Library of Congress accepts sisters' NNY document collection

Jun. 17—On the evening of Nov. 24, 1854, a road-weary Peter Horr of Stone Mills paused in his labors to write to his parents in Watertown, informing them that he had just returned from a journey. He had some news about his wife.

"It is with deep feeling of sorrow + regret that I sit down to inform you that I have just returned this evening from a trip to Utica where I have been to leave Sabra as an inmate of the Lunatic Asylum. She has been deranged for five weeks + our Phisician (sic) Dr. Lansing advised me to take the course which I have done + which is no doubt the best that could be done for her."

It is just one of the letters and other documents spanning the years 1806 to 1907 preserved by a Watertown family. The collection, with reflections and observations of interesting characters, tells many tales — from daily life in the north country to national and world events.

The collection donated by the Bonney family — meticulously scanned and transcribed by two sisters — is now in the hands of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., which has recognized its historic significance and is in the process of putting the letters, deeds and receipts, totaling approximately 250 items, online for all to see.

The oldest item, dated Jan. 7, 1806, is a commencement address given by Benjamin C. Stiles. "Beware of bad company and licentious company," he advises.

The most recent document is a 1907 receipt for a new automobile purchased by John Irwin, who for decades ran a general store in Stone Mills, first established in the hamlet in 1832. Mr. Irwin died in 1954 at the age of 99. The former store building still stands.

Among other topics of the correspondence in the letter donation: — A soldier stationed in Sackets Harbor a week before the First Battle of Sackets Harbor describes his fear of seeing pro-British "Indians" along the St. Lawrence River and other signs of battle. — A Stone Mills man mentions he saw Wesley Horr about town. He had lost 90 pounds, the result of being a mercenary in "Walker's Invasion" of Nicaragua in 1855. — The Crawford sisters of Wisconsin send wallpaper samples to their aunt in Brownville, seeking her opinions on the matter. Cloth samples for dresses are also sent. — A lonely Civil War soldier who enlisted at Stone Mills reflects on his mission in a letter sent from his Virginia headquarters. — Mary Stile Horr leaves Stone Mills at age 18 and goes west via steamer and railroad, settling in Wisconsin. There, she writes home in words that raised eyebrows, she has learned to pilot a canoe and speaks a bit with Native Americans.

UNCOVERING HISTORY

While growing up in Watertown, Ann L. Bonney of Vernon, Connecticut, and younger sister Claire E. Bonney of Switzerland knew about the letters but didn't think too much about them in their youth. The sisters are the children of Warren R. Bonney, who died in 2016 at the age of 93, and his wife, Margaret (Peg) McArthur Bonney, who died in 2011 at the age of 86.

Claire and Ann are Watertown High School graduates; Ann in 1971 and Claire in 1973.

"When my parents died, there was this box with these old letters," Claire said. "Some of them had shoe laces around them and some had bugs in them."

"Growing up, they were in a trunk at the foot of my sister's bed with a bunch of other papers," Ann said. "When we asked our mother what they were about, she said they were boring — they were just about the price of crops and things that happened on the farm."

But later, their mom apparently had second thoughts about their significance. "My mother took some course at JCC about local history or something and she took that on as a project and thought she'd transcribe," Claire said. "She didn't get very far. I think she got kind of discouraged. But she did start it out."

The tedious project was taken up by the sisters about five years ago. In addition to uncovering history, the project served another purpose.

"Because Claire lives so far away, she often looks for things we can do together," Ann said. For example, there was the time when they thought they should do an instrumental duet together.

"She's really good at piano, and I had just started cello before COVID and then gave it up because I wasn't in the mood," Ann said. "And the thought of trying to play with her made me a nervous wreck. I couldn't do it."

Prior to retirement, Ann worked at a community college in charge of adult education. Claire is a retired professor of a college in Sweden.

When Claire suggested the letter project, the pair tackled it with gusto. They agreed to get together in person one week a year and devote that time to the project.

"She'd come for two weeks," Ann said, and they'd split that time between the north country and her Connecticut home. The project continued remotely. Ann, who owns a quality scanner, did most of the scanning of the documents and saved them to a file.

"I would send the drive to Claire and she would transcribe them into readable type, into a Word document, so we could do a word search, date search or a person's name or location," Ann said.

Some of the letters have faded ink due to time, or another reason: "Mary (Stiles Horr) Duncan was always complaining that she couldn't get a decent pen and couldn't get ahold of any ink," Claire said of one frequent writer whose letters have been left behind. "So some of the letters are really faded. You can hardly make them out, so we scanned them quite high resolution. And then you can blow them up, make them darker, lighter and so on. That was a big help in transcribing."

Two sets of letters, spanning the years from 1806 to 1910, have been accepted for Library of Congress acquisition. The earlier set of letters was sent to Betsy Stiles Horr (1782-1867), who lived with her husband, Elijah, in the hamlet of Stone Mills. Their former house is still there and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

A later set of letters was written to Betsey Gould Knox Bonney (1816-1890), who lived in Brownville with her husband, George Bonney. George and Betsey Bonney's son, Madison Bonney, married Ella Horr, the granddaughter of Betsy and Elijah Horr. Their stone house on Bonney Road in the town of Brownville is also still in use.

The letters were passed down to Florence Bonney Foster (granddaughter of both Betsy and Betsey) of Watertown, who first went through them and made some notes on their envelopes. Upon Florence's death, the letters landed at the Watertown house of Warren Bonney, Florence's nephew.

CAREFUL CONSIDERATION

Claire said that their correspondence with the Library of Congress, asking the institution if the collection would interest them, took months. "I know they just don't take anything, and wasn't quite sure," she said.

Several batches of questions and answers were exchanged.

"You could see it going through the channels," Claire said.

In addition to the scans, the original documents, each in a Mylar slip and collectively in folders, were boxed and sent to the Library of Congress. "The fact that they are scanned and transcribed is saving them a ton of work," Claire said.

"What a light feeling it was to be able to get rid of that box and that it was going to someplace that was going to take care of it," Ann said.

Once a collection arrives at the manuscript division at the Library of Congress, it's transferred to a cataloger who prepares a bare-bones, preliminary catalog record for the library's online catalog. During the period when a collection remains unprocessed, which the sisters say could take many months, permission is required for patrons to access the materials. Once the collection has been processed it will become freely accessible. The general information number for the Stiles-Horr-Bonney Collection at the Library of Congress is 202-707-5000.

The specialist in the manuscript division at the Library of Congress who Claire said she was mainly dealing with in the project, was away from the office through Monday and not available for comment.

The Library of Congress was just one institution that the sisters explored as a depository for their collection. They considered universities, historical societies and the New York State Museum in Albany.

"We were afraid that some of the local museums didn't have the staff to catalog things or to get them out to people or to make them known," Ann said. "The Library of Congress was most interested and we felt like they had plenty of resources and the academicians would know how to get them and locate things that might have the best benefit to people."

Ann said that since the sisters have high-quality copies of the original documents, they can be shared with local historical societies and museums. For example, a PowerPoint presentation would be possible. She would like to plan an exhibit with the Jefferson County Historical Society.

A VARIETY OF VOICES

The sisters noted some of their favorite letters and letter writers from the collection.

Claire's favorite author is Mary Stiles Horr. "She was quite funny and well read," Claire said. Mary was a "poor woman" who lived at Fox Creek, near Cape Vincent. "It was a pretty rough place," Claire said. "But that's where the steamers came in apparently, to go to Chicago, where she was trying to meet her family. She got through the steamer and all that, but she got on the train to Chicago, fell asleep and someone stole her eyeglasses! In fact, in another letter, she wrote that someone was visiting and she put their eyeglasses on and could see everybody. But here she is going around for 20 years without any eyeglasses!"

In Wisconsin, Mary writes home, in letters from the 1840s and 1850s, stating that she experienced things such as learning how to pilot a canoe and speaking with Native Americans. "She writes to her foster mother, 'I know these are new skills that you probably don't think very highly of.' She's funny and gets kind of gutsy. She's curious about everything," Claire said.

Claire said that Mary Stiles Horr divorced Edward Duncan. "Nobody got divorced in those days, and she didn't regret it." But she then lived unhappily with her brothers, who were farmers in Wisconsin. She died at the age of 33.

"The last letter I found from her, and I was almost in tears, was to my great-great-grandmother, who was kind of her foster mother in Stone Mills," Claire said. "This woman, Betsy, had written to Mary and the letter just came back with 'Deceased' on the envelope. Mary was an avid letter writer. I'm sure Betsy was quite worried because Mary wasn't writing. Nobody in the family bothered to tell her Mary died."

LOTS OF 'STILES'

Capt. Chauncy W. Kilborn was born in the town of Orleans in 1834 and enlisted in the 94th New York Volunteer Infantry Company B on Oct. 3, 1861, at Orleans. On June 15, 1862, he wrote home to Ben Stiles Horr from 94th headquarters at Front Royal, Virginia.

There were several "Benjamin Stiles" in different generations in the document collection, thus accounting for that name popping up as early as 1806. "It's very confusing," Claire said. "You have to keep thinking, 'Now what generation was this?'"

However, Claire is pretty certain that the Benjamin Stiles who wrote the 1806 commencement address is the same person as the soldier who wrote during the War of 1812, and whose letters are in the collection. As for the recipient of the letter from Mr. Kilborn from the Civil War battlefield, she said, "I don't know who was recruiting at Stone Mills and I don't know that family name or know who he was, why he wrote to Benjamin Stiles. I was thinking either he didn't have any family here and he was just writing to the village to let them know he was still alive, or maybe his family couldn't read."

Capt. Kilborn's letter, Claire said, is "typical military."

"They have to march from somewhere to somewhere the whole night and they're just exhausted. They cross the Rappahannock River. They reach Front Royal after seven days on the road. They could hear, apparently in the woods, the Confederate soldiers shooting. But they were all so exhausted, a lot of them just laid down in the field and fell asleep."

On the outset of the War of 1812, in a letter dated July 12, 1812 — a week before the First Battle of Sackets Harbor — soldier Benjamin Stiles describes pro-British "Indians" lined up on either shores of the St. Lawrence River. He notes other things that anticipate the coming battle. The July 12 letter is one of a handful of letters from Benjamin Stiles about his service.

"He's also very annoyed with his captain," Claire said. "He almost gets thrown in military jail for those fresh remarks."

WESLEY DIDN'T LOOK WELL

Little-known world conflicts were also documented in the letters. One tells of the return of Wesley Horr to Watertown in 1855. A friend saw Mr. Horr on the street and noticed that at 90 pounds, his friend had lost half his weight. It was the result of Mr. Horr volunteering for William Walker's invasion of Nicaragua. Mr. Walker, an American mercenary, led an invasion team to the Central American country in 1855.

"Walker then, along with 2,500 men, successfully took power in Nicaragua, legalized slavery there, and led the country for two years before an international team which included British and American troops, removed him from power," according to PBS's "History Detectives." "Walker would attempt to reestablish himself as leader of Nicaragua twice, leading to his (firing squad) death by court-martial."

"I don't know what happened to this poor kid coming back weighing 90 pounds," Claire said. "That kind of gets lost."

In the letters, one can find news of other political events and people leading them, such as mentions of Frederick Douglass, the Free Soiler Movement and the Confederate secession.

SABRA SAT QUIETLY

Peter Horr's 1854 letter about taking his wife to Utica Psychiatric Center (New York's first state-run facility designed to care for the mentally ill), documents many details of the "admission" process. Claire said that Sabra Horr, Peter's wife, apparently was depressed. But both husband and wife were surprised that Sabra had to remain behind in Utica.

Peter wrote: "Just before I left I sent in to see how she appeared + found that she was sitting quietly with her bonnet + shawl on which she refused to take off as she had not intention of remaining there + would not believe that she was to be left there but that I would come + take her away before night."

"It's just heart-breaking," Claire said. "He gets home and writes to his mom that 'nobody is home and I feel so guilty.' That's an interesting story in itself. I don't know the details, but she got cured. She emigrates to Chicago with her husband, gets to take care of her grandson and is fine."

But still, the sisters wonder about the episode. "All through history, women who have disagreed have been put in insane asylums and cast as sick," Ann said. "And who knows if she was politically too active or whether she disagreed with her husband or had postpartum depression. But one day we might know. We might head to Utica to see if we could get the records. They must have dusty boxes of medical records somewhere."

NO INSTANT MESSAGING

In less dramatic news of everyday life, the Crawford sisters of Wisconsin send fabric samples to their aunt in Brownville to show off their new spring dresses. Wallpaper samples go back and forth for opinions. As photography is perfected, the same circle of friends and relatives begins to share pictures of the pen pals they have never seen, or not seen in years.

"They all get their pictures taken and exchange them," Claire said. "They found that so thrilling."

Also in the collection, a family in Stone Mills receives word of a fire in Wisconsin that hit relatives two days before Christmas.

"They lose everything," Claire said. "So the Horr family sends a big wooden box with chairs and plates, some shirts and socks. They made a list of what they sent. They were very thorough people. They also sent a Bible."

"The hardship of living in those times becomes very clear," Ann said. "Betsy Stiles kept a list of the things she sent and it was like four plates, two chairs, two house dresses and a garden tool."

In a letter dated Feb. 26, 1865, Peter Horr complains to his brother about his son's divorce. At first, it looks like some sort of code and is hard to read his penmanship. But Claire explained: "It's very difficult to read because he wrote in two different directions to save paper. He wrote one way and then he turned the page 90 degrees and wrote the other way."

There are several indications, Ann said, that paper to write on was a scarce commodity. "Sometimes they used scrap to write on, to turn it into a letter. They wrote to the very edges and didn't waste an inch."

The sisters are amazed that many letters were able to reach their recipients, despite sketchy addresses.

"Some don't have stamps," Claire said. "They just gave it to somebody and hoped it would get there."

"The letters sometimes say things like, 'To so-and-so in Colorado,'" Ann said. "But they got the letters. The postal service was amazing and nowadays, if someone moves, six months later your letter comes back. In those days, people went the extra mile to make sure people got their correspondence and that they knew their neighbor. We've certainly lost some of that."