Papers, 1756-1936.

Resource Type

ArchivalResource

Display Entry

Shaw-Webb family. Papers, 1756-1936.

Title

Papers, 1756-1936.

Resource Link

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191276479

Abstract

The collection includes family and business correspondence, and a miscellany of poems, recipes, and printed material, 1756 to 1936. Although the greatest emphasis in the correspondence is on family concerns (i.e., births, marriages, the intemperance of several relatives, and other illnesses), there are also references to Whig politics in Maine, student unrest at Bowdoin College, presidential elections, the "evils of Van Burenism," the "promise" of William Henry Harrison (1773-1841), and general economic problems during the early 1800s, including bank failures and unemployment. During the War of 1812, Anna Shaw described the British march up the Penobscot River not far from her home, while her grandson William Smith Shaw Peabody (1818-1877) described his life in San Francisco, Calif., in 1850 and his search for wealth. His cousin Maria Stover wrote extensively on her travels with her sea captain husband, describing in detail sightseeing trips to Malaga, Gibraltar, Liverpool, London, Washington, D.C., and a trip around Cape Horn. Cousin Ann Mary Hobbs ( - ) referred to abolitionist lectures, the lectures of William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) on the "Four Georges," and her visit to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, whose pavilions and exhibits she described in detail. The copious correspondence of Anna Farris concerns her courtship by Thomas C. Farris and provides much information relative to her suffering with consumption and her search for a variety of "cures" including a water-cure institution in Wernersville, Pennsylvania. Several family friends are also represented in the collection, including Mary H. Silsby ( - ) who wrote of her life in Chico, Calif., during the 1850s, Henrietta [S. White?] who was extensively involved in Universalism in Chicago, Ill., and Margaret Tinkham Peabody ( - ) who commented on the "glorious evil" of the Civil War and the need for emancipation. Three correspondents are of special interest: John Holmes (1773-1843), Maine's first U.S. senator; Dr. Maria Antoinette Meservey ( - ) of Bridgeville, Del. [her home residence was Bangor, and she graduated from New England Female Medical College in Boston in 1863]; and Nancy Colburn Hartford ( -1864) of Pike's Peak, Colorado Territory. Holmes' letters include political references to the U.S. Congress as well as to his controversial courtship of Caroline F[lucker?] Knox Swan (1783-1851), the daughter of Gen. Henry Knox (1750-1806). Dr. Meservy's letters constitute a fascinating account of a woman doctor's struggle to gain acceptance in a Southern town in 1867 and include references to the "excesses" of black freedmen, details of her own medical methods as contrasted with the "barbarous" obstetrical practices of Southern black women, and her dealings with puerperal fever and the dangers of tobacco. Nancy Colburn Hartford traveled to Pike's Peak to join her husband Miles F. Hartford ( - ) in his search for wealth. (Their daughter Evelyn Treat Hartford (1862-1943) was to marry Jahaziah Shaw Webb in 1881.) Nancy's letters to her mother Sophia Colburn ( - ) of Winterport, Me., 1860 to 1864, contain descriptions of her trip through New York City on her way to Colorado, the Colorado scenery, her life in a log cabin and pioneer life in Russell's Gulch. There are frequent references to the Civil War and its effect of preventing the Hartfords from attempting to return home. The collection also includes business correspondence, especially that of the Farris-Webb Produce Company, printed produce reports, and accounts, bills, and receipts of Hannah Webb, her son Jahaziah, and his company. There are also miscellaneous letters from various friends, newspaper articles, 1787 to 1936, concerning family deaths and items of family interest, advertisements and other printed items (e.g., medical "cures"), a miniature water color done by Maria Stover as a child, and many recipes (e.g., infants' food, whitewash, etc.), physicians' prescriptions, photographs, and sketches, such as a blueprint for a house. Included also are poems, essays, compositions, and religious extracts written by various family members, invitations and acceptances, Nathaniel Ames' Almanack for 1767 (which apparently belonged to a member of the family) with a brief interleaved diary concerning the weather and daily events. There is also a diary-record book of Evelyn Treat Hartford Webb, 1927 to 1936, containing entries on family events and problems, and a brief resume of most of the letters in the collection.

Extent

10 boxes.

Holding Repository

Gadsden Public Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6957917

Gadsden Public Library

Related Entities

There are 41 Entities related to this resource.

Bowdoin College

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jr1q64 (corporateBody)

Farris, Anna Leonard Webb, 1821-1868.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j97qkv (person)

Webb, Jahaziah Shaw, 1824-1890.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c553j8 (person)

Meservey, S. A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s488s0 (person)

Hobbs, Ann Mary, b. 1829.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6572vfq (person)

Peabody, Nancy Leonard Smith, 1785-1856.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67w7vg7 (person)

Webb, Hannah King Shaw, 1800-1875.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69g74kc (person)

Colburn, Sophia.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d80v87 (person)

Farris-Webb Produce Company.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m384fz (corporateBody)

Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c53p1t (person)

Amy Crowe (1831-1865) was a family friend who lived with Thackeray as his adopted daughter and later married Thackerays̓ cousin Edward Talbot Thackeray. From the description of [Letter] to Amy Crowe, 27 September [1854], 36 Onslow Sqr. Brompton. [1854] (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign). WorldCat record id: 35091085 Thackeray was an English novelist and satirist. J. Pearson and Co. and George William Childs were booksellers in London. Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchi...

Peabody, George Augustus

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jm2fzp (person)

Hartford, Nancy Colburn, d. 1864.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zk70g9 (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...

Stover, Augusta Maria Noyes, 1817-1871.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bg45kz (person)

Meservey, Maria Antoinette.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6184pz7 (person)

Farris, Thomas C.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xk9xz6 (person)

Hartford, Miles F.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kh25j8 (person)

Shaw family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x63xxp (person)

Irish family that were early settlers of Clark County, Ill. Nineveh served as County Commissioner for two terms and in the Black Hawk War. His brother William moved to the south and worked as an overseer on a plantation in Louisiana until he died in 1832 and left his estate to Nineveh's children. Nineveh's son William remained in Clark County where he farmed, and married Lucy Young in 1859. From the description of Papers, 1822-1916. (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library). WorldCat re...

Webb family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sn1sqt (person)

Peabody, Margaret Tinkham.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jh5466 (person)

Peabody, Leonard, 1822-1886.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6892pr9 (person)

Noyes, Maria B. Smith, 1790-1875.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sb5p68 (person)

Silsby, Mary R., 1843 or 1844-1916

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64q929k (person)

Goodnow, Harriet Stetson Smith, 1787-1869.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r22hh1 (person)

Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6650cng (person)

Epithet: of Add MS 34580 British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001094.0x00030c American Indian fighter and president of the United States. From the guide to the William Henry Harrison letter, 1795, (L. Tom Perry Special Collections) U.S president, Mar.-Apr. 1841; territorial governor of Indiana, 1801-1813; Ohio congressman, 1816-1819, state senator, 1819-1821, senator 1825-1828. From ...

Stover, Joseph

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68g975p (person)

Holmes, Caroline Flucker Knox Swan, 1783-1851.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m91snx (person)

Peabody, Clara Leonard, b. 1853.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sf4cmk (person)

Merrill, Emma Augusta Shaw Hobbs, 1792?-1875.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z33ggr (person)

Peabody, Mary Todd.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n02pz9 (person)

Shaw-Webb family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63v8gvd (family)

Five generations of the family of Anna Leonard Stetson Smith Shaw (1766-1847) of Dighton, Mass., are represented in this collection. Her five daughters were Nancy Leonard Smith Peabody (1785-1856), Harriet Smith Goodnow (1787-1869), Maria B. Smith Noyes (1790-1875), Emma Augusta Shaw Hobbs (1792?-1875), and Hannah King Shaw Webb (1800-1875). Eventually the family settled in Bucksport and Bangor, Me., and Atkinson, N.H., and corresponded extensively among themselves, their children, grandchildren...

Shaw, Charlotte Catherine Crosby Peabody, 1822-1844.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63x9qks (person)

Giles, Louise Lord.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jq2j63 (person)

Peabody, Stephen, 1773-1851.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6709hq1 (person)

Stephen Peabody (1773-1851), the son of Stephen Peabody (1741-1819) and Mary (Haseltine) Peabody (1741-1793), was born at Atkinson, N.H. on 6 October 1773. He married, on 10 April 1810, Nancy Leonard Smith (1785-1856); they had five children. Peabody graduated from Harvard in 1794. For the period 8 January 1799 to 15 June 1800, he was Captain of the 15th Regiment of Infantry of the United States Army. He was a Representative to the Maine Legislature in 1808-1809 and judge of the court of Common ...

Holmes, John, 1773-1843

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zg6zgg (person)

John Holmes (1773-1843), lawyer, was a United States Senator from York County, Maine. From the description of John Holmes correspondence, 1803-1838. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122485368 From the guide to the John Holmes correspondence, 1803-1838, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.) U.S. Commissioner under the Treaty of Ghent to divide the islands of Passamaquoddy Bay between the U. S. and Great Britain; later a Congressman from Mass...

Papers, 1756-1936.

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