5.25 linear feet
28 items
The Edmond Higgins papers provide a first-hand glimpse into the mind of a northern New Englander imprisoned for raping his daughter during the late antebellum period. The collection is among few assemblages of letters written by a convicted rapist in the antebellum period, discussing his case and efforts to obtain a pardon. The letters, most written by Higgins to his friend and counsel, John Reed, are filled with the worries of a prisoner who feels wrongly accused of raping his own daughter, wrongly convicted, and wrongly imprisoned. His letters give a strong sense of Higgins' attitudes toward his accusers and what he believed was a conspiracy to have him locked away.
The support Higgins received from his wife paired with the dire animosity of his children give some clues into family life among the Higginses, and Higgins' own feelings toward his family can be read through silences in the letters and occasional admissions of drunkenness and disorderliness. At one point, he commented revealingly about life among the boys of Oxford County: "The fact is there is no such things as Boys in Denmark for they Step directly out of the diaper & flannels into high hieled Boots & frock Coat and Chainge the nipple for the Cigar, the next step is to get an old watch with some Brass seals & the next indispencible Requisit is a wife and here the Curtin falls..." (1853 September 4).
Most revealing is the letter that Higgins wrote to his daughter -- and accuser -- Ruby Jane, shortly after his arrest. His wheedling assurance that he believes in his daughter's good name and good nature, and his claims to being concerned for her welfare are belied elsewhere in the collection by his admission that she was already a "very bad girl" when she met her "saducer." Edmond's reaction to his predicament, a mixture of remorse, embarrassment, anger, and denial, and his elaborate insistence that a conspiracy had been waged to frame him also provide potent commentary, if only through the silences, about his attitudes. His guilt, however, is hard to ascertain. Higgins freely admitted to drunken and violent behavior and to unspecified crimes, but there appears to have been evidence to suggest that Ruby Jane was sexually involved with Taber and that she may have come to a financial arrangement with him, possibly in exchange for her testimony. With only one side of the story present, Higgins' case is impossible to judge.
The Higgins papers contain sparse details of prison life, though there are significant, brief comments regarding the scourge of illness among the inmates, the hard labor regimen, and the role of wardens in bolstering (or undermining) the spirits of the prisoners. The collection does include some excellent examples of artisanal-class and prison slang, however. Writing from prison about his health, he concluded, If any Enquire after me up there please tell them that I am well if not Better, tell them I have a Constation like a trip hammer, an apetite like a threshing machine, and can go ahead like a locomotive, and that I Expect soon to change my Boarding house and Reside down on the pick of the Cape, where girls grow Spontaineous and live on Oyster Soop. I have Bought me a pair of india rubber wings and a flying night dress, & a pocket spy glass, and I sleep altogether Best with Boath Eyes open" (1864 August 14).
71 items
The Ella Curtis family correspondence is made up of 71 letters, predominantly incoming to Ellen "Ella" Curtis from her sisters Elizabeth "Lizzie" Plimpton and Ada Curtis Bridge; father Henry B. Curtis; and other friends and family members. The correspondence covers a wide range of topics, such as Lizzie's life in an apartment complex in New York City in the 1850s; Ada's letters from New York City and East Wareham, Massachusetts, pertinent to childbirth, child rearing, depression, and her alcoholic abusive husband; and other letters related to life in Ohio, love, marriage, sisterly advice, and additional subject matter.
Ella Curtis sent 13 letters to her friends and sisters between January 7, 1852, and October 25, 1858. She wrote the bulk of them from Mount Vernon, Ohio, with introspective passages on her hopes and dreams for the present and future. Two letters to "Jim" in 1856 read like love letters.
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Curtis Plimpton wrote 16 letters to her sister Ella between June 13, 1852, and February 1860, including several undated. She sent many of her letters from London Terrace, a New York City apartment complex that provided low-cost housing for white-collar workers. Her information-filled letters reflect on her friends, family, children, life in the apartment, games, clothing and fashion, city life, sisterly sentiments, lost loves, trips to the opera, military parades, and other aspects of everyday life.
Ada Curtis / Ada Curtis Bridge sent her sister Ella eight letters, dating from November 3, 1857-July 22, 1861, New York City and East Wareham, Massachusetts. Her letters begin during the later stages of her pregnancy with Emma Bridge, having engaged a nurse who had worked as a wet nurse and seamstress. Her letters continue with discussions of physical health problems, acquiring dresses and sewing clothing for her daughter, and gossip about friends and family. By 1859, she settled in East Wareham and continued to discuss her fatigue, child rearing, reminiscences about girlhood, deep depression, loneliness, self-criticism, her husband Louis's "cross and ugly" behavior, reaffirmations that her husband loves her (albeit with "a very very selfish love"), and the support she received from God. In 1860, she began to confide in her sister about Louis's mentally abusive actions toward her, and, when unable to have an effect, toward their daughter Emma. She related the deep anguish she felt at witnessing the abuse of her child. Louis would be "affectionate and reasonable" in the morning, but in the evening would be "entirely a changed being." As time progressed, she finally revealed that Louis was a heavy drinker or an alcoholic, whose abusive behavior stemmed from drunkenness (see especially February 2, 1860, and July 22, 1861), and that she lived in humiliation and terror.
Thirty incoming letters to Ella Curtis, November 14, 1849-May 13, 1861, include five from her father Henry B. Curtis, three signed "J.C.D." (almost certainly Ella's future husband Joseph C. Devin), two from Jno. E. Hamilton, and many other writers. The letters from her father largely hailed from Mount Vernon, Ohio, 1852-1857, and described affairs at home, a train journey to Philadelphia, and a lengthy description of an art raffle at the Cosmopolitan Art Association at Norman Hall in Sandusky (February 29, 1856). His letter of June 23, 1857, was written on illustrated, printed Mount Vernon Female Seminary stationery. J.C.D.'s letters, dated in 1859, from Medina, Newark, and Mt. Gilead, Ohio, provide his thoughts on marriage and his legal work on several trials. On May 4, 1859, he offered a vivid description of an off-hours social scene of lawyers at a hotel in Mt. Gilead. Jno. E. Hamilton's two letters, dated 1856, profusely apologize for his "inappropriate" and "disgraceful" behavior to her while he was a student at Kenyon College. The collection also contains four miscellaneous Curtis family letters.