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
