| Quantity: | 1 box (0.25 cubic ft.) |
|---|---|
| Access: | Open to research |
| Acquisition: | Purchase: Michael Brown Rare Books, February 2014 |
| Processed By: | Fred Bassett, Senior Librarian, Manuscripts & Special Collections, December 2014 |
Richard Draper Douglass was born in Westport, Essex County, New York, October 23, 1836, the youngest child of William Stewart Douglass (1798-1860) and Jane G. (Arthur) Douglass (1803-1842). Other family members (siblings) were: Ebenezer, Francis Arthur, William Henry, and Mary Jane. Richard studied at Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire; and Williston Seminary. He was a graduate of Amherst College (Class of 1860), and Bangor Theological Seminary (1863). As an agent of the U.S. Christian Commission, he served in Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia before taking a position in the Commissary Department of the United States Army at City Point, Virginia, in early 1865, which position ended soon after the war was over. After a brief stint in business in Boston, Douglass became a special relief agent for the Brooklyn Children's Aid Society (1867-1873) and general superintendent of the society (1873-1885). On September 13, 1864, Douglass married Mary Abbie Lawrence, daughter of Ephraim Appleton Lawrence. Richard Douglass died in Brooklyn, New York, April 2, 1885.
Ebenezer Douglass was born in Ticonderoga, Essex County, New York, on August 7, 1826. He was educated at Plattsburgh Academy, Amherst College (Class of 1851), and Bangor Theological Seminary (1851-1855). He was ordained at the Congregational Church in Old Town, Maine, in March 1855 and served the congregation from 1855 to 1860. Thereafter, he held pastorates at churches in Bridgewater, Massachusetts (1860 -1867), and Woonsocket, Rhode Island (1867-1873). He also served with the Christian Commission in 1864 and was superintendent of schools in Woonsocket during his years of ministry in the city. He was the United States Indian Agent at White Earth, Minnesota, from 1873 to 1875, and was in business in Anoka, Minnesota, from 1875 to 1877. He established employment offices in St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1880 and managed them until 1893. He died in Minneapolis on August 4, 1896.
Francis Arthur Douglass was born in Ticonderoga, New York, April 16, 1824. He studied at Franklin Academy, Plattsburgh, New York. Like Ebenezer, Francis (also known as Arthur) was a graduate of Amherst College (Class of 1851). He continued his studies at Newton Theological Seminary (1851-1854) and was ordained in Boston on October 15, 1854. He was a missionary of the American Baptist Missionary Union (A.B.M.U.) to the Telugu people in Nellore in the southern part of India from 1854 to 1866. After he returned to the United States, he traveled around giving lectures on missions for A.B.M.U. from 1866 to 1869. Thereafter, he took up pastorates in Piqua, Ohio (1869-1872); Lebanon, Ohio (1872-1874); and Cincinnati, Ohio (1875-1879). This was followed by a stint as agent and secretary of the American and Foreign Bible Society in New York City from 1879 to 1882. He returned to the pastoral ministry in 1882 at Middleton, New Jersey, and subsequently at White Plains, New York, from 1885 to 1888. He settled in Brooklyn, New York, where he died April 15, 1902. On July 13, 1854 Franklin married Anna C. Allen, daughter of Ira Allen, of Champlain, New York; the couple had nine children.
William Henry Douglass (1829-1866) appears to have settled in New York City and taken a position with a mercantile firm, Ives, Clarke, & Co. (later Ives, Willet & Co.), located at 52 Warren Street, which sold clothing and accessories. Later the firm relocated to 388 Broadway, operating under the name, Ives, Cunningham, & Douglass. Mary Jane Douglass (1833-1883) appears to have remained in Chazy (Clinton County), New York, where she and her brothers were apparently raised by their grandparents after their mother died.
Charles Brigham Ruggles, son of Brigham and Charlotte (Maynard) Ruggles, was born in Rutland, June 2, 1833. He was educated at Williston Seminary, Amherst College (Class of 1860), and Bangor Theological Seminary. He taught in Sag Harbor, New York, from 1862 to 1864, worked as an agent of Sanitary Commission in Kentucky and Tennessee from 1864 to 1865, and taught in Springfield, Ohio, from 1865 to 1867. Thereafter, he worked as an agent of Charles Scribner Co. (1867-1871); as a bookseller in Cincinnati (1871-1874); and as an agent for Scribner, Armstrong & Co. (1874-1878) and D. Appleton & Co. (1878-1890). He lived in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1881 to 1890, and was a manager of the Teacher's Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1890 to 1896. He married Caroline Webster of Fryeburg, Maine, August 18, 1864, and the couple had three children. He died in Cincinnati on January 31, 1896.
These papers consist chiefly of letters detailing the lives and careers of Richard Douglass and his siblings, Ebenezer, Arthur, and Mary, and his close friend and college classmate, Charles Brigham Ruggles.
The letters commence in 1853 and for much of the following decade the content relates chiefly to experiences of student life and academic studies, particularly at Amherst College, where most of the principal correspondents matriculated. During this time Richard's older brothers completed their seminary studies and subsequently embarked on their careers in Christian service and ministry. Ebenezer wrote frequently about his experiences in the ministry while he pastored a church in Old Town, Maine, from 1855 to 1860. Meanwhile, Arthur had begun his 12-year stint as a missionary in Nellore, India, in 1854, which he details in his letter of March 6, 1861.
Richard Douglass received a number of letters from his father, William S. Douglass, who apparently resided in Mooers Forks (Clinton County), New York at the time. The letters generally concerned personal and family matters.
Cataclysmic events brought on by the Civil War appear to have upended the lives and plans of Douglas and his friends soon after they graduated from Amherst College in 1860. During the Civil War, neither Douglass nor his brothers nor Douglass's close friend, Charles B. Ruggles, served in the military, but they did serve in other capacities related to the war. Richard and Ebenezer served with the Christian Commission, while Ruggles served with the Sanitary Commission. Their letters indicate they were keenly aware of military campaigns and related political and social issues of the war.
Many letters indicate that members of the Douglass family and their friends were sympathetic to the abolitionist movement as evidenced in the letter of Ebenezer Douglass on August 8, 1855: "Very many of our questions are on the Slavery Fugitive Law, Nebraska Bill, Present State of the Nation &c. Perhaps you w[oul]d call us ranting abolitionists, but we glory in the name & very many here are bound to agitate the question until the stars & stripes waves over only freemen … Slavery is the question for young & old, let it be debated everywhere possible …"
They were apparently quite pleased with the Emancipation Proclamation as noted in the letter of Charles Ruggles on January 3, 1863: "Hurrah for Emancipation the year of Jubilee has come at last - How do Washingtonians take it[.] New Yorkers were not half so set against it as I supposed. I believe the masses are up to it aside from the politicians."
The letters also reveal that both Richard Douglass and Charles Ruggles, were members of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity while they were students at Amherst College. Letters from Ruggles and other classmates detail fraternity activities and events. After they graduated in 1860, Ruggles continued to correspond frequently, first while a student at Bangor Theological Seminary, and subsequently, while teaching school in Sag Harbor, New York. Letters from Ruggles become less frequent after mid-1863.
When Ebenezer Douglass moved to Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1860, he continued to correspond with Richard on a regular basis, with Ebenezer detailing his experiences in the ministry as well as personal and family matters. After he moved to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, in 1867, correspondence became much less frequent. The last letter in the collection from Ebenezer, written at Minneapolis, Minnesota, on August 3, 1874, indicates he was no longer in the pastoral ministry.
Correspondence between Richard Douglass and other siblings was also less frequent in later years as well. The latest letter from Arthur was written from Piqua, Ohio, in June 1871, in which he discusses family matters and his pastoral ministry in the local church. From his sister, Mary, the latest letter was written in January 1871 from Chazy, New York, in regards to personal and family matters.
The papers also include a number of letters from other Douglass relatives and those of Richard's wife, Mary Abbie Lawrence. Several letters were written by her brother, William A. Lawrence. These letters and other Lawrence family letters tend to be personal in nature.
| Box | Folder | Description |
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| 1 | 1 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, 1853-1854 (7 items)
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| 1 | 2 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, 1855 (14 items)
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| 1 | 3 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, 1856-1857 (15 items)
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| 1 | 4 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, 1858 (17 items)
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| 1 | 5 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, 1859 (9 items)
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| 1 | 6 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, 1860 (10 items)
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| 1 | 7 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, January-June 1861(18 items)
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| 1 | 8 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, July-December 1861 (19 items)
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| 1 | 9 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, January-July 1862 (15 items)
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| 1 | 10 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, August-December 1862 (21 items)
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| 1 | 11 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, 1863 (22 items)
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| 1 | 12 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, 1864-1867 (11 items)
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| 1 | 13 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass, 1870-1875 (11 items)
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| 1 | 14 | Letters to Richard D. Douglass – date could not be determined (4 items)
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| 1 | 15 | Letters of Richard and [Francis] Arthur Douglass, 1859, 1861 (2 items)
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| 1 | 16 | Letters of Ebenezer Douglass, 1854-1858 (3 items)
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| 1 | 17 | Letters to Mary Douglass, 1861-1873 (4 items)
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| 1 | 18 | Letters: William A. Lawrence to Mary Lawrence Douglass, 1865-1866 (5 items)
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| 1 | 19 | Douglass-Lawrence family letters, 1864-1872 (9 items)
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| 1 | 20 | Miscellaneous, 1853-1870 (10 items)
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