Call Number:

SC.133

Repository:

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Extent:

.1 linear ft. (.1 linear feet (2 folders.))

Preferred Citation:

Cite as: Smith Family correspondence, 1852-1864, SC/133, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.

Date:

1852-1878 (inclusive)

Creator:

Smith, Ebenezer R., 1829-1885

Abstract:

The collection contains family correspondence, most received by Ebenezer R. Smith, a Quaker of New York State and Iowa. Of interest is an unsent letter to Orson Squire Fowler, phrenologist and radical author, in which Ebenezer Smith expresses interest in taking Fowler's courses in order to pursue a career as lecturer and phrenologist. Letters from his parents, Barak and Mary Smith, of Springdale, Iowa, and other relations mention farm life and family concerns.

Ebenezer R. Smith (1829-1885) was a birthright member of Collins Monthly Meeting, the son of Barak Smith and Mary Palmer Smith. Barak and Mary Smith were granted a certificate from Danby Monthly Meeting to Collins in 1828 with their four older children, and then transferred to Red Cedar Monthly Meeting, Iowa, in 1853. In 1857, Ebenezer and his wife Carrie followed his parents to Iowa. They returned to New York State in the early 1870s where Ebenezer died in 1885.