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Chase-Cromwell-Underhill Family papers
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Held at: Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections [Contact Us]370 Lancaster Ave, Haverford, PA 19041
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Logan Goodman, donor of this collection, discovered the collection in a barn on her property. No information on the previous owner is known.
James W. Cromwell (1842-?) was a member of Haverford College class of 1859. He was one of the founders of the literary society at Haverford, Athenaeum, and secretary of the Henry Society. After graduation, he became a mercantile banker and a member of the firm of William Iselin & Co. He was a night hospital nurse during the Civil War at the New England Soldiers' Relief Hospital in New York. He was a member of many arts, science, and business clubs.
From: Haverford College Matriculate Catalog, p. 91.
Lincoln Cromwell (?-1952) was elected a trustee of the Bowery Savings Bank in 1917 and remained so until his death in 1952. He was a partner in the William Iselin & Co. drygoods company beginning in 1898.
William Cromwell (1800-1872) was the son of James and Charlotte Cromwell. He married Caroline Underhill in 1825. He was a member of the Society of Friends and was active in working toward emancipation and the humane treatment of Native Americans. He was a member of the House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents. He was a trustee of the Bowery Savings Bank. Alice, his daughter, married Thomas Chase, president of Haverford College.
Eleanora Kissel was a member of the American Expeditionary Forces with the YMCA Army of Occupation in France and Germany from March 1918 to July 1919. She was also a painter, and painted landscapes, still lifes, and figures.
Thomas Chase (1827-1892), son of Anthony and Lydia Chase, was president of Haverford College from 1875 to 1886. A New Testament scholar and a member of the American Committee for the revision of the Bible, Thomas Chase came to Haverford from Harvard as Professor of Philology and Classical Literature dedicated to high scholarship and community for its 40-some students. He authored numerous publications on classical subjects. His address at the Friends' School on Whittier in 1884 was said by the poet to be "the most discriminating, just, and sympathetic criticism of his literary work that he had seen, and he made hime one of his literary executors." He married Alice Cromwell.
Alice Cromwell Chase (1837-1882) was the daughter of William Cromwell and a member of Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia for the Western District. She married Thomas Chase.
From The Friends' Review.
The collection includes members of the Quaker Chase, Cromwell, and Underhill families. The principal authors are Lincoln Cromwell, Thomas Chase, and Alice Cromwell Chase. The papers are oriented toward business -- several of the Cromwells and Underhills were involved in the Bowery Savings Bank in New York, for example. The letters are primarily on topics of health and daily life. There are a few diaries by women in the collection.
The Chase-Cromwell-Underhill Family papers were donated to Special Collections, Haverford College in 1995 by Logan Goodman.
Processed by Diana Franzusoff Peterson.
"Oration by Thomas Chase and Poem by John G. Whitter ...", 1860. Printed obituary of Alice Cromwell Chase removed to Quaker Collection.
People
- Underhill family
- Cromwell family
- Chase family
- Chase, Thomas
- Cromwell, Lincoln
- Chase, Alice Cromwell, 1837-1882
- Kissel, Eleanora
Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections
- Finding Aid Author
- Diana Franzusoff Peterson
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).
Collection Inventory
Biography of Thomas Chase written by Rhode Island Historical Society, n.d. Typescript Perhaps presented to Augustine Jones, Head of Friends School in Providence
Alice Cromwell (later Chase) diary, 1854
Physical Description1 items
Photos are of:
Daniel Cromwell, J.W. Cromwell, Thomas Chase, wife of Thomas Cromwell, tennis players: Mabel Cromwell, Bessie Wheeler, Mabel Wheeler Cromwell?, Lincoln Cromwell and other children, Everett Smith, Joshua Underhill and Stuart Cooper
Physical Description7 items
Letters primarily on topics of health and daily life.
Highlights include:
Cromwell, Anna C. No recipient. Summit, NJ, 1894 10/13. Lincoln Cromwell engaged to Mabel Wheeler Smith. "Complication" of voting will not come up for women
Physical Description6 items
2 items
1 folders
Documents include wills, deeds, financial or estate statement, a copy of a memorial and a marriage certificate (1782)
Physical Description14 items
Deeds are for property in Orange County, NY, 1800-1868; also, terms of sale of land in 1868, after death of James Cromwell
Physical Description5 items
Included is correspondence, 1880-1920 (5 items), certificates, including as a trustee of the Bowery Savings Bank, Manhattan Union Club minutes, 1864, and an article about Cromwell that appeared in the Haverford News in 1932.
Highlights include:
Chase, Thomas. Haverford College, 1880 2/6. Not a problem that Cromwell didn't come to judge some event at Haverford. He attended the first meeting of the American Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis in NY. Haverford catalog includes list of prizes
Cromwell, James W. to his sister, New York, 1880 2/28. Happy to have been elected a trustee of the Bowery Bank as was his father. Selling some real estate and hopes to realize $40,000. Has vaccinated his family himself, have gotten animal virus from the "Vaccine Farm" in New Jersey
Townsend, Gerard B. New York, 1920 12/7. Sends certified copy of Cromwell's father's will which includes the real estate in Orange County
The mission of the Manhattan Union Club was to reelect Abraham Lincoln. James W. Cromwell was the secretary of the club.
Physical Description11 items
Included is correspondence (1894-1942), events and memorials, business, compositions and papers relating to academic life and scrapbook
The correspondence (ca. 20 items, almost exclusively letters to Cromwell) relays information on Cromwell's engagement to Mabel W. Smith and from her after marriage, his engagement and promotion by the firm of Wm. Iselin & Co., on his daughter's progress at the Mt. Kemble School and in 1942 a letter on Cromwell's fine character.
Events and memorial include The Hermean Society, The Society for Literary Knowlege, a dinner for Charles Eisenman and memorial upon Cromwell's death (1952).
Business includes 2 leases.
Compositions (2): "The Mem[orial] of B[arry] L[yndon]," 189? and "Old Mortality," 1890
Papers relating to public school, Brooklyn Polytechnic and Columbia University
The scrapbook, which includes an index, includes Cromwell's speeches, reports, copies of his letters, poems or odes to various people, several family trees
Physical Description3 folders
Includes a sketch of the life of William Cromwell written by his son, James W. Cromwell, document referring to probate of Cromwell's will, 1872, letters (2), business papers (3), passport
to Ann Underhill. Lawnside, 1862 4/20. Has seen Thomas Chase and wife and baby, will attend meeting to choose a new clerk
Physical Description1 folders
In roll form, the descendants of James Cromwell (1752-1858) have no dates. Thomas Chase who married Alice Cromwell is included
Physical Description1 items
Included are:
Marriage certificate of Joshua Underhill and Mary Sutton, 1789;
Articles of copartnership between William Cromwell and Abraham Underhill, 1844;
Letters (7) of Underhill family members, 1839- 1913?, including from:
Alice, Anna, AU, Eliza, Ira, John, Mother on various family topics, including health, the help, death of a sister and father, request for copy of the charter of the Bowery Savings Bank
Genealogical information on the Underhill family
Diary, 1849-1858. Unsigned, but by the sister of Caroline Underhill. Reports on many events, including Meeting, a school run by her, being at Haverford. The diary begins: "Richard Mott preached an excellent sermon. After tea father and I called at Stephen Grellett's. He gave us some very good advice."
Family history and genealogy, 1880. Including descriptions of assistance in the Underground Railroad, Yellow Fever, Nine Partners School (bound notebook)
Album of verse by S.F. Underhill, including accomplished drawings, one signed "HU" (bound notebook)
1. Bryn Mawr before the Civil War. by unknown writer. Manuscript and Typescript. Includes information on Levi Morris and Naomi McClenaghan, p. 20 (see Morris, Shinn, Maier papers, coll. no. 1191)
2. Recollections of Life on a Pennsylvania Farm 50 Years Ago by unknown writer.
3. Address delivered by Dr. Cornelius B. Smith at Trinity College, 1912
4. Biographical information on Nathan Smith (1808-1878)
5. Biographical information on Dr. Cornelius B. Smith, son of Nathan Smith
6. "The Three Mrs. Paynes": a play by Mrs. Jarvis Cromwell (Barbara Cromwell?)
7. "Just before Vespers" by Barbara Cromwell
Physical Description1 folders
ca. 25 items
The Kissel letters are addressed to her father and Mayta with detailed descriptions of location, and apparently, the canteen where she works where there are 1200 men on leave. Her work begins in France in 1918, but moves to Germany in early 1919, with descriptions of the surrounding areas. Watched Gen. Pershing review the troops; goes sightseeing and to parties.
There is one letter from Wolff to Jarvis Cromwell, Berlin, 1947, stating that he has broken with his earlier ideas, his economic situation desperate and hopes Cromwell will help. His sister had been violated 3 times by the Russians and committed suicide. His mother died of weakness and malnutrition. He, himself, had been captured by the British
Physical Description1 folders
Includes biographical information on the Stuart, Stimson and Bull families, as well as a copy of the will of Col. John Jones