Ellen Steele Sturges Papers

This collection contains 40 items (17 manuscripts, 4 letters, and 19 pieces of ephemera) by or related to Ellen Steele Sturges (1837-1930) of Michigan, Montana, and San Bernardino, California, and her family. Items chiefly consist of manuscripts of short stories written by Sturges, as well as two hymns. There is also a short 1-page autobiography by her father, Ebenezer Steele, and a small collection of genealogical and biographical notes detailing Ellen Steele Sturges's family and David Brainerd Sturges's life. One letter in the collection is a rejection notice from S.S. McClure Limited and includes an edited copy of "The Little Somnambulist." An 1852 letter contains a report by Ebenezer Steele regarding his missionary work in 1852 with an Ojibwa tribe in Michigan at "Na-yuh-mah-kauny" (or Naomikong). There is also a short note from Ellen's stepmother, Phebe Steele, recounting Ebenezer Steele's recollections of "Training Day" in Massachusetts. The ephemera includes Ellen Steele Sturges's nursing certificate, a Montana homestead certificate from 1877 to David Sturges, and a Confederate States bond issued by the Central Business College of Sedalia, Missouri, from 1864. There is also an obituary for Ellen Steele Sturges, a photograph of David Brainerd Sturges, two photographic postcards of their house in San Bernardino, California, and a view of buildings in Virginia City, Montana, by photographer O.C. Bundy, circa 1875.