Manuscripts
Jacob Primer Leese letter to David Waldo
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Jacob Primer Leese letters
Manuscripts
Set of 18 letters sent to Jacob Primer Leese and his wife Rosalia by various family members between 1832 and 1863. The letters were sent from Nashville, Memphis, Kentucky, Ohio, Washington, D.C., and Reading, Pennsylvania by Leese's relatives, including his brother-in-law William Clarke, mother Joanna Primer Leese, sister-in-law Jane Ludlow Leese, sisters Sarah Leese Ferrill, Ann M. Leese Hotch, and Rosanna C. Leese Drew, brother Manuel Leese, and nephew George C. Hotch. The majority of the letters focus on family news, including condolences on the death of Leese's daughter Rosalie. Other topics include California statehood ("If you make her a free state she will come in - if a slave state she will be rejected," Manuel Leese wrote in 1851 - HM 19778); mention of William Clark's extensive travels throughout the eastern and southern United States in 1851 (HM 19779); news on Ohio in 1852, including a brief "excitement" for emigration to California, a visit by Hungarian statesman Lajos Kossuth that "raised some commotion in all philanthropic minds," and a proposed "Maine Liquor Law" that would make Ohio a dry state, which according to George Hotch would "destroy three of the principal staples of the state: corn, pork, and whiskey" (HM 19780); William Clark's speculations on selling a repeating rifle in California and supplying water to Panama, as well as mention of the Myra Clark Gaines case (HM 19781); and a description of Civil War era Memphis by Rosanna C. Leese Drew, who writes in 1863 that "our once prosperous and happy city has been nothing but sadness and gloom for the last two years...I have seen the glorious auld Stars and Stripes torn down and trampled in the dust" (HM 19789).
mssHM 19772-19789
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Jacob P. Leese letter to Charles Debrille Poston
Manuscripts
Leese writes concerning details of the legal matter "laid before the Mexican Minister" and of his involvement. Leese appears to be forming a company, and decides to grant Poston power of attorney. Typescript of original. Also included are photocopied pages from a pamphlet with a brief biography of Leese.
mssHM 46542
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John Jacob Astor letter to Ogden Hoffman
Manuscripts
Astor writes of the removal of John Charles Frémont from his post in the California. He also tells Hoffman: "Since we parted on the steamboat dock a year ago last July, what strange times have come upon us, it sometimes seems to me like a dream," and gives updates on friends and family.
mssHM 19012
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David Saville letters to "My beloved wife,"
Manuscripts
In HM 16646, dated 1861, January 31, Saville writes to his wife that he is confident he will be able to provide for them both financially. In HM 16647, dated 1861, April 30, he writes that he regrets some of his investing, and of the importance of preserving the Union "even if it should cost all the Treasure in the Country."
mssHM 16646-16647
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Jacob W. Waldsmith letter to John Waldsmith
Manuscripts
A handwritten letter (ink on paper) by Jacob Waldsmith to his father John Waldsmith, conveying news from Waldsmith's travels through the Midwest and Great Plains in the autumn of 1857, visiting Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska territories. In the letter, he comments upon the agricultural and economic potential of the region and the turbulent political condition following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. While in Missouri, he describes "The land is rich and productive...This I verily believe would soon be one of the foremost states in our union for agriculture if it was not for the damnable curse called slavery, the agitation of which has been rageing in this part of the country..."
mssHM 75847
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David P. McCafferty letter to Alexander Pogo, 1893-
Manuscripts
In this letter dated August 14, 1966, Florida Bible College student, David P. McCafferty asks Alexander Pogo about a verse in Job 26: 7. He inquires, "I would like to know if there has ever been any place in the north as being empty. Some secular College students will say "where is north"? It seems they just want to argue with everything a Bible College student has to say."
mssHM 83615