St. Joseph, Mo., and enlistments of family members. After 1861, only letters from Northern cousins continued, with comments on the war's progress and deaths of family members on the battlefield. Mrs. Sherman copied for Mrs. Sibley the last letter of her grandson, Lyman Stedman White (1843-1864), written during the battle of Ball's Bluff with a full account of the action. After the war, letters written by cousins from both North and South refer to their growing families, the many improvements in Kansas since the 1850s, and a trip to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876.

1 box.

American Antiquarian Society

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6957788

American Antiquarian Society

Related Entities

There are 7 Entities related to this resource.

Sibley, Lucretia Carter b. 1798.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jh545r (person)

Lucretia Carter Sibley (1798- ), the daughter of Ezbon Carter (1765-1803) and Rhoda (Cargill) Carter (1771-1806), was born in Dudley, Mass., on 23 August 1798. She married, in Uxbridge, Mass., on 28 October 1819, Royal Sibley (1793-1822). They had two children: George Henry (1821- ) and Anna Maria (1822-1865), who married Rev. George Lewis Hovey (1810-c.1878), a Congregational missionary. From the description of Correspondence, 1841-1876. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 191259784 ...

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tz44c1 (person)

Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809, Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky-died April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.) was the sixteenth President of the United States from 1861 until his death by assassination. He was the son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Thomas Lincoln, and Nancy Hanks. In 1816, Lincoln moved to Pigeon Creek, Indiana, where he worked on his family's farm. Following his mother's death two years later, he continued working on farms until moving with his father to New Sa...

Sherman, Samary Stedman McClanathan, 1805-1898.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x93tt4 (person)

Hovey, Anna Maria Sibley, 1822-1865.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69329c2 (person)

White, Lyman Stedman, 1843-1864.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69s384s (person)

Centennial Exhibition 1876 Philadelphia, Pa.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6100x43 (corporateBody)

The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 marked the 100th anniversary of American freedom. The celebration took place in Philadelphia from May 10 to November 10 and attracted over eight million visitors. The exhibition spread across 450 acres of ground in Fairmont Park and consisted of over 200 buildings. Planning for the event began in 1870, and in 1871, Congress established the United States Centennial Commission to plan and run the exhibition. The following year saw the incorporation of the Centenni...

Waterman, Mary Ann Cutler 1800-1863.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64q9b4n (person)