Papers, 1830-1911.

ArchivalResource

Nason, Elias, 1811-1887. Papers, 1830-1911.

Papers, 1830-1911.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/207159520

This collection contains correspondence consisting primarily of letters to Nason with some letters and drafts of letters written by him. Most of the letters fall in the periods 1831 to 1840 and 1849 to 1858. Some of the letters are in shorthand. The letters reflect the varied aspects of Nason's career. The earliest are from family members and his financée, Mira Anne Bigelow ( - ). As a young person, Nason was very poor and there is information on his struggle to secure enough money to attend Brown. From 1836 to 1840, he lived in Georgia where he worked at various trades to support himself. In 1840, he returned to Massachusetts and taught in schools in Newburyport and Milford. In 1852, he was ordained and called to a pastorate in Natick, Mass. There are letters from fellow students at Brown (including Henry Chapin (1811-1878) of Worcester, Mass.), pupils he taught, parishioners, clergymen, and people active in the American Sunday School Union. There are also letters from family members, including his young sons, and his brother, Edward Shepard Nason (1820- ), music teacher and owner of a music store in Worcester. Nason had a large repertory of lectures and some of the correspondence concerns lyceum engagements. There are also letters written by Elias Nason to members of his family during his travels in England, France, and Italy, 1874 to 1875. The collection includes some of Nason's lectures and essays, mostly undated, as well as poetry, newsclippings, tributes to the Nasons' fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1886, several memorials written upon Elias Nason's death in 1887, and various miscellaneous family materials. The octavo volumes consist of Nason's detailed European travel journal, 1874-1875 (with sketches and photographs of his son, Charles, and the latter's wife); three diaries, 1830-1863, 1864-1886, 1886-1887; and Nason's copy of Ben Pitman's _The Phonographic Reader_ (Cincinnati, 1864), a method of shorthand. The last two diaries were written primarily in shorthand. Nason's diaries were begun when he was nineteen and contain details of his courtship of Mira Bigelow, his social life, early teaching career and lectures, temperance activities, his experiences in Georgia and his various pastorates in Massachusetts and difficulties with some parishioners, his attitude towards slavery and commentaries on the Civil War and politics. The second diary mentions his trips to Washington, D.C. during the war. The earliest journal contains genealogical notes and all three contain newsclippings that were pasted in the volumes.

3 boxes.5 v. ; octavo.

American Antiquarian Society