Guide to the Shepley Family Papers, 1802-1972
No Restrictions.
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Shepley Family Papers, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine.
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This collection centers on the inter-related Shepley, Perley, Barrows, and Sergeant families, particularly Reuel Barrows (1791-1857), a physician in Fryeburg, Maine; his wife Nancy Perley Barrows (1791-1832), whom he married in 1820; and their daughter, Mary Fessenden Barrows Shepley (1825-[1892]), who married James Cunningham Shepley (1827-1873), Bowdoin Class of 1846. James Cunningham Shepley was a lawyer in St. Cloud, Minnesota, who reportedly died under mysterious circumstances while in Fresno, California, in April, 1873, leaving his wife Mary with three children: Annie Shepley, who married Hyozo Omeri on October 1, 1907; Elizabeth Shepley, who married Charles Sergeant; and George Barstow Shepley, who married Louise McElroy. Annie, Elizabeth, and George are also major correspondents in this collection; as is their niece, Katharine Sergeant Angell White (1892-1977), wife of author E. B. White. Reuel Barrows was married twice. After the death of his first wife, Nancy, Barrows married Anna Dana in 1834, and they had three children.Other family members with Bowdoin College connections are Ether Shepley (1789-1877), Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court (1848-1855), who served as Bowdoin Overseer (1821-1829) and Trustee (1829-1866); and two of his sons, John Rutledge Shepley (1817-1884), Class of 1837, who was a lawyer in St. Louis, Missouri; and Leonard Downes Shepley (1826-1878), Class of 1846, a merchant in Portland.The Perleys are related to General Israel Putnam; the family of President John Adams; and the Hathorne [Hawthorne], Porter, and Putnam families of Salem.
Correspondence, manuscripts, journals, photographs, documents and printed ephemera. The collection contains correspondence between members of the Shepley, Perley, Barrows, and Sergeant families, particularly Reuel Barrows, his wife Nancy Perley Barrows, and their daughter Mary Fessenden Barrows Shepley. Also includes manuscript and typescript notes written by Elizabeth and Charles Sergeant on a variety of topics; Nancy Perley's journal of a trip from Fryeburg, Maine (1818) to New Hampshire; Annie Shepley's diary of an 1889 visit to Moosehead Lake; as well as family photographs, financial documents and genealogical materials.
No restrictions.
Principal correspondents in this series include Reuel Barrows, Nancy Perley Barrows, Mary Fessenden Barrows, James Cunningham Barrows, Annie Shepley Omori, Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant, George Barstow Shepley, and Katherine Sergeant Shepley Angell White. Also included are typescript excerpts of several series of letters from: Annie Shepley Omori, Phebe Fessenden, James C. Shepley, and the Barrows and Perley families.
Arranged chronologically.
Correspondence: 1802-1813
Correspondence: 1814-1816
Correspondence: 1817-1818
Correspondence: 1819
Correspondence: 1820-1821
Correspondence: 1821-1835
Correspondence: 1836-1840
Correspondence: 1841-1844
Correspondence: 1845-1846
Correspondence: 1847-1848
Correspondence: 1849-1850
Correspondence: 1850-1852
Correspondence: 1853
Correspondence: 1854-1856
Correspondence: 1857-1860
Correspondence: 1861-1862
Correspondence: 1863-1865
Correspondence: 1866-1867
Correspondence: 1868
Correspondence: 1869-1872
Correspondence: 1873 Jan-May
Correspondence: 1873 Jun-Dec
Correspondence: 1874 Jan-May
Correspondence: 1874 Jun-Sep
Correspondence: 1874 Oct-Dec
Correspondence: 1875 Jan-Feb
Correspondence: 1875 Mar-Dec
Correspondence: 1876
Correspondence: 1877 Jan-Mar
Correspondence: 1877 Apr-Aug
Correspondence: 1877 Sep-Dec
Correspondence: 1878-1879
Correspondence: 1880 Jan-Aug
Correspondence: 1880 Sep-Dec
Correspondence: 1881 Jan-Apr
Correspondence: 1881 May-Jul
Correspondence: 1881 Aug-Oct
Correspondence: 1881 Nov-Dec
Correspondence: 1882 Jan-Sep
Correspondence: 1882 Oct-Dec
Correspondence: 1883 Jan-Apr
Correspondence: 1883 May-Sep
Correspondence: 1883 Oct-Dec
Correspondence: 1884 Jan-Feb
Correspondence: 1884 Mar-Dec
Correspondence: 1885 Jan-Sep
Correspondence: 1885 Oct-Dec
Correspondence: 1886 Jan-Jul
Correspondence: 1886 Aug-Dec
Correspondence: 1887
Correspondence: 1888 Jan-Oct
Correspondence: 1888 Nov-Dec
Correspondence: 1889Jan-Feb
Correspondence: 1889 Mar-Apr
Correspondence: 1889 May-Jun
Correspondence: 1889 Jul-Sep
Correspondence: 1889 Oct-Dec
Correspondence: 1889, undated
Correspondence: 1890 Jan-Sep
Correspondence: 1890 Oct-Dec
Correspondence: 1891 Jan-Apr
Correspondence: 1891 May-Dec
Correspondence: 1892
Correspondence: 1893
Correspondence: 1894 Jan-Jun
Correspondence: 1894 Jul-Aug
Correspondence: 1894 Sep-Dec
Correspondence: 1895
Correspondence: 1896-1897
Correspondence: 1900-1902
Correspondence: 1905-1919
Correspondence: 1920-1929
Correspondence: 1934-1938
Correspondence: 1939-1940
Correspondence: 1941-1957
Correspondence: 1965
Correspondence: 1966-1972
Correspondence: undated [ca. 1843-1852]
Correspondence: undated [ca. 1874-1896]
Correspondence: undated
Correspondence: undated
Correspondence: undated
Correspondence: undated
Correspondence: Miscellaneous Fragments
Correspondence: Ts. Excerpts, Barrows Family
Correspondence: Ts. excerpts: Mrs. Phebe Fessenden
Correspondence: Ts. excerpts, Nancy Perley
Correspondence: Ts. excerpts, Annie Shepley Omari, pp. 1-26
Correspondence: Ts. excerpts, Annie Shepley Omari, pp. 27-50
Correspondence: Ts. excerpts, Annie Shepley Omari, pp. 51-75
Correspondence: Ts. excerpts, Annie Shepley Omari, pp. 76-100
Correspondence: Ts. excerpts, Annie Shepley Omari, pp. 101-125
Correspondence: Ts. excerpts, Annie Shepley Omari, pp. 126-146
Correspondence: Ms. and Ts. excerpts, James C. Shepley
Correspondence: Ts. excerpts, Souther Family
No restrictions.
Arranged alphabetically by author.
This series contains manuscript notes for the unpublished "Short As Any Dream" by Elizabeth S. Sergeant as well as other manuscripts and typescripts written by Elizabeth and her husband Charles Sergeant; New England travel journals belonging to Nancy Perley (1818) and Annie Shepley Omori (Moosehead Lake, 1889); and several children's compositions.
Perley, Nancy, 1818 Aug 10-22, Journal of trip from Freyburg, Me. to N.H.
[Shepley, Annie B. ?] 1889
Sergent, Charles S., 1884, "A Day on The River With Old Pete Martin," ms. and ts. drafts
Sergeant, Elizabeth S., Autobiographical memoir (1st draft of 1st chapter)
Sergeant, Elizabeth S., Ms. and ts. for "Short as Any Dream," notes on: Dr. Alexander Ramsey
Sergeant, Elizabeth S., Ms. and ts. for "Short as Any Dream," notes on: the 1850's
Sergeant, Elizabeth S., Ms. and ts. for "Short as Any Dream," notes on: Freyburg
Sergeant, Elizabeth S., Ms. and ts. for "Short as Any Dream," notes on: Freyburg Church
Sergeant, Elizabeth S., Ms. and ts. for "Short as Any Dream," notes on: Minnesota
Sergeant, Elizabeth S., Ms. and ts. for "Short as Any Dream," notes on: San Francisco
Sergeant, Elizabeth S., Ms. and ts. for "Short as Any Dream," notes on: Shepleys, Perleys, and Fessendens
Children's compositions
No restrictions.
Arranged alphabetically.
This series contains deeds, tax bills, appointments, leases, wills, promissory notes, family accounts, inventories of household goods, postcards, newspaper clippings and other printed material.
Deeds and tax bills, 1828-1866
Family account books
Family accounts, 1829-1866
Inventories of household goods
Leases
"Minnesota Advertiser," 1857 Mar 26
Miscellaneous documents
Miscellaneous ephemera
Newspaper clippings
Postcards
Promissory notes and bills, 1825-1867
Shepley, John: appointments as Justice of the Peace and Court reporter
Wills, etc. (ms. and ts. copies)
No restrictions.
Arranged alphabetically.
This series contains a photocopy of a Shepley family genealogy written by Annie Shepley Omori in 1939; a copy of "The Story of Our Forebears" (1903) by Elizabeth Shepley Reed; and notes pertaining to the Barrows, Perley, Sergeant, and Shepley families.
Aunt Poo [Omori, Annie Shepley], 1939, "A Tribute to Out Common Past," Autobiography (photocopy)
Chart for identifying correspondents
Barrows family
Perley Family Records
Perley Family history
Reed, Rebecca Perley, "The Story of Our Forbears," 1903
Sergeant Family
Sergeant Family
Sergeant Family (copies of materials in other collections)
Shepley Family
No restrictions.
Arranged alphabetically by size.
This series contains photographs, including daguerreotypes, tintypes and cyanotypes, of family members and houses.
Photographs: Medium and large photographs
Photographs: Extra-large photographs
Photographs: James C. Shepley in Uniform
Photographs: Mary F. Barrows (Garty)
Photographs: Daguerreotype in frame, Mary F. Barrows (Garty) standing and ?
Photographs: "Great Grandmother Shepley" daug.
Photographs: Piece of daguerreotype case for Mary F. Barrows (Garty) standing and ?
Photographs: Piece of daguerreotype case for Mary F. Barrows (Garty) standing and ?
Photographs: Piece of daguerreotype case for Mary F. Barrows (Garty) standing and ?
Photographs: Tintype in frame, Mr. and Mrs. James C. Shepley
Photographs: Tintype
Photographs: Cyanotype "3 Mrs. Judith Andrews nee [mother?] 2 " Mary Shepley " Barrows 1 " Sarah Bradley " Johnston "
Photographs: Tintype "Bennie Oakford - after 1876"
Photographs: Albumen Carte de Visite
Photographs: Senator Pitt Fessenden
Photographs: Woman [Annie Shepley Omori?] (with envelope)
Photographs: Painting of Enoch Perley (1825)
Photographs: Paintings of John Perley and Sarah Treadwell Perley (1825) (2)
Photographs: Perley ? house (5)
Photographs: Two houses in field
Photographs: "Where my father [Enoch Perley?] is buried" with envelope
Photographs: Samuel Perley House, undated
Photographs: "Fessenden House" [Front Door]
Photographs: "Fessenden House"
Photographs: "Nancy's[?] Place"
Photographs: "House in Naples [Maine] where my mother lived as a little girl"
[a house]