Prudence Ward and Anne J. Ward Correspondence, 1839-1906

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Summary

Creators:
Ward, Prudence, 1795-1874.
Abstract:
The collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, drawings, and photographs of the Ward and Thoreau families, relatives of Henry David Thoreau, of Massachusetts. The collection also contains two pages of proofs of F. B. Sanborn's "First and last journeys of Thoreau (1905)", his lecture to the Emerson Society, and a typescript of his essay "The Women of Concord."
Extent:
63 pieces + ephemera in 2 boxes.
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, drawings, and photographs of the Ward and Thoreau families of Massachusetts. The correspondence consists of letters to Prudence Ward from Sophia, Maria, and Helen Thoreau and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn's letters to Anne J. Ward (1905, some with enclosed manuscripts). Also included are individual letters by Harrison Gray Otis Blake, Edmund Quincy Sewall, and George Washington Ward. The letters discuss the Alcott family, Mary Merrick Brooks, Lidian Jackson Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and the Thoreau family; American Antislavery Society, Cherokee Nation, Southworth & Hawes daguerreotypes, family affairs, social news, etc. Also included are drawings by Sophia E. Thoreau and Prudence Ward and photographs of places and people connected with the Thoreau family and Prudence Ward. The collection contains two pages of proofs of F. B. Sanborn's First and last journeys of Thoreau (1905), his lecture to the Emerson Society, and a typescript of his essay "The Women of Concord." The photographs within the collection all deal with places or people influential to both the Thoreaus and Prudence Ward. The collection also contains 4 folders of ephemera.

The drawings, photographs and letters to Prudence Ward were originally pasted into a scrapbook. The scrapbook has been disbound and the items interfiled with the rest of the collection. Before it was disbound, digital images were taken of each page in order to preserve the way the scrapbook was originally created. The original scrapbook binding is housed in the last box of this collection. Along with it is the binder that held the correspondence and manuscripts by F. B. Sanborn.

Biographical / historical:

Prudence Ward was born on October 6, 1795, in Newton, Massachusetts, to Joseph Ward and Prudence (Bird) Ward. Both Joseph and Prudence Bird were descendents of William Ward, one of the original founding fathers of Massachusetts. Joseph Ward was a schoolteacher before the Revolutionary War. During the war, he was secretary and aide-de-camp to both General Heath and a distant cousin, General Artemis Ward. He eventually became Colonel of the General-Commissary of the Musters. On November 26, 1778, he was taken prisoner by the British. After his release and retirement from the military he became a realtor and stockbroker. In 1792, he retired from business and in 1796 become the representative for Newton in the General Court. In 1807, he was appointed justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk County. He died on February 14, 1812.

Joseph and Prudence Bird had eight children: Elizabeth, Joseph, Myra, Joseph, Prudence, Caroline, Dennis, and George Washington. Prudence never married but was a much loved aunt to her nieces and nephews, especially Caroline’s children Ellen, Edmund and George.

After Col. Joseph Ward’s death, Prudence Bird Ward and her daughters, Caroline and Prudence, became close friends with the Thoreau family, especially Mrs. Cynthia Thoreau (Henry David Thoreau’s mother), and Misses Elizabeth, Jane, and Maria Thoreau (Henry David Thoreau’s aunts). It was Maria Thoreau who, in 1817, introduced Caroline Ward to her future husband, Edmund Quincy Sewall. In 1833, Mrs. Ward and Prudence moved to Concord and lived in a house owned by John Thoreau, Sr. (Henry David Thoreau’s father). They lived there until Mrs. Ward’s death in 1844. After her mother’s death, Prudence left Concord but remained a close confidante of Maria and Sophia Thoreau. Caroline’s children were also very close to the Thoreaus, for her daughter, Ellen received marriage proposals from both John and Henry Thoreau. Even though she rejected both offers, Ellen remained close to Sophia. Ellen’s brother Edmund in 1840 became a student at the Thoreau school and was the inspiration for Henry David Thoreau’s poem “Gentle Boy.” Prudence Ward died on June 2, 1874. Upon Prudence’s death, her niece Anne J. Ward took control of her papers. Anne J. Ward was the daughter of Dennis Ward, Prudence’s brother. Anne J. Ward died on July 19, 1913.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Bromer Booksellers, Feb. 24, 1995.
Arrangement:

The correspondence, manuscripts and drawings are arranged alphabetically according to the author. The photographs follow and are arranged in alphabetical order according to the description of the photograph.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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