Lloyd C. Bentley letters, 1885-1896.

ArchivalResource

Bentley, Lloyd C., 1872-1961. Lloyd C. Bentley letters, 1885-1896.

Lloyd C. Bentley letters, 1885-1896.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50901092

The bulk of the collection consists of letters received by Lloyd during the years he was serving as a druggist, in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Most of them come from his mother, Ellen, living in Morrisville, with an enclosed letter from his brother Homer. Ellen Bentley's letters comment on the weather, births, deaths, and marriages, local events such as fires and floods, the installation of electricity, of a town water system, and of the continued poor health of her husband, Edgar. At one point she comments on the fact that the doctor had made 121 visits between January and June. (In Edgar's obituary in the Morrisville News and Citizen his continued poor health since the Civil War was noted.) No reference was made in the letters of Edgar's profession, though it obviously involved some farming. The mother is constantly suggesting that Lloyd settle closer to home, that he ask for more money, that he is being taken advantage of. Lloyd finally leaves Hyannis in 1896. Brother Homer's letters at first are almost exclusively devoted to his interest in horses and horse racing, but towards the end he buys a camera and that becomes his obsession, and in later life his profession. The rest of the letters are from People's Academy classmates in Morrisville, from a friend at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, from the druggist in Hyannis, and from Madge Paul, a young lady who signs off with increasing enthusiasm, but then disappears from the correspondence.

1 linear ft.

Vermont Historical Society