Brevoort family papers, 1856-1898
0.5 linear feet
The Brevoort family papers contain personal and professional correspondence of brothers William H. and Edwin L. Brevoort, of Walesboro and Vincennes, Indiana. The first letters in the collection are primarily addressed to William H. Brevoort during his time at North Western Christian University (now Butler University), particularly during the first years of the Civil War. Though Henry Brevoort, a relative, occasionally addressed state politics, much of the correspondence relates to family news and to education, including a series from his brother Edwin about his own studies at the university. Both brothers frequently received updates from their mother, who wrote about the family farm, and from each other, discussing their lives and post-educational prospects. William ultimately wished to become a farmer, but briefly considered enlisting: he told his brother, "Whether I farm or not my enlistment will destroy all my prospects of a happy life, hence my hesitation. But if Father does not intend to give me an opportunity to farm, I cannot follow anything else (because unfit) and I shall volunteer and die" (October 6, 1861). Both continued to receive correspondence from their parents, cousins, and from each other throughout their adult lives, and many later letters relate to William's business affairs and landholdings in and around Vincennes, Indiana, in the 1870s and 1880s; he frequently wrote of selling cattle and of other agricultural pursuits. Other late items are addressed to William's second wife, Amelia Shattuck, about the couple's farm; several of these are written by E. W. Pegg in Clintonville, Ohio. The collection contains one undated photographic postcard with a portrait of an unidentified older woman.