Call Number:

RG5.250

Repository:

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Extent:

0.5 linear ft.

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item or series here], Bailey-Wood Family Papers, RG5/250, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Date:

1847-1957 (inclusive)

Creator:

Wood, Edith M.B. (Edith Maria Bailey), b. 1877 and Wood, Herbert Wilbur, b. 1881

Abstract:

This collection contains papers of the Bailey and Wood families, including diaries and school lesson books of Edith M. B. Wood and an account book kept by her husband, Herbert W. Wood, a Quaker pastor. Also family correspondence, 1847-1859, primarily to Edith's mother, and a small number of miscellaneous Quaker-related items. Edith Maria Bailey, a Gurneyite Friend, was born in 1877. In 1901, she married Herbert Wilbur Wood. Herbert Wood was born in 1881 and served as pastor at Unadilla Friends Church, N.Y., and New Sharon Friends Church, 1924-1927, in Iowa.

Edith Maria Bailey, a Gurneyite Friend, was born on January 17, 1877, in Lewiston, Maine, and later moved to New York, Massachusetts, and Iowa. She was the daughter of Mary Nichols Bailey and William Haskell Bailey, and she was active in her Quaker meetings.

On June 12, 1901, Edith Bailey married Herbert Wilbur Wood, son of Edward George Wood and Olive Edna Sherbondy. Herbert was born on June 26, 1881. About 1917, they moved to Durham, Maine (a town in Somerset County) with their three children: Edith Viola Wood, Vernice B. Wood, and Myrtle V. Wood. In June 1918, they transferred to Unadilla Monthly Meeting, New York, where their eldest daughter Viola soon died. Herbert was Pastor of the Friends Church. In 1922 they moved to South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, to pastor the Friends Meeting there. In 1923, the family transferred to Iowa Falls Monthly Meeting, Iowa, and the following year, they moved to New Sharon MM where Herbert served as pastor 1924-1927 and about 1929-1939. He then pastored at Rubio Friends until near his death in 1945.

This collection contains Edith's diaries from when she was 16 years old until she was 30, with gaps between 1896 and 1903; they describe attending church meetings, Bible school, and married life. The grammar and composition books include essays written by Edith Bailey and Bible studies lessons. Herbert Wood's account books document the family's finances from 1892 until 1914. Letters from various family members and friends to Edith's mother, Mary Bailey, give an account of daily life, 1847-1859. Other materials show the involvement of Edith and Herbert Wood in Quaker churches in New York, Iowa, and Maine.

Organized into four series:

1. Diaries and Notebooks
2. Correspondence
3. Financial
4. Miscellaneous