Cleaveland-Chandler Family papers (M035)

Parker Cleaveland, a scientist and long-time member of Bowdoin's faculty, was born on January 15, 1780, in Rowley, Massachusetts. He was professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and natural philosophy (1805-1858), librarian and on the faculty of the Medical School of Maine, and author of An Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology(1816), the first major American mineralogical textbook. Cleaveland died in Brunswick, Maine, on October 15, 1858.

Cleaveland's son, James Bowdoin Cleaveland (1809-1854, Bowdoin 1828) was a lawyer in Gray (1833-1836) and Passadumkeag, Maine (1836-1854), as well as a member of the Maine Legislature (1851-1852). Another son, John Appleton Cleaveland (1819-1873; Bowdoin 1840), was a businessman in Brunswick and Boston, and a clerk at the U. S. Treasury in Boston (1862-1873). Cleaveland's daughter, Martha Ann Bush Cleaveland, married Peleg Whitman Chandler (1816-1889, Bowdoin 1834), a Boston lawyer (1837-1889), member of the Massachusetts Legislature (1845-1847) and the Massachusetts Council (1853), and a Bowdoin trustee (1871-1889).

The collection contains family correspondence (1803-1937), documents (1813-1878), memoirs and diaries, photographs, and receipts (1849-1884), together with a storekeeper's ledger (1844-1847) and financial records kept by members of the family. Principal correspondents include Parker Cleaveland; James Bowdoin Cleaveland; Martha Ann Bush Cleaveland Chandler (1812-1881); Peleg Whitman Chandler; and Horace Parker Chandler (b. 1842), who was a notary public, magistrate, and real estate businessman in Boston, Massachusetts.

For related materials, please see the Parker Cleaveland Collection (M34).