EXTENT: 62 items in one container.

ORGANIZATION: Organized in a single series; arranged chronologically.

BIOGRAPHY:  Henry Joseph Hosmer (February 2, 1832 – November 14, 1902) was a prominent figure in Concord, Mass.  Hosmer held the position of Treasurer and General Manager of the American Powder Company of Acton, Mass.  He was a Representative to the General Court from 1884-1887, and from 1889-1990 a state Senator.  Hosmer was on the Concord Board of Water and Sewer Commissioners.  He was a Selectman, Treasurer of the Middlesex Institution of Savings (1893-1899), Director of the Concord National Bank (1881-1898), a Trustee of Town Donations, and a member of the Social Circle.  Hosmer also served as Treasurer of Concord’s Home for the Aged and for the Concord Antiquarian Society. 

Born in Northfield, Mass., Hosmer was an eighth generation family member.  He was a descendent of James Hosmer (1605-1685), who emigrated from Hawkhurst, Kent, England in 1635, settling first in Cambridge, Mass. and then in Concord.  Hosmer married Laura Alan Ballou Whiting (September 26, 1833 - October 5, 1896) on December 3, 1874.  Laura Whiting, a widow, brought a daughter to the marriage, Florence Danforth Whiting.  Florence married Charles E. Brown, Town Clerk of Concord.  Henry and Laura Hosmer had one child, Henry Joseph Hosmer Jr. (June 8, 1876 – August 17, 1911), a lawyer, who married Edna Wadsworth Hudson on September 24, 1906.  The Hosmers lived at the present 363 Main Street in Concord.

SCOPE AND CONTENT: 62 items, 1875-1893, consisting of correspondence and notes to or from Henry J. Hosmer regarding genealogical inquiries he made to Hosmer family descendents in the mid-1880s.  (All but one of the letters is to Henry J. Hosmer.  The exception is a letter to Granville Hosmer.)  These materials were evidently accumulated in the process of assembling what George Leonard Hosmer described in his Hosmer Genealogy (Cambridge: Technical Composition Company, 1928), as Henry J. Hosmer’s “extensive collection of records of the Hosmer family” (p. 132).

Correspondents: Millicent M. Blair; Colt Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company; G[eorge] A[rthur] Gardner; Lewis E. Gould [husband of Abby Houghton Hosmer]; Edwin R. Hodgman; Abbie S[arah] Hosmer; Abel Hosmer; Abner Hosmer; Dr. Alfred Hosmer; Asa Hosmer; Augusta Hosmer; Augustine Hosmer; Caroline E. Hosmer; Charles E[dward] Hosmer; Charles M[errill] Hosmer; C[yrus] W[right] Hosmer; E[dward] B[arry] Hosmer; Edward S. Hosmer; E[dward] Sturges Hosmer; Edwin S. Hosmer; Ernest H[oward] Hosmer; Estella Hosmer; George Franklin Hosmer; George L[eonard] Hosmer; George T[aylor] Hosmer; Granville Hosmer; Helen M[aria] Hosmer; Henry Hayward Hosmer; Henry J[oseph] Hosmer; Horace R[ice] Hosmer; J[ames] K[endall] Hosmer; Jeremiah Hosmer, Jr.; Jerome C[arter] Hosmer; John E[stabrook] Hosmer; Marian T[hompson] Hosmer; Mary E[llen] Hosmer; S. A. Hosmer; Samuel Hosmer; Theodore Hosmer; Mary S. Leland; Joel Munsell’s Sons, Publishers; and Clara H. Nash [Clarissa Hosmer Hapgood].

PROVENANCE: The letters and notes arrived at the Concord Free Public Library wrapped in brown paper, with the following note on the inside of the wrapper: “In 1885 Henry J. Hosmer, son of Cyrus and Lydia Parkman (Wheeler) Hosmer attempted to trace the Hosmer genealogy. / The letters in this package were written to him in response to his request for family information. / These letters descended to Henry Hosmer’s son, Harry, and when Harry died his widow, Edna (Hudson) Hosmer Clater (Mrs. Irving B. Howe) sent then to Henry Hosmer’s sister, Mrs. D. H. Wood (Lydia (Hosmer) Wood, then of Montclair, N.J. She was the grandmother of Florence Wood (Holmes) Brainard and Elizabeth H. (Holmes) Baldwin.”

SOURCE OF ACQUISITION: Gift of the Concord Museum, August 11, 2005.

PROCESSED BY: Peter K. Steinberg; finding aid completed October 26, 2005.
 

 

CONTAINER LIST
Folder 1
Correspondence, 1884-February 1885:

ALS, from Dr. Alfred Hosmer, Watertown, Mass., December 14, 1884

ALS, from Horace R[ice] Hosmer, Acton, Mass., January 1, 1885

ALS, from Helen [Maria] Hosmer, January 1885

Postcard, from Dr. Alfred Hosmer, Watertown, Mass., February 9, 1885

ALS, from E[dward] B[arry] Hosmer, Boston, Mass., February 11, 1885

ALS, from Horace R[ice] Hosmer, Ellsworth [Acton], Mass., February 14, 1885

ALS, from Jerome C[arter] Hosmer, Dorchester, Mass., February 22, 1885

ALS, from Jeremiah Hosmer, Jr., Boston, Mass., February 25, 1885

ALS, Caroline E. Hosmer, Warnerville [Concord], Mass., February 1885

Folder 2
Correspondence, March 1885:

ALS, from Jeremiah Hosmer, Jr., Boston, Mass., March 4, 1885

 

ALS, from E[dward] B[arry] Hosmer, Boston, Mass., March 4, 1885

ALS, from Lewis E. Gould,  Nashua, N.H., March 5, 1885

ALS, from Clara H. Nash [Clarissa Hosmer Hapgood], West Acton, Mass., March 6, 1885

ALS, from Lewis E. Gould, Nashua, N.H., March 9, 1885

ALS, from Samuel Hosmer, Acton, Mass., March 11, 1885

ALS, from George L[eonard] Hosmer, Marlboro, Mass., March 11, 1885

ALS, from Abner Hosmer, Lawrence, Mass., March 12, 1885

ALS, from Stephen Hosmer, Lowell, Mass., March 14, 1885

Postcard, from Augusta Hosmer, Acton, Mass., March 14, 1885

ALS, from John E[stabrook] Hosmer, Ayer, Mass., March 15, 1885

ALS, from M[ary] E[llen] Hosmer, West Acton, Mass., March 16, 1885

ALS, from Henry Hayward Hosmer, Norway, Me., March 16, 1885

ALS, from Estella [Louise] Hosmer, Ayer, Mass., March 21, 1885

ALS, from Colt Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company (regarding Luther Hosmer), Hartford, Conn., March 21, 1885

ALS, from Clara H. Nash [Clarissa Hosmer Hapgood], West Acton, Mass., March 21, 1885

ALS, from Augustine Hosmer, Wayland, Mass., March 22, 1885

ALS, from C[yrus] W[right] Hosmer, North Conway, N.H., March 23, 1885

ALS, from Lewis E. Gould, Nashua, N.H., March 23, 1885

ALS, from Horace R[ice] Hosmer, Ellsworth [Acton], Mass., March 23, 1885

ALS, from George Franklin Hosmer, Boston, Mass., March 23, 1885

ALS, from Charles E[dward] Hosmer, Billerica, Mass., March 24, 1885

ALS, from Abbie S[arah] Hosmer,  Ashby, Mass., March 26, 1885

ALS, from Edwin S. Hosmer, Fitchburg, Mass., March 27, 1885

ALS, from Edward S. Hosmer, Lowell, Mass., March 31, 1885

ALS, from Caroline E. Hosmer, [Concord, Mass.], March 1885

Folder 3
Correspondence, April 1885-June 1885:

ALS, Henry J[oseph] Hosmer to Granville Hosmer, Concord, Mass., April 6, 1885

ALS, from Mary E[llen] Hosmer, West Acton, Mass., April 6, 1885

ALS, from George T[aylor] Hosmer, Jacksonville, Fla., April 6, 1885

ALS, from Clara H. Nash [Clarissa Hosmer Hapgood], West Acton, Mass., April 14, 1885

ALS, from S. A. Hosmer, Augusta, Ga., April 20, 1885

ALS, from Charles M[errill] Hosmer, Charlestown, Mass., May 16, 1885

Postcard, from Theodore Hosmer, Bedford, Mass., May 20, 1885

ALS, from Abel Hosmer, Oakland, Calif., June 9, 1885

ALS, from Clara H. Nash [Clarissa Hosmer Hapgood], West Acton, Mass., June 25, 1885

ALS, from Asa Hosmer, Baldwinsville, Mass., June 1885

Folder 4
Correspondence, 1888-1893:

ALS, from E[dward] Sturges Hosmer, Boston, Mass., June 27, 1888

ALS, from E[dward] Sturges Hosmer, Ashland, Wis., August 15, 1888

ALS, from E[dward] Sturges Hosmer, Milwaukee, Wis., August 30, 1888

ALS, from E[dward] Sturges Hosmer, St. Paul, Minn., September 1888

ALS, from Edwin R. Hodgman, Cambridge, Mass., October 31, 1888

ALS, from Edwin R. Hodgman, Cambridge, Mass., November 6, 1888

ALS, from Joel Munsell’s Sons, Publishers, Albany, N.Y., April 17, 1889

ALS, from Mary S. Leland, Chicago, Ill., March 11, 1890

ALS, from J[ames] K[endall] Hosmer, St. Louis, Mo., March 16, 1890

ALS, from Ernest H[oward] Hosmer, Bedford, Mass., January 26, 1891

ALS, from Millicent M. Blair, New London, N.H., May 5, 1891

ALS, from G[eorge] A[rthur] Gardner, Lowell, Mass., June 4, 1892

ALS, from Marian T[hompson] Hosmer, Boston, Mass., October 13, 1893

Undated correspondence:

ALS, from Helen M[aria] Hosmer, n.d.

ALS, unknown, n.d.

Folder 5
Related  items:

Envelope, addressed to Mrs. D[aniel] H[eald] Wood [Lydia Hosmer] of Montclair, NJ, postmarked Concord, March 26

Newspaper article, “The Acton Branch of Hosmers,” dated on verso April 19, 1875.

Copyright 2005, Concord Free Public Library, Concord, Mass. Not to be reproduced without permission from the library.

 

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Finding aid mounted 3rd November 2005. rcwh.