LETTERS: Stearns Sisters' Family Letters from the Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction Era.
Root, Mary Frances Stearns, et al.
LETTERS: Archive of the Stearns Sisters' Family Letters from the Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruciton Era.
Archive
Extensive Correspondence Archive
[Archive] The Stearns Sisters' Family Correspondence. Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction Era.
A comprehensive collection of an extended family's correspondence consisting of over 400 items, including 350 holograph letters, the vast majority of which were written by women during the Civil War and Reconstruction era. Almost all of the letters are addressed to Emma Stearns Danielson (b. 1842), the youngest of three sisters in the Stearns family from Killingly, Connecticut. Over 130 letters were written by her elder sisters Frances and Abigail Stearns (about 65 letters each), and 40 were written by their sister-in-law Amelia. All three were graduates of Mary Lyon's renowned Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, who dedicated their lives to being teachers rather than "to please the other sex." Of particular historical importance are nine long letters by Frances that provide a stirring and meticulously detailed account of her work as a teacher among the first liberated slaves of the Civil War. Of less historical note but equal importance are the bulk of the letters which provide a remarkable women's view of New England life at the height of the great abolitionist and educational reform movements of the mid-19th century.
Much of the correspondence dates from the Civil War period, and it includes nine historically important letters (31 pages of approximately 6000 words) written by "Fanny" Stearns (Mary Frances Stearns Root) during her year in residence as a teacher on a cotton plantation at Beaufort on Port Royal Island, South Carolina. She and her husband, Rev. Augustine Root, were among the first Northern civilians to arrive in the area at the end of 1862, after Union forces had liberated the Sea Islands in Port Royal Sound between Charleston and Savannah. The plantation owners (referred to in the letters as "the secesh") fled to the mainland, leaving behind 10,000 black slaves. Soon after their arrival, Augustine was appointed Superintendent of three plantations under Brig. General Rufus Saxton, military governor of the Department of the South, as part of Saxton's "Port Royal Experiment" to help the newly freed slaves become self-sufficient.
The letters describe in great detail Fanny's experiences living with and teaching the freedmen, many of whom had joined the first colored regiment (1st Regiment, S.C. V.). They also contain her vivid, eyewitness accounts of several skirmishes between Union forces and the "Rebs" (who had retreated "but 2 miles away to the main"), and of many important battles, including the first battle of Charleston Harbor (April 7, 1863), and both Union assaults on Fort Wagner in July, immortalized in the movie "Glory." Of particular importance are her astute, carefully observed descriptions of the white Union soldiers and Negro soldiers, and their mutual relations both living and fighting together.
Here are two representative examples, the first from a March 13 letter to Emma:
"… Mr. French brought out to our place seven negros. They took our boat when it got dark and started for rebel land. They are smart, brave men and were going with muffled oars just to float with the tide across, they know of a marsh where no picket would guess anybody would land … they know their paths through the county 15 miles to a place where they will burn a very important railroad bridge, which if they do, they will accomplish what our army here has made three ineffectual attempts to do, once with 4000 men. … In this region if they [Union forces] had only been willing to avail themselves of the help of the blacks who know every path through the woods so well and every place where a canoe can get ashore, affairs in this state at least would have worn quite a different aspect. The powers that be are beginning to learn some lessons from the wiser rebels who make good use of their negros, tho' they can't trust them … The [Negro] pickets patrol on our beach within speaking distance from our home every night. They are guarding all points with more care lately, as the rebels may grow desperate and attempt some raid. …"
And this second excerpt from an April 7 letter to her brother:
"… Shouldn't you think we would feel bad to be guarded only by negro troops? We love to see the white soldiers, (at least the good ones and there are many noble men among them) but I think most of us would just as [prefer] to be guarded just now by the colored regiment as any one of the others - Those talk so even who used to look down a good ways upon a "nigger soldier." They have the finest set of officers of any regiment here perhaps, and this is great security. The discipline among them is very strict, that is another good thing. But still farther, they have a great deal of pride. They are rising very fast in the esteem of the white soldiers especially, since they took Jacksonville and afterwards fought side by side with white troops, and they would fight hard to keep up their good name."
In other letters written during the operations against Charleston, Fanny describes the deployment of several regiments, the morale of the soldiers, and several naval engagements involving Union "ironclads" and "Monitors" [April 11]: "… Before I was up we heard one gun and thought first it was the usual sunrise gun. But other and heavier reports followed shaking our windows and whole house. Pretty soon we could see that the firing was by or else upon a gunboat in the river but two miles from us. Pretty soon the flames spring up on the boat and it was evident by the rapid explosion of shells that the magazine had been fired into. Every time a shell burst we could hear the rebels hurrahing …"
In addition to their teaching duties, Augustine and Fanny assisted the freedmen in their domestic relations (performing marriages, providing new housing, etc.), and in their transition to economic independence, including the purchase of land. They traveled back North periodically after Augustine's formal appointment ended in September 1863, and returned to South Carolina in November, again working as teachers, until 1866, not long after President Johnson ended the Port Royal Experiment and returned the land to its previous white owners.
Fanny refers to her work in South Carolina in other letters written to Emma from New England. In a January 11, 1864 letter she writes: "We like to labor for the contrabands and shall very likely go to Virginia or some other place again soon - Our negros were very much attached to us as they are to any who are kind to them and it was not a pleasant thing to part from them. But they are far on the way to taking care of themselves, are buying land and putting up small houses for themselves. How much we have enjoyed this year with them - the first year of their freedom."
In addition to Fanny's letters written in situ from South Carolina, are the bulk of the letters in the collection remarkable for their female view of New England life at the height of the abolitionist and transcendentalist reform movements. These include another 50 letters by Fanny (b. 1833), 60 written by her older sister "Abbie" (Abigail Selah Austin, b. 1827), 40 by Amelia, and several others by their close friends and relatives, plus ten letters from Emma's father written to her mother while they were courting in the early 1820s. Together they are a chronicle of the hardships faced by so many exceptional women of the time, who struggled both to fulfill their traditional familial duties, and their intellectual and social commitment both to the abolitionist cause, and to New England's great educational reform movement that aimed to provide educational and economic opportunities to girls (referred to as "scholars" in the letters) from poor and middling backgrounds.
Though six years apart in age, Fanny and Abbie both graduated in 1853 from Mt. Holyoke, renowned at the time for its advanced, scientific curriculum, its systematized domestic labor, and its religious atmosphere. Both became teachers at all-female schools in New York, New England, or Ohio, and were known for being highly educated, cultured, and independent. Both also married late, Abbie in 1859 and Fanny in 1860, and neither had children. Their sister-in-law Amelia (who was married to their brother George and had two children, Ella and George), also was a highly educated graduate of Mt. Holyoke. She tutored female scholars at her home in Latin, French, and Drawing. Emma's other correspondents include both Ella and George, and several other close relatives and friends.
Another strength of the collection is its extensive scope in time, covering a thirty-year period from the 1850s through the 1870s. The letters can thus be read as a comprehensive interrelated diary of each of the women's activities and family life. They are united in their meticulously observed descriptions of teaching scholars, of their constant and various labors for their extended families and others (informed by a deep faith in the New England Protestant ethic), gossip and politics (including several references to men drafted, wounded, or killed during the civil war), and their philosophical speculations on marriage and relations between women and men, especially on the importance of education as the best, and often only means for young girls to win economic independence. Fanny and Abbie often refer to their colleagues from Mt. Holyoke Seminary as "Holyoke girls," and Amelia, in a 1863 letter advising Emma on whether she should "see the world" before getting marred, writes:
"… It is a fact that persons brought up as we were, i.e. so industriously - obliged to labor for some object - are not apt to take a season of recreation or rest easily … It was no rest or great pleasure to me that six months that I spent out west before I was married … I don't think Mr. Austin [Abbie's husband] meant that he thought you too young or green to be married … As for "seeing the world" - very likely they think you, being young comparatively, hardly know yet whom you prefer to spend life with and may become in love with some one else, when you have seen some one else! … The fact is - I think you a very sensible girl - capable of judging for yourself, and I trust your judgment in this matter. We all shrink from having you obliged to work hard all your days - as farmer's wives sometimes do - but as my mother says (she is not a farmer's wife) 'one cannot work more than all the time, and she has always done that.' So have the majority of women. It is more the kind of work than in the amount."
She concludes the letter with news of friend: "Carrie's brother in Harvard University was drafted! It is a great blow to them … It is too early to know if my brother is drafted. I do hope not. My cousin Wm. Pease died of fatigue after that terrible march made by Sedgwick's corps to reach Gettysburgh. My nephew who was wounded in the side last summer - has now had two fingers shot off from his right hand at Gettysburgh …"
The correspondence from several relatives and friends further documents the day-to-day life of this close-knit family during the Civil War and Reconstruction years, with several contributions from family members living away from home (including Abbie, who was married to a gun powder manufacturer with plants in Ohio and Michigan), as well as those residing in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. A remarkable collection that provides a predominately female view of the period, housed in a contemporary wooden truck with part of its original deer hide present. Probably worthy of publication, a description of this length is insufficient to convey the depth and texture of this textually significant correspondence, overwhelming created by educated women, and illuminating their daily lives.
A list of correspondents, including selected transcribed letters, follows:
Mary Frances "Fanny" Stearns Root
(1833-1877)
66 holograph letters (63 to Emma): dating from 1852-1877
1. Beaufort S.C., Dec. 25, 1862 [Octavo. ALS. 7pp.]
Dear Sister Emma
This Christmas day finds us just landed at Beaufort, the sunny South. It seems like some wonderful dream, this last week. We sailed from N.Y. … Leaving Hampton Roads (coming out the fortress Monroe … very near … the mounted guns … keeping 20 or 30 miles from the coast down most of the way here. Off Charleston harbor we heard the rebel guns sending out shot and shells. 30 miles from us they yet shook the boat. … We stopped (i.e., anchored) at Hilton Head last night … Beaufort …
We are now in one of the houses where our home will probably be. It is a large handsome looking house with orange trees, etc. all around it … It was deserted by the rebels as the others were when they left and the ex-slaves belonging on the place are here to wait upon us. To be taught and trained also. You should have seen two smallish young men of them … bringing up our baggage from the boat to the house. You packed A's large trunk so you will judge it was not very light. The boy brought is steadily up the street and up the stairs on his head …
… Gen. Saxton who is military governor of the department of the south (i.e. South Carolina and Florida) called and his father also who came down on the boat with us from N.Y. Then a glee club … sweetest music … It is too late to wish you a Merry Christmas but a happy new year to you all …
2. Beaufort, S.C. Jan. 12, 1863
[ALS. Folio. 4pp.]
[In this letter to her brother, Fanny writes a long, detailed description of a cotton plantation at Beaufort, an archipelago of islands on the South Carolina coast. Her description was written about a year after the planters and "the secesh" (Southern sympathizers and/or secessionists) fled to the mainland after the battle of Port Royal.]:
My Dear Brother Thebe
… Since I wrote last Augustine had been appointed Superintendent of 3 plantations and we live on one of them. This is just the situation we hoped to get so that we could keep house for ourselves and not [press] together as many of the teachers and … Aug. was so fortunate to have it offered him at once on his arrival - his pay to begin from the time we left N.Y. This is in addition to his labor as preacher &c. We are about 4 miles out of Beaufort by water … Our house is the one deserted by the planter at the memorable date which the negroes will always look back to and which they designate as "when secesh run." [Southern sympathizer] It is on the northeastern end of Port Royal Island … Danielson is on Ladies Island. It is but a quarter of a mile across the water … I sent him our card when we first arrived in Beaufort but heard nothing from him until New Year's, a great day here. We were all … when the 1st Reg. S.C.V. (or the colored soldiers) have their camp and the first person I saw on landing, there was J. Daneilson who was hastening to greet us. … There are about 100 people on our plantations and several families more will soon move on. They are all … coming in from the rebels.
The Negroes are much smarter judging by what I have seen of them than I supposed. On each of the plantations is one negro who is called the foreman and he directs the rest about his work and reports to Aug. Sancho, the foreman on this plantation is quite a character I think, good and smart too as are many of the others.
When the planter here found that Hilton Head was taken and our gunboats were coming up to Beaufort, he packed up a few of his smallest valuables and like the rest of the aristocracy fled to "the main" with his family. He took the house servants with him. Before he started he rode out in haste to the cotton field and told Sancho (the field driver) that there was no use in picking any more cotton,
The Sups. (superintendent) they had before we came proved to be a bad man and was very hard with them. He did not try to give them any instruction and cared only for his own comfort. They all greeted us with great apparent joy. They soon know who looks kindly upon them and who despises them. They are especially delighted to see a lady come - "And you'll larn our children, missus, wont you." "Oh yes," I told them "that is what I came all the way from the North to do-" "That is what we've been praying the Lord for these many days for we hear they have teachers on the other plantations and we can't get no schooling for our children." So I began my school last week …
Some of the women come in the afternoon to have me hear them read their little sentences … I hear them read, show them some new words and spending about half an hour with them and they go home and after their work is done they spell out their lesson by the firelight in their cabins. They learn fast. I am surprised at them. They are determined to get so as to read the Bible. That is the greatest inducement you could offer the most of them. I have a woman to work for me and Aug. a man to work for him in particular. Tiny, my girl, was a field hand but 8 years ago she was sold from near Charleston and …
3. Beaufort, S.C. Jan. 28 [1863]
[ALS. Quarto. 2pp., of 4: (page one has a large wood-engraved vignette and letterpress description of the: West Haven Female Seminary [CT])
Dear Sister Emma
I wrote a large letter to Thebe … They have begun to publish a paper here "The Free South" Did you get a copy of it? … we are getting on nicely … But this dreadful war, when will it end. … a good many troops have been landed at Hilton Head and it seems as though there was to be some fighting sometime … He [Danielson] and two lady teachers keep house together …
[further reflections on the war, references to military expeditions along the coast (Port Royal Sound and Florida) … comments on how the war effects soldiers … ]
I feel thankful very often that Thebe did not stay in the Army. Is it because I am no patriot …
… Aff your sis / Fanny
4. Beaufort, S.C. March 13. 63
[ALS. Quarto. 4pp.; written in pencil, faded, somewhat difficult too read]
… Mr. French brought out to our place seven negros. They took our boat when it got dark and started for rebel land. They are smart, brave men and were going with muffled oars just to float with the tide across, they know of a marsh where no picket would guess anybody would land (where nobody but a negro would know how to land). Then they will drag the boat into the woods or sink it … to be raised again … Then they know their paths through the county 15 miles to a place where they will burn a very important railroad bridge which if they do they will accomplish what our army here has made three ineffectual attempts to do, once with 4000 men. … In this region if they had only been willing to avail themselves of the help of the blacks who know every path through the woods so well and every place where a canoe can get ashore, affairs in this state at least would have worn quite a different aspect. The powers that be are beginning to learn some lessons from the wiser rebels who make good use of their negros tho' they can't trust them … But to our great gratification the order to remove [to Lady's Island, for military purposes] was countermanded and we still abide quietly at our plantation home. The pickets patrol on our beach within speaking distance from our home every night. They are guarding all points with more care lately, as the rebels may grow desperate and attempt some raid. Extensive preparations are being made to receive them if they come. My school is getting on finely I think. Augustine married a couple a few days ago. Stepney had taken unto himself a wife and was a little surprised perhaps when A. told him he must not live with her till somebody married them. So after some urging and after being told he should have no work and no rations if he did not obey he finally brought his Rose and [they] married. In slavery times no such formality was necessary. The "gospel people" generally got one of their colored preachers to them however. … Don't you "shum". That is what the negros say for "Don't you see it." Shum is a droll word but so are many of theirs. Instead of the first clear daylight they speak of "the time when day clean". I often wish you could look upon us and them a little while. You would be so amused at many things. You aught to see the women out in the fields with the men chopping the trash now as they call it. They are now getting the ground ready for corn and they take their great hoes with handles two feet longer than northern ones can boast. They "chop" with [two hoes?] …
Aff Fanny
5. Perry clear, Beaufort S.C. April 7
[ALS. Quarto. 4 pp., First Battle of Charleston Harbor]
Dear Brother,
Have I ever told you the name of our plantation home? It is called Perry clear Point. We are today listening to the firing at Charleston. We heard it plainly (sounding like distant thunder for above 2 hours.) We do not hear it now, but the wind is unfavorable and it may be still going on. We hope so for that would mean that something was being accomplished. But if they are stopping for a few hours they will not give it up so easily. Our forces are in earnest this time. The leaders in this expedition mean and desire to get the victory. We had friends in many of the regiments that are now there fighting. They have but just left this island (last week) and before that they took turns in picketing this island. One regiment would be out ten days and then another would come out. Some few will say they are homesick and long to get back to the North, but generally they talk like good soldiers, like those who want to put down the rebellion if it takes ten years. The Conn. regiments are both gone (the 6th and 7th) to Charleston. There are but 4 regiments left on this island. Three from Pennsylvania (2 of them drafted men … who have seen no service) and the 1st S.C. Reg. which is the Negro regiment. This last regiment now is all out on the advance picket, i.e. all along the edge of the island, just as the other regiments have been. An attack is expected here this week by Gen. Saxton. The Rebs will soon find out that most of the forces have been called away to attack Charleston.
The river which separates this island from the Main land is from O mile to 2 miles which in one place only º mile at the ferry. Many hope they will come over as there is little chance of their ever getting back again. Their object in coming would be to seize the military and government stores at Beaufort which would be of great account to them. After driving in the Negro pickets they will meet no obstruction until within perhaps two miles of Beaufort. But there is one [ ] thing about it. The island cannot be crossed except by the shell road as a salt water swamp extends through the whole island up to the road on both sides. Bogs and swamp such as they have here are utterly impassible by an army. So they must come in by the shell road if by land. On that road a mile or two out of Beaufort are extensive earthworks and fortifications, where 200 men can resist 10,000 men effectually. Many think they will not attempt to cross, but all say it is "now" or "never" with them and they may attempt desperate things. Shouldn't you think we would feel bad to be guarded only by Negro troops? We love to see the white soldiers, (at least the good ones and there are many noble men among them) but I think most of us would just as [ ] be guarded just now by the colored regiment as any one of the others - Those talk so even who used to look down a good ways upon a "nigger soldier." They have the finest set of officers of any regiment here perhaps and this is great security. The discipline among them is very strict, that is another good thing. But still farther, they have a great deal of pride. They are rising very fast in the esteem of the white soldiers especially, since they took Jacksonville and afterwards fought side by side with white troops and they would fight hard to keep up their good name. And then they know very well that every one of them who is taken by "the Rebs" is a dead man at once. It made the Secesh almost furious to find we were getting wise enough to let the Negro help us and the "red legs" know well enough how they will fare if taken by them. The Negro soldiers, at least the 1 Reg. wear red pants. - So we are picketed by black soldiers and if they are driven in to the breastworks as they must be if they, the Rebs, shell the line as they may easily do then we civilians shall try to take care of ourselves as best we can. We shall probably have the alarm in time to take flight. Wo be to the Superintendents and teachers who fall into their hands in this hour of their fury. It seems strange that we are not uneasy in this uncertainty but we get used to it. I suppose that is one reason we go to sleep feeling no more fear than when at home in [N.-] and yet I often think it will seem very pleasant to be where there are no enemies so near. We are all so anxious to have Charleston taken that we can hardly wait. We believe it will be taken and burned. It is the only city that everybody wants to see burnt to the ground I believe. But when we think of it as the hot bed of this rebellion that is costing so much blood what less than that can suffice. We were hoping to entertain our good Governor Gen. Saxton to dinner to-day. But he didn't come, however any extra care about dinner wasn't wasted, as another good friend did come and help us eat our birds and rice pudding. The Governor sent word to Mr. Root to keep his row boat at home to-day as he should need to size it and so we guessed he might come in person. But some secret will come out to-night I presume.
… Apr. 8. There didn't "any thing happen" last night after all. I expect Governor Saxton found a boat nearer, maybe. To-day we have been hearing hard firing towards or at Savannah. We have a report that our Monitors have passed Fort Sumter and are lying in the harbor. We have not been molested and shall not expect to be now as two gunboats have gone by to-day to go around to the ferry and lie near enough to be on hand to prevent any landing in force. The hands are busy at work planting the last of their corn land …
[long description of what is being harvested on the plantation: corn, cotton, mules / oxen / horses ; lettuce from the garden, strawberries, blackberries … ; additional details about the plantation; last sentence: the lands were lately sold to pay the taxes and some of the Negros … ]
6. Sat. Apr. 11, 1863. Perry clear Point, Port Royal
[ALS. Quarto. 4 pp.]
Emma dear,
… We are at the junction of the Beaufort inn with the Coosa. When the tide is good we land on the Beaufort side of our house, otherwise we have to go around the point and come into the Coosa river to our boat house on the side. Now the pickets patrol our beach every night and have particularly strict orders to "halt" no boat after dark on the Coosa (because that is toward the Main) but fire upon it as soon as discovered. We did not want to stay in the river all night and so we ventured round Augustine calling out for "the Guard" as loud as possible as soon as we turned into the river. So they heard us before they could see the boat and they called out "Come ashore, one man, and give account of yourselves" After that there was no danger, of course. But they said they were very glad we called them else they should have fired upon us at once … So we live in war times … we hear lately the big guns at Charleston and again near Savannah. And yesterday morning … we heard big guns nearer home. Before I was up we heard one gun and thought first it was the usual sunrise gun. But other and heavier reports followed shaking our windows and whole house. Pretty soon we could see that the firing was by or else upon a gunboat in the river but two miles from us. Pretty soon the flames spring up on the boat and it was evident by the rapid explosion of shells that the magazine had been fired into. Every time a shell burst we could hear the rebels hurrahing, just as if they were no farther off than half way from Westfield to your house. [i.e., Emma's house: Westfield, near Danielson, Killingly, CT] … I have been asleep all night for our pickets heard the rebs hard at work dragging down 4 cannon from the R.R. depot 7 miles distant, to the beach very near to the boat. Had the captain been awake and in his senses he would have opened fire upon them … An iron-clad is to take the place of the Coosa boat. … Monday, Apr. 13. Yesterday … a gunboat lay in the morning in full sight of us and directly before our house on the river nearer however to the rebel side. About ten o'clock I think it began to fire on them and kept it up for above 2 hours. Once the rebels returned the fire … [more detailed description of shelling and fighting; culminating with] … the general and his aids and some infantry and cavalry came hurrying out from Beaufort in the night to see what was going on. …
… I am in such a hurry to hear how the election has come off in Conn. Won't it be a shame if the Copperheads are allowed to triumph in our little state. [See: "The CT election and its grand significance" Times, April 8, 1863]
… Apr. 21. … Saturday afternoon we rode over to the picket station to see the big guns - about a mile from us. We were acquainted with some of the officers and they took a good deal of trouble to show us all about the guns - and their accomplishments. They fired off one gun in honor of our presence (i.e., the ladies) and the shell exploded almost on the rebel shore. Then they furnished us with a glass through which we could look over and the rebels themselves …
7. Beaufort, May 13, 1863.
[ALS. Quarto. 4 pp.]
Dear Emma,
… We visited Jos. Danielson two or three weeks ago and had a nice visit. He has two very pleasant ladies keeping house for him. They are teachers from Massachusetts. … Miss Johnson … has a school about a mile and a half from here. She goes on horseback while it is cool in the morning and stays a couple of hours. Miss Clary from Conway came last week and she is to live with us and has a school on Lady's Island. A man comes over the river for her every day in his little canoe. She is a dear little girl. She was at Holyoke Seminary last year. Each of these have about 50 or 60 scholars. My school is much smaller …
8. Perry clear, Port Royal Is. Sept. 22 1863.
[ALS. Quarto. 2pp.]
Dear Little Sister,
… This is the sickly season here and we should have been glad to get North to stay till the middle of Oct. When frost comes the sickly season is over. Three Superintendents near us have died within the last three weeks. Two of them were sick but two or three days, the other but 8 days. This last one died at our house. He lived right across the river from us. We were very well acquainted and when he got sick … we thought best to have him brought over here. … We did not suppose him dangerous till a short time before he died. He had a fever which did not seem alarming … Almost every teacher has gone home … Aug. says to-day that the probabilities are that we cannot get away before Nov. We rode horseback out onto the cotton field and rice [patch] yesterday. The people are just picking the first of the cotton. …
9. Loose sheet
[ALS, Quarto. pp.3-4 of 4?]
[… to Thebe]:
… There is many a boy here whom you would like to work for you but the thing is to get them willing to go North. If we were going ourselves the case would be different. Almost any one would go who had not a family. They give their confidence very quickly but to go where all are strangers looks hard to them. And then they would be pinched up by our cold winters. Last week Augustine told Billy a man [on] one of our plantations that he might move into an empty house her. He then lived in a cabin that had no chimney, all in the smoke and dirt. He was much pleased and took the mule and cart over to bring up his little load of "furniture". But by and bye Billy sent the cart back empty and finally came and told Augustine that his wife cried so to leave her sister that he did not want to make her come. Aug. rather insisted they should move out of their dismal quarters and so yesterday they got started. To-day Grace, the wife came in [to] thank Mr. Root for bringing her here it was so much better … We see considerable of the soldiers. Quite too much I think sometimes when they come around to annoy the people but occasionally some pleasant ones call on us. The soldiers have been idle quite too long. A soldier's life is not very favorable to goodness. I am glad, Thebe, since it was so ordered that you are not in the camp or in the field. It was for some good purpose that you are at home, and do not grow restless and lonesome. … What do you hear from the soldier boys from Killingly [CT] H. James, etc. And do you know anything of the 21st Reg. A company of that went from Central Village and we were acquainted with many of the men. The 6th and 7th Reg. Conn were here when we came. …
10. Other Fanny letters:
a. Jan. 10, 1852. "I'm going home" [A prose piece]
[Quarto. 2pp. of 4, Signed]
b. May 7, 1855 [Utica, New York]
[ALS. Octavo. 4pp., with a piece of embroidery laid-in]
Dear Emma,
… Abbie and I were very busy sewing so as to get done with it and rest. … we began at once to pack up and in a few days we found ourselves quite comfortable in our present home. … Utica is very pleasant … this is a great country for fruits and berries of all kinds. … We commenced school again to-day. I presume Abbie told you that I am to be in her department now. It will be more pleasant on many accounts, but I had got so much interested in the scholars I had before that I did not want to give them up to any body else - Three of us in the Academy now are Holyoke girls. The one whose place I take lived in the city, and is a girl that we liked very much, and we felt sorry to have her dismissed.
c. West Haven (Sem.) Jan. 08 [1863?]
[ALS. Octavo. 4pp., note: Battle of Antietam was Sept. 17, 1862]
My Dear Emma,
… There are twenty-eight scholars this term - most of them rather young, fourteen boarders - I am in school five and a half hours - take charge of the opening exercises in the morning …
… She went home last term on account of the death of her brother who was killed in the battle of Antietam. … I am so glad to have a place to teach - but how my heart longs for my friends. There is no that depth of heart - that Christian sympathy, that there is at Mt. Holyoke Sem. It could not be expected of course among girls who are so young, but I think I shall enjoy myself well, and I hope I may do some good. … Don't forget me.
[signed]: "Mary Ann" (Fanny?)
d. West Haven, Jan. 11, 1863 [i.e., 1864]
[ALS. Octavo. 2pp. of 4. Note: Emma married Albert Danielson Nov. 12, 1863]
Dear Little Sister,
Do you know that I have not heard a word from you since the good letter written Nov. 14? And do you know that therefore I don't know that you are married? And how I am aching to hear from you? We are North again. I am at Mrs. Atwaters and Augustine is in New York … Why are we North? Because A's year as Superintendent was up, the lands are being sold so that Superintendents are not needed and because if we have to be missionaries (both of us) we wanted to be where we could look for a little permanency of situation than there. Affairs are in a very unsettled state there and we could make no dependence upon any thing for more than a few weeks. We like to labor for the contrabands and shall very likely go to Virginia or some other place again soon - Our negros were very much attached to us as they are to any who are kind to them and it was not a pleasant thing to part from them. But they are far on the way to taking care of themselves, are buying land and putting up small houses for themselves. How much we have enjoyed this year with them - the first year of their freedom. They buy their school-books now and depend upon themselves much more every way than they did.
e. Petersham [MA], Oct. 17, 1864
[ALS. Quarto. 2pp.]
Dear Sister Emma,
… It blows and blows here as hard as ever. I am helping fix up some clothing for the contrabands who are coming in as our Army goes on. Shall we know how to prize the blessing of peace when it comes after such a price being paid for it? …
Aff your sis / Fanny
Other correspondents
Abigail "Abbie" Stearns Austin (1827-1886)
63 holograph letters (60 to Emma)
manuscript school workbook, 1862-1878
Amelia Jones Stearns (1828-1902)
Wife of Emma's brother George
40 holograph letters to her sister-in-law Emma, 1852-1877
Ella Louisa Stearns Sparks (b. 1853)
25 holograph letters (21 to Aunt Emma), 1863-1877
George Stearns (b. 1856)
Emma's nephew
8 holograph letters (7 to Aunt Emma), 1864-1877
Emma Jane Stearns Danielson (1842-1909)
Five short manuscript essays (signed); one manuscript poem (signed); and one holograph letter to her husband Albert Danielson
Albert Danielson (1835-1905)
Two holograph letters to his wife Emma
Warren Stearns (1796-1862)
Emma's father
9 holograph letters to Mary Read, written during their courtship, 1819-1821
Mary Read Stearns (1799-1886)
Emma's mother
One autograph note, forwarding a gift.
Groups of letters, most to Emma
25 holograph letters to Emma or her husband from close relatives: brothers, brothers-in-law, or sisters-in-law, including two letters from Emma's brother Thebe, written from a Civil War hospital.
16 holograph letters to Emma from various cousins, 1862-1876
40 holograph letters to Emma and/or her husband from various close friends, 1849-1878.
Additional groups of letters to Emma from friends and relatives
1860-1878
Cousin Eliza (11 ALS)
Cousin Emilie Barber (13 ALS)
Cousin Hattie Beardsley (5 ALS)
Friend R.W. Cochran (8 ALS)
Friend A.J. Baggs (3 ALS)
Friend Mary Blood (8 ALS)
Friend Calista (5 ALS)
Friend Peter Frince (9 ALS)
MSS and Ephemera
19 miscellaneous pieces of printed ephemera
24 miscellaneous manuscripts (partial letters, recipes, etc.)
29 loose envelopes (+ several others interspersed with the letters)
(#4656696)
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