Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This volume (7.5"x6") contains John Greenwood's memoirs about his experiences during the Revolutionary War (approximately 163 pages) and about his family and personal life (17 pages). During the war, Greenwood was a fife player with a Massachusetts regiment and served on privateers and other vessels in the Caribbean Sea. He originally composed his Revolutionary War memoirs in 1809; this item is a later copy made by his son Clark.

This volume (7.5"x6") contains John Greenwood's memoirs about his experiences during the Revolutionary War (approximately 163 pages) and about his family and personal life (17 pages). During the war, Greenwood was a fife player with a Massachusetts regiment and served on privateers and other vessels in the Caribbean Sea. Greenwood originally composed his Revolutionary War memoirs in 1809; this item is a later copy made by his son Clark.

After a brief note by Clark Greenwood, who transcribed his father's memoirs, the main narrative opens with John Greenwood's brief account of his early years in Boston and in Portland, Maine, and of the unrest that eventually led to the American Revolution (5 pages). Pages 5-51 consist of Greenwood's detailed recollections about playing the fife in a Massachusetts regiment in the Continental Army, and about his experiences in the military. After page 51, the memoirs focus on the interception of British ships in the Caribbean Sea, during which time Greenwood was captured as a British prisoner of war. In addition to his wartime experiences, he also briefly recounted some stories of his postwar life, such as the beginning of his dental practice (pp. 85-89). The remaining parts of the volume include a note by a Greenwood family member who had recently read the memoirs (January 11, 1894), and an additional 17-page autobiographical account by John Greenwood.

The Sophronia Osborn family papers consist of letters that Osborn wrote to her husband Elijah, a traveling dentist in Georgia and Alabama, and additional correspondence from the couple's friends and family members in Connecticut and New York.

The Sophronia Osborn family letters (30 items) pertain to Sophronia Woodward Osborn and her husband, Dr. Elijah Osborn, who lived in Georgia and Alabama in the 1830s and 1840s.

Sophronia Woodward Osborn wrote 14 letters to her husband, a traveling dentist, from September 22, 1832-October 24, 1841, while he worked in multiple Georgia towns and, less frequently, in Louisiana and Alabama. Her first 3 letters concern her visit to family members in Providence, Rhode Island, in the fall of 1832; she shared family news and discussed her plan to return to Georgia. In her remaining letters, she described everyday life and parenthood in Savannah and Augusta, Georgia, where she raised Charles and Isaac Osborn. Charles, she reported, occasionally had disciplinary problems and later attempted to learn the catechism. Sophronia lamented the recent death of a young child in her letter of July 7, 1837. Elijah Osborn's 2 letters to his wife largely relate to his work in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and an unknown location; one includes a note for their daughter Gertrude. (December 19, 1844, and undated).

The remaining items include 13 personal letters to Sophronia and Elijah Osborn from numerous family members and friends, who reported on their lives in New York City and in various Connecticut towns. Sophronia's sister Lucia commented on her travels and her niece, Adeline R. Tingley, wrote about types of cloth. Other correspondents discussed their social lives and shared news of family members and acquaintances. The final item is a 2-page printed essay entitled "The Unity of the Spirit Evinced by Unity of Effort in the Cause of Christ" with a manuscript letter concerning religious topics.