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pillsbury family papers, 1841-1904, bulk 1850-1880
Overview of the Collection
Biographical Sketch
Parker Pillsbury was born September 22, 1809, in Hamilton, Massachusetts, to Oliver Pillsbury, a blacksmith and farmer, and Anna (Smith) Pillsbury. He was the oldest of eleven children. In 1814, the Pillsbury family moved to Henniker, New Hampshire where Parker worked on New Hampshire farms and as a wagoner in Massachusetts.
In 1835, Parker Pillsbury enrolled in Gilmanton Theological Seminary, graduating in 1838. After an additional year of study at Andover Theological Seminary, he began working at the Congregational church in Loudon, NH. His work in the ministry suffered after he made a number of sharp attacks on the churches' complicity with slavery and his Congregational license to preach was revoked in 1840. However, Pillsbury continued to preach in the ecumenical Free Religious Association and became active in the abolitionist movement and other social reform issues. On January 1, 1840, he married Sarah H. Sargent. They settled in Concord, NH and had one child, Helen, who was born in 1843.
From 1840 until emancipation in 1863, Pillsbury was labor agent for the New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and American anti-slavery societies. He also participated in anti-slavery demonstrations and edited the Herald of Freedom from 1845 until 1846 and the National Anti-Slavery Standard in 1866. After the Civil War, Pillsbury's interest turned to political reform, African American rights and women's rights. He served as the vice-president of the New Hampshire Woman Suffrage Association and helped to draft the constitution of the American Equal Rights Association. From 1868-1869, Pillsbury was joint editor of The Revolution with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In addition to his work in social reform, Pillsbury continued to give sermons at many different religious organizations all over the country.
In 1848, P. Brainard Cogswell began boarding with the Pillsbury family. Cogswell, then an aspiring newspaper man, took on the household responsibilities while Parker was absent for months at a time and Cogswell was quickly considered a member of the Pillsbury family. In 1888, it became official when Helen Pillsbury and P.B. Cogswell were married.
Cogswell became a local politician and successful publisher, starting Concord's first daily newspaper, the Concord Daily Monitor in 1865. In addition, Cogswell developed a strong leadership position in Concord, where he was a longtime member of the Board of Education, state printer, and state legislator. In 1892, he was elected mayor of Concord. Like Pillsbury, Cogswell was an avid social advocate and he assisted Pillsbury by printing some of his pamphlets in the 1890s.
The 1890s marked a difficult time for the Pillsbury family. In 1895, P.B. Cogswell, age sixty-seven, passed away. Pillsbury, working right up to his death, died in 1898, at age eighty-eight. Less than four months later, Sarah died at the age of eighty. Helen died sometime during the 1920s.
Scope and Content
The collection documents the personal and professional activities of abolitionist Parker Pillsbury and his family. The materials date from 1841 through 1904 with the bulk of the materials ranging from 1850 through 1880. The collection contains correspondence, photographic material, pamphlets, and articles. Of particular interest are the personal and professional correspondence with abolitionists and women rights advocates, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and Susan B. Anthony.
Arrangement of the Collection
The collection is arranged into four series: Series I: Correspondence to Parker Pillsbury; Series II: Correspondence to P.B. Cogswell; Series III: Other Correspondence; and Series IV: Personal Materials.
Restrictions
Restrictions on Access
Collection is open for research.
Copyright Restrictions
Copyright has not been transferred to Colby-Sawyer College. For further information, see the archives copyright policy.
Related Material
Photographs found with the letters were separated and placed in a separate group. Pamphlets and programs that were found in the letters, but could not be placed with a specific letter were also placed in a separate category.
Index
Administrative Information
Provenance
The materials in this collection were created and collected by the Pillsbury family and were donated to Colby-Sawyer College prior to the summer of 1996. They were processed and incorporated into the Cleveland Colby Colgate Archives in 2001.
Preferred Citation
Identification of Item, Box Number, Folder Number, Pillsbury Family papers, MS.2001.056, Cleveland Colby Colgate Archives, Colby-Sawyer College.
Source of Acquisition
Unknown
Sources
- Robinson, S.M. (2000). Parker Pillsbury-Radical abolitionist, male feminist. New York: Cornell UP.
- Malone, D. (1934). Pillsbury, Parker. In Dictionary of American biography (Volume XIV, pp. 608-609). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Series I: Correspondence to Parker Pillsbury, 1843-1898 |
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| This series consists of incoming correspondence, largely of a personal nature. The correspondence is largely between Parker Pillsbury and important political figures of the time, including Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Susan B. Anthony. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by the sender's last name. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Anthony, Susan B., 1898 March 21 | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | Beecher, Charles B., 1878 November 7 | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | Bull, Sara, 1892 July 13 | |||||||||
| 1 | 4 | Chapman, Maria Weston, 1882 August 3 | |||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Clarke, James Freeman, 1876 December 3 | |||||||||
| 1 | 6 | Douglass, Frederick, 1883 November 14 | |||||||||
| 1 | 7 | Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1856 November 1 | |||||||||
| 1 | 8 | Fremont, J.C., 1884 April 29 | |||||||||
| 1 | 9 | Garrison, William Lloyd, 1859, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 10 | Garrison, William Lloyd, Jr., 1879 May 25 | |||||||||
| 1 | 11 | Hamlin, Hannibal, 1880 November 16 | |||||||||
| 1 | 12 | Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1855 | |||||||||
| 1 | 13 | Hubbard, E., 1897 January 15 | |||||||||
| 1 | 14 | Hutchinson, Abby J., 1843 November 23 | |||||||||
| 2 | 1 | Hutchinson, Abby J., 1843 November 23 | |||||||||
| 1 | 15 | Ingersoll, Robert G., 1878-1880 | |||||||||
| 1 | 16 | May, Samuel, Jr., 1854 March 21 | |||||||||
| 1 | 17 | Mullifer, W.B., 1852-1884 | |||||||||
| 1 | 18 | Parker, Theodore, 1858 April 14 | |||||||||
| 2 | 2 | Pillsbury, Phinehas, 1851 June-July | |||||||||
| 1 | 19 | Potter, William, 1872 May 16 | |||||||||
| 1 | 20 | Rice, Charles, Dr., 1893 September | |||||||||
| 1 | 21 | Rich, A.J., 1898 June 16 | |||||||||
| 1 | 22 | Rogers, N.P., 1844 | |||||||||
| 2 | 3 | Rogers, N.P., 1844 January 6 | |||||||||
| 1 | 23 | Smith, Gerrit, 1863 March 18 | |||||||||
| 2 | 4 | Steinthal, S. Alfred, 1888 August 30 | |||||||||
| 1 | 24 | Stone, Lucy before 1893 | |||||||||
| 1 | 25 | Sumner, Charles, 1856 | |||||||||
| 1 | 26 | Tilton, Theodore, 1882-1895 | |||||||||
| 1 | 27 | Whittier, John G., 1874 | |||||||||
| 1 | 28 | Wright, Henry C., 1853 | |||||||||
Series II: Correspondence to P.B. Cogswell, 1853-1892 |
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| "Correspondence to P.B. Cogswell" contains incoming correspondence. The majority of the letters are of a personal nature and are from notable figures of the time, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Horace Greeley. The materials are arranged alphabetically by the sender's last name. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 29 | Alden, John E., 1888 June 18 | |||||||||
| 1 | 30 | Bigelow, S., 1853 October 17 | |||||||||
| 1 | 31 | Brulingunn, S., 1800s | |||||||||
| 1 | 32 | Chaude, P., 1888 | |||||||||
| 1 | 33 | Coffin, R.C., undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 34 | Curtis, George William, 1855 October 11 | |||||||||
| 1 | 35 | Douglass, Frederick, 1854 February 18 | |||||||||
| 1 | 36 | Eastman, Samuel C., 1857 November 4 | |||||||||
| 1 | 37 | Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1853 | |||||||||
| 2 | 5 | Flagg, E., 1856 May 15 | |||||||||
| 1 | 38 | Fullur, N.W., 1855 | |||||||||
| 1 | 39 | Giles, Henry, 1855-1856 | |||||||||
| 1 | 40 | Gough, John B., 1857 June 6 | |||||||||
| 1 | 41 | Greeley, Horace, 1853 | |||||||||
| 1 | 42 | Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1859 | |||||||||
| 1 | 43 | Hill, T., 1853 | |||||||||
| 1 | 44 | Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1853 December 13 | |||||||||
| 1 | 45 | King, T.S., 1855 August 11 | |||||||||
| 1 | 46 | Mead, Larkin Goldsmith, 1891-1892 | |||||||||
| 1 | 47 | Packard, George T., 1886 August 16 | |||||||||
| 1 | 48 | Pierpont, John, 1855 September-October | |||||||||
| 1 | 49 | Parker, Theodore, 1853-1856 | |||||||||
| 1 | 50 | Quincy, Josiah, Jr., 1853-1854 | |||||||||
| 1 | 51 | Saxs, John G., 1853 November 13 | |||||||||
| 1 | 52 | Shillabun, B.P., undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 53 | Slack, Charles W., 1855-1859 | |||||||||
| 1 | 54 | Sumner, George, 1855 December 22 | |||||||||
| 1 | 55 | Taylor, Bayard, 1855 | |||||||||
| 1 | 56 | Turner, Charles, 1855 August 22 | |||||||||
| 1 | 57 | Wilcox, J.A.J., 1882-1883 | |||||||||
| 1 | 58 | Winthrop, Robert C., 1855 August 2 | |||||||||
| 1 | 59 | Woodbury, A., 1855 December 22 | |||||||||
| 1 | 60 | Unidentified envelope, 1888 | |||||||||
Series III: Other Correspondence, 1841-1904, undated |
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| This series consists of incoming correspondence to Helen and Sarah Pillsbury. Letters of note include those from Susan B. Anthony as well as correspondence between Helen and her husband, P.B. Cogswell. In addition, there are also letters not directly related to the Pillsbury family. Of particular interest is a letter written from Daniel Webster to Julia Powel, wife of Colonel John Hare Powel. The materials are arranged alphabetically by the sender's last name. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 2 | 6 | Anthony, Susan B. to Helen Pillsbury Cogswell, 1894 December | |||||||||
| 1 | 61 | Anthony, Susan B. to Sarah Pillsbury, 1881 November 8 | |||||||||
| 1 | 62 | Blain, James G. signature, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 63 | Cheever, George B. to unidentified recipient, 1862 March 21 | |||||||||
| 2 | 7 | Cogswell, P.B. to Helen Pillsbury Cogswell, 1876 May | |||||||||
| 1 | 64 | Moody, Dwight L. signature, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 65 | Owen, Robert Dale to unidentified recipient, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 66 | Pillsbury, Phinehas to unidentified recipient, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 67 | Rich, A.J. to Helen Pillsbury Cogswell, 1904 December 15 | |||||||||
| 1 | 68 | Thayer, Eugene to unidentified recipient, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 69 | Webster, Daniel to Julia Powel, 1851 December 8 | |||||||||
| 1 | 70 | Weld, Theodore to unidentified recipient, undated | |||||||||
| 2 | 8 | Whittier, John G. to Moses Austin Cartland, 1841 | |||||||||
| 2 | 9 | Unidentified letter, probably 1860 | |||||||||
Series IV: Personal Materials, 1838-1897, undated |
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| "Personal Materials" contains funeral notices, obituaries, photographic material, Pillsbury's preaching license, certificates, pamphlets and articles, and unidentified writings. Of note in the series are the photographs of Susan B. Anthony, William Lloyd Garrison and his daughter, Helen Frances "Fanny" Garrison Villard, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The series is arranged alphabetically by subject. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 2 | 10 | Certificates, 1859-1866 | |||||||||
| 1 | 71 | Funeral notices/obituaries, 1870-1897 | |||||||||
| 1 | 72 | Pamphlets, 1855-1890 | |||||||||
| 2 | 11 | Pamphlets and articles, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 73 | Photograhs, 1875-1895 | |||||||||
| 2 | 12 | Preaching license, 1838 | |||||||||
| 1 | 74 | Unidentified writings, undated | |||||||||