The Helen C. Hough and Charles Stevens family collection (0.5 linear feet) contains correspondence related to several families in northern New York, particularly to the relatives of William J. Hough. The collection includes letters to Clarinda Hough, William's wife, as well as letters exchanged by their daughter, Helen Clarinda Hough, and her future husband, Charles E. Stevens of Flint, Michigan.
The Correspondence series (172 items) includes several groups of letters between members of the Breese and Hough families of northern New York, and the Stevens family of Flint, Michigan. Clarinda Carpenter Hough received around 20 letters from Catharine F. Barrows in Utica and Cooperstown, New York, who wrote of her husband's religious work, local religious life, and family news. Helen Hough, Clarinda's daughter, wrote letters to her family, mainly her mother, while attending Mount Holly Female Seminary (also known as Chisman Hall and the Mount Holly Institute for Young Ladies) in the early 1850s. After 1856, she corresponded with Charles E. Stevens ("Charlie") of Flint, Michigan, whom she married in 1858. Stevens wrote the bulk of the letters that the couple exchanged, commenting on aspects of his life in Flint, including his admittance to the bar (October 5, 1857), and on his travels between New York and Michigan. The series also has letters between members of the McClelland family of northern New York.
The Helen C. Hough Reports series consists of 3 printed reports on Hough's academic progress at the Mount Holy Female Seminary. The reports are signed by two teachers and by the school's principals, Timothy Chisman and Catherine C. Chisman.
The Documents series includes 4 items pertaining to John McClellan of Utica, New York: a copy of his will, a surrogate's court document, a check signed by S. McClellan, and a receipt.
Helen Clarinda Hough was born in New York on May 28, 1837, the daughter of William J. Hough (1795-1869), a member of Congress from 1845-1847, and Clarinda Hough (1799-1867). She had one brother, William Jerome (1821-1894), and one sister, Frances Jervis (b. 1838). In 1851, Helen Hough entered the Cazenovia Seminary, and she later studied at the Mount Holly Female Seminary in Mount Holly, New Jersey. On November 11, 1858, she married Charles E. Stevens ("Charlie") (1836-1905), a lawyer from Flint, Michigan. They lived in Oneida and Syracuse, New York, and had four children: William J. (1859-1913), Nathan G. (1865-1867), Sidney B. (1868-1875), and Augustus C. (1871-1948). Helen Hough Stevens died on December 1, 1903.
