PRICHARD, HOAR, AND RELATED FAMILY PAPERS, 1799-1948

Vault A45, Prichard Unit 2

 

Extent: ca. 6 linear feet (14 containers).

Organization and arrangement:  Organized into eleven series: Series I. Moses Prichard papers, 1815-1860; Series II. Jane Hallett Prichard/Hallett family papers, 1799-1860; Series III. Papers of or relating to William Mackay Prichard and his wife Eliza Plummer Prichard, 1832-1888, 1897-1898; Series IV. Frances Jane Prichard papers, 1831-1888; Series V. Moses Barnard Prichard and related papers, 1834-1872; Series VI. Papers of Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar, her husband Edward Sherman Hoar, her in-laws, and her descendants, 1836-1941; Series VII. Amelia Mackay Prichard papers, 1839-1901; Series VIII. Letters addressed to multiple Prichards, 1834-1872, plus undated; Series IX. Prichard family property, financial, and estate papers, 1802-1948; Series X. Printed ephemera, 1845-1941, plus undated; Series XI. Incompletely identified fragments and manuscripts, 1845-[1875] (mostly undated).  Some series are further organized into subseries based on the nature and extent of the material within.  Throughout the series, sequences of dated letters are arranged chronologically, undated letters alphabetically by correspondent.

Family biography:  The Prichard family formed part of the social fabric of the vibrant and privileged Main Street neighborhood of Concord, Massachusetts, through most of the nineteenth century.  From 1829, they owned and occupied the house now numbered 140 Main Street (today part of the modern Concord Academy complex, known as Bradford House).  Lawyer Samuel Hoar and his family lived next door at 158 Main Street.  From the mid-1840s, Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (one of Samuel’s children; a lawyer, judge, and—briefly—attorney general of the United States under President Ulysses S. Grant), wife Caroline Brooks Hoar, and their children lived in what is now 194 Main.  Over the course of the century, other near neighbors included lawyer Nathan Brooks and family (Mrs. Mary Merrick Brooks—a close Prichard friend—was a local antislavery leader), pencil maker John Thoreau and family, the Whitings (carriage maker William Whiting and his children were also ardent antislavery advocates), Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bigelow (in whose Sudbury Road home fugitive slave Shadrach Minkins was sheltered one night in February 1851), the Josiah Davises, the David Lorings, Rebecca Damon (widow of mill owner Calvin Damon), the Cheneys, the Munroes, the Wheildons, Deacon John Brown and family, and—from the early 1820s to 1834—Concord historian and social statistician Lemuel Shattuck. 

The attendance of Prichard children at the old Concord Academy (unrelated to the school that now goes by that name) further strengthened the family’s social bonds in the town.  The Academy was taught by Phineas Allen between 1827 and 1834, later by William Whiting, Jr., and Charles Chauncy Shackford (in succession).  Neighborhood children—Hoars, Brookses, Whitings, and Thoreaus among them—were schoolmates of the Prichard children.  Elizabeth Sherman Hoar (fiancée of Charles Emerson—who died in 1836 before they could be married—and a life-long intimate of the Emersons) was a particularly close friend of the family and, eventually, a relative by marriage.  The Prichards also maintained lasting ties with school friends from other areas of town—for example, John Shepard Keyes and Martha Lawrence Prescott (later Mrs. J. S. Keyes). 

Members of the family (particularly the Prichard women) had a well-deserved reputation as good letter writers—observant, insightful, literate, skilled with language, emotive, humorous, or ironic, as the subject warranted.  They were well-read, too.  Their letters make clear that they kept up with national news and also read books that were well beyond the standards of popular consumption.  Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote his brother William on April 5, 1856, “Whenever the early vols. of Mme Sand’s autobiography come back to me from the Miss Prichard’s or other ladies who hold them, I mean to send them home to you.”

Moses Prichard was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, in 1789.  He was the second son of Jeremiah Prichard (tanner and farmer) and Elizabeth Smith Prichard.  He left New Ipswich and came to Concord while still in his teens, clerked in the Green Store of Isaac Hurd, Jr. (located on the present site of the Holy Family Church), and around 1810 bought the store business with Samuel Burr.  Under the name Burr & Prichard, they sold groceries, liquor, tobacco, snuff, hardware, dry goods, and other items.  The post office was located in their store, as well.  Moses was an amiable and well-liked man, an avid gardener and grower of fruit trees, but not hard-headed in business.  Burr & Prichard failed after many years in operation.  Moses Prichard was subsequently appointed deputy sheriff of Middlesex County.  He was a good friend of lawyer Nathan Brooks, with whom he associated on county business.  Prichard was a member of the Social Circle in Concord from 1812 to 1864.     

Around the time he left New Ipswich for Concord, Prichard became engaged to Jane Tompson/Thompson Hallett (born in Boston in 1790).  She was the daughter of John Allen Hallett, a packet commander between Boston and England.  After retiring, Captain Hallett lived briefly in New Ipswich, then moved to Fitchburg.  When his wife Jane died, daughter Jane moved from Fitchburg back to Boston to stay with her aunts.

Moses Prichard married Jane Hallett in 1814.  As their family grew, the couple lived in several Concord houses before purchasing the Main Street home where they remained for the rest of their lives and which their unmarried daughters Frances Jane (Fanny) and Amelia continued to occupy after they died.  The Prichards maintained a locally renowned garden (flowers, fruits, and vegetables), from which blooms to ornament the First Parish in Concord were supplied.  In recommending the work of Irishman Michael Burke to Abel Adams on March 28, 1855, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “He has lived with Moses Prichard, who has a nursery, & so has made him skillful in grafting, budding, &c.”  (Burke’s wife was a domestic in the Prichard household; Emerson wrote in the same letter, “Lidian says, that Mrs Prichard esteemed the wife as the best domestic she has had.”)  Hugh Whelan preceded Burke as the garden assistant of Moses Prichard.

Emerson encouraged his brother William to think of the Prichards’ Concord property as a place that he (William) might someday acquire, although that seems never to have been a real possiblility.  The respectful and neighborly connection between the Prichard and Emerson families is demonstrated by the fact that Mr. Prichard served as a pallbearer at the funeral of the mentally challenged Bulkeley Emerson (William and Ralph Waldo’s brother).

Mrs. Prichard took boarders into her Main Street home.  In an August 10, 1842 letter to Emerson, Margaret Fuller mentioned that Ellery Channing was thinking of boarding in Concord, and asked, “Why is Mrs Thoreau’s recommended rather than Mrs Prichard’s?  I thought the latter was much the pleasantest family, and the windows look over the meadows and river.” 

Jane Prichard was forthright in expressing her opinions in correspondence (for example, her criticism of antislavery).  A sufferer from sometimes debilitating rheumatism, she died in 1860.  Moses Prichard died in 1865.  Both are buried in Concord’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, as are all the children who survived them. 

The Prichards had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood: William Mackay (born in 1814); Frances Jane (1816); Moses Barnard (1818); Henry Gilman (born and died 1821); Elizabeth Hallett (1822); and Amelia Mackay (1824).  The five surviving siblings remained close for life—even William (who lived in New York in adulthood) and Moses B. (who moved about a good deal in the line of work, lived for many years down south, and returned to Concord infrequently).  Their correspondence reflects a determination to keep family ties strong even at a distance.  The Prichard women visited with William in New York for extended periods.  They also enjoyed a rich intellectual as well as social life in Concord and maintained friendships with other women of similar education and capability.             

William Mackay Prichard (1814-1897) became a successful lawyer in New York.  He studied at the Concord Academy and graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1833.  During college he earned money in the winter teaching school in Sterling, Massachusetts.  After graduating from Harvard, he taught at the Walpole (New Hampshire) Academy and in New York City.  He studied law with the firms of Cleveland & Campbell and Griffin, Strong & Griffin, and was admitted to practice.  In 1839, he became the partner of William Emerson (older brother of Ralph Waldo Emerson), who lived on Staten Island and worked in New York.  William Emerson retired in 1865, and Prichard subsequently joined forces with Duncan Smith, William G. Choate, Frederick E. Cleveland, and J. Hampden Dougherty.  He retired in 1884.  He was a trustee of the New York House of Refuge (the first juvenile reformatory in the country), a founder of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and treasurer of All Souls Church.  In 1849, he was one of nearly fifty prominent New Yorkers who signed a petition encouraging English actor William Charles Macready to perform Macbeth despite violence threatened by supporters of American actor Edwin Forrest; the well-known Astor Place Riot resulted from Macready’s performance on May 10.

William M. Prichard often stayed in Concord, particularly in the summer.  His frequent trips allowed him to serve as something of a courier between William Emerson in New York and Ralph Waldo Emerson in Concord, as the latter’s correspondence shows.  (Brother Moses B. and sister Lizzie also served in the same capacity on occasion.)  R. W. Emerson appreciated the small kindnesses bestowed by William Prichard.  For example, he wrote from New York to his wife Lidian on March 7, 1842, “If you see the Prichards tell them how well & noble I find their brother.  He exerts himself most kindly in behalf of my company at the Society Library.”  On June 7, 1844, Emerson wrote from Concord to his brother William, “I am very glad that William Prichard remains with you.  I admire handsome people & would that I & all my friends were ever surrounded with such: if they are good also,—it is angels & archangels.”  Emerson shared with William and his siblings a deep affection for Elizabeth Hoar.  According to Ralph Rusk (editor of Emerson’s letters), William Prichard held power of attorney for  Emerson while the latter traveled abroad in 1847 and 1848.

William Prichard retained a particular pride in his hometown throughout his life, and made generous gifts to the Concord Free Public Library—which opened in 1873 across the street from his childhood home—and other local institutions.  His parents and siblings visited him in New York and also stayed for extended periods on Staten Island.  (His sister Lizzie taught two of William Emerson’s children and four other children on Staten Island in 1850.)  In 1852, Prichard married Eliza Plummer (daughter of William and Jane Plummer; 1812-1888; died in New York, buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord).  They had no children.  At the end of his life, his three sisters (spinsters Fanny and Amelia and widow Lizzie) were with him in New York.   

Frances Jane Hallett Prichard (1816-1899, nicknamed Fanny or Fannikin) and Amelia Mackay Prichard (1824-1901; nicknamed Mela, Mela Mela, or Puss; referred to by brother William as “Ma chère” or “My dear little girl”) were the never-married daughters of the Prichard family.  They were the oldest and youngest girls in the family, respectively. 

Fanny and Amelia both studied at the Concord Academy.  Receipts among her father’s papers show that Amelia subsequently attended George Barrell Emerson’s school for girls in Boston.  (Lizzie also studied there, and Fanny may have done so, but documentation proving that has not been located.)  Following in Lizzie’s footsteps, Amelia taught school in Baltimore for a time.  Like Lizzie, Fanny and Amelia were thoughtful, intelligent, and outspoken observers of the world around them.  They had much to say in their letters about literary, social, and political as well as personal matters.

After the deaths of their parents, Fanny and Amelia remained in the family home and took in boarders.  Census records show that in 1880 their nieces Fanny (Florida) and Nowelle (sometimes spelled Nowell, also found  as Norvelle)—stepdaughters of brother Moses B.—lived with them, as did boarder James L. Whitney (later librarian at the Boston Public Library).  Following their brother William’s death in 1897, they set up a fund in support of the fine arts collections of Harvard College in his memory.  In 1899, they made a gift to the Town of Concord of a manual training school to teach industrial arts, domestic science, mechanical drawing, and other practical subjects.  They purchased and gave the town the lot for the school, paid to have the former East Center School building moved to the site and renovated, and provided funding for its maintenance.  At the end of their lives, the two sisters lived in New York, where they died.  

Moses Barnard Prichard (1818-1878; nicknamed Moselle or Mozelle)  also attended Concord Academy.  Although his mother wrote in her letters of his seeking a farm in early adulthood, his papers document Moses B. Prichard’s long career as a civil engineer.  The Prichard papers provide an in-depth view into his professional activities.  He worked on railroad projects in New England, New York, and the southern states.  He was involved in work associated with the Welland Canal.  His professional associates and correspondents included prominent Irish-born civil engineers Samuel Power and his brother Edward John Power.  Perhaps significantly, Moses B. Prichard spent the Civil War years in the South, which begs the question of where his allegiances lay.

“Moselle” was not as diligent a correspondent as his siblings would have liked, and his work prevented him from spending long stretches of time in Concord, as his brother William was able to do.  In a prolonged attempt to hold onto this most distant member of the family circle, his parents and siblings wrote frequent and informative letters to him. 

In middle age, Moses B. Prichard married Anna V. (Annie) Whaley (Mrs. Thomas Whaley), who was born in Virginia.  The 1870 federal census shows them living in Montgomery, Alabama, with Anna’s two daughters, Florida (Fanny) and Nowelle, who later stayed on Main Street in Concord with their aunts by marriage, Fanny and Amelia Prichard. 

Moses Barnard Prichard died in Concord at the age of sixty.
  
Elizabeth Hallett Prichard (Mrs. Edward Sherman Hoar; 1822-1917; nicknamed Lizzie, Lissie, Liz, and Lis) was the only one of the five Prichard children to produce a child and was also the longest-lived of her generation.  These circumstances explain the passage of this collection of Prichard family papers down through her descendants before its donation to the Concord Free Public Library.

Lizzie Prichard attended Concord Academy and George Barrell Emerson’s school for girls in Boston.  Over time, she acquired knowledge of Latin, Greek, French, German, and Italian, earning a reputation as a learned woman.  In this she resembled her good friend and sister-in-law, Elizabeth Sherman Hoar.  Like Elizabeth Hoar (and, in Jane Prichard’s opinion, incited by Elizabeth Hoar), Lizzie Prichard was an ardent abolitionist—seemingly the most radical in her family.

Elizabeth Prichard worked as a teacher.  She taught in Baltimore (where she socialized with the recently married Caroline Healey Dall), New York, and Brooklyn.  Her career and her penchant for travel took her away from Concord for long periods of time. 

On October 6, 1858, she sailed for Liverpool on the Niagara with Elizabeth Hoar and Elizabeth’s brother Edward Sherman Hoar, another Concord Academy schoolmate and a companion of Henry David Thoreau.  The three took what Elizabeth Maxfield Miller (editor of the letters of Elizabeth Hoar) described as “a grand tour of Europe, with a winter and early spring in Italy in the middle of it.”  On December 28, 1858, Elizabeth Hallett Prichard married Edward Sherman Hoar at the American consulate in Florence.  Through the winter and spring, the couple lived with Elizabeth Hoar in an apartment in Rome and associated with the Anglo-American community there. 

On August 27, 1859, the three travelers returned to Boston on the Europa, arriving on September 9.  Elizabeth Sherman Hoar resumed residence in her family’s Concord home (now 158 Main Street).  In 1860, shortly after the birth in Concord on January 23 of their daughter Florence (an only child), the Edward Hoars purchased a farm in nearby Lincoln (the Hayden Farm on the Old Concord Road, later known as the Snelling Farm; the house burned in 1928).  Thoreau surveyed their property in March of 1860; his draft survey is among the Henry David Thoreau papers in the Concord Free Public Library. 

Lizzie, Edward, and Florence Hoar moved into Elizabeth Hoar’s Concord household some time after the death in 1866 of Sarah Sherman Hoar (Edward’s and Elizabeth’s mother).  They sold their Lincoln property in 1871.  In December of that year, Lizzie Prichard Hoar, Edward, Florence, Carrie Hoar (daughter of Ebenezer Rockwood and Caroline Downes Brooks Hoar), and Hoar cousins Helen Pierce Van Vost and Augusta Pierce sailed to Italy and settled in Arinella (Palermo, Sicily) in search of a better climate for Edward’s health.  They remained abroad for two years.  Elizabeth Hoar wintered with them in 1872-1873.

After Elizabeth Sherman Hoar’s death in 1878, Edward and Elizabeth Prichard Hoar remained in the Hoar family homestead on Main Street.  Edward Hoar died in 1893.  Elizabeth died in 1917 in her childhood home (140 Main Street).  Both are buried in Concord’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

Elizabeth Prichard Hoar’s obituary in the Boston Transcript focused on the perspective that longevity gave her: “Several incidents of more than ordinary interest are identified with Mrs. Hoar’s life.  As a very young child she saw General Lafayette when he visited Concord and the great Frenchman took her up and kissed her, an incident which was always clearly remembered by her, throughout her life.  On the last appearance of Halley’s comet, in 1910, Mrs. Hoar looked from her window to view the unusual sight and vividly remembered how, three-quarters of a century or more before that, she had looked from the very same window to have her first sight of this comet.”

In 1885, Edward and Elizabeth Hoar’s daughter Florence married Moses Brown Lockwood Bradford (1858-1928)—a cotton manufacturer who in 1895 was the assistant treasurer for the Assabet Manufacturing Company in Maynard, Massachusetts.  The Bradfords lived initially in Providence, Rhode Island.  They lived later in Boston, also maintaining the Prichard family homestead in Concord, where they ultimately moved.  (They also owned the present 122 Main, and their married daughter lived next door at 128 Main.)  Mrs. Bradford died in 1946.  Concord Academy subsequently acquired the Prichard property and named it Bradford House. 

The Bradfords’ only child Alice married John Perry Bowditch.  Ebenezer F. Bowditch—one of their children—married Anna Mitchell Hale in 1935.  Susan B. Badger—donor of this collection to the Concord Free Public Library in 2012—is one of their children.

Edward Sherman Hoar (1823-1893) was the fourth child of Squire Samuel Hoar—a legendary Massachusetts lawyer of the nineteenth century, a member of both branches of the Massachusetts legislature, and a United States congressman—and his wife Sarah Sherman Hoar.  Brother of Elizabeth, Ebenezer Rockwood, Sarah, and George Frisbie Hoar, Edward studied at the Concord Academy and was a good friend of Henry David Thoreau.  He entered Harvard College in his sophomore year and graduated in 1844, not long after he and Thoreau accidentally set fire to the woods around Concord’s Fairhaven Bay.  He was Thoreau’s later walking companion on excursions to Maine and to the White Mountains.  The two shared a common passion for the natural world and explored the plant life of Concord together. 

Edward Hoar studied law at Harvard, then in New York City, where he was admitted to practice in 1848.  In 1849, during the Gold Rush, he traveled to the new state of California.  (He had already journeyed to California once, in 1840, while in his teens.)  There he practiced law, became a leader of the bar, and served as a district attorney.  He also traded cattle.  While residing in California, he traveled to Peru, where he was when his father died in 1856.  Leaving his law practice behind, Edward came back to Massachusetts in 1857.  The following year, he sailed for Europe with his sister Elizabeth and his neighbor and bride-to-be Elizabeth Hallett Prichard.  They returned from Europe in 1859.  The following year, he purchased a Lincoln, Massachusetts property, which he actively farmed.  In Palermo with his family in the 1870s, he cultivated oranges, lemons, and figs.

Although he withdrew from the legal profession and avoided public life, Hoar threw himself into scientific study—geology and natural history as well as botany.  He was also a great reader and a lover of art, music, and drama.  He was a follower of politics, which he approached from a liberal point of view.  He associated with important contemporary observers of the natural world—Louis Agassiz, William Brewster, Walter Deane, and Edward S. Burgess as well as Thoreau.

Edward Sherman Hoar suffered from rheumatism and from some unspecified trouble of the lungs—most likely tuberculosis.   He died in Washington—where he had gone in an effort to improve his declining health—in 1893.  In 1912, his daughter Florence donated his extensive collection of plant specimens (some of them gathered by Thoreau) to the New England Botanical Club.

Scope and content:  An organic collection of family papers, 1799-1948, documenting the lives in Concord, Massachusetts, and elsewhere in the United States of Moses Prichard and his wife Jane Hallett Prichard, their descendants, and their relations by birth and by marriage.  The collection also provides considerable insight into the life abroad of Elizabeth Prichard Hoar and her husband Edward Sherman Hoar in the late 1850s and early 1870s.  Additionally, it contains material relating to the activities of Moses Prichard as deputy sheriff of Middlesex County and to the engineering activities of his son, Moses B. Prichard. 

The papers consist primarily of letters between Moses and Jane Prichard and their children William, Frances, Moses B., Elizabeth/Mrs. Edward S. Hoar, and Amelia, and also include letters from neighbors and friends, among them  Elizabeth (“Lizzie”) Hoar (letters to her are also found in the collection), Mary Moody Emerson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and Sophia Peabody/Mrs. Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

Besides letters, the collection includes a range of other material types: manuscripts (a school composition, poems, an autobiographical narrative, a journal, notebooks, a scrapbook, a handwriting analysis, etc.); financial records and papers; probate and estate papers; documents relating to real estate; legal documents; official documents (marriage certificate, passport); business records (personnel- and pay-related documents, reports, specifications, etc.); two photographs; clipped newspaper items; printed maps; handbills,  calling cards, and other ephemeral items; postcards; a leather wallet and its contents; a lock of hair; needlepoint patterns; and puzzles clipped from Italian newspapers.

The subjects of correspondence as identified in the container list below represent highlights only.  This is a deep and complex collection, which the serious researcher will want to examine carefully for information relevant to particular topics of exploration.  Moreover, because letters are filed among the papers of the recipient rather than the writer, it is necessary to examine multiple series to locate all letters by a single writer.  And because the several writers represent more than one point of view on any given subject, a clear perspective on their opinions can be gained only by reading the letters of multiple correspondents.      

Related materials (all held by the CFPL):  Partial listing: Moses Prichard papers; Samuel Burr daybooks; Nathan Brooks papers; Hoar family papers; John Shepard Keyes papers; diary of Martha Lawrence Prescott; Bessie Keyes Hudson’s memoir of Caroline Downes Brooks Hoar; Edward S. Burgess papers.

Provenance:  Papers were passed down through the descendants of Elizabeth Prichard Hoar and Edward Sherman Hoar (to their daughter Florence Hoar Bradford, to her daughter Alice Bradford Bowditch, to her son Ebenezer F. Bowditch, to his wife Anna Hale Bowditch, to her daughter Susan B. Badger).

Source of acquisition:  Gift (in three shipments) of Susan B. Badger from the estate of Anna Hale Bowditch, May and June, 2012; addenda (4 items) sent February 2014. William M. Prichard’s Phi Beta Kappa Key sent in February 2019.

Notes and comments:  Accessioned October 31, 2012; AMC 208.  Newspaper clippings photocopied; originals discarded.  Processed by LPW; finding aid completed November 26, 2012; revised by LPW, March 8, 2014.

Series/subseries listing:

Click on a line below to proceed directly to the container list for a particular series or subseries.

Series I.  Moses Prichard papers, 1815-1860
     A.  Letters to Moses Prichard, 1823-1860
     B.  Financial documents, 1815-1843
     C.  Records relating to position as Middlesex County deputy sheriff, 1829-1856
Series II.  Jane Thompson Hallett Prichard/Hallett family papers, 1799-1860
     A.  Letters to Jane Thompson Hallett/Jane Thompson Hallett Prichard, 1800-1860
     B.  Letters to Elizabeth B. Hallett (sister of Jane Thompson Hallett Prichard) and to Mary Caldwell (cousin), 1799-1860
Series III.  Papers of or relating to William Mackay Prichard and his wife Eliza Plummer Prichard, 1832-1888, 1897-1898
     A.  Letters to William M. Prichard, 1832-1888
     B.  Letters to Eliza Plummer Prichard, 1881, 1885
     C.  Manuscript composition by William M. Prichard, 1832
     D.  Manuscript covenant, 1868
     E.  William M. Prichard: obituary and memorial gifts, 1897-1898
     F.  Artifact: William M. Prichard’s Phi Beta Kappa key
Series IV.  Frances Jane Prichard papers, 1831-1888
     A. Letters to Frances Jane Prichard, 1831-1888, arranged chronologically
     B. Undated letters to Frances Jane Prichard, arranged by correspondent
Series V.  Moses Barnard Prichard and related papers, 1834-1872
     A. Letters to Moses B. Prichard, 1834-1867
     B.  Undated letters to Moses B. Prichard, arranged by correspondent
     C.  Professional papers, 1841-1853, plus undated
     D.  Financial documents, [184-]-1866
     E.  Ephemera, 1860
     F.  Letter to stepdaughter of Moses B. Prichard, 1872
Series VI.   Papers of Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar, her husband Edward Sherman Hoar, her in-laws, and her descendants, 1836-1941
     A.  Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar papers, 1841-[ca. 1915]
          1.  Letters to Elizabeth H. P. Hoar, 1841-1910
          2.  Undated letters to Elizabeth H. P. Hoar, arranged by correspondent
          3.  Manuscripts, 1860-[ca. 1915]
          4.  Ephemera, [1849?]-[187-?]
          5.  Financial, 1892-1896, 1900
     B.  Edward Sherman Hoar papers, 1851 (in transcription)-1894
          1.  Letters to Edward S. Hoar, 1873-1888 (one with 1851 enclosure, in transcription), plus undated
          2.  Poem to Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Hoar, 1860
          3.  Manuscripts, 1872-1891
          4.  Official documents, 1858, 1871
          5.  Ephemera, [187-?]-1890
          6.  Death, burial, and estate materials, 1893-1894
     C.  Papers of or relating to other members of the Hoar family, 1836-1941
          1.  Samuel Hoar papers, 1836-1855
               a.  Letters from son Edward S. Hoar, 1836-1849
               b.  Will, 1849
               c.  Wallet (contents 1854-1855)
          2.  Letters to Elizabeth Sherman Hoar, 1840-1873, plus undated
          3.  Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar papers, 1849-[1895]
               a.  Letters to E. R. Hoar, 1849, 1872, plus undated
               b.  Undated manuscript eulogy in hand of E. R. Hoar
               c.  Photocopied clipped pieces about E. R. Hoar, [1893], [1895]
          4.  Papers relating to George Frisbie Hoar, [1893], 1904, 1941
          5.  Letter to Carrie [Hoar], 1893
          6.  Miscellaneous Hoar family items, 1893-1905
     D.  Florence Hoar/Florence Hoar Bradford-Moses Bradford papers, 1860-1917
          1.  Letters to Florence Hoar/Florence Hoar Bradford, 1860-1916, plus undated
          2.  Miscellaneous manuscript items relating to Florence Hoar Bradford, undated and [1855]
          3.  Moses Bradford papers, [1880s]-1917
               a.  Letters to Moses Bradford, 1892-1917, plus undated
               b.  Notebook, ca. 1891-1900
               c.  Assabet Manufacturing Company records, 1894, 1895
               d.  Personal finances and property documents, 1901-1902
               e.  Photograph and clipping, [1880s], 1899
Series VII.  Amelia Mackay Prichard papers, 1839-1901
     A.  Letters to Amelia M. Prichard, 1839-1900, plus undated
     B.  Manuscript ode, 1865
     C.  Financial papers, 1845, 1900-1901
Series VIII.  Letters addressed to multiple Prichards, 1834-1899, plus undated
Series IX.  Prichard family property, financial, and estate papers, 1802-1948
Series X.  Printed ephemera, 1845-1941, plus undated
Series XI.  Incompletely identified fragments and manuscripts, 1845-[1875] (mostly undated)
 

CONTAINER LIST

 Series I.  Moses Prichard papers, 1815-1860:
     A.  Letters to Moses Prichard, 1823-1860
     B.  Financial documents, 1815-1843
     C.  Records relating to position as Middlesex County deputy sheriff, 1829-1856

A.  Letters to Moses Prichard, 1823-1860:

Box 1, Folder 1:
1823-1843.
Including letters from wife Jane and son Moses B. (some from Moses B. headed “Office of Welland Canal, St. Catherines, U.C.”).

Box 1, Folder 2:
1844-1860.
Including letters from wife Jane, daughter Amelia (“Puss”), and sons Moses B. (from Alabama and Memphis) and William M. (from New York).  A May 10, 1860 letter from William is accompanied by an enclosed letter to his mother, who died May 31, 1860.  The folder also includes a letter of sympathy on Jane Prichard’s death from George W. Prichard (brother of Moses).

B.  Financial documents, 1815-1843:

Box 1, Folder 3:
Contents of tied packet labeled “List of Debts due Burr & Prichard,” one document dated 1817, most undated.

Box 1, Folder 4:
Document relating to collection of money owed Moses Prichard and Samuel Burr in case Prichard et al. v. Reed, 1815.

Box 1, Folder 5:
Receipts for daughter Amelia’s tuition at George Barrell Emerson’s Boston school, 1842-1843.

C.  Records relating to position as Middlesex County deputy sheriff, 1829-1856:

Box 1, Folder 6:
Contents of unlabeled packet of documents (primarily writs), 1829-1834.

Box 1, Folder 7:
Contents of unlabeled packet of financial documents (bills and receipts) relating to multiple court cases, 1829-1835.

Box 1, Folder 8:
Contents of packet labeled “Writs not Served,” 1834-1835, with attached documentation, 1830-1835.

Box 1, Folder 9:
Contents of unlabeled packet of documents (primarily bonds—obligation, bail, etc.), 1834-1836.

Box 1, Folder 10:
Contents of unlabeled packet of documents relating to multiple court cases, 1835-1836 (including related material going back to 1831).

Box 1, Folder 11:
Contents of unlabeled packet of miscellaneous legal documents (including material relating to the dissolution of the firm of How and Hidden), 1838-1840.

Box 1, Folder 12:
Contents of unlabeled packet of writs, summonses, etc., 1840-1842.

Box 1, Folder 13:
Miscellaneous legal and court documents, 1832-1839, plus undated.

Box 1, Folder 14:
Miscellaneous legal and court documents (including the assignment of the estate of printer George F. Bemis to Moses Prichard), 1840-1856.

Box 1, Folder 15:
Documents relating to the case of John Boyd of Marlborough, “insolvent debtor,” 1829-1841.

Box 1, Folder 16:
Documents relating to the case of Samuel Jones of Lexington, “insolvent debtor,” 1839-1841.

Box 1, Folder 17:
Records of the case of Benjamin Kimball, “insolvend [sic] debtor,” 1842 (Nathan Brooks, Master in Chancery).

Box 1, Folder 18:
Contents of packet labeled “Wrights Bills,” 1847.

Box 1, Folder 19:
Printed summons forms (blanks).

Box 1, Folder 20:
Cabinet card photograph of Moses Prichard (undated: copied by Alfred Munroe from earlier image).

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Series II.  Jane Thompson Hallett Prichard/Hallett family papers, 1799-1860:
     A.  Letters to Jane Thompson Hallett/Jane Thompson Hallett Prichard, 1800-1860
     B.  Letters to Elizabeth B. Hallett (sister of Jane Thompson Hallett Prichard) and to Mary Caldwell (cousin), 1799-1860

A. Letters to Jane Thompson Hallett/Jane Thompson Hallett Prichard, 1800-1860:

Box 2, Folder 1:
1800, 1828.
Including a letter from Elizabeth Barnard to Miss Jane Hallett in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, September 24, 1800.

Box 2, Folder 2:
1831-1839.
Including letters from son William, son Moses B. (from Fairfield District, South Carolina, and Greensboro, Georgia), and niece Adeline Prichard.  

Box 2, Folder 3:
1840-1841.
Including letters from daughter Frances Jane (Fanny), daughter Elizabeth (Lizzie; mainly from Augusta, Maine), son Moses B. (from Lake Island, New York), and husband Moses (from Concord, to Jane in New York).  An August 20, 1840 letter from Fanny touches upon a range of Concord news—Caroline Brooks at home; Anna Barker visiting the Emersons; Elizabeth Hoar staying with “Aunt Mary” (Mary Moody Emerson) and helping her make a new shroud; “David Henry” calling upon “F. Mary”; Martha Prescott at home.  In a letter written September 9, 1840, Fanny chides her mother for her lack of antislavery sympathy and describes the Whig celebration in Boston.

Box 2, Folder 4:
1843?-1845.
Including letters from Fanny, Elizabeth Hoar, Moses B. (from Allanburg, New York, and Stone Bridge, C.W.), and cousin “Fanny M.” (writing “To my three Cousins Mary, Jane & Elizabeth”).  A letter written by Elizabeth Hoar in Concord on January 8, 1844 to Mrs. Prichard care of her son William in New York refers to E. Hoar’s short-lived attempt to “teach Irish school.”  A March 1844 letter by Fanny discusses abolition and refers to the birth of Una Hawthorne (“Mrs. Hawthorne has a daughter”) and to the construction of the Main Street home of Caroline and Rockwood Hoar.  An April 16, 1844 letter from Fanny refers to the annexation of Texas, Concord author Mrs. Jane G. Austin, the spurt of home construction in Concord (the Thoreaus; Caroline and Rockwood Hoar; Mr. Belkap); and John Shepard Keyes opening a law practice in his father’s office (Fanny editorializing that she hopes that Keyes will learn humility).  Letters from Moses refer to his engineering work and (November 12, 1844) to the national election.

Box 2, Folder 5:
1846-1848.
Including letters from niece Ellen Prichard, Amelia (from New Haven and Baltimore), Fanny, William, and a Prichard nephew in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Box 2, Folder 6:
1850-1853.
Including letters from William, Amelia (“Mela”), Fanny, Lizzie, and Dr. George Shattuck of Boston regarding treatment of Mrs. Prichard’s sister’s headaches.  Most letters in this folder from the three Prichard daughters are headed “New York” or “Staten Island.”

Box 2, Folder 7:
1854-1857.
Including letters from Amelia (from Litchfield, New York, Staten Island, and Lyons), Moses B. (an April 23, 1855, letter from Loudon [Kentucky] referring to his coming involvement in locating the Knoxville and Kentucky Railroad), Lizzie (a January 4, 1857 letter from New York mentioning her reading Aurora Leigh), Fanny (from New Haven and New York; an October 22, 1857 letter from New York referring to the financial failure of William Munroe).
   
Box 2, Folder 8:
1858-1859.
Including letters from Amelia (from Lyons and Staten Island), Moses B. (from Lyons and Memphis—two letters on Memphis and Charleston Rail Road letterhead), Elizabeth Hoar (four copies—one in Elizabeth Hoar’s hand—of a December [28], 1858 letter from Florence, Italy, describing the wedding of Elizabeth Prichard and Edward Sherman Hoar, one copy including a newspaper clipping with an account of the event), and one from Lizzie Prichard Hoar abroad (April 25, [1859], mentioning a call on Elizabeth Barrett Browning, whom Lizzie describes as “the funniest little woman I ever saw –very small—deformed I shld. think).”

Box 2, Folder 9:
1860.
One letter from William in New York.  

Box 2, Folder 10:
Undated.
Including letters from Lizzie (from Baltimore and Staten Island), Fanny, Moses B.,William, sister Mary, daughter-in-law Eliza Plummer Prichard, and Elizabeth Hoar (“Stafford  Aug. 7th”; describing Elizabeth Hoar’s stay in Stafford with her mother).  

B.  Letters to Elizabeth B. Hallett (sister of Jane Thompson Hallett Prichard) and to Mary Caldwell (cousin), 1799-1860:

Box 3, Folder 1:
Letters to Elizabeth B. Hallett, 1799-1810.
Including a 1799 letter from Barnstable (photograph laid in) from Elizabeth’s mother Jane and letters from Elizabeth’s sister Jane from Boston and Billerica.

Box 3, Folder 2:
Letters to Elizabeth B. Hallett from sister Jane, 1811-1812.
Including letters from Boston.

Box 3, Folder 3:
Letters to Elizabeth B. Hallett from sister Jane, 1813-1822.
Including letters from Boston, Stafford, and Concord.

Box 3, Folder 4:
Letters to Elizabeth B. Hallett from sister Jane, 1823-1833.
Including letters from Boston and Concord.

Box 3, Folder 5:
Letters to Elizabeth B. Hallett from sister Jane and from Jane’s children, 1834-1854.
Including letters from Jane (from Concord, Hot Springs, and New York), nephew Moses B. (from Allanburg, New York), niece Fanny (from New Haven and Concord), and niece Amelia (from Lyons and Concord).

Box 3, Folder 6:
Letters to Elizabeth B. Hallett, 1858-1860.
Including letters from niece Lizzie abroad (from Nice, December 14, 1858, original and manuscript copy, referring to telescope, journal, and botanizing of Edward Sherman Hoar; from Dresden, May 31, 1859) and a letter of sympathy from B. Whitman in response to the death of sister Jane Thompson Hallett Prichard.

Box 3, Folders 7-8:
Undated letters to Elizabeth B. Hallett from sister Jane (from Boston, Hot Springs, and Concord).

Box 3, Folder 9:
Undated letters to Elizabeth B. Hallett from nieces Fanny (“Fannikin”) and Lizzie.

Box 3, Folder 10:
Printed invitation/ticket to “Concord Ball in Celebration of Peace,” made out in manuscript to Miss. E. B. Hallett, Tuesday evening, February 28, 1815.

Box 3, Folder 11:
Letters to Mary Caldwell from cousin Jane Thompson Hallett Prichard, 1852, 1855 (from Concord).

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Series III.  Papers of or relating to William Mackay Prichard and his wife Eliza Plummer Prichard, 1832-1888, 1897-1898:
     A. Letters to William M. Prichard, 1832-1888
     B.  Letters to Eliza Plummer Prichard, 1881, 1885
     C.  Manuscript composition by William M. Prichard, 1832
     D.  Manuscript covenant, 1868
     E. William M. Prichard: obituary and memorial gifts, 1897-1898

A.  Letters to William M. Prichard, 1832-1888:

Box 4, Folder 1:
Letters to William M. Prichard, 1836-1870.
Including letters from brother Moses B. (one dated July 18, 1870, reporting the death of his wife Anna); mother Jane; sister Amelia (one dated October 7, 1858 describing sister Lizzie’s departure for Europe from Boston; and one dated November 26, 1865 describing the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of Rockwood and Caroline Hoar, the presents to mark which included a goblet from “Mr. R.W.E.”); and Miss Mary Moody Emerson (one January 1859, seeking news from Florence of Edward and Elizabeth Prichard Hoar and especially of Miss Elizabeth Hoar, and including a reference to the death of Bulkeley Emerson; a second, February 7, [1859], also requesting information about the travelers abroad; and one, February 23, [1859], thanking William for information about the wedding of Edward Hoar and Elizabeth Prichard in Florence). 

Box 4, Folder 2:
Letters to William M. Prichard, 1881-1888.
Including dated letters from sisters Fanny, Amelia, and Lizzie.

B.  Letters to Eliza Plummer Prichard, 1881, 1885:

Box 4, Folder 3:
Letters to Eliza Plummer Prichard from sisters-in-law Fanny and Amelia, 1881, 1885.
 
C.  Manuscript composition by William M. Prichard, 1832:

Box 4, Folder 4:
Manuscript (school composition?) by William M. Prichard: “The influence of popular superstition on the progress of science,” April 27, 1832.

D.  Manuscript covenant, 1868:

Box 4, Folder 5:
Manuscript document, “Covenant as to Parkman Estate—17 July 1868,” George M. Brooks with William Munroe, Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, and William M. Prichard.

E.  William M. Prichard: obituary and memorial gifts, 1897-1898:

Box 4, Folder 6:
Typescript obituary of William M. Prichard, with manuscript edits, 1897.

Box 4, Folder 7:
Materials relating to memorials to William M. Prichard (a tablet at All Souls Church in New York and a Harvard College memorial fund given by Amelia and Frances Jane Prichard), 1898.

F. Artifact: William M. Prichard’s Phi Beta Kappa key

Box 4, small box:

Phi Beta Kappa key inscribed “William M. Prichard.”

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Series IV.  Frances Jane Prichard papers, 1831-1888:
     A.  Letters to Frances Jane Prichard, 1831-1888, arranged chronologically
     B.  Undated letters to Frances Jane Prichard, arranged by correspondent

A.  Letters to Frances Jane Prichard, 1831-1888, arranged chronologically:

Box 5, Folder 1:
1831-1836.
Including letters from sister Amelia (from Philadelphia and Staten Island); Elizabeth Hoar (from New Haven, where she was in school; she describes her school day and refers to her homesickness for Concord in a letter of May 25, 1832); Elizabeth’s sister Sarah Sherman Hoar (from Boston, where she was in school; in a letter of June 18, 1833, she refers to having seen Cynthia Thoreau and her daughter Helen on Washington Street in Boston and to anxiety about the possibility of Mrs. Thoreau’s lungs failing; to her dread of “lady authoresses” on September 26, 1836—“I am always afraid of  seeing something not in good taste for a woman—this is mere fancy—and I acknowledge it is unreasonable to suppose all ladies who write books must of necessity look like Miss Elizabeth Peabody”; and, on October 18, 1836, to Mrs. Thoreau’s extreme talkativeness); mother Jane (who, writing from Boston on March 8, 1836, refers to Charles C. Shackford and to “Johnny” [John Shepard] Keyes); brother Moses B. (from Long Island, about his engineering work); aunt Mary; and cousin Adeline.

Box 5, Folder 2:
1837-[1839].
Including letters from brother William in New York; cousin Adeline; brother Moses B. in Green County, Georgia; friend Sarah Sherman Hoar referring from Boston on December 12, [1839] to Margaret Fuller’s conversations, which she declines to attend; from sister Lizzie at George B. Emerson’s school in Boston.

Box 5, Folder 3:
1840-1842.
Including letters from aunt Elizabeth B. Hallett, who writes from Concord in July 1840 about the upcoming anniversary of emancipation in the West Indies, at the celebration of which Ralph Waldo Emerson will deliver an address, and refreshments will be laid out on “Mr. Hawthorne’s avenue”; brother William in New York; mother Jane in Hot Springs; sisters Lizzie in Warm Springs and Augusta and Amelia in Boston. 

Box 5, Folder 4:
1843-1844.
Including letters from sister Lizzie in Belmont and Concord; brother William in New York; cousin Sarah; cousin “Fanny M.”; mother Jane in New York (she remarks on March 13, 1843 on her disinclination to be converted to abolitionism); aunt Elizabeth B. Hallett in Swampscott; and sister Amelia, who encloses in a December 7, 1843 letter from New York a scrap of cloth bearing a quotation attributed to Thoreau (“Silence is more social than speech”).

Box 5, Folder 5:
1844.
Including a “group letter” from mother Jane, sister Amelia, and brother William (New York, January 14; letters from Amelia (in New Haven); William (New York); Sarah Sherman Hoar (writing from New Haven on March 25 about national politics and about her astonishment at Fanny becoming an abolitionist); Aunt Mary; Mary P.; mother Jane (who writes from Concord on July 28 about the upcoming wedding of Martha Prescott and John Shepard Keyes, about the sickliness of Caroline and Rockwood Hoar’s recently born baby, about the upcoming August 1 antislavery celebration in Concord and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s anticipated speech at that event, and about daughter Lizzie’s abolitionism); sister Lizzie (one letter from Concord on August 13 mentioning the August 1 antislavery celebration, Emerson’s address at it about emancipation in the British West Indies, Frederick Douglass, reading Plato with Elizabeth Hoar, and the impending Martha Prescott-John S. Keyes marriage; other letters are from Lizzie in Baltimore, including one dated November 27 reporting on attending church with Samuel Hoar and his daughter Elizabeth while they are en route to South Carolina, one dated December referring to Samuel and Elizabeth Hoar’s treatment in South Carolina and railing against fugitive slave laws, and one dated December 18 containing the following: “Only think of Mr. Hoar’s being treated so—What will be done about it?—I have been thankful that he was not an Abolitionist for every one who has spoken of it has insisted that he was an Ab. & that though the ostensible cause was the protection of the seamen—the real purpose was to excite the slaves & induce them to run away—that he was an incendiary .  I did my best to convince them that it was not so—but the general feeling seems to be, that Mass. would better mind her own business—& that she could not expect the South to acknowledge blacks as citizens—they were not so regarded in the constitution—I am rejoiced that a man of Mr. Hoar’s standing & influence should have been so treated, because it will unite the different parties in the state in some common measure against the South”).

Box 5, Folder 6:
1845.
Including a letter from brother Moses B. in Allanburg, New York, January 4, referring to Samuel Hoar’s treatment in South Carolina as “disgraceful” and to sister Lizzie as “a Red Hot Abolitionist”; from sister Amelia in New Haven, January 26, [1845], referring to Elizabeth Hoar’s visiting her and reporting on her South Carolina expedition; from sister Lizzie in Baltimore (multiple letters, including further reference to the southern treatment of Samuel Hoar); from brother William; cousin Sarah and aunt Mary; and father Moses.

Box 5, Folder 7:
1846.
Including letters from sister Lizzie in Baltimore and Brooklyn, sister Amelia in New Haven, and brother William in New York.

Box 5, Folder 8:
1848.
Including letters from sister Amelia in Concord; from mother Jane (one letter dated May 21 describing Samuel Hoar’s seventieth birthday party and observing that Lizzie “soars among the stars, is wholly absorbed in her astronomy”); from sister Amelia in Concord; from sister Lizzie in Concord, writing on June 6 of an upcoming antislavery fair at which Wendell Phillips will be present, and observing “I don’t care if Abolitionists do say hard things—people deserve them,” and writing on June 30 of “conscience Whigs” in Concord and describing the Prichard garden); “Fanny M.”; brother William from New York; sister Amelia from New Haven and New York.

Box 5, Folder 9:
1849.
Including letters from Caroline Downes Brooks Hoar (Flatbush, January 8, reporting on her illness, asking about Helen Thoreau and Martha Prescott Keyes, and noting that Edward Hoar visited her three times); Elizabeth Hoar (Stafford Springs, July 21, asking for news of Concord, especially whether Eddy Emerson has recovered and whether the Thoreaus have returned, and requesting a “good Prichard letter); brother William in New York; Aunt Mary; cousin T. B. Mackay; and cousin Caroline in New York.

Box 5, Folder 10:
1850.
Including letters from brother William in New York and Warm Sulphur Springs; brother Moses B. in Cleveland; sisters Lizzie and Amelia on Staten Island (a December 16 letter from Amelia describing Thanksgiving dinner in detail).

Box 5, Folder 11:
January-May, 1851.
Including letters from sister Amelia on Staten Island and in Philadelphia and New York; from sister Lizzie on Staten Island (in a letter of February 24 discussing abolition and the Fugitive Slave Law and advocating illegal measures); from Elizabeth Hoar (who in a letter of [April 1851] describes the return to slavery of fugitive Thomas Sims via a ship on the Long Wharf in Boston, and the role of Concord minister Stephen [i.e. Daniel] Foster in addressing and praying with the gathered crowd); from mother Jane (who on April 26 comments, “I conclude by Lizzie’s response that you had a pretty flaming anti-slavery letter from E. Hoar . . . I am sorry the fountains once again stirred up in Lizzie’s mind”); and aunt Elizabeth B. Hallett.   

Box 5, Folder 12:
June-December, 1851.
Including letters from sister Lizzie, sister Amelia, and brother William on Staten Island; aunt Elizabeth B. Hallett; cousin T. B. Mackay; and Fanny in Brattleboro.  

Box 5, Folder 13:
1852-1853.
Including letters from sister Lizzie on Staten Island and elsewhere; mother Jane; brother William; sister Amelia (writing from Staten Island on March 31, 1853 about speaking German with sister Lizzie); Elizabeth Hoar (in a letter of January 17, [1853] referring to reading Greek with Mrs. Ripley, to visiting Mrs. Brooks with the Thoreaus and Miss Ward, and to the birthday of her mother Sarah Sherman Hoar); on July 27, 1853 (writing from Niagara Falls); and Sarah Sherman Hoar (writing from Boston).

Box 5, Folder 14:
1854-1857.
Including letters from sister Amelia (from Litchfield, New York, and Lyons); Elizabeth Hoar (New Haven; from Concord on June 1, 1856, referring to the situation in Kansas and to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s address on the assault on Charles Sumner by Senator Preston Brooks); brother Moses B. (Knoxville, Tennessee); and Mary.

Box 5, Folder 15:
1858-1859.
Including letters from Mary (from Fayal, via ship, March 1, 1850); brother Moses B. (on letterhead of Iowa Central Air Line Rail Road, Engineer’s Office; also on Memphis & Charleston Rail Road Engineer’s Superintendent’s Office letterhead); sister Amelia (in Concord and on Staten Island; one letter of [March 1859] referring to Elizabeth Hoar and Edward and Elizabeth Prichard Hoar in Rome); brother William; B. Whitman; mother Jane.  

Box 5, Folder 16:
1860.
Including letters from brother William in New York; sister Amelia (writing from New York on October 13 and October 16 about Prince Albert Edward visiting New York, the October 16 letter referring also to a call paid on Eliza Woodward Hudson; on December 31 writing about Rockwood and “Mr. E.” riding “from the club on Saturday evening” to Lizzie and Edward’s house in Lincoln, Mass., of a visit by John and Martha Keyes, and of Martha Keyes inviting an unwilling Fanny to join a gymnastics class); mother Jane (a glowing description of granddaughter Florence Hoar and reference to going to Lizzie and Edward’s house in Lincoln—in the process of refurbishment—in a letter from Concord on March 7; mention of Edward and Lizzie’s home preparations and the wonders of baby Florence on March 19); aunt Mary Prichard; and brother Moses B. (on Memphis and Charleston Railroad Office letterhead; on November 18 writing about the southern reaction to Lincoln’s election).    

Box 5, Folder 17:
1861.
Including letters from aunt E. B. Hallett (in Concord); sister Amelia (writing from Concord on January 3, 1861 about heading to Lincoln to see Lizzie, stopping at Mrs. Brooks’s to see if she wanted to go along, finding her in the midst of making a wedding cake for George Hayward, and taking Sophia Thoreau—who was in the kitchen with Mrs. Brooks—instead; writing on January 20, 1861 on stationery printed with a head-and-shoulders portrait of John Charles Frémont; on January 24, 1861 about having gone to the Lyceum to hear Higginson speak and about the Thoreaus—“Henry is sick.  Mrs. is better.  Sophia has gone to the Anti Slavery Festival”); sister Lizzie (writing on February 13, 1861 about politics—“I have faith in old Abe”); and brother William (writing from New York on March 21, 1861 about the death of Mr. Munroe; on July 24, 1861 about the Civil War and about John Shepard Keyes’s visit the night before).

Box 5, Folder 18:
1862-1863.
Including letters from sister Amelia (in Concord and New York); brother William (writing from New York on October 10, 1862 about brother Moses B. down South and about the war); “Fanny M.” A letter dated May 21, 1862 is on Emerson & Prichard letterhead.

Box 5, Folder 19:
1865, 1868-1869.
Including letters from sister Lizzie; aunt Mary Prichard (in Framingham); Martha [Prescott Keyes] (an April 7, 1868 thank-you note for a fiftieth birthday present); brother Moses B. (from Huntsville, Alabama;  on Southern Rail Road Association—Lessees of the Mississippi Central Rail Road Company—letterhead, from Water Valley, Mississippi; on Memphis and Charleston Railroad Office letterhead, from Memphis); brother William (from Glen House in the White Mountains, on TipTop & Summit Houses letterhead; from New York; from Washington); sister Amelia; and Elizabeth Hoar (writing from Washington, D.C. on February 4, 1869).

Box 5, Folder 20:
1870, 1872.
Including letters from brother Moses B. (in Montgomery, Alabama); brother William (New York); W. W. Goodwin (Cambridge); sister Lizzie and her daughter Florence Hoar (from Arinella, near Palermo, Sicily).  

Box 5, Folder 21:
1873-1874.
Including letters from sister Lizzie and niece Florence (in Arinella, Taormina, Naples, and Florence); sister Amelia (New York).

Box 5, Folder 22:
1888.
Consisting of two letters from brother William, February 29 and March 1 (one reporting the illness and the other the death of his wife Eliza).

B.  Undated letters to Frances Jane Prichard, arranged by correspondent:

Box 5, Folder 23:
From mother Jane H. Prichard. 

Box 5, Folder 24:
From brother William (one with enclosure from sister-in-law Eliza Plummer Prichard).

Box 5, Folder 25:
From sister-in-law Eliza Plummer Prichard.

Box 5, Folder 26:
From brother Moses B.  A single letter; headed “Engineers office St. Catherines.”

Box 5, Folder 27:
From sister Lizzie/Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar. 

Box 5, Folder 28:
From niece Florence Hoar.

Box 5, Folder 29:
From sister Amelia.

Box 5, Folder 30:
From Elizabeth Hoar.  Letters from Arinella, Washington, D.C., New York, Hartford. 

Box 5, Folder 31:
From Sarah Sherman Hoar.

Box 5, Folder 32:
From Frances Mary/Fanny Mary/Fanny M. (Brattleboro; Boston).

Box 5, Folder 33:
From miscellaneous correspondents, including: cousin Sarah Prichard; C. L. Mackay; Lizzie Norris; “Aunt M.”; B. Whitman [fragment]; cousin Charly; Alma Williams; aunt Elizabeth B. Hallett.

Box 5, Folder 34:
Envelopes separated from letters; including one printed Civil War envelope.

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Series V.  Moses Barnard Prichard and related papers, 1834-1872:
     A.  Letters to Moses B. Prichard, 1834-1867
     B.  Undated letters to Moses B. Prichard, arranged by correspondent
     C.  Professional papers, 1841-1853, plus undated
     D.  Financial documents, [184-]-1866
     E.  Ephemera, 1860
     F.  Letter to stepdaughter of Moses B. Prichard, 1872

A.  Letters to Moses B. Prichard, 1834-1867:

Box 6, Folder 1:
1834-1839.
Including letters from brother William (from Walpole and New York; a letter of May 27, 1836 referring to the death of Charles Emerson and its effects on Elizabeth Hoar); mother Jane (from Concord and Boston; one dated June 18, 1836 reporting that Elizabeth Hoar remains at Mr. Emerson’s and wishes to see no one); sister Fanny (mentioning on March 13, 1838 a piece of poetry about a sleigh ride in which a number of ladies—Mrs. Hoar, Mrs. Brooks, Caroline Brooks, Mrs. Keyes, Miss H. Moore, Mary Moore, Martha Bartlett, Lucia Rice, Harriet Barrett, Clara Grosvenor, Eunice Church, Miss Ward, Miss Sarah Ripley, Miss Dunbar, Josephine Hosmer, Mary Stow, Emmeline Barrett, Emmeline Buttrick, Miss Maria Thoreau, and Miss Fuller—participated); sister Lizzie (who writes on November 10, 1836, “It was strange you did not see Mr. Thoreau, when he was so near, you must look out better next time”); several professional associates (Samuel Power; J. E. Thompson—“Mount Pleasant, Newton County”; John Stimson—“Fort Butler, Cherokee Nation, N. Carolina,” observing that Moses B. has become a “complete practical Engineer” and urging him to “show the world that some good thing can come out of ‘Yankeechusetts,’ once in a while”; and William W. Torbert, “Principal Engineer, Geo. Rail Road,” from Greensboro, Georgia, writing a letter of recommendation for Moses B. Prichard).  

Box 6, Folder 2:
1841-1845.
Including letters from mother Jane (recommending in a letter dated April 3, 1841 that son Moses and Henry Hurd find a New England farm that they can manage together, and referring to the death of President William Henry Harrison); sister Fanny (from Concord); sister Amelia (from Boston; writing in the addendum to a letter  of May 19, 1845 that sister Lizzie “has almost become a convert to Mesmerism”); sister Lizzie (from Concord and Baltimore; writing from Baltimore on April 16, 1845 about the eventual abolition of capital punishment and commenting on southern life—“I don’t know anything that could induce me to live at the South—the people are behindhand in everything—nothing but fashion fashion fashion”);  professional associates J. Edgar Thomas (from Augusta, Georgia), Samuel Power (St. Catharines), John Page (Welland Canal Office), W. Bormalie (Port Maitland), James D. Slater (Welland Canal Office), Lewis J. Leslie, J. Newell (Sharon, Vermont), and others; and W. P. McDonagh (“Catholic pastor,” about canal work for Michael McDonagh). 

Box 6, Folder 3:
1846-1847.
Including letters from mother Jane (in Concord; writing on March 15, 1846 that father Moses “is going to have Hugh Whela[n] an Irishman & Professed Gardener carry on the place this Summer”); sister Lizzie (adding to a letter from mother Jane); Isabella Bald (writing in 1846 from Allenburgh [sic] and from “Near the Aqueduct"; quite apparently a romantic interest); professional associates Samuel S. Thompson (from Toronto), Samuel Power (Montreal), W. O. Buchanan (New York and Drummondville), George Stokes (Port Robinson), H. C. Levanway (Mount Holly), E. J. Power (Plymouth); A. E. Cromwell (St. Catharines), S. M. Felton (Charlestown), and others.  Also includes letters by Moses B. Prichard: to “My Dear Sir,” February 26, 1846, from Port Robinson; to Samuel Power, June 30, 1846, from Windsor, Vermont; to Samuel Power, July 12, 1846, from Port Robinson.  (The letters from Moses B. Prichard are interfiled by date with those to him.)

Box 6, Folder 4:
1848-1849.
Including letters from father Moses (from Concord, regarding business matters); sister Lizzie (an addendum to one of her father’s letters); Francis Low & Son (Boston; asking Moses B. Prichard to settle his account); George F. Bemis (Boston; asking for payment); and professional/business associates Jacob Pearson for George A. Parker (Charlestown, February 26, 1848, regarding inability to call a meeting of the directors of the Peterboro & Shirley Rail Road), James McCullough (Brook Lodge), H. C. Levanway (Brook Lodge), James Buchard (North Chelmsford), John McCullough (Brookline), Thomas McCullough (from Boston, on Exchange Coffee House letterhead; from “Tunnel”), Frothingham, Lansing, & Pruyn (Albany; to “Messrs. Prichard & McCullough, about payment of a note), David Loring (Concord), D. H. Wood (Ludlow), John G. Newell (Pittsford), and others.  Also includes letter from Moses B. Prichard to Hon. T. Follett, president of the Rutland & Burlington Rail Road.   

Box 6, Folder 5:
1850-1852.
Including letters from mother Jane (expressing on June 27, 1850 her hope that son Moses is not investing in railroad stock instead of something more secure; writing on November 12, 1850 of Jenny Lind; on April 22, 1851, commenting on the loss by father Moses of his deputy sheriff position owing to the state government falling into the hands of the Locofocos and Free Soil Party, about Michael replacing Hugh as father’s garden helper, and about the Fugitive Slave Law—“The fugitive slave law is the great topic of the day . . . We have a great many anti-slavery fanatics in Concord & every other topic seems to be merged in the fugitive slave bill; to be sure it is an abominable law, but as the only alternative is to send the slave back or violate the laws of the U.S., of course there can be no hesitation . . . for without the laws where should we be . . . Mr. Frost has taken up the subject in the pulpit in a manner entirely unsatisfactory to many of his people . . . Mr. Hoar, Rockwood & Elizabeth . . . have got to be thorough-going, ultra abolitionists, see only one side & are willing to sacrifice every thing for that one thing.  Only think of Faneuil Hall being denied to Mr. Webster on his return from Washington . . . I thought it was disgraceful & ungrateful”; also mentioning in the April 22, 1851 letter John Shepard Keyes’s new house and the newly completed courthouse in Concord; commenting on May 12, 1851 on the Thomas Sims case—“I think in this fugitive slave law, which is obnoxious to nearly all classes, our good people of Boston ought to have had nothing to have done with it, kept to the laws of Massachusetts & left it for the U.S. troops to defend their laws & put down a mob—It was very disgraceful to Boston—but I am just as much opposed to the doings of the fanatic abolitionists . . . principle and patriotism are lost”; conveying on October 1, 1852 her complicated feelings about son William’s wife, Eliza Plummer Prichard); sister Amelia (from Concord; writing on October 3, 1850 about having gone to hear Jenny Lind, about sister Lizzie teaching two of Mr. [William] Emerson’s children and four others on Staten Island, and about Lizzie’s and brother William’s reactions to Jenny Lind); brother William; father Moses; sister Lizzie (who on January 13, 1852 mentions taking German lessons); sister Fanny (from Concord; on October 31, 1852 observing that sister Lizzie is interested in “knockings” and “table tippings” [spiritualism], about which Fanny remains skeptical); Sherwin & Richardson (North Chester; regarding debts); D. A. Heald (Bank of Black River, Proctorsville, Vermont); C. Linsley; P. T. Washburn (Woodstock, Vermont); and T. B. Mackay.

Box 6, Folder 6:
1853-1855:
Including letters from sister Fanny (writing on February 13, 1853 about her sister-in-law Eliza, about the appointment of a new sheriff who might restore father Moses to his deputy sheriff position, about sketches of Mr. Emerson and Mr. Hawthorne by George Curtis in Homes of American Authors, and about Ralph Waldo Emerson lecturing in Cincinnati and St. Louis; on December 11, 1853 about the death of James Russell Lowell’s wife and the possibility that sister Amelia might take charge of her eight-year-old daughter; referring on September 30, 1855 to the dedication of Concord’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery; in multiple letters urging brother Moses to think about marriage); mother Jane (writing on July 9, 1853 about liking daughter-in-law Eliza and having become reconciled to son William’s marriage, and about painting of and improvements to house, including fencing; on December 15, 1853 writing at length about the Christmas tree in Concord’s Town Hall and presents for every local child arranged for by Caroline Brooks Hoar; in more than one letter encouraging son Moses to think about a suitable wife); father Moses; brother William; and T. B. Mackay.  Folder includes a May 19, 1854 letter from Moses B. Prichard in Loudon, Tennessee to John M. McRue about travel distances between places en route between Washington, D.C. and New Orleans “via the Knoxville Route” and a June 15, 1854 letter from him in Loudon (“Engineers Office E. Tenn. & Geo. R.R.”) to James Hoge, Edwin Dyer, and T. E. Patton.    

Box 6, Folder 7:
1856-1858.
Including letters from sister Fanny (on February 18, 1856 urging Moses to think about marriage; on April 18, 1858 mentioning the engagement of Anna Alcott and John Pratt; on August 8, 1858 referring to the laying of the transatlantic telegraph cable); father Moses (on February 29, 1856 urging marriage and discussing business matters); sister Amelia (from Lyons and Concord; writing from Concord on September 21, 1858 to ask if brother Moses knows that sister Lizzie is going to Europe on the Cunard steamer Niagara and providing details about her planned year-long trip); mother Jane (in Concord; writing on November 4, 1856 “The great day to the country in which the election is decided, & on which pends the all important question of freedom or slavery; that is, in the new states—You & I my dear Moses have different views as to the candidate . . . we here in old Concord, so celebrated for its patriotism in the time of the Revolution in its resistance of tyranny & oppression, we are, with a few exceptions, altogether for Fremont”; on August 17, 1858, waxing eloquent about the first transatlantic telegraph message between Queen Victoria and President Buchanan and the public jubilation celebrating the event, and referring to the death in Fayal of Alfred [Frost]).   

Box 6, Folder 8:
1859.
Including letters from sister Amelia (asking on April 13 if her brother Moses will have a nice southern farm ready for Mrs. Edward Sherman Hoar [sister Lizzie] on her return from Europe, and expressing her fondness for her sister-in-law Eliza; commenting in an addendum to mother Jane’s letter of May 12 that “E. Hoar writes . . . that Una Hawthorne is getting better”; on November 17 about the settlement of Moses’s case and the collection of proceeds through Rockwood Hoar); sister Fanny (writing from Concord on January 22, “Our Lizzie has been [engaged] and has got married without so much as saying with your leave or by your leave”; on August 11 reporting the family’s fear that on their return from Europe, Lizzie and Edward might settle in California or some other faraway place); father Moses; mother Jane (advising son Moses on May 12 not to hurry to select a wife and reporting that she has received a letter from the “two Elizabeths” [daughter Lizzie and Elizabeth Hoar]; reporting on October 17 that Lizzie is staying at Mrs. Hoar’s and that the ship—Josiah Quincy—that was carrying Lizzie and Edward’s things back from Europe was struck by lightning and that they had lost artwork and other purchases, and confiding her fear that her husband will lose his position as deputy sheriff; in a “group letter” written with husband Moses and daughter Lizzie on November 23 reporting that the Prichard sisters are sewing for “a certain little ‘Florence’ that is expected in the course of the Winter!!!”); sister Lizzie—now Elizabeth Prichard Hoar (commenting on July 18 that brother Moses should follow her example and get married; a September 7 letter from Fanny including an enclosed August 16 letter from Lizzie in Dover; Lizzie reporting on November 23 in a letter jointly written with her father and her mother that Edward is in Pennsylvania looking for a farm but that she would prefer Lincoln).

Box 6, Folder 9:
1860-1861, 1863.
Including letters from mother Jane (in a letter of January 12, 1860 lamenting the Pemberton Mill collapse and fire in Lawrence, Massachusetts; on February 25, 1860 extolling the virtues of baby Florence and reporting that Edward has nearly concluded a bargain for the Hayden Farm in Lincoln); sister Amelia (reporting on January 25, 1860 on the January 23rd birth of Florence Hoar; writing on May 27, 1860 that mother is sick and the family doesn’t feel she can recover); sister Fanny (writing on May 16, 1860 about Lizzie and Edward’s new life in Lincoln, about mother Jane’s poor health, about how well suited Lizzie and Edward are to each other—he doesn’t mind her “looking like a fright” and she doesn’t mind his looking “rather sober,” about John and “Jo” Keyes having attended the convention in Chicago,” and about George Brooks and Frisbie Hoar having gone abroad for their health; on June 5, 1860 writing about the peacefulness of mother’s final illness and death; on November 1, 1860 writing, “We had a second torch light procession and a second illumination of all the houses last night—quite grand,” and observing that Mr. Bull lost all of his grapes again; noting on April 7, 1861 that Elizabeth Hoar and her niece Carrie are going to Europe and that Amelia thinks she will go, too); sister Lizzie (on May 31, 1860 reporting mother’s death); brother William; father Moses (on October 26, 1863 sending news for son Moses via H. Crowther, Esq.).

Box 6, Folder 10:
1864-1865.
Including letters from sister Amelia (writing on September 10, 1864 about father’s illness, about Mrs. William Emerson living in the former Whiting house for the summer, and about William Munroe buying the estate and demolishing the buildings; on March 12, 1865, reporting father’s death on January 16 “without a struggle—in sleep”); sister Fanny (on September 11, 1864 reporting that Amelia sews for the soldiers; on December 7, 1865—“Thanksgiving Day”—mentioning taking in boarders—“I think we are as well off as unprotected females can be”—and to Rockwood’s silver wedding anniversary on November 26; on March 13, 1865 writing of father’s last days, lamenting that Amelia is not married—“she seems so made for a wife & mother,” commenting on John Keyes’s making money “fast enough,” and observing that “The Thoreaus are all miserable—Mrs. T. fell down stairs & most killed herself—Henry died—Miss Dunbar is pretty feeble”); work associates “Calcitratum” and William Morrow; brother William; and Mrs. E. Le Hines (on September 28, 1865 thanking Moses B. Prichard for a package of dress patterns and other items).  

Box 6, Folder 11:
1866-1867.
Including letters from sister Fanny (on February 4, 1866 referring to Ralph Waldo Emerson going west to lecture and expressing confidence that “the South will come up again—if she will do justly by the Negroes”; fretting on September 4, 1866 about Lizzie and Edward’s lifestyle—“Lizzie does all her own work . . . but it is not the right way for her to live—she & Edward both have too much culture & too much talent to spend their time in doing what an ignorant Irish person would do”; reporting on September 26, 1866 and November 11, 1866 that Harriet Buttrick—who taught southern freedmen—has come home sick, and commenting on politics, “Andy Johnson seems to have succeeded . . . in hanging himself”; on October 14, 1866, mentioning Edward’s hauling his wood to market; remarking on March 21, 1867 about the new [Civil War] monument on Concord’s common and on the painting and refurbishment of the Middlesex Hotel); tailors E. A. Newell (Broadway, New York) and James Tolman (Washington Street, Boston) in 1866 and 1867, about orders for shoes and clothing; brother William; professional associates John Clark (West Needham), Charles S. Williams (on Memphis & Charleston Railroad Co., Superintendent’s Office, Huntsville, Alabama letterhead), O. H. P. Rogan (East Tennessee Iron & Coal Co., Knoxville), and others.      

B.  Undated letters to Moses B. Prichard, arranged by correspondent:

Box 6, Folders 12:
From father Moses.  A single letter, with a note from mother Jane.

Box 6, Folder 13:
From mother Jane (writing in one letter about cholera in Tennessee).

Box 6, Folder 14:
From sister Fanny (in one letter warning brother Moses that because the Civil War has caused so much suffering that “one calling himself a Southerner may not be very welcome” in Concord).

Box 6, Folder 15:
From professional associate Samuel Power (from various locations; one letter accompanied by a letter from Moses B. Prichard to Mr. Power).

Box 6, Folder 16:
From professional associate Edward John Power (from several locations).

Box 6, Folder 17:
From professional associate John Page.

Box 6, Folder 18:
From professional associate W. O. Buchanan.

Box 6, Folder 19:
From various professional associates (including a draft or copy of one letter from Moses B. Prichard to “Dear Fay”).

Box 6, Folder 20:
Loose envelopes, stamps, etc., separated from letters.

C.  Professional papers, 1841-1853, plus undated:

Box 6, Folder 21:
Documents relating to railroad, bridge, and aqueduct work and related activities.  Including draft reports in the hand of Moses B. Prichard (“To the President & Directors Atlantic & St. Lawrence Rl Rd.,” “To the President & Directors of the Shirley & Peterboro Rl Rd.,” and “To Thomas H. Callaway Esq. President of the East Tennessee & Georgia Rail Road Company”), personnel- and pay-related documents, and items (including receipts) relating to specifications and costs. 

Box 6, Folder 22:
Printed Map of Canada, Showing the Line of the Proposed Railroad from Toronto to Port Sarnia, with Branches to Hamilton & Goderich, with penciled inscription “Solomon McCullough Esq.”
 
D.  Financial documents, [184-]-1866:

Box 6, Folder 23:
Accounts, agreement of dissolution of partnership, discharge, promissory notes, check, letters, etc., all from packet relating to debt case against Moses B. Prichard, 1847-1860, plus undated.
 
Box 6, Folder 24:
Miscellaneous financial documents, [184-]-1866, among them a raffle list, note, account, receipts (including for purchases of cigars and tobacco from the East Tennessee Drug Warehouse and for clothing).

E.  Ephemera, 1860:

Box 6, Folder 25:
Railroad pass, 1860, Edgefield & Kentucky Railroad, made out to M. B. Prichard for free passage (good until January 1, 1861). 

F.  Letter to stepdaughter of Moses B. Prichard, 1872:

Box 6, Folder 26:
Letter from Florence Hoar (in Arinella, Sicily) to Norvelle Whaley Prichard, December 8, 1872.

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Series VI.  Papers of Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar, her husband Edward Sherman Hoar, her in-laws, and her descendants, 1836-1941:
A.  Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar papers, 1841-[ca. 1915]
     1.  Letters to Elizabeth H. P. Hoar, 1841-1910
     2.  Undated letters to Elizabeth H. P. Hoar, arranged by correspondent
     3.  Manuscripts, 1860-[ca. 1915]
     4.  Ephemera, [1849?]-[187-?]
     5.  Financial, 1892-1896, 1900
B.  Edward Sherman Hoar papers, 1851 (in transcription)-1894
     1.  Letters to Edward S. Hoar, 1873-1888 (one with 1851 enclosure, in transcription), plus undated
     2.  Poem to Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Hoar, 1860
     3.  Manuscripts, 1872-1891
     4.  Official documents, 1858, 1871
     5.  Ephemera, [187-?]-1890
     6.  Death, burial, and estate materials, 1893-1894
C.  Papers of or relating to other members of the Hoar family, 1836-1941
     1.  Samuel Hoar papers, 1836-1855
          a.  Letters from son Edward S. Hoar, 1836-1849
          b.  Will, 1849
          c.  Wallet (contents 1854-1855)
     2.  Letters to Elizabeth Sherman Hoar, 1840-1873, plus undated
     3.  Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar papers, 1849-[1895]
          a.  Letters to E. R. Hoar, 1849, 1872, plus undated
          b.  Undated manuscript eulogy in hand of E. R. Hoar
          c.  Photocopied clipped pieces about E. R. Hoar, [1893], [1895]
     4.  Papers relating to George Frisbie Hoar, [1893], 1904, 1941
     5.  Letter to Carrie [Hoar], 1893
     6.  Miscellaneous Hoar family items, 1893-1905
D.  Florence Hoar/Florence Hoar Bradford-Moses Bradford papers, 1860-1917
     1.  Letters to Florence Hoar/Florence Hoar Bradford, 1860-1916, plus undated
     2.  Miscellaneous manuscript items relating to Florence Hoar Bradford, undated and [1855]
     3.  Moses Bradford papers, [1880s]-1917
          a.  Letters to Moses Bradford, 1892-1917, plus undated
          b.  Notebook, ca. 1891-1900
          c.  Assabet Manufacturing Company records, 1894, 1895
          d.  Personal finances and property documents, 1901-1902
          e.  Photograph and clipping, [1880s], 1899

A.  Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar papers, 1841-[ca. 1915]:

1.  Letters to Elizabeth H. P. Hoar, 1841-1910:

Box 7, Folder 1:
1841-1842.
Including letters from sister Fanny, mother Jane, sister Amelia (from Baltimore), and George Barrell Emerson (writing from Boston on September 28, 1847 to ask Lizzie whether she is interested in a teaching position assisting him or Mrs. Lowell).

Box 7, Folder 2:
1854-1859.
Including letters from Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (sending a humorous German-language-related inquiry from Boston on March 18, 1854), cousin Fanny Mary, aunt Elizabeth B. Hallett (in January of 1859 congratulating her niece on her recent marriage), sister Amelia (in an April 3, 1859 letter from Concord mentioning that Sophia Thoreau sends love and reporting somewhat critically on Caroline Brooks Hoar), “Anna” in New York, John E. May (Paris), sister Fanny, mother Jane, “Sarah B.,” and “Kitty” from Eagleswood.     

Box 7, Folder 3:
1868-1879.
Including letters from Elizabeth Hoar (referring in a letter from Rome on March 14, 1873 to Sarah Clarke, to Sam Hoar’s having bought Fairyland in Concord, and to Ellen and Edward Emerson); sister Fanny (writing from Concord on December 7, 1873 about dining at Martha Keyes’s; visiting Eliza Hudson; Sophia Thoreau’s reactions to notices of Channing’s book about “Dear Henry”; lunch at Mrs. Brooks’s; and attending a Charitable Society meeting); sister Amelia (from New York and from Concord); and “W. E. C.” [William Ellery Channing] (writing from Concord on March 20, 1879, “I have missed my delightful visits to your pleasant house, for a couple of weeks, but I hope to come next Tuesday”).      

Box 7, Folder 4:
1880-1882.
Consisting entirely of letters from daughter Florence (from Newport and from Springfield).

Box 7, Folder 5:
1883.
From daughter Florence (in Springfield).

Box 7, Folder 6:
1884-1886.
From daughter Florence (who became Mrs. Moses B. L. Bradford on July 1, 1885; letters from Springfield, from Diman Place in Providence after marriage; a letter of July 2, 1885 including an enclosed July 1 letter from Moses Bradford).

Box 7, Folder 7:
1891-1899.
Including letters from husband Edward Sherman Hoar (writing from Concord on February 17, 1891 that the Thoreau house is about to be sold at auction); Augustus P. Chamberlaine; niece Clara Hoar; letters of sympathy on the death of Edward S. Hoar (from C. V. W. Browne, brother-in-law E. R. Hoar—“You have been faithful, considerate, helpful, and loving to the end”; nephew Rockwood Hoar; Mary Hoar; niece Caroline Hoar; Anna Ricketson; cousin Frances Mary Mackay; E. C. Barrett; Lilian B. Gould; Sarah S. Storer; Virginia Butler; Caroline Leonte; E. B. Thacher; Maria Whitney; Mary C. Wheeler; W. W. Goodwin; and others); E. R. Hoar (writing on March 13, 1893 about waiting until spring to go to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery to take measurements for the interment of Edward Hoar’s coffin); nephew Sherman Hoar (on March 14, 1893 about the probating of Edward’s will, on December 18, 1897 about the birth of his daughter Elizabeth); Mary Hoar; and granddaughter Alice Bradford (writing to “Dear Ammy” on January 15, 1899 from the ship Columbia). 

Box 7, Folder 8:
January-March, 1900.
Including postcards and letters from daughter Florence Hoar Bradford while on board ship Columbia and from abroad (Gênes, Naples, Palermo, Rome, Florence, Menton); granddaughter Alice (Amalfi, Naples, Palermo—reporting on February 4, 1900 about visiting the house where Lizzie and young Florence had stayed in the 1870s, Rome, Florence, Menton); son-in-law Moses Bradford (Palermo, Rome, Florence); and Helen V. V. W. [Van Vost Warren] (Palermo, Gênes).

Box 7, Folder 9:
April-July, 1900; 1909; 1910.
Includes letters from Florence, Moses, and Alice in 1900 (from Menton and from the Grand Hotel Sheringham), and from niece Beth.  In an October 23, 1909 letter, Booker T. Washington expresses regret at being unable to see Mrs. Hoar in Concord recently and gratitude for her “help and encouragement.” 

2.  Undated letters to Elizabeth H. P. Hoar, arranged by correspondent:

Box 7, Folder 10:
From sister-in-law Eliza Plummer Prichard.

Box 7, Folder 11:
From sister Fanny.

Box 7, Folder 12:
From [sister Amelia] (a single letter).

Box 7, Folder 13:
From daughter Florence Hoar/Florence Hoar Bradford.

Box 7, Folder 14:
From Sarah Sherman Hoar Storer (a single letter, from Cambridge).

Box 7, Folder 15:
From various correspondents, including Mary B. Ridgely, Helen C. Butler, nephew Samuel Bowles, Jr., Jeanie L. Motley, and others.

Box 7, Folder 15a:
A single letter from Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar to cousin Helen [Pierce Van Vost].

Box 7, Folder 16:
Envelopes separated from letters, postage stamp, unused picture postcard (Palermo).

3.  Manuscripts, 1860-[ca. 1915]:

Box 7, Folder 17:
Pocket diary for 1860 and 1861 (including entries for events during the first year of daughter Florence’s life and for the final illness and death of mother Jane Hallett Prichard in May 1860.

Box 7, Folder 18:
Autobiographical account of the life of Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar, partly dictated to and recorded by granddaughter Alice Bradford Bowditch, [ca. 1912-1915].  Autobiography is written on the blank pages of a book of household accounts for 1907-1911.

4.  Ephemera, [1849?]-[187-?]:

Box 7, Folder 19:
Includes printed handbill ([1849?]) announcing that Miss E. H. Prichard will open a school at “No. 255 Greene Street, Near Clinton Place,” and an engraved calling card for “Mrs. Edward Sherman Hoar / Concord” ([187-?]).

Box 7, Folder 20:
Envelope labeled “Italian Puzzles” (the “puzzles” clipped from newspapers; [187-?]).

5.  Financial, 1892-1896, 1900:

Box 7, Folder 21:
Cancelled checks, 1895-1896, and receipt for contribution toward rebuilding of First Parish in Concord meetinghouse, 1900.

B.  Edward Sherman Hoar papers, 1851 (in transcription)-1894:

1.  Letters to Edward S. Hoar, 1873-1888 (one with 1851 enclosure, in transcription), plus undated:

Box 8, Folder 1:
Letters from Rosario Salvo (from Palermo; in Italian); O. P. Evans (San Francisco; a letter dated July 23, 1877 including a letter from Edward S. Hoar and a transcribed 1851 deed to a California ranch in Santa Barbara County known as “Dos Pueblos” (the deed having been drawn up by E. S. Hoar); daughter Florence; and wife Elizabeth Prichard Hoar.   

2.  Poem to Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Hoar, 1860:

Box 8, Folder 2:
Manuscript anniversary poem to Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Hoar  from mother/mother-in-law Sarah Sherman Hoar, December 28, 1860.

3.  Manuscripts, 1872-1891:

Box 8, Folder 3:
Ledger book containing “Family Accounts.  E. S. Hoar, Arinella—Begun June 1872.  Palermo—Italy,” 1872-1874.  Portion of volume devoted to botanical and ornithological observations in Italy, France, and Concord (including reference to the garden on the day of sister Elizabeth Hoar’s funeral, April 10, 1878), 1875-1878 (the earliest entries—for 1875—found on two leaves tipped in at beginning of volume).  At end of volume: “Account with Carrie Hoar,” 1872.    

Box 8, Folder 4:
Scrapbook, annotated by Edward Sherman Hoar with observations of the natural world, passages in Greek, etc., 1890-1891.

4.  Official documents, 1858, 1871:

Box 8, Folder 5:
Copies of certificate of marriage (December 28, 1858) of Edward Sherman Hoar and Elizabeth Hallett Prichard.

Box 8, Folder 6:
Passport, 1871.

5.  Ephemera, [187-?]-1890:

Box 8, Folder 7:
Engraved calling card, “Edward S. Hoar,” [187-?]; single issues of two Italian newspapers, Gazetta di Palermo (September 23, 1873), engraved invitation to wedding of daughter Florence to M. B. L. Bradford (July 1, 1885), and L’Amico del Popolo (February 5, 1890).

6.  Death, burial, and estate materials, 1893-1894:

Box 8, Folder 8:
Materials relating to the death and burial of Edward Sherman Hoar, 1893 (including newspaper obituaries—Concord Enterprise and Springfield Republican—in manuscript and photocopied printed form, and manuscript and typescript versions of his gravestone inscription).

Box 8, Folder 9:
Probate/estate papers, 1893-1894 (including receipt for “Sketch & design for memorial stone”).

C.  Papers of or relating to other members of the Hoar family, 1836-1941:

1.  Samuel Hoar papers, 1836-1855:

a.  Letters from son Edward S. Hoar, 1836-1849:

Box 9, Folder 1:
1836-1848.
Including letters from school in Winsor, college in Cambridge, Mount Washington, and New York.

Box 9, Folder 2:
1849.
From New York, Mazatlan, and—mainly—San Francisco.

b.  Will, 1849:

Box 9, Folder 3:
Manuscript copy of will of Samuel Hoar, 1849.

c.  Wallet (contents 1854-1855):

Box 9, Folder 4:
Samuel Hoar’s wallet, and contents.  Leather wallet bears maker’s stamp (“C. A. Cobb Lancaster Mass.”).  Contents consist of two copies of engraved calling card and manuscript notes—some financial, 1854-1855.

2.  Letters to Elizabeth Sherman Hoar, 1840-1873, plus undated:

Box 9, Folder 5:
1840-1871, plus undated.
Including letters from Mary Moody Emerson; Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (referring in a letter of April 1, 1840 to Elizabeth Hoar’s trust in God as a “monument to Charles [Emerson]”; on February 16, 1842 to Lidian Emerson’s extreme spirituality in dealing with her son Waldo’s death; in another letter [1844?] to the tribulations of Polish exiles); Sophia Amelia Peabody/Sophia Peabody Hawthorne (writing in an April 1841 letter about sending a copy of Gentle Boy for Frisbie Hoar and disagreeing with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ideas on love and friendship, with much reference to “Mr. Hawthorne”; on August 28, 1841 mentioning her bust of Laura Bridgeman and exclaiming about Hawthorne—“My prince of the world is in himself an Ideal I shall never exhaust”; revealing from Salem—“Castle Dismal”—on November 23, 1845 that she is pregnant again and in the same letter reporting on little Una and asking whether Rockwood thinks there’s any hope of Hawthorne’s recovering [Brook Farm] money from George Ripley); Lizzie Prichard (from Baltimore, writing on February 5, 1845 about southern attitudes on slavery and related matters); Amelia M. Prichard.  

Box 9, Folder 6:
Letters from Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar, 1872-1873, plus undated (mainly from Arinella).

3.  Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar papers, 1849-[1895]:

a.  Letters to E. R. Hoar, 1849, 1872, plus undated:

Box 9, Folder 7:
Letters from brother Edward (from “City of Mexico,” California, and Palermo) and George F. Farley (from Groton).

b.  Eulogy by E. R. Hoar:

Box 9, Folder 8:
Undated manuscript eulogy in hand of E. R. Hoar.

c.  Photocopied clipped pieces about E. R. Hoar, [1893], [1895]:

Box 9, Folder 9:
Two photocopied newspaper clippings (one about E. R. Hoar visiting his sick brother Edward in Washington, [1893], one about his will, [1895]).

4.  Papers relating to George Frisbie Hoar, [1893], 1904, 1941:

Box 9, Folder 10:
Photocopied clipping regarding speech, [1893]; printed memorial poem, 1904; fiftieth anniversary program, annual conference luncheon, Trustees of Public Reservations, 1941 (including photograph of G. F. Hoar).

5.  Letter to Carrie [Hoar], 1893:

Box 9, Folder 11:
Florence Hoar to Carrie [Hoar], Palermo, September 1873.

6.  Miscellaneous Hoar family items, 1893-1905:

Box 9, Folder 12:
Typescript memorial poem “To George M. Brooks—1893,” by S. H. [Sherman Hoar]; photocopied newspaper clipping—Sherman Hoar’s obituary, [1898]; printed Memoir of Samuel Hoar [son of Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar] . . . Prepared for the Social Circle in Concord . . . by Woodward Hudson (1905). 

D.  Florence Hoar/Florence Hoar Bradford-Moses Bradford papers, 1860-1917:

1.  Letters to Florence Hoar/Florence Hoar Bradford, 1860-1916, plus undated:

Box 10, Folder 1:
Letters, 1860-1916.
Including letters from aunt Elizabeth B. Hallett (writing on March 10, 1860 to baby Florence); cousin Helen Pierce Van Vost; uncle William M. Prichard; aunt Amelia M. Prichard; mother Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar; father Edward Sherman Hoar; Mary B. Child; Louisa L. Sanborn; aunt Frances Jane (Fanny) Prichard; William H. Taft (on engraved letterhead, from New Haven, November 18, 1916, declining invitation to spend the night at Mrs. Bradford’s home); and one unsigned letter in Italian to “Amatissima Signorina.”

Box 10, Folder 2:
Undated letters from aunt Fanny, “W. A. W.,” Laetetia M. Robbins, and husband Moses (including poem “For Mama from poor papa”). 

2.  Miscellaneous manuscript items relating to Florence Hoar Bradford, undated and [1855]:  

Box 10, Folder 3:
Manuscript poem by George Bradford Bartlett in honor of the wedding of Florence Hoar and Moses Bradford, [1885].

Box 10, Folder 3a:
Manuscript analysis of handwriting of Florence Hoar (undated).

3.  Moses Bradford papers, [1880s]-1917:

a.  Letters to Moses Bradford, 1892-1917, plus undated:

Box 10, Folder 4:
Letters, 1892-1917, plus undated.
Including letters from mother-in-law Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar (“Ammy”; “Mama”); wife Florence; uncle by marriage George Frisbie Hoar; aunt by marriage Frances Jane Prichard; Concord Golf Club (typed letter about an upcoming award competition); “Miss Helen”; daughter Alice.

b.  Notebook, ca. 1891-1900:

Box 10, Folder 5:
Notebook, labeled “Telephone,” containing information relating to vouchers and observations on light conditions (for photography purposes), ca. 1891-1900.
 
c.  Assabet Manufacturing Company records, 1894, 1895:

Box 10, Folder 6:
Financial records, 1894, 1895 (Moses B. L. Bradford, assistant treasurer).

d.  Personal finances and property documents, 1901-1902:

Box 10, Folder 7:
Account, 1902.

Box 10, Folder 8:
Plot plan, Samuel Hoar estate, Concord, January 31, 1901 (bearing stamp of Moses B. L. Bradford); additional undated sketches of plot and house; three house plans, one stamped “M. B. L. Bradford, Concord, Mass., February 1, 1901.”

e.  Photograph and clipping, [1880s], 1899: 

Box 10, Folder 9:
Carte de visite photograph of unidentified baby—possibly Alice Bradford—by Louis Alman (New York and Newport), [1880s]. 

Box 10, Folder 10:
Photocopied clipping (November 4, 1899) about Alice Bradford’s success in a Concord golf tournament.

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Series VII.  Amelia Mackay Prichard papers, 1839-1901:
     A.  Letters to Amelia M. Prichard, 1839-1900, plus undated
     B.  Manuscript ode, 1865
     C.  Financial papers, 1845, 1900-1901

A.  Letters to Amelia M. Prichard, 1839-1900, plus undated:

Box 11, Folder 1:
1839.
Including letters from Julia Canfield (from New York), father Moses Prichard (Concord), and mother Jane H. T. Prichard (Concord).  Mother Jane writes on February 25, “Mrs. Emerson has a daughter, which she has named Ellen for his first wife, quite a piece of heroism as I view it.”  On April 9, she comments “Lizzie Hoar is not very well, she looks thin and has a great deal of the headache, seems rather sad.”  Also on April 9, in writing about a dance, she observes: “Mr. & Mrs. W. Emerson were there; she dances with the same sad expression she would perform a religious rite—he looked all smiles and pleasantness.”  

Box 11, Folder 2:
1841.
Including letters from “Caroline” in New York, Patty Bartlett (Concord), sister Fanny, mother Jane, and a friend also named Amelia.  On July 5, Fanny writes, “This afternoon there is to be a great Temperance celebration for children at Sleepy Hollow . . . Mother and I went to Stow last week to see Martha Prescott.”  On September 12, friend Amelia inquires as to how John [Shepard Keyes] and Martha [Prescott] “get along”—whether he is “still as attentive as ever.”   In New York on October 23, mother Jane notes that brother Moses has been considering “taking Mr. Emerson’s farm.”  Writing from New York on November 5, Fanny directs sister Amelia to give her love to Mrs. Brooks and to pass along the information to her that in New York there is a “Physician who cures the heart complaint.”

Box 11, Folder 3:
1843-1844.
Including letters from brother William, sister Fanny, Sarah D. Clapp, sister Lizzie, and mother Jane.  Mother Jane writes on December 6, 1844 about the outrageous treatment of Samuel Hoar by the people of Charleston, South Carolina and on December 18 about Hoar’s return home, commenting “Our wise abolition ladies regret he did not stay & become a martyr to the cause.  Abby Prescott is very sorry he did not stay & be put in prison . . . These speeches incense me very much . . . all of us I believe who do not belong to the abolition party are quite happy that Mr. Hoar escaped uninjured—  It shows the wisdom of selecting a person of the prudence & discretion of Mr. Hoar for such a mission—for had it been one of the fanatic spirits . . . he would assuredly have been hang’d.”  Sister Fanny refers in one undated [1844] letter to two Concord Lyceum curators refusing antislavery lectures.  Lizzie writes from Baltimore on September 20, 1844 “Martha’s must have been a sad wedding” [the wedding of Martha Prescott and John Shepard Keyes] and about abolition, and on December 10, 1844 about Samuel and Elizabeth Hoar in South Carolina.   

Box 11, Folder 4:
January-June, 1845.
Including letters from sister Lizzie in Baltimore (writing Amelia in New York on January 4 about residence in a slave state as an incentive to abolition and about race relations in the south; noting on February 9, “I send you Lizzy Hoar’s journal of the South”; exclaiming in March “Only think of Texas being annexed!! . . . Do they say that Mexico will go to war?” and reporting on the slave-owning family of Eliza Ridgely; commenting on June 29 about the public hanging of McCurvy, denouncing public execution, and inquiring whether Jane Whiting has gone to Virginia); “yr. friend Margaret” (Boston); sister Fanny (writing on February 9 about reading Dante with Elizabeth Hoar, about Caroline moving into her new “very handsome” house, and about the remark made by brother Moses about what a “red hot abolitionist” sister Lizzie has become; responding on March 29 to Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century—“Concord women are by no means slaves—they have without doubt supreme power—and perhaps Concord girls are looking for ‘heroes’ & that is why there are no more of them married”); brother William; and Susan T. Robeson.  Also, a poem from an unnamed admirer (February 14).

Box 11, Folder 5:
September-December, 1845.
Including letters from sister Lizzie and Sarah D. Clapp (mainly Lizzie).

Box 11, Folder 6:
January-June, 1846.
Including letters from sister Lizzie in Baltimore (reporting on April 19 about having been asked by Miss Mercer if she might want to be a normal school professor of dead languages, and on Miss Mercer’s interest in Liberian colonization; observing on June 7 “I imagine that summer time is all filled up as Fanny says that Lizzy Hoar & I are to read Aristophanes with Mrs. Ripley”); Susan T. Robeson (New York); Sarah D. Clapp; brother William (New York); sister Fanny (writing from Concord on May 10 about Samuel Ripley and family—recently returned from Waltham to the Old Manse in Concord—and Mrs. Ripley’s delight in Concord causing her anxiety that some dreadful thing will happen “as an offset”; noting on May 26 that she—Fanny—hopes to read Faust with Elizabeth Hoar and that “the two learned Lizzies & Mrs. Ripley will read Greek”; writing on June 6, 1846 that she began Corinne again the other day); and mother Jane.

Box 11, Folder 7:
July-October, 1846.
Including letters from Sarah D. Clapp (Dartmouth; Roxbury); sister Fanny in Concord, to Amelia in Baltimore (writing on September 20 “Mrs. Brooks Clarke called here one day & invited us to go up there and eat Peaches— & Barnard & F. Mary & Mr. & Mrs. Frost . . . She set a day & invited several more—Mrs. Hoar’s Family—Mr. Emerson and Madame— Mrs. E. she thought looked rather high—the Thoreau’s [sic] &c. &c.—so we went & had a very good time”); brother William (New York);  Susan T. Robeson (New York); sister Lizzie (Brooklyn); mother Jane; brother Moses B. (“Moselle”); cousin Mary.

Box 11, Folder 8:
November-December, 1846.
Including letters from sister Fanny; Sarah D. Clapp (in Roxbury); sister Lizzie (from New York to Amelia in Baltimore; writing on November 22 “John Keyes is going to build a house . . . they will build a cottage and never have much company— Hospitality belongs to neither of their families— John Brown is to be married on T——y day and board with the Misses Thoreau . . . William Robinson is here to tea”); and brother William.

Box 11, Folder 9:
1847.
Including letters from Maria Winchester, Helen Lake, Lizzie Winchester, and C. Schelter (all from Baltimore), brother William (New York), and sister Lizzie (New Haven).

Box 11, Folder 10:
1848.
Including letters from sister Fanny (from Flatbush and Concord; writing on October 29 “Mr. Loring has written to John (who is a candidate for Senator) requesting him to make known his opinions on the subject of slavery—he being a strong anti-slavery man—and one who could not conscientiously vote for any one who favored slavery . . . John’s answer appeared [in yesterday’s paper] . . . rather hard for a man who has no principles upon any subject to declare to his party what they are”; on November 26, reporting on preparations for Thanksgiving and observing “Helen Thoreau is very feeble and cannot live long—she is very pleasant and will have to comfort all the family but Sophia—she does not seem so sick as she really is—because she can sit in the parlor and be dressed”); sister Lizzie (Brattleboro, Concord, and Boston; writing from Boston on November 27 about having gone to hear Mr. Mann lecture, but he was called away and Mr. Channing lectured on Fourierism instead, prompting Lizzie to remark “I am trying to get interested in communities, but as yet I have not faith”; in the same letter, she also comments “I really enjoy Mr. Parker.  I do not like regular churches at all”); cousin “Jerry” (Brattleboro); mother Jane (Concord; writing on November 10 about national politics); Caroline Downes Brooks Hoar (Flatbush; on November 7 commenting on election day and on Edward Hoar’s having visited her); and cousin Mary. 

Box 11, Folder 11:
1849.
Letters from Susan Robeson (in New York), cousin Mary, cousin Jere/Jery/Jerry Prichard, brother William, sister Fanny (Brattleboro), and Sarah D. Clapp.

Box 11, Folder 12:
1850.
Including letters (some to Amelia in New York) from cousin Sarah (in Boston); cousin T. B. Mackay (Boston); brother William (New York); sister Lizzie (Staten Island); Caroline D. B. Hoar (Concord; writing on December 4 about the illness of her sister-in-law Abba Prescott Brooks, and about the commencement of the Concord Lyceum season with Mr. Emerson lecturing); sister Fanny (Concord; commenting on December 14 that Lizzie has nobody to speak to about “Free Soil,” the “Fugitive Slave Bill,” “Anti Church,” “Anti Medicine,” “or any Antis—poor child . . . New York is a horrid place for the enlightened,” and reporting more news about the illness of Abba Brooks; on December 21 writing about a party given by Mrs. Frank Munroe upon Eliza Munroe’s return from New York, describing Eliza as dressed in fabric that her brother William had brought from Paris and William as “handsome and agreeable,” observing that the Frank Munroes had recently introduced gas into their home, noting that Jenny Lind “was here five nights,” and reporting on a party given by the Wheelers on Lee’s Hill at which various local residents represented gods and goddesses; on December 30 writing “Caroline had a beautiful Christmas Tree on Tuesday eve— There were upward of eighty persons present,” and commenting on the suffering in Boston of Abba Prescott Brooks); and mother Jane (from Concord and Boston).

Box 11, Folder 13:
January-March, 1851.
Including letters (addressed to Amelia in Philadelphia and care of William in New York) from sister Fanny (Concord; writing on January 12 “Mrs. Fuller has come to live with Mrs. Channing & I ought to go there & spend the evening—but I feel as if I could not bear to see either of them—I hate people that talk so beautifully about everything”; on January 26 about the illness of “the beloved Doct.” with whom Elizabeth Hoar thinks Fanny is in love and about the return of Abba Brooks to Concord; on February 9 reporting that Abba Brooks is somewhat better and that Martha Keyes doesn’t put herself out much for her friends); brother William; Elizabeth Hoar; sister Lizzie (Staten Island; writing on January 19, “I went to Mrs. Hudson’s [Eliza Woodward Hudson’s?] after dinner”); Caroline D. B. Hoar (writing on January 22 about her sense of separation from the world, the dangerous illness of her sister-in-law Abba Brooks, and other family matters; reporting on March 26 that Abba Brooks is very sick); mother Jane (writing on January 31 about the forms of Catholicism as unsatisfactory); and Sarah D. Clapp (Boston).  

Box 11, Folder 14:
April-July 1851.
Including letters from mother Jane (writing on April 12 “Mr. Frost is a violent abolitionist & the meek, gentle spirit of Jesus seems to be lost in party strife.  Many of his people are very much dissatisfied . . . Our abolition ladies too take up the cause so earnestly— nothing is of any importance compared with it & poor Mr. Webster has the most thorough denunciations”); father Moses; Sarah D. Clapp; Caroline [D. B. Hoar] (Concord; writing on April 21 about the disaffection of Mr. Frost’s congregation with his “meddling in politics [temperance and slavery]” and about an apparent improvement in the condition of Abba Brooks); sister Fanny (commenting on May 30 on the particular beauty of Concord; reporting in a letter of June 10 to Amelia on Staten Island that Abba Brooks died the previous evening [of consumption, as indicated in another—undated—letter from William to Amelia], and describing Abba’s state of mind at the end); and brother William (a letter from William Mackay enclosed with one of William’s). 

Box 11, Folder 15:
August-December, 1851.
Including letters from brother William; Sarah D. Clapp; Martha [Prescott Keyes] (on September 12 writing a note to accompany the gift of a dress that had belonged to her deceased half-sister Abba Brooks); sister Fanny, writing to Amelia in New York; mother Jane; aunt Elizabeth; and sister Fanny (Concord; writing on December 14 “The Lyceum has begun again— Mr. Emerson reads as the first lecture from his book about Margaret Fuller”; on December 21 “Mr. Emerson is to give a lecture in Boston tomorrow night—and a course of six, besides, as I understand on ‘The Conduct of Life’”).

Box 11, Folder 16:
January-May, 1852.
Including letters from brother William (enclosed with his March 17 letter from New York a printed playbill for the March 4 amateur performance of Time Works Wonders in Oakland, Staten Island, the cast of characters including Felix Goldthumb played by W. Emerson, Jr., Olive played by Mr. Emerson, and Mrs. Goldthumb played by Miss [Lizzie] Prichard); Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (playfully signed “The Judge”); sister Fanny; mother Jane (addressed to Amelia on Staten Island); sister Lizzie (Lizzie’s letter of March 22 opening with a salutation in German; writing on April 22 about her sister-in-law Eliza Plummer Prichard; on May 27 chiding Amelia for her coldness to brother William following his marriage); Sarah D. Clapp; and one letter in German from a correspondent whose name is difficult to decipher.

Box 11, Folder 17:
1853-1859.
Including letters from Sarah D. Hubbard [formerly Sarah D. Clapp] (Cambridge); sister Lizzie (Staten Island; her letter of January 9 in German); sister Fanny (New York; writing on January 26, 1853, “Mr. Waldo Emerson came in Town yesterday—is to lecture in Philadelphia tomorrow evening—and come here again in the night train & go homeward on Friday . . . and I am to wait and go with him”); brother William; brother Moses B. (Decatur, Alabama); Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (verses written April 19, 1865 about a gift of slippers); and sister Lizzie (from Paris and from Florence).

Box 11, Folder 18:
1868.
A single letter from brother William (August 6) on the inside of Kiarsarge/Kearsarge House bill of fare (North Conway, New Hampshire).

Box 11, Folder 19:
1870, 1872.
Letters from brother William (in New York), letters and fragments of letters from sister Lizzie abroad (Palermo, Arinella), and niece Florence (Arinella).

Box 11, Folder 20:
1873.
Letters from sister Lizzie and from niece Florence (Arinella) and Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (Washington).

Box 11, Folder 21:
1874, 1876.
Letters from sister Lizzie (Siena, Florence, and London), Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (Washington; one letter on 43rd U.S. Congress engraved letterhead), and brother William (New York; one letter on Prichard, Choate & Smith letterhead).

Box 11, Folder 22:
1881, 1892, 1900.
Letters from sister Fanny, sister Lizzie (St. Albans, Vermont), and niece Florence Hoar Bradford (Rome, Florence, Nice).   

Box 11, Folder 23:
Undated letters from mother Jane.

Box 11, Folder 24:
Undated letters from brother William.

Box 11, Folder 25:
Undated letters from sister-in-law Eliza Plummer/Eliza Plummer Prichard (Mrs. William M.), one with an enclosed letter from William.

Box 11, Folder 26:
Undated letters from sister Fanny (one with an enclosed letter from mother Jane; one referring to Mr. Emerson going to Buffalo to lecture).

Box 11, Folder 27:
A single undated letter from brother Moses, with a lock of hair enclosed.

Box 11, Folder 28:
Undated letters from sister Lizzie.

Box 11, Folder 29:
Undated letters from various correspondents (among them Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Caroline D. B. Hoar, Sarah Sherman Hoar Storer, and cousin Mary).

Box 11, Folder 30:
Envelopes and stamps separated from letters.

B.  Manuscript ode, 1865:

Box 11, Folder 31:
Manuscript ode by Amelia M. Prichard, November 26, 1865, on the silver wedding anniversary of Ebenezer R. and Caroline Hoar.

C.  Financial papers, 1845, 1900-1901:

Box 11, Folder 32:
Bills and cover letters (1845) from Robert George Paige for vocal instruction and music.

Box 11, Folder 33:
Cancelled checks and receipted bills, 1900-1901.

Box 11, Folder 34:
Stock transfers, 1900-1901.

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Series VIII.  Letters addressed to multiple Prichards, 1834-1899, plus undated:

Box 12, Folder 1:
Letter to Lizzie and Amelia Prichard from an unidentified correspondent aboard the ship Shepherdess, “Indian Ocean near the Equator,” February 13, 1834.

Box 12, Folder 2:
Three undated letters from William M. Prichard to his sisters [Lizzie and Amelia] on Staten Island, one probably written in December 1851 (it refers to Kossuth’s visit to New York), the others in 1851 or 1852.

Box 12, Folder 3:
One undated letter from Eliza Plummer Prichard (Mrs. William M.) to “My dear Sisters,” and one from Eliza to Fanny and Amelia, August 4, 1866, on Senter House, Centre Harbor, New Hampshire, letterhead.  

Box 12, Folder 4:
Two letters from Moses B. Prichard to his family, one written from Allanburg, New York, in 1844, one from Madisonville, Tennessee, in 1849.

Box 12, Folder 5:
A single letter from Anna Whaley Prichard (Mrs. Moses B.) to “My Dear Sisters,” Montgomery, November 1, 1869.

Box 12, Folder 6:
A single letter from Lizzie Prichard Hoar to “Dear girls,” undated, “1 week out” ([1872]).

Box 12, Folder 7:
Fragmentary letters from Lizzie to unidentified family members (separated from the sheets bearing salutations and dates).

Box 12, Folder 8:
A letter to Amelia from sister Lizzie, “Christmas Evening 1872,” combined on a single sheet with a letter from Elizabeth Hoar to Fanny, “Morning of the wedding day—Palermo—Arinella.”

Box 12, Folder 9:
Letters from Florence Hoar in Italy to aunts Fanny and Amelia, 1872 (some undated).

Box 12, Folder 10:
Two letters to “The Misses Prichard,” one undated from “Julia” at “The Snuggery,” one written by “W. W. W.” from “Belknap Place,” March 20, 1847.

Box 12, Folder 11:
Letter from Ellen Emerson to Amelia Prichard and Elizabeth Prichard Hoar, expressing sympathy at death of Fanny Prichard (1899).

 

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Series IX.  Prichard family property, financial, and estate papers, 1802-1948:

Box 13, Folder 1:
Prichard and Prichard-related deeds for property in New Hampshire and in Concord, Massachusetts, 1802-1830.

Box 13, Folder 2:
Concord tax assessments for estate/heirs of Moses Prichard, 1874-1898.

Box 13, Folder 3:
Concord tax assessments on property of Frances Jane and Amelia Prichard, 1886-1898.

Box 13, Folder 4:
Insurance documents relating to Prichard family real estate in Concord, 1892-1918.

Box 13, Folder 5:
Articles of agreement, Frances Jane and Amelia Prichard with Asa F. Calef, for wood on Walden Street property in Concord, 1895.

Box 13, Folder 6:
Documents relating to the conveyance of Florence Hoar Bradford’s Walden Street property in Concord, 1939-1948.

Box 13, Folder 7:
Discharge of mortgage, Middlesex Institution for Savings to Amelia M. Prichard et al., 1900.

Box 13, Folder 8:
Gift to the Town of Concord by Amelia Prichard and Elizabeth Prichard Hoar of land on the westerly side of Lowell Road, 1900.

Box 13, Folder 9:
Miscellaneous Prichard family accounts, 1814-1893.

Box 13, Folder 10:
Documents relating to a manual training school in Concord (the gift of Frances Jane and Amelia Prichard), 1899.  For additional information on this school, see the Concord School Committee report in the printed Concord town report for 1899-1900 (pages 8-9, 35-38).

Box 13, Folder 11:
Wills: Jane Hallett Prichard, 1860; Moses Prichard, 1864.

Box 13, Folder 12:
William M. Prichard estate papers, 1899-1918.

Box 13, Folder 13:
Frances Jane Prichard estate papers, 1899-1902.

Box 13, Folder 14:
Frances Jane Prichard estate: stock distribution and stock transfers to Florence Hoar Bradford, 1900.

Box 13, Folder 15:
Amelia M. Prichard estate papers, 1901-1902.

Box 13, Folder 16:
Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar estate papers, 1917-1918.

Series X.  Printed ephemera, 1845-1941, plus undated:

Box 14, Folder 1:
Engraved calling card for Lydia Hosmer (undated).

Box 14, Folder 2:
Ticket to the fifty-ninth anniversary dinner of St. George’s Society in New York, 1845.

Box 14, Folder 3:
Nineteenth-century needlepoint patterns (undated).

Box 14, Folder 4:
Watson’s Guide Map to Popular Resorts Around New York.  1881 (New York: John Beatson, ©1880).

Box 14, Folder 5:
Guide Map of the City of New York and Vicinity (New York: The Railway Map and Publishing Co., ©1893).

Box 14, Folder 6:
Printed handbill headed “Hints to Travelers” (about transportation around New York City; undated).

Box 14, Folder 7:
Rand McNally & Co.’s Guide Map of New York City (New York; Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., ©1895).  Printed on verso: Rand McNally & Co.’s Road Map of the New York and New Jersey Suburbs (©1894).

Box 14, Folder 8:
Photocopied newspaper obituary of Mrs. Gilman Prichard, 1941.

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Series XI.  Incompletely identified fragments and manuscripts, 1845-[1875] (mostly undated):

Box 14, Folder 9:
Fragment of a letter, Laetitia M. Robbins to unidentified recipient, “April 9th.”

Box 14, Folder 10:
Letter to “My darling Sister” from “Your aff. little sister Emily,” Concord, April 1, 1863.

Box 14, Folder 10a:
An April 5, 1865 letter from an unidentified young woman to her sister about rejecting an older suitor.  References are made to “Miss Amelia [Amelia M. Prichard], to a visit to the Hawthornes, and to a party at which the writer of this letter spoke with Mr. Channing.

Box 14, Folder 11:
Fragments of two letters [from Elizabeth Hallett Prichard Hoar] to unidentified recipients; one fragment ([1875]) refers to Philip Dolan, who is sick and staying with John and Martha Keyes.

Box 14, Folder 12:
Three unidentified letter fragments (all three possibly by a young Florence Hoar), [1860s and early 1870s?]

Box 14, Folder 13:
Empty envelope addressed to Mrs. Clarence H. Clark, Philadelphia (no postmark or stamp).

Box 14, Folder 14:
Unidentified manuscript fragment.

Box 14, Folder 15:
Four  unidentified pieces of verse in several manuscript hands (one item signed “Ora West Cambridge June . . . 1845,” one “Concord Oct. 17th 1861”).

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Mounted 1 December 2012    rcwh. -- Revised and added 8 March 2013. Revised and added 9 July 2019.