Grant Family Papers, 1778-1913
General International Standard for Archival Description
Sophia Smith Collection Smith CollegeNorthampton, MA
Finding aid exported into EAD from InMagic DB/Textworks 7.01. Encoded by Margaret Jessup and Jennifer Smar. 2006-04-07
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Grant Family Papers
Creation of Grant Family Papers
Time of Creation of Grant Family Papers
Grant family
Biographical History for: Grant Family Papers
Biographical Note The Grant family Papers represent three generations, including educators, missionaries, a banker, pioneer lawyer, social reformer, writer and lecturer. Zilpah Polly Grant Banister, 1794-1894, was born in Norfolk, Connecticut. She was a pioneering educator and founder of Adams Female Seminary in Derry, NH, 1824, and Ipswich Female Seminary with Mary Lyon, 1827. She married William Banister, 1841. Her brother, Elijah Grant, was a town officer, who married Elizabeth Phelps Grant, 1809-1875. They had 8 children. Elijah Phelps Grant was a lawyer, philosopher, social reformer, and banker in Carleton, OH, and John Grant a teacher at Yale and founder of his own private school. Other family members were bankers, homesteaders in CT, pioneers in Nebraska and Illinois. Mary Z. Grant Burgess was a missionary in India.
Scope and Contents of the Collection It is clear from their content and their provenance, however, that they are actually the papers of her brother Elijah Grant, his wife Elizabeth Phelps Grant, their children, and the descendents of the eldest son, Elijah Phelps Grant. The correspondence consists mainly of letters exchanged within the family from the l830s to the l860s. Most of Zilpah Grant's letters were written to her nephews Marcus and John after she had married and given up teaching. John Grant, who taught at Yale and later established his own private school, sought her counsel as a former school principal. Correspondence of other family members relates to such topics as the maintenance of the original Connecticut homestead, banking in Canton, Ohio, and the starting of businesses in Nebraska and Illinois. The early financial records, beginning in the l770's, are mostly from the settlement of the estate of Elijah Grant's uncle Samuel Cowles, of Colebrook, Connecticut, who died in l843. Account books belonging to Elijah Grant (l822-56) Elijah P. Grant (l866-67), James M. Grant (l868); Jennie Wallace (l890-97) and William Wallace (l90l-07) add to the fragmentary family financial record. Notebooks, lectures, essays, and newspaper articles by Elijah P. Grant span the period from his college days at Yale to old age. One of his college notebooks contains transcriptions of letters describing the death of Mary Zilpah Grant Burgess who died of cholera in India where she and her husband were missionaries. The balance of the collection consists of diaries, a few photographs, compositions, and legal papers relating to various family members. Portions of the Grant Family Papers have been digitized for the Five College Digitization Project Web site.
Educators--New England--Biography--Sources
lcsh
Family--United States--History--Sources
Missionaries--India--Biography--Sources
Frontier and pioneer life--United States--19th century--Sources
Women--Education--History--19th century--Sources
Lawyers--United States--Biography--Sources
Bannister, Zilpah P. Grant (Zilpah Polly Grant), 1794-1874
lcnaf
Grant, Elijah Phelps, 1809-1875
Burgess, Mary Zilpah Grant
Grant, John
Cowles family
Adams Female Academy (Derry, N.H.)
Yale University - Students--History--19th century--Sources
United States--Social life and customs--18th century--Sources
United States--Social life and customs--19th century--Sources
series
Contents
Biographical and genealogical
These documents are available online as part of the Five College Digitization Project Web site.
Bills, receipts, accounts, l8l2-l906
Contracts, deeds, quit claims, etc., l795-l888
Clippings, l870-l872
Lake Erie Female Seminary, Painesville, Ohio (Mary Grant material), l859-l860; n.d.
Photographs
CORRESPONDENCE
To Grant family from friends, l82l-l89l
Banister, Zilpah Polly (Grant) to family, l855-l874
Grant, Abigail (Cowles) (Mrs. Joel) to family, l847-l877
Grant, Caroline (Mrs. Daniel) to family, l854, l869, l89l
Grant, Elijah to Dr. Phelps, l840
Grant, Elijah Phelps to family, l830-l859
Grant, Elizabeth to Martha Grant, l843
Grant, Gertrude D. (Mrs. John) to family, l857-l860, l879
Grant, Jane (Jennie) to family, l857-l859
Grant, Joel to parents and brother, l839-l859
Grant, Joel to family, l860-l873
Grant, John to parents, l848-l867
Grant, John to Martha Grant, l842-l843
Grant, John to Marcus Grant, l843-l864
Grant, John to Marcus Grant, l865-l877
Grant, John to Zilpah P.G. (Grant) Banister, l846-l852
Grant, John to Zilpah P.G. (Grant) Banister, l853-l858
Grant, John to Gertrude Day Grant and friends, l850, l878
Grant, Martha to Marcus Grant, l843
Grant, Mary to Susan Boyd and Mrs. James Boyd, l835, l839
Grant, Susan (Boyd) to Elizabeth and Lewis Boyd, l837-l855
Grant, Susan (Boyd) to Elizabeth Boyd (sister), l856-l869
Grant, Susan (Boyd) to Elizabeth Grant, l840-l859
Grant, Susan (Boyd) to Jane M. Boyd (mother), l83l-l852
Grant, Susan (Boyd) to William Grant, l883
Hurford, Elizabeth (Grant) to family, l853-l863
Wallace, Mary (Grant) to family, l853-l864
Wallace, William, misc. correspondence to and from him (includes some other types of material), l857-l9l3
FINANCIAL MATERIALS
Samuel Cowles
Account book, 1840-42
Deeds, receipts, bills (many from the estate of Samuel Cowles), l788-l850, n.d.
Elijah Phelps Grant
Account books (2), 1822-42, 1866
Account book, 1833-37
Account book, 1833-56
James W. Grant: account books (2), 1868
Isaac Jacklyn: receipts, indenture papers, deeds (many from his estate), l856-74
MISCELLANEOUS
College notebooks (Yale)
Memorandum Quotidiana and notes on the Class of 1830, 1828
Chemistry with B. Silliman, Botany, and "An Account of the Death of Mrs. Mary Burgess…," 1828, 1842
Lectures
"What is the best mode of teaching reading?" 1838
"The Immortality of the Soul," 1849
"The Eternity of the Universe," 1866-67
"All Things Eternal," 1867
"Original Manuscripts," n.d.
Notes and writings, miscellaneous, 1872, n.d.
Daguerreotype, Canton, Ohio, n.d.
John Grant: Journals (2), l854-l855
Dorothy Wallace: reminiscence and diary, "Omaha in the '80s" after 1941
Jennie Wallace
Account book, 1890-97
Composition book, n.d.
William Wallace
Account books (2), l90l-l907
Journals (2), l857, l860