KEYES FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE, 1837-1851

Vault, A45, Keyes, Unit 6

EXTENT: 20 items; 1 container.

ORGANIZATION AND ARRANGEMENT: Organized into two series: I. Letters from John Keyes to John Shepard Keyes, 1837-1841; and II. Letters from Ann (Shepard) Keyes to Joseph Boyden Keyes, 1846-1851. Arrangement within series is chronological.

BIOGRAPHY: The Keyes family of Concord, Massachusetts was descended from Westford storekeeper Joseph Keyes (1746-1823). John Keyes (1787-1844), son of Joseph and his second wife Sarah Keyes, moved to Concord in 1811. John Keyes was a lawyer, and served as Postmaster, Middlesex County Treasurer, Massachusetts Representative and Senator. He was the first in a line of prominent Concord citizens. John Keyes married Ann Stow Shepard in 1815. Their children included John Shepard Keyes (1821-1910) and Joseph Boyden Keyes (1829-1871). John Shepard Keyes graduated from Harvard University in 1841. He was a lawyer and served as a Massachusetts Senator, Sheriff of Middlesex County, U. S. Marshal, and District Court Judge. He married Martha Lawrence Prescott in 1844. Their children were: Annie S. (1847-1928; Mrs. Edward Waldo Emerson); Florence (1851-1877; Mrs. Charles Walcott); Prescott (1858-1943), who married Alice Reynolds (daughter of Grindall) in 1881; and Alicia M. Keyes (1855-1924). Joseph Boyden Keyes graduated from Harvard University in 1849, studied law and practiced in Watertown and Lowell Massachusetts. He married Helen Maria, daughter of Micah and Harriet (Piper) Maynard, in 1855 and had two children, John Maynard (b. 1862), and Mary Lillie Maynard (b. 1868).

SCOPE AND CONTENT: Papers include letters from John Keyes to John Shepard Keyes, 1837-1841, and letters from Ann (Shepard) Keyes to Joseph Boyden Keyes 1846-1851.

SOURCE OF ACQUISTION: Letters were purchased in two lots from Fred Schmitt of Schmitt Investors Ltd. (one lot at online auction), November of 2009.

ASSOCIATED MATERIALS: Other Keyes papers to be found in the Special Collections Department of the Concord Free Public Library include: Alicia M. Keyes Papers (1877-1941), Vault A45, Keyes, Unit 1; John Shepard Keyes Papers (1837-1908), Vault A45, Keyes, Unit 2; Keyes-Brown Family Papers (1834-1932), Vault A45 Keyes, Unit 3.

NOTES/COMMENTS: Accessioned 11/18/09; AMC 180.

PROCESSED BY: Carolyn Hayes and Jill Hayes, 11/25/2009.

 

CONTAINER LIST

Series I. Letters from John Keyes to John Shepard Keyes, 1837-1841:
Cambridge, December 20, 1837
Concord, January 7, 1838
Concord, March 19, 1838
Concord, July 15, 1838
Concord, September 2, 1839
Concord, Sunday, 8 [Sept. 8], 1839
Concord, October 7, 1839
Concord, November 22, 1839
Concord March, 30, 1840
Concord, April 2, 1840
Concord, April 15, 1840
Concord, April 24, 1840
Concord, May 27, 1840
Concord, September 4, 1840
Concord, January 7, 1841

Series II. Letters from Ann (Shepard) Keyes to Joseph Boyden Keyes, 1846-1851:
Concord, October 16, 1846
Concord, October 7, 1847
Concord, December 18, 1849
[No place given], March 21, 1850
Concord, June 16,1851.

c2009 Concord Free Public Library, Concord, Mass.
Not to be reproduced in any form without permission of the Curator of Special Collections, Concord Free Public Library.

 

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Mounted 2nd December 2009.    rcwh.