This collection contains approximately 217 outgoing letters from Presbyterian minister Jeremiah Nixon to his wife Flora and a diary that Nixon kept between 1862 and 1863.
The Correspondence series contains Nixon's letters about his travels around the United States and Europe, in which he commented on personal matters and church affairs. He occasionally commented on contemporary politics, including a brief note about the South just after the end of the Civil War ([April 12, 1865]). One series of letters concerns his travels throughout Europe in the spring of 1868, and Nixon shared his impressions of Glasgow, Shropshire, Paris, Rome, and Geneva. While in France, he wrote about the effects of his unfamiliarity with the local language, and in Rome he mentioned the city's long history (May 9, 1868). Nixon's Diary, written from September 13, 1862-December 29, 1863, contains brief daily entries about his religious life and activities, which included studying, preaching, and attending funerals.
Jeremiah Howard Nixon (referred to both as "Jeremiah" and "Howard") was born in Kent County, Delaware, on November 27, 1829, the son of Jeremiah Nixon, a merchant. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1851, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1856. After completing his studies, Nixon led congregations in Cambridge, New York (1856-1859); Indianapolis, Indiana (1861-1869); St. Charles, Missouri (1872-1875); and Wilmington, Delaware (1876-1888). While in Indianapolis, he ordained future United States President Benjamin Harrison to a church eldership, and in 1872 he received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Lafayette College. He served as president of Missouri's Lindenwood Female College between 1871 and 1876. Nixon married Flora Jewell (b. ca. 1835) on April 21, 1858. Jeremiah H. Nixon died in Webster Groves, Missouri, in 1892.
