Benjamin Philip Cuny family papers, 1845-1949 (bulk 1845-1880).

ArchivalResource

Cuny, Benjamin Philip, 1804-1883. Benjamin Philip Cuny family papers, 1845-1949 (bulk 1845-1880).

Benjamin Philip Cuny family papers, 1845-1949 (bulk 1845-1880).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/262829394

Personal correspondence, papers, and records of the Cuny family of Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, and the Clark family of Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana. Bulk of correspondence to Benjamin Philip Cuny from family members. One personal letter written from Texas by Cuny's brother, Stephen Edmond, discusses Reconstruction politics and labor there and in Louisiana (1868). Other letters from Cuny's children of interest are: a letter from his daughter, Maria, describing her and her husband's efforts to farm cotton near Trenton, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana (1866); and two letters from his son, Theodore, describing his involvement in steamship ventures in New Orleans (1869-70). Various legal and personal records and volumes pertain primarily to the ownership and management of the family's property. Manuscript volumes include: a record book of cases heard by Cuny as a justice of the peace at Sicily Island (1846-1857); a plantation diary kept by Benjamin P. Cuny for 1853 with additional information for the years 1851-1859 and pencil notations added later by Cuny's widow, Jane C. Lovelace, concerning crops, the 1897 flood, a revival, deaths, and recipes; and three memorandum books from the 1920s and 1930s probably kept by Cuny's daughter, Fannie Lovelace Clark. In these three latter volumes, recorded primarily in Alexandria, the author gives accounts of boarders, routine life during World War I, memoranda regarding daily expenditures for food and household needs, and occasional references to local politics, including family difficulties during the Huey Long governorship of Louisiana.

25 items.7 v.

Louisiana State University, LSU Libraries