John Stillman Brown Family Papers, 1818-1907

Microfilm MS 565-568

• Introduction
• Biography
• Scope and Content
• Contents List
• Related Records or Collections
• Additional Information for Researchers

Introduction

This microfilm publication, consisting of four rolls, contains the correspondence and papers of John Stillman Brown, Unitarian minister and educator; his wife, Mary Ripley Brown; of Hannah B. Russell, Mrs. Brown’s sister; and of their children.

Biography

John Stillman Brown was born on April 26, 1806, at New Ipswich, N. H., and died in Lawrence, Kan., July 15, 1902. He attended local common schools until he was 18 and then moved to Boston to work and save for his higher education. He entered Phillips Exeter Academy in 1827 and after two years transferred to the sophomore class at Dartmouth College. However, he was forced to withdraw at the end of the year in order to accumulate funds. He next enrolled at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., where he was graduated with honors in 1834.

The next several years Brown spent in teaching, first at Brattleboro, Vt., then Buffalo, N. Y., and finally, beginning in 1842, at Brook Farm, Roxbury, Mass. Here he spent a year and a half as instructor in “practical and theosophical agriculture.” In 1836 he had married Mary Ripley whose cousin, George Ripley, was one of the founders of the Brook Farm community.

Brown was ordained a Unitarian minister in 1844 and served as pastor of the Fitzwilliam, N. H., Unitarian church for the next 11 years. In 1854 he moved to Ashley, Mass., as pastor of its First Congregational church. Three years later, in March, 1857, he migrated to Kansas, settling on a farm a few miles west of Lawrence. In 1860 he became pastor to the Lawrence Unitarian church and in 1863 gave up his farm to live in the city. He was secretary of the Kansas State Agricultural Society (now the State Board of Agriculture) in 1865 and 1866. He established the Kansas Farmer, an agriculturally oriented newspaper, in 1865 but after three years disposed of it to devote his time to local community service while in semiretirement. He held such offices as Lawrence city clerk and superintendent of public schools in Lawrence and Douglas county.

Little is known of the lives of Mary and Hannah Ripley. In the mid-1820’s they were attending school, Hannah in Fitchburg, Mass., and Mary at B. F. Farnsworth’s Female Classical Seminary in Worcester, Mass. Hannah had been born December 14, 1804, and Mary on November 27, 1806. After Mary’s marriage to Brown the sisters apparently remained together, for Hannah was at Brook Farm with the Browns and she lived in Lawrence, Kan., after the family moved there. She married John L. Russell on October 4, 1853. Several years later she had returned to New England. The date and place of her death are not known. Mary died at Lawrence on August 8, 1878.

Scope and Content

The papers of the John Stillman Brown family, consisting of five document boxes of correspondence and miscellaneous papers, were given to the Kansas State Historical Society by a granddaughter of Brown, Lola Brown, on February 21, 1958.

The collection is arranged chronologically with partially undated letters placed at the end of the appropriate month or year. Totally undated material falls at the end of the collection but preceding unidentifiable fragmentary pieces. Dates supplied by the editors have been penciled in brackets in the upper right-hand corner of the first page of the applicable material. Question marks denote some dissatisfaction with the reliability of supplied dates. Typed copies of illegible letters follow the original. These typed copies were not prepared by the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society but are included as an aid to researchers.

Microfilm targets have been kept to a minimum and are used only when necessary to indicate retakes, corrections, enclosures, etc. Targets containing editorial information have not been included.

The early part of the Brown family collection is mainly concerned with family matters: letters between Mary and Hannah Ripley and their brother William, letters from John S. Brown to his family and friends during his school days, letters Brown wrote to Mary during their courtship, and correspondence concerning the private female seminary which the couple operated at Buffalo, N. Y. Much is said in these letters about various schools and the educational systems in use at the time.

Beginning in 1841 the character of the collection changes to include considerable correspondence from nonfamily members, particularly Charles A. Dana whose letters to Hannah reveal the deep and lasting friendship they shared. In this exchange there is much information about the Brook Farm community with which Dana was also associated. After 1850 the Dana and Brook Farm letters cease.

Once the family moved west conditions in territorial Kansas and Lawrence become the subject of their letters and with the advent of the Civil War the collection contains information about those on active duty in the service and the state of things at home. Of prime interest are the descriptive letters written by Leigh R. Webber to members of the Brown family between 1861 and 1864. Webber was a private in Co. D, First regiment, Kansas volunteer infantry, from June 3, 1861, until the unit was mustered out of service n June 16, 1864. He accompanied the regiment through all its campaigns beginning with the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Mo., August 10, 1861. Here Webber was wounded but was soon returned to duty. In 1862 he wrote from Lexington and Kansas City, Mo., Fort Scott and Fort Riley, Kan., Pittsburgh Landing; Columbus, Ky.; and Trenton, Tenn. In 1863 letters were sent from Providence La., where his unit was engaged in digging the canal from the Mississippi river to Lake Providence; Vicksburg and Natchez, Miss.; and Vidalia, La. The final year of his service, 1864, saw him at Bovina Station and Mill Dale, Miss.

Webber’s letters are detailed in their depiction of camp life and reflect his displeasure at his comrades who impressed him as being drunken jayhawkers with little interest in the purpose of the war.

A shorter series of Civil War letters, but equally as descriptive of military life as Webber’s was written by Daniel L. Chandler, a private in Co. H, Tenth regiment, Kansas volunteer infantry. Chandler served in that unit from August 17, 1861 to October 31, 1862, and then transferred to the Third Indian home guard as hospital steward. Letters were written from Paola and Mound City, Kan., in 1862, and from Neosho, Mo., and the Cherokee Nation in 1863. His letters are particularly interesting for their comments about the ability and service of Indians as Civil War soldiers.

As the Brown children, Sarah, William, Charles, and Mary, achieved maturity their letters dominate the collection. Correspondence from Mrs. Brown and Sarah, who remained in Lawrence as a school teacher, records life in a pioneer community in a frontier state. Social activities, religious life, and some politics are all described in detail from first-hand experience. Sarah’s activities in the woman’s suffrage movement are also illustrated.

Editor: Joseph W. Snell

The publication of this pamphlet guide and of the microfilm publication it describes was made possible by a grant from the National Historical Publications Commission, Washington, D. C.

Contents List

Related Records or Collections

Index to Correspondence

The following is a partial index to correspondence in the collection:

Additional Information for Researchers

Use of the Collection

These papers of the John Stillman Brown family are the property of the Kansas State Historical Society. Brief quotations are authorized without restriction but publication of any major portion of the material on this film must be approved in writing by an officer of the Society. Literary rights are not owned by the Society and cannot be conveyed.

It is suggested that the following citation be made to this microfilm publication: “John Stillman Brown Family Papers” (microfilm edition), manuscript division, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka.

Availability of the Microfilm Publication

The microfilm edition of the John Stillman Brown Family Papers may be used at the offices of the Kansas State Historical Society, borrowed through interlibrary loan or purchased. A copy of this pamphlet is included in the purchase price of the film. Borrowers also receive the pamphlet which must be returned with the film. Additional copies may be obtained for $1.00 each.

Please address all inquiries and orders regarding this or any other Society film publication to Microfilm Publications, Kansas State Historical Society, 6425 SW 6 th Ave, Topeka, KS 66615.

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