Family Correspondence, 1860-1889

The bulk of this series consists of correspondence between Eliza ("Lida") Hunter and her cousins and friends, dating from 1860 to 1870. The remaining are letters to her father, Pleasant Hunter, and mother, Margaret Hunter, from their children and friends; a letter to Mollie F. Guyton (a Hunter family cousin) from M. C. Crosby; to a "cousin"; to "sister" from her brother Thom; and to "J. E. H." from Estelle Moore. The topics covered include their daily activities, weather, places visited, illnesses, weddings, births, and deaths. Many of Lida's friends were schoolmates at Linden Hall and often reminisced about their school days and the lives of other students and faculty. Lida's cousins wrote from Carrolls Manor; York, Pennsylvania; Memphis, Tennessee; and Baltimore, Maryland. Her friends wrote from Boston, Massachusetts; Harmony Retreat, New Jersey; and Brookville, Philadelphia, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Thomas attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania; his college experiences are the subject of two letters. An 1866 letter from Thomas to his father mentioned his interest in studying law. He also wrote of meeting Mr. Clymer, the Democratic candidate for governor, who he believed would not be elected. An 1867 letter to "Dear Sister" detailed how he spent his twenty-first birthday escorting four ladies to the libraries and around town before studying.

In 1857, "Eliza" wrote to Mrs. Hunter and wondered if she was still at Litiz [sic] or at home. Lida Conn wrote to Mrs. Hunter in 1860 and told of a dream in which she put flowers on Clara's grave. In 1863, Jane West asked Mrs. Hunter for a favor: to board a Miss Pollock and her two sisters for a few days and to not tell anyone of this request. In an 1889 letter to his mother from Newtonville, Massachusetts, Pleasant Hunter, Jr., worried about having to move to a new church nearby. He expressed a desire to move west "where many young men are headed."

Estelle Moore's letter to J. E. H. is a reply to a "Free Press" newspaper column written by a "candidate for married happiness." She described herself as taking advantage of leap year to respond to his request and hoped that she would meet with his approval.

Arrangement is alphabetical by recipient name and then chronological.