Dates: 1849-1860.

Biography:

Isaac H. Stanwood, a native of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was living in Woodville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi, by December of 1835. He was operating a mercantile store in Woodville at that time. Stanwood also owned a leather tannery near Woodville. He formed a partnership with Chester A. Buckley in June of 1839, founding the Woodville mercantile firm of Stanwood and Buckley. They frequently engaged in business with Major James L. Trask and other Trask family members, and Stanwood was still writing personal letters to Major Trask in 1853. The Trasks were Wilkinson County cotton planters who lived at La Grange, a large plantation near Woodville.

On October 28, 1844, Isaac H. Stanwood married Mehetabel Rindge Wendell (b. 1818), and they had two sons: Henry (d. 1845) and James (1847-1910). After Mehetabel Wendell Stanwood died on October 3, 1847, Stanwood brought his son, James, to Portsmouth to live with his maternal grandparents, Jacob Wendell (1786-1865) and Mehetabel Rindge (Rogers) Wendell. Isaac H. Stanwood returned to Mississippi where he continued to operate his mercantile business until at least 1860. Eventually remarrying and fathering other children, Isaac H. Stanwood died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 6, 1883.

 
Scope and Content Note:

This collection consists of the correspondence of Isaac H. Stanwood and one undated genealogical chart. The letters were primarily written from Stanwoods residence in Woodville, Mississippi, to his late wifes parents who were living in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The principal topics of the letters include family matters, contemporary political issues, and social life in Woodville.

Many of Stanwoods letters demonstrate a concern for the welfare of his family, particularly regarding their religious beliefs. The correspondence is informative about political issues such as secession and sectionalism. Stanwood also discusses the activities of national political figures, including Lewis Cass, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and Daniel Webster. He refers to the formation of the Southern Rights Association, a local secessionist organization, in 1851, and he comments on the United States visit of Hungarian patriot Lajos Kossuth in 1852. Several letters describe the city of Woodville and mentioned local citizens such as Major James L. Trask.

Among the more unusual topics of the letters are descriptions of an 1853 Mississippi River steamboat race from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Louisville, Kentucky, and a visit to the Wilkinson County plantation, Elmsby, where Horatio Smith had constructed a church in which his family and enslaved persons worshipped together.

An undated genealogical chart provides ancestral data about the Jacob Wendell family of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

 
Series Identification:

Series 1: Correspondence. 1849-1860; n.d. 1 folder.

Series 2: Genealogical Chart. n.d. 1 folder.