Personal Letters, Books, Diaries and More from Michael Brown Rare Books
Michael Brown Rare Books 38th catalogue of printed and manuscript Americana.
By Michael Stillman
Michael Brown Rare Books of Philadelphia has issued its Catalogue 38 of Printed and Manuscript Americana. It offers a wide variety of interesting and uncommon items, including books, maps, trade catalogues, timetables, court cases, broadsides, diaries, letters, and other manuscript items. Anyone with an interest in printed and written Americana will find much of interest between the covers of this catalogue.
We will focus on the handwritten, family manuscripts, as I find these to be the most fascinating items, though there is much more in the catalogue. Harriet Ketchum kept a diary from 1890-1894, and it tells of a life that was far from easy. Harriet had grown up in Ohio and Illinois, where she was married in 1856. By the 1880s, she and her husband were moving back and forth between Kansas and the Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). Along the way, they had eleven children, five of whom died in childhood. The diary begins with the family moving back from Oklahoma to Kansas, and with the disinterment of "little Stella." Buried a year and five months earlier, they were bringing her remains along with them. Death was a way of life in those times. Much space is devoted to the death of their son Lark, at twenty-two, the only male child to make it to adulthood. Lark had been married only three weeks when he died. A sad father-son conversation once reality has sunk in is relayed. When the father tells his son that he doesn't have long to live, Lark calls for his wife Carrie and his siblings. According to the diary, "he says I would love to live but if I can't call Carrie, I want to bid her good by and all of them, she was in the kitchen as she could not stay by him without crying, she came to him and kissed him..." His final words are, "Good bye my darling wife Car..." It's hard to imagine the sadness that hung over most families in those days when few could avoid the tragedy of the death of children. During those times that death is not at hand, life is still a struggle for this midwestern farming family. While the diary ends in 1894, Harriet lived until 1910, when she passed away at age 71. Item 46 is this poignant diary. $850.
If the Ketchums had a hard life, it was a seeming picnic compared to a couple of years in the life of Noyes Moulton. Moulton was a Mainer who, in 1898, at the age of 46, took off for Alaska during the gold rush. It was a good thing he came from Maine, as it evidently better prepared him for the extreme cold that would overcome many of his colleagues. Item 68 is a collection of seven letters Moulton wrote to his daughter in 1898-99. The spring finds Boulton hauling his ton of supplies, enough to last a year, over a 5,000 foot glacier at the start of the long inland journey to the gold fields. The weather is cold, but often he and his companions are forced to haul at night, the sun on the white snow blistering their faces and blinding their eyes. But the optimistic Moulton tells his daughter not to get discouraged, because "I hope to be able to come back in a year or two and have a nice comfortable home for you an easy life..."
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Personal Letters, Books, Diaries and More from Michael Brown Rare Books
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By winter, Moulton is telling stories of death in the biting cold. While "it is not much colder than in Maine," he recounts others trying to re-cross the 5,000-foot glacier in winter and freezing to death or having to have frozen feet amputated. One clever group of men, stuck in a storm, dig themselves a hole and save their feet by holding them under their dog. Moulton protects his feet by wearing three pairs of heavy socks, covered by moose hide moccasins, covered by canvas shoes. By April, he is now recounting the deaths of people who were in his party. He tells of how the mail carrier fell into a creek while it was 20 below, and without wood for a fire, slowly froze to death, all the time describing his dying to a helpless partner. Ultimately, like most others who participated in the gold rush, Moulton never finds anything of significant value, and by the fall of 1899, he is making his way back home, picking up jobs along the way. This collection of letters is priced at $3,750.
Jacob Russel was a young man preparing for a career as druggist in Philadelphia in the years just before the Civil War. Item 48 is his 231-page diary from 1857-1859. He had tried serving as an apprentice to a couple of stonecutters, but found this work too hard. So, Russel recounts, in 1854 he "went to the Drug business with W.W.D. Livermore corner of 9th & Vine and a more perfect Gentleman it has never been my lot to meet, neither do I expect to." Sadly, Russel's luck was about to run out. "Unfortunately, he was drowned 19th day of July 1854. The store then passed into the hands of his brother Origen R. Livermore and a more contemptible puppy does not breathe." He suffered through working for the insufferable brother for two-and-a-half years before moving on to work for other druggists, and eventually his own business. Russel also tells of his personal life, and while he has a steady girlfriend named "Anna," he manages to play the field liberally, often ending his description of the evening by saying he "slept out." Russel is not afraid to be graphic in describing sexual diseases his behavior undoubtedly brought on, but we are, so we will say no more. He also describes an outing to church with Anna in 1858: "We went to St. Paul's, Old Cooper held forth on the proper training of children. The old skunk never had a child and it stands to reason that he should know nothing about what he preaches." $850.
None of these manuscripts compare with the collection offered as item 174. This is a collection of letters, compositions, deeds, receipts, notes, poems and more of George P. Delaplaine and his family of Wisconsin. George Delaplaine was one of the earlier settlers of this territory, having moved to Madison in the 1830s. However, this collection starts in 1824, when George was still 10-years-old and living in Philadelphia, and continues until 1907, eleven years after he died. As an early settler of Madison, he acquired much land, and became one of the territory's more prominent citizens. He served in various capacities under several territorial governors, and as personal secretary to the first three state governors.
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Personal Letters, Books, Diaries and More from Michael Brown Rare Books
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Many documents in the collection pertain to state and political matters. Sixty-nine letters are from Wisconsin's last Territorial Governor, Henry Dodge. Another 34 are from the first State Governor, Nelson Dewey. In an 1861 letter, Dewey predicts that there is no hope for the Union; that not even a civil war will succeed in holding the South and North together. Another document in the collection grants 640 acres to Francis Thibault, a "half-breed" Winnebago Indian, and contains the signature of President Zachary Taylor. Also included are many letters and other documents pertaining to Delaplaine's four daughters. This amazing family collection includes 311 letters and a total of 1,018 items. $15,000.
Item 91 is two books bound together, Household Manuel of Domestic Hygiene...(1882) and The Hygienic Cook Book...(1874) by John Harvey Kellogg, published in Battle Creek, Michigan. Kellogg? Battle Creek? That sounds familiar. Dr. Kellogg was an eccentric physician who ran a major sanitarium in Battle Creek. In many ways, he was ahead of his time, promoting the use of good diets as a means of maintaining health, and foreseeing a link between smoking and cancer. At other times, his prescriptions for good health were odd, but he was widely followed at the turn of the century. One of his inventions for healthy eating was corn flakes, and this product became so popular that it generated the enormously successful cereal company that today bears his name. However, Dr. Kellogg was not interested in money, only good health, and he lost control of the company to his businesslike brother, who saw corn flakes as a wonderful profit center. However, Dr. Kellogg continued to operate his sanitarium until he died in 1943 at the age of 91. $200.
Michael Brown Rare Books may be found online at www.mbamericana.com or reached by phone at 215-387-9808.
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