Ella P. Starkweather letter to "Mrs. Dwight and Family," | Collections | The Huntington

Ella P. Starkweather letter to "Mrs. Dwight and Family," | Collections | The Huntington

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Starkweather Family correspondence
Manuscripts
The collection consists of correspondence between Starkweather family members at home in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the four members who came to California during the Gold Rush era. Topics discussed in the letters include ocean voyages to California, agriculture and ranching in Stockton, and Starkweather family news. There is a hiatus in correspondence from 1866 to 1876. The letters after this period deal chiefly with business arrangements between Charles in Massachusetts and his brother Haynes, who had returned to California to be with his son. Persons represented in the collection by five or more pieces include: Elizabeth Starkweather Breck (5 letters), Roxana Starkweather Nowell (20 letters), Alfred Starkweather (34 letters), Almira Starkweather (12 letters), Almira L. Merrick Starkweather (10 letters), Charles Graves Starkweather (12 letters and 4 account books), Frances Loomis Starkweather (6 letters), Frederick Merrick Starkweather (7 letters), Haynes Kingsley Starkweather (1788-1866) (24 letters), Haynes Kingsley Starkweather (1822-1895) (71 letters), and Martha Phelps Starkweather (9 letters).
mssHM 54689-54932
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Ella Middleton Shute letters to Louie Earle Williams
Manuscripts
Series of letters from Ella Shute to her friend Louie Earle Williams, written when Ella was living in Wheatfields, Arizona, "12 miles from the mines" (she asks Louie to direct her letters to Globe City). Ella writes of her family life, their many illnesses ("every one here seems like dead people," she wrote in 1876) since moving "to the mines," and the cost of goods. She also writes of her son Walter (whom she refers to as Charles Clifton until 1878), including an incident where he was run over by a wagon wheel in 1879, and the birth of her son Eugene in 1878. She notes that her father, brothers Frank and Henry, and husband George are "at work in the mines," but that "we are not making any thing only a living." Frank also briefly worked at the Miami Mill Company until it burned down in May 1879. Ella speculated that it might have been arson, and lamented that the incident had caused many families to move away and had detrimentally affected the Middletons' and Shutes' mining interests. She also writes of dry conditions in August 1879, and that "the Indians ha[ve] burned every thing out and it will take a great deal of rains to bring every thing out again." Ella writes that she is unsure of the population of Wheatfields but that there are "so many young men down here that wants to get married but there is...few girls and they won't get married unless they get a rich man." She also mentions that her brother Henry and sister Hattie have gone away to school at the Picket Poste, and urges Louie to have her father move their family to Arizona. Also included is a letter to Louie from her friend Jennie A. Huckaby in Alexander, Illinois. Jennie writes that she envies Louie's work in a milliner's shop ("let's both learn [the trade] then we can set up a shop together"),that she hopes to be well enough to return home to Iowa soon, and of her "cherished wish" to go to California. She concludes that there "is nothing going on here except a negro excursion to Chicago."
mssHM 76737-76747
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1853-1858
Manuscripts
The collection consists of correspondence between Starkweather family members at home in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the four members who came to California during the Gold Rush era. Topics discussed in the letters include ocean voyages to California, agriculture and ranching in Stockton, and Starkweather family news. There is a hiatus in correspondence from 1866 to 1876. The letters after this period deal chiefly with business arrangements between Charles in Massachusetts and his brother Haynes, who had returned to California to be with his son. Persons represented in the collection by five or more pieces include: Elizabeth Starkweather Breck (5 letters), Roxana Starkweather Nowell (20 letters), Alfred Starkweather (34 letters), Almira Starkweather (12 letters), Almira L. Merrick Starkweather (10 letters), Charles Graves Starkweather (12 letters and 4 account books), Frances Loomis Starkweather (6 letters), Frederick Merrick Starkweather (7 letters), Haynes Kingsley Starkweather (1788-1866) (24 letters), Haynes Kingsley Starkweather (1822-1895) (71 letters), and Martha Phelps Starkweather (9 letters).
mssHM 54689-54932
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1859-1884
Manuscripts
The collection consists of correspondence between Starkweather family members at home in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the four members who came to California during the Gold Rush era. Topics discussed in the letters include ocean voyages to California, agriculture and ranching in Stockton, and Starkweather family news. There is a hiatus in correspondence from 1866 to 1876. The letters after this period deal chiefly with business arrangements between Charles in Massachusetts and his brother Haynes, who had returned to California to be with his son. Persons represented in the collection by five or more pieces include: Elizabeth Starkweather Breck (5 letters), Roxana Starkweather Nowell (20 letters), Alfred Starkweather (34 letters), Almira Starkweather (12 letters), Almira L. Merrick Starkweather (10 letters), Charles Graves Starkweather (12 letters and 4 account books), Frances Loomis Starkweather (6 letters), Frederick Merrick Starkweather (7 letters), Haynes Kingsley Starkweather (1788-1866) (24 letters), Haynes Kingsley Starkweather (1822-1895) (71 letters), and Martha Phelps Starkweather (9 letters).
mssHM 54689-54932
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1836-1853
Manuscripts
The collection consists of correspondence between Starkweather family members at home in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the four members who came to California during the Gold Rush era. Topics discussed in the letters include ocean voyages to California, agriculture and ranching in Stockton, and Starkweather family news. There is a hiatus in correspondence from 1866 to 1876. The letters after this period deal chiefly with business arrangements between Charles in Massachusetts and his brother Haynes, who had returned to California to be with his son. Persons represented in the collection by five or more pieces include: Elizabeth Starkweather Breck (5 letters), Roxana Starkweather Nowell (20 letters), Alfred Starkweather (34 letters), Almira Starkweather (12 letters), Almira L. Merrick Starkweather (10 letters), Charles Graves Starkweather (12 letters and 4 account books), Frances Loomis Starkweather (6 letters), Frederick Merrick Starkweather (7 letters), Haynes Kingsley Starkweather (1788-1866) (24 letters), Haynes Kingsley Starkweather (1822-1895) (71 letters), and Martha Phelps Starkweather (9 letters).
mssHM 54689-54932
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Earl, Ella [Mrs. Guy C. Earl] letters
Manuscripts
The Ford and Connelley family correspondence consists of letters primarily addressed to Jerome Chester Ford and his wife, Minnie Belle Ford. The letters from Ford's son, Clinton Ireton Brainerd, mostly concern his finances. In a letter dated February 28, 1938, Clinton's wife writes "I have blamed myself a thousand times over, not that I should have been so insistant [sic] about getting out of the stock market but I have been so late in doing it...However, I am convinced of one thing that something in human nature that makes you hang on when you are apparently making money to try and make a little more is hard to overcome." The letters from Margaret Jean and Janet Anne Connelley are addressed to relatives, primarily thanking them for cards and gifts received. Note: Margaret Jean is often referred to as "Peggy." Connelley's wife, Margaret, writes lengthy letters updating her parents on family and social life. The bulk of Connelley's letters are written from the United States Navy Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he teaches. In one letter, Connelley admits "I suppose I will stay here at the Naval Academ about a year and somebody has be here, but I feel funny not to be at sea fighting instead of being here teaching" (March 17, 1942). There are also several letters written on the USS Indianapolis (CA-35). Connelley blissfully writes "The wind is constant and the weather is perfect- a light blanket feels good at night. The white caps on the water are so very white against the blue of the water, it really is an intoxicating sight-diamonds against sapphires" (February 22, 1939). Additonal letters found in the collection are from other relatives.
mssFordConnelleycorrespondence