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Home Saturday Oct. 26, 1851My dear friend, I cannot tell you how much I rejoice to receive a letter in these days of anxiety. Yours, dated Oct. 12, reached me to night. I have been wishing I could have a letter, all day long, but not daring to expect one. So it was all the more welcome. I do thank you for writing so fully about your health, though I have been feeling very sadly to think how sick you have been. But I have just concluded that I ought to be very, very thankful that you were better. - So the dark clouds have disappeared, & the sunshine gleams just enough to let me begin to write. I think it is quite as well that you mailed the letters you refer to, without adding that the Ague, with all its horrors had really come; for we should have felt an increased solicitude. I do hope it may have left you entirely; thought I cannot help fearing a return. Very great care must be necessary. How very fortunate that you were at Mr. Root's, where you found your[left-hand side and top] Father seemed better to day - he came out and ate breakfast with us this morning. If he takes no cold I think he will soon be well as usual. A week or two ago, he took Jenny and me to his woodlot to help him find the "lines". We purchased the lot about a year since, and thought the boundary was pointed out to him then, he had been there alone since and could not trace it. When we got there, he told me the direction as well as he could, and found one one marked tree; and then called me the Engineer {now, wasn't it ministerial,} and said I must go ahead and find the lines. O scrambled along bushes and brambles and fallen trees and across running streams {not very large ones}, and did my best so did we all, but the marks on two sides, we could not find, and gave it up. But we had delightful ramble, and a fine ride and came home in high spirits- bringing a part of the forest with us- specimens of the brilliant, many-colored Autumn leaves. Well the clock says dinner time and I must stop.
Title
Metcalf, Antoinette Brigham Putnam (wife), to Isaac S. Metcalf, Isaac Stevens Metcalf family papers, 1850-1866
Creator
Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, 1822-1898
Date
1850-1866
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 4 Folder 104
BibID
821787
Size
3218px × 4252px 78.33 MB
IIIF Resource Type
Canvas
Filename
998217878805867_mms_metcalf_box_04_fl_104_011_001.tif
Unique Identifier
NL11FFPG
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