The collection contains primarily letters, many with transcriptions, dating from 1822 to 1928. Letters among the various members of the Dorsey family comprise the bulk of the collection. There are also small amounts of land tax records, clippings, and blank postcards. Small gaps appear in the correspondence throughout the collection where there may be a few letters for one or two years and significantly more for the following years. However, there is a large gap in the Dorsey family’s letters from 1844 to 1857, during which there is no correspondence. There is only one letter to Annie Dorsey in 1857 before the letters begin again in 1862. There are also no letters from 1875, 1888, 1891, 1897, 1899, 1902, 1903, 1908, 1911-1918, 1920-1922, and 1924. Letters dating from 1822 to 1844 are written to either Edward Worthington Dorsey, to his wife, Eleanor (Ellen) Elizabeth Dorsey, or to another of their relatives. Presumably, the letters to relatives not living in Pike County, Missouri, were forwarded to Eleanor for her information. The earliest letters to Eleanor pre-date her marriage, but most are written after the family is in Missouri containing much family news of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Correspondents to “Ellen” Dorsey include: L. (Lucinda) E. Brown (sister in-law) and Rebecca Edmondson (sister), among other Snowden and Brown cousins. Comfort Dorsey wrote to her sister on February 24, 1837, about her adventures at school and seeing the aurora borealis. Many relatives wrote with news of Comfort’s visits and her time at school. Edward’s letters provide family news but also details on crops and political situations. Eleanor’s cousin, Thomas Snowden, wrote to Edward concerning the Democratic Convention held in Baltimore during which Van Buren was nominated for president. Charles Dorsey and Snowden both wrote to Missouri about the bank riot in Maryland in August 1835. Snowden apparently lived in the same neighborhood as some former bank directors and had soldiers guarding his house from the mob which burned some homes. The Dorsey family supported the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Letters at this time, and going forward, are primarily letters received by Lou (“Loudie” or “Ludie”) Dorsey. The earliest war time correspondence contains lots of informative family news. For example, in an unfinished letter dated 21 June 1863, Mary Snowden Broadhead tells her sister Lou about the death of her young son. The letters from this time tell in snippets what was happening during the war and how interwoven the war is into all aspects of life. Mary Dorsey Broadhead’s husband, James Broadhead, served as Provost Marshal General in St. Louis from 1863 to 1864. Despite James being an officer for the Union forces, Mary’s family visited the Broadhead home in St. Louis often. Throughout the collection James is referred to in letters as “Brother Jim” by the Dorsey siblings or as “Mr. B” by Mary herself. Mary’s sister, presumably Annie, writes on 6 July 1863 to Lou of how busy the Broadhead home was due to James’ position, anybody “would almost imagine this the provost martial’s Head quarters.” Annie Dorsey (signs letters “ABD”) wrote to her mother on 3 March 1862 that she and “Brother Jim” visited Caleb Dorsey at Alton, explaining how well the officers were treated there. However, Gen. Halleck planned to send the paroled officers to Columbus, Ohio, and Annie explained that “Brother Jim” attempted to get Caleb paroled to Pike County. In a letter from Fort Warren, Massachusetts dated 18 May 1862, Caleb tells his mother that all the Missouri prisoners he was with at Camp Chase (Columbus, OH), were sent to Johnson’s Island (Sandusky, OH). He says that the sea breeze at Fort Warren is delightful and that the prison at Alton is horrible. He asks that friends and neighbors send goods and medicine to the Missouri privates still detained there. Caleb Dorsey reached the rank of colonel by the end of the war and corresponded with his family regularly while he was imprisoned in 1862. There are fewer letters after he was released as part of the prisoner exchange. Caleb wrote to Mary South with news of her “beloved Jack” and other mutual friends (9 August 1864) and asked to her write to him by flag of truce mail via Little Rock. Capt. George B. Clarke informed Lou on 20 August 1864, that Capt. Dorsey was in good health after seeing him in charge of a flag of truce under Gen. Price at a prisoner exchange at Devil’s Bluff, Arkansas on 26 June 1864. Capt. Clarke became one of Lou’s regular prisoner pen pals. He informed her of the rules regarding prisoner mail and packages. Prison rules allowed soldiers to send and receive letters of a personal nature, with outgoing letters limited to one page, but forbade prisoners from receiving packages from anyone but family members. An exception to this general rule is evidenced by a clipping dated c.1864 in which an appeal is made to the general public for donations to the prisoners at Gratiot Street prison in St. Louis (B3/f.12). By 1864, most of the letters are from prisoners to whom Lou corresponded and sent packages, her letters bearing the greeting, “Dear Cousin Loudie,” (likely a nickname given her by Caleb). Many of the envelopes are addressed to Lou care of James Broadhead at 266 Pine Street, St. Louis. The prisoners had to procure permits from the prison officials which they then sent to Lou. Presumably, she enclosed the permits in the packages containing items such as hats, coats, and suits. Lou corresponded with men incarcerated in three Union prisons: Johnson’s Island, Ohio (J. L. Vickers, George B. Clarke, J. M. Climer); Fort Delaware, Delaware (Hiram C. Burks, William R. Holcombe); and Fort Warren, Massachusetts, where Caleb Dorsey was held for a short time before being paroled. Prisoner exchanges are mentioned throughout the prisoners’ letters. As her correspondents were exchanged, they left their boxes of goods behind for another prisoner. The prisoners also provided news of other Missourians or friends in prison and asked Lou to share the information with the prisoners’ relatives. Lou received requests to send her “carte” in her letters, referring to a carte de visite. She exchanged locks of hair with Adjt. Willam R. Holcombe of Alabama, who also sent her his likeness. For unknown reasons, two letters from Maggie Roberts to A. J. Hill and Charles E. Goodwein, prisoners at Rock Island, Illinois, in January 1865 are in the collection. Possibly they were friends of Lou’s from the Bowling Green area. Miss Roberts mentions in both letters that Jeannie Knight has been arrested but not sentenced yet. Miss Roberts says that Miss Knight will be missed by many prisoners if she is banished or imprisoned. Jeannie Knight might be related to Capt. Harry Knight of Pike County, Missouri. Three brief letters to Lou were written in code from Annie (possibly her sister, 1862), Thos. Boyd (aka Caleb Dorsey, 12 Feb 1864), and Capt. Harry Knight (2 April 1864) regarding the availability of medicine and the recruiting of men for the rebel forces. Later, Lou added the solutions into the letters. She explained the necessity for discretion at the bottom of 12 Feb 1864 letter, “at the time they were written they endangered our lives if they had fallen into the hands of a shrewd Yankee northern hireling.” By June 1865, Caleb Dorsey was in Mexico writing letters to Lou and Annie. By January 1866, he arrived in Sonora, California, where he was with their brother Tom. On 10 November 1866 Caleb wrote to Annie that he purchased a ranch of over 4000 acres southeast of Stockton with a ½ mile vista of the Stanislaus River. This is presumably the ranch where his mother and sisters moved when they first came to California in later years. There are very few letters to or from Caleb once most of the family joined him California around 1872. The hard feelings generated by the war were difficult to overcome, as Isabetta Carter’s 22 January 1866, letter to Lou demonstrates. While visiting Virginia she told of the attitudes there toward the southern cause, wrote negatively of Unionists they both know in Missouri, and stated that Caleb Dorsey is one her heroes. Political musings appeared in many of the post-war letters, 1866 to about 1871. They spoke of national, state, and local politics and economies. The southern citizens were not happy with the freedom granted to the former slaves and complain about loss of rights in the courts. On 19 March 1869, Caleb told Lou about an area near the San Joaquin River where Tom and John hoped to settle called the Alabama Settlement, or Young Confederacy. The area was being settled by several southern families. Charles Broadhead wrote to “Aunt Eddie” (Edwa) on 8 April 1871 anticipating his vacation in Washington D.C. where he hoped to hear debate on Ku Klux Klan bill before Congress (Third Force Act or the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871). The hard feelings generated by the war were difficult to overcome, as Isabetta Carter’s 22 January 1866, letter to Lou demonstrates. While visiting Virginia she told of the attitudes there toward the southern cause, wrote negatively of Unionists they both know in Missouri, and stated that Caleb Dorsey is one her heroes. Political musings appeared in many of the post-war letters, 1866 to about 1871. They spoke of national, state, and local politics and economies. The southern citizens were not happy with the freedom granted to the former slaves and complain about loss of rights in the courts. On 19 March 1869, Caleb told Lou about an area near the San Joaquin River where Tom and John hoped to settle called the Alabama Settlement, or Young Confederacy. The area was being settled by several southern families. Charles Broadhead wrote to “Aunt Eddie” (Edwa) on 8 April 1871 anticipating his vacation in Washington D.C. where he hoped to hear debate on Ku Klux Klan bill before Congress (Third Force Act or the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871). In two instances small pox vaccines are mentioned in this collection. In December 1872, Barbour advises Lou to vaccinate herself against small pox. On 2 July 1894, Fanny McCutcheon mentions an order in Windsor, Ontario, to receive small pox vaccines during an outbreak. Barbour also advised Lou to have their baby vaccinated for whopping cough and diphtheria before traveling to Missouri in 1873. By 1880, the Ewings lived in San Antonio. However, by October 1880, one month after the birth of their youngest child, John Dorsey, Barbour and Lou were in Missouri readying to move back to California. A young woman traveling with the Ewings, possibly as a nanny, Addie Robinson, was distraught to leave St. Louis for California and her unhappiness is mentioned briefly in letters among family. There is a 29 April 1881 letter to Addie from T. D. Rust of Wyoming who mentions their meeting on a train. Unfortunately, according to a newsclipping, Addie was unhappy and shot herself at Caleb’s home in May 1881. Many of the letters in 1883 and 1884 are written to Barbour by friends and family and allude to his illness. Barbour Ewing died in September 1884. Letters between the Ewings and the McCutcheons, their friends in Pilot Grove appear sporadically from 1880 to about 1895. Judge John McCutcheon assisted Barbour and Lou with business affairs in Missouri. The families remained friends, hosting visits by their children. Lou wrote to the McCutcheons on 22 February 1895 wishing them well on their 50th wedding anniversary. After Barbour Ewing’s death in the fall of 1884, the letters become less frequent with more gaps. Many of the letters are between Lou and her children as they got older and traveled to visit family. Olipita (“Birdie”) married Harry Marsh in 1901 and lived in San Francisco. Many of Edwa’s and Dorsey’s letters are also sent from that city to Lou in Stockton. Nannie Broadhead wrote to her aunt Lou on 24 April 1906, following the San Francisco earthquake with relief that Birdie and her family escaped the city unharmed. She explained that Mr. Busch, “the St. Louis brewer,” who was traveling through San Francisco at the time, escaped, and made a $100,000 donation for the city upon his return home. Annie B. Dorsey travelled in Europe in the spring of 1906 with her niece, Annie Porter (both use the nickname “Nan.”) Their letters from Greece and Italy were shared among family members. While in Athens, the ladies attended the Intercalated Games, unofficial Olympic games, and described the scenes in their letters. In Rome, Annie Porter kissed the Pope’s ring and they visited other places such as Naples and Pompeii. Prominent local events are also mentioned in the letters. The 3 January 1879, letter from Minnie (Mary) Broadhead to her father delivered a detailed description of a fire at the Second Baptist Church (Beaumont and Locust St.) in St. Louis on New Year’s Eve, 1878, that threatened the Mary Institute. She reported that Dr. William Greenleaf Eliot handed a check to Clay Sexton of the fire department for saving the school. In 1904, Lou visited St. Louis and attended the World’s Fair. She wrote to her son Dorsey explaining the Igarot village and her brief experience on the Pike. There is one folder of land tax receipts for property in Taylor County, Texas dating from 1873 to 1890 (B3/f.9). Caleb Dorsey paid the taxes but according to the receipts John, Thomas, and Anne also owned a portion of it. There is no mention of the property in the letters. There are two folders related to the weddings of John Dorsey Ewing in 1926, and Edwa Dorsey in 1928. Dorsey married Annabel Tutt List in Missouri on 2 June 1926. The folder contains an announcement, a marriage certificate, clippings, and a letter to Edwa Ewing from her cousin Eleanor Horton, who attended the wedding. Edwa married Frank S. Boggs on 17 Octboer 1928. The folder relating to Edwa’s wedding contains an announcement, clippings which include a portrait of Edwa, and a copy of a letter (8 August 1924) from Boggs to Stanford University President Wilbur regarding his son, Thomas Boggs. One folder (B3/f.12) contains clippings from the Civil War that were not attached to any letters and a undated clipping regarding the wedding Katherine Horton, possibly the granddaughter of Mary Broadhead Horton and great-granddaughter of James Broadhead. The folder also holds many undated items: a calling card from a San Francisco milliner, blank postcards, a poem, and an undated account ledger. The McCutcheon letters folder (B3/f.13) spans 1840 to 1894 and contains letters and documents relating to the immediate McCutcheon family. The first letter is a letter of recommendation for John. M. McCutcheon as a teacher from the president of Hanover College dated 28 December 1840. A letter dated 17 January 1867, from John McCutcheon inquires after the welfare of John M. McCutcheon’s family following a house fire. There are four letters dated from June to October 1894 between the McCutcheons and their daughter Fanny in Canada. Documents include: a stock certificate for one share in the Boonville Chouteau Spring Co., 1849; a receipt for a rifle seized under General Order No.19 at Boonville, 1862; a receipt for carriage tax paid in Franklin County, 1864; and the marriage certificate of Fanny McCutcheon and Frank List, 19 June 1894. Most of the correspondence in the Tutt family folder (B3/f.14) is written to Annabel Dorsey’s great-grandfather, Dr. Gabriel Tutt and his wife Jane. The letters are primarily from friends and family conveying local and personal news, several containing great details concerning personal health. The earliest letter is dated 30 May 1827 and only one letter is addressed to Mrs. Tutt, “My Dear Aunt,” and dated 30 April 1828. Most notable is an undated letter, c.1835, which several neighbors signed asking Dr. Tutt not to move from their neighborhood.