This collection is made up of 48 personal letters addressed to Frank Dwight Young and his wife, Mary Davis Stephens, of Greenwood, New York, as well as 2 printed wedding invitations. The couple exchanged letters and received correspondence from female family members and acquaintances throughout the state of New York and from as far away as Pontiac, Michigan, and Topeka, Kansas.
Mary Young wrote to her husband while visiting family in Massachusetts in June and July 1899, describing an encounter with President William McKinley and his wife (June 21, 1899) and a Fourth of July clambake in Attleboro (July 5, 1899). During this time, she also visited churches, attended religious meetings, and reflected on religion. Most of the remaining items, dated 1902-1907, are the Youngs' incoming correspondence from female family members and friends. Nine condolence letters concern the death of Paul Redman Young in early 1904. Mary's friend Bertha in Topeka, Kansas, wrote a letter about the arrest of temperance advocate Carry Nation, in which Bertha expressed her own negative opinions of illicit saloons (January 11, 1903).
Ivanna, another acquaintance, wrote to Mary Young about her career as a music teacher and substitute teacher in Huntington, New York; Hartford, Connecticut; and New York City, in the early 20th century. She discussed various teaching experiences, explained her decision to relocate to New York City from Hartford in December 1907, and described her lodgings in Harlem (December 14, 1907). In one undated letter, she shared some of her thoughts on marriage; though at one time she intended to marry someone and did not oppose the idea of marriage, she expressed contentment with her single life. Other frequent correspondents included Mary's sister Estelle and her sister-in-law Ellen. Frank Young wrote the final 2 letters on July 12, 1917, and July 6, 1918, giving Mary news of Greenwood.
Mary Davis Stephens was born in New York on January 22, 1868, the daughter of James Harvey Stephens of Greenwood and Canisteo, New York, and his second wife, Ambrosia Davis. She had one half-sister, Sarah, and three full siblings: Estella, Nell, and Josephine (1862-1872). Estella and her first husband, Charles Goodno, had one son, James Harvey, and she had two sons with her second husband, Chester M. Griswold: George Davis and Burt Stephens (1879-1890). Mary married Frank Dwight Young (b. 1866), a dry goods merchant and grocer from Greenwood, New York, on December 4, 1895. They had four children: Paul Redman (1903-1904), Hope Ambrosia (b. 1905), Grace Estelle (b. 1907), and Frank Dwight (b. 1909). Frank, Sr., had two siblings, William and Ellen.