This collection (39 items) contains correspondence written by members of the Kendall and Brown families of New Lebanon, New York, during the late 19th century. John Kendall's daughters Mary, Ellen, and Sarah wrote to each other while attending schools in Connecticut and New York in the 1850s, and continued to provide family news in later letters. Charles H. Brown wrote a series of letters to his parents while living with his grandparents and attending school near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the mid-1870s. Other items include receipts for boarding school tuition.
The Kendall sisters exchanged letters in the mid- to late 1850s, while Ellen C. Kendall attended the Ingham Collegiate Institute in Le Roy, New York, and Sarah W. Kendall attended the Wadawanuck Young Ladies' Institute in Stonington, Connecticut. They shared news of their social lives and described their educational experiences, such as Ellen's desire to take painting classes. Between 1874 and 1876, Charles H. Brown wrote to his parents, discussing his schoolwork, local and family news, and his religious beliefs. In one letter, he reported on a large fire, and in another he mentioned a school lecture on leaders of the antislavery movement. Many of his letters include weather charts. Brown wrote one additional letter to his parents while working as a machinist for a railroad company in Dunkirk, New York, in 1880. Later correspondence includes a letter that William Armistead Collier wrote to his cousin, Walter Brown, and a letter by E. F. Boyden about a statue of Seth Boyden erected in Newark, New Jersey. An undated letter from Ellen Kendall to Sarah Kendall Brown includes a drawing of a woman.
Sarah W. Kendall's husband, Henry L. Brown, received receipts for tuition for Charles H. Brown at the Greylock Institute in South Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1876, and for Harvey Brown at the Mount Hermon School in Mount Hermon, Massachusetts, in 1888.
John Kendall was born on July 21, 1810, the son of Thomas Kendall and Olive Crane. On July 24, 1832, he married Deborah Avery. He worked as a thermometer maker, and they lived in New Lebanon, New York (1832-1836, 1847-1892); Galesburg, Illinois (1836-1844); and Cleveland, Ohio (1844-1847). They had four children: Mary Curtis (b. 1834), Ellen C. (b. 1837), Sarah W. (b. 1842), and Henry M. John Kendall died on May 19, 1892. Ellen C. Kendall attended in the Ingham Collegiate Institute in Le Roy, New York, in the mid-1850s, and later became a painting teacher. Sarah W. Kendall attended the Wadawanuck Young Ladies' Institute in Stonington, Connecticut. She married Henry L. Brown in September 1870, and they had at least five children: Margaret, Harvey, Walter, Howard, and Avery. Henry and Sarah Brown later lived in Paterson, New Jersey, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Charles H. Brown, a relative of the Kendall family, was born in New York around 1861. After attending the Greylock Institute in South Williamstown, Massachusetts, in the mid-1870s, he moved to Dunkirk, New York, where he worked as a machinist.
