Close
Digital Collections
Statement on Potentially Offensive Materials
Help
Rights and Reproductions
Log In / Sign Up
0
Selected
Invert selection
Deselect all
Deselect all
Click here to refresh results
Click here to refresh results
Go to Login page
Loading details...
You do not have the permission to view Original image
Add to collection
Download
Share PDF
Get link
Transcription
User-Contributed Transcription
I have changed my quarters, mainly for the reason that Mr. Rumsey's is too far from the Academy. I run in there almost every day regard them as the best friends I have here. Argyle is slowly improving in health but still has a cough, has been advised by his physician to spend next winter in a more mild and equable climate, he intends to start for Newark on business in a week or two to stay some weeks but their lawsuit with Waters about their water privilege comes on in Jan. and he thinks he must be here then, I fear not without some danger to his lungs from the rough lake winds and variable weather he has been very near consumption if he is not now tending to it. I do not know whether I have mentioned to you that I wrote last spring by the request of the Trustees, to a young lady of Fitchburg Mass. to take the Juvenile department of the Academy. Her name is Maria M. Woodbury; She went West at the time I did taught at Milwaukee a year then returned; we exchanged visits the first summer I was at Racine. She is a girl of fine sound sense, delicacy of feeling appreciates 'matters and things' and is pious: she will be a true friend to me I trust and that is the blessing & peculiarly need here, we board together at Ms. Allis' on Clinton Dr. Have for our use a pretty front chamber with those windows looking on a pleasant, quiet, shaded street for our sitting room, with a small sleeping room, opening out of it, making, you perceive, 'a suite of rooms'. On a little centre table under the glass, lie (showing to advantage on the blue and orange table cover, several pretty books, daguerreotypes of three of my brother (Eliab brought me his, taken by Charles Metcalf) my wash box, &c, and on one side are some small neat hanging bookshelves giving the room quite a cosy appearance. There are eight boarders in the family; we keep our own room, find our own fuel and lights, read to each other evenings, have read about half of "Bards of the Bible; and like it. Affec'ly Sister Anna.
Title
DeWitt, Elizabeth Anna Rich (half-sister), to Isaac Stevens Metcalf, Isaac Stevens Metcalf family papers, 1842-1851
Creator
Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, 1822-1898
Date
1842-1851
Place
United States
Subjects
Bowdoin College
,
Brothers and sisters
,
DuQuoin Coal Company
,
Illinois Central Railroad Company
Description
Use the link to the finding aid for a fuller description of collection contents that explains the use of the name and subject terms appearing in this catalog record.
Summary
Correspondence, writings, diaries, and journals documenting family and rural life, as well as early business correspondence and records, and a few photographs, all pertaining to Isaac Stevens Metcalf and the Metcalf, Furber, and Putnam families. Family correspondence was used to keep all of the branches of the family in touch with each other when family members moved away. There are many instances where multiple family members wrote on one letter to one or more other family members, and some people even wrote "family letters" that were intended to be shared amongst parents, siblings, and the like. Topics of family correspondence tend to be related to religion, daily activities on the farm, weather, and the news of friends and relatives (births, deaths, sicknesses, etc.) Business records of Metcalf's pertain to land ownership, railroad engineering and construction, and running a coal mining business. The mid-19th century business records also document tax payments and some reports including labor and payroll expenses. There are a few drawings and sketches from Metcalf's tenure as division engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad. The first accession of these family papers was a donation of the letters between Charles W. and Albina Rich, given by Grace Leadingham, Charles Rich's granddaughter. This gift was facilitated by Keyes D. Metcalf, 17th child of Isaac Stevens Metcalf.
Biographical/Historical Note
Railroad engineer, farmer, and businessman of Maine, Ohio, and Illinois during the second half of the 19th century. Isaac Stevens Metcalf was born in Royalston, Massachusetts, on Jan. 29, 1822. His father, Isaac Metcalf, had married Lucy Heywood in 1810; she died childless in 1820. In March 1821 he married Anna Mayo Stevens Rich, the widow of Charles Rich, by whom she had had three children (named Charles, Elizabeth Anna, and Almeida). Isaac was born to Metcalf and Rich, followed by Joseph, Lucy, and Eliab. Isaac Metcalf (father) died in Boston in 1830, and the family relocated to Milo, Maine, where half-brother Charles had purchased a farm. Isaac Stevens Metcalf lived there with his mother and siblings, preparing for college and working on the farm until he entered Bowdoin College as a sophomore in 1844. He graduated there in 1847, having taught school while studying engineering. He surveyed and built railroads in New England until the spring of 1850, when he became a division engineer on the southern section (near Centralia, IL) of the Illinois Central Railroad. Metcalf worked closely with the Chief Engineer, Roswell B. Mason. Metcalf remained on the job until the line was completed to Cairo, IL, in 1855. While in central Illinois, Metcalf purchased land and with his partner Chester A. Keyes laid out the railroad town of Du Quoin, which was officially dedicated on Sept. 20, 1853. On Jul. 5, 1852, he married Antoinette ("Nettie") Brigham Putnam, the daughter of prominent New Hampshire minister John Milton Putnam. The couple had twelve children, three of whom died young. They settled in Elyria, Ohio, in Nov. 1856, to be near Metcalf's half sister, Elizabeth Ann (also known as Ann Elizabeth), and more family joined them within the next ten years. Metcalf and family lived in Elyria for over 41 years, farming and running a flour mill while Isaac Stevens Metcalf maintained business interests in Du Quoin, Illinois (real estate and coal mining). Antoinette died Aug. 14, 1875, and three years later Metcalf married Harriet Howes. That couple had six boys. Harriet Howes died of pneumonia Dec. 7, 1894, and Isaac Stevens Metcalf died Feb. 19, 1898, age 76. A more complete Metcalf genealogy family, focusing on the children of Isaac Stevens Metcalf, is available in the Special Collections Department information files. The genealogy was compiled by Keyes DeWitt Metcalf, 17th child of Isaac Stevens Metcalf.
Extent
10.8 linear feet (20 boxes and 1 oversize folder)
Format
Business records
,
Correspondence
,
Diaries
,
Genealogy
,
Invoices
,
Manuscripts, American
,
Personal narratives
,
Records and correspondence
,
Sources
Archival Collection Title
Isaac Stevens Metcalf papers
,
Midwest Manuscript Collection
Rights Status
No Copyright - United States
Newberry Open Access Policy
The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to
these terms and conditions.
Contributing Institution
Newberry Library
Link to Catalog
View finding aid
|
View record
Call Number
midwest ms metcalf Box 1 Folder 16
BibID
821787
Size
2647px × 3195px 48.43 MB
IIIF Resource Type
Canvas
Filename
998217878805867_mms_metcalf_box_01_fl_16_007_004.tif
Unique Identifier
NL11FDPD
Help
Need help finding, searching, sharing, or downloading? Check out our
help page
!
Linked assets