Letters from Samuel Gardner, 1858-1860

The Samuel Gardner and Lucy Hartwell Pond correspondence, 1852-1860 and undated, consists primarily of correspondence between Samuel Gardner and his cousins, Lucy Hartwell Pond and Alzina Hartwell Fletcher, as well as correspondence from their extended family and friends. In their correspondence, the cousins discuss their new lives away from home and the adjustments they have made since moving away. Samuel had a particularly difficult time adapting to his new life as he had very little money and had departed from his family in Bedford on poor terms. After struggling in his studies for some time, Samuel became a schoolteacher and many of his letters to Lucy and Alzina describe his ventures into teaching. Lucy’s correspondence to Samuel, Alzina, and her parents details her easy adjustment to married life with her husband, Hannibal, in their new home in Vermont. The last of Lucy’s correspondence from late 1959 alludes to a pregnancy which is not explicitly discussed in any other letter. Samuel and Lucy wrote to each other often and their letters illustrate their profound, sibling-like affection for one another. After Lucy’s death in the autumn of 1960, Samuel took comfort in writing to Alzina about his grief over Lucy’s “murder”. The remainder of Samuel’s correspondence is addressed to Alzina and discusses her marriage, Samuel’s professional life as a teacher and superintendent in and around Kewanee, their extended family, and Samuel’s inheritance from their grandfather’s estate. The collection also includes a content summary of the correspondence.