1864–1871 Letters from the Young Ladies of the Prominent Rhode Island Hazard Family
- Thirty-two letters, two apparently missing final pages; with fifteen pages of incomplete letter material
- Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York , 1871
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York, 1871. Thirty-two letters, two apparently missing final pages; with fifteen pages of incomplete letter material. Excellent to Near Fine.. Letters from some of the young ladies of the Hazard family, primarily Gertrude Minturn (1843–1877), Anna Peace (1845–1868), and Esther Robinson (1848–d.) Hazard, with some from other family and friends. The family was descended from Thomas Hazard, one of the founding settlers of Newport, Rhode Island.[1]
The girls were educated and often write from school; Anna and Esther attend the ‘Friends School’ in Providence, which is probably the Moses Brown School, and Gertrude attends Dr. Dio Lewis’s School for Young Ladies in Lexington, Massachusetts. Founded by Diocletian Lewis, a temperance and physical culture advocate, the school incorporated his exercise system developed to condition weaker individuals. Gertrude describes a regimen of thirty minutes of walking plus an hour and a half of exercise, and discusses Dr. Lewis:
“Dr Lewis gives familiar lectures on any subject which the scholars propose. He is a very pleasant, genial man, and takes part in the games & dancing with the greatest spirit. There are about 20 scholars. Some of them board in the village, but are subject to the rules of the school. This building is very large, and is mostly occupied by the patients of Dr Lewis’ ‘Movement Cures’, to whom most of his time is devoted. The scholars and patients associate together. Indeed, we are under very little constraint, the teachers leaving our actions to be regulated by our own sense of propriety; and they seldom find occasion to reprove the scholars for misdemeanors.” (November 23, 1864)
Meanwhile, Anna and Esther’s education is more on the religious side; Esther writes:
“We have not been to meeting very often since we returned from our lovely visit to Newport, but the first Sunday morning I did think all the time of it as I said I was going to. We were edified this morning by a sermon from Elizabeth Meader, or rather a torrent of noise, so that I am nearly deafened now. I don’t think I ever heard a more horrible combination of sounds from the mouth of any human being.” (January 8, 1865)
Though speaking in tongues is most strongly associated with Pentecostalism, it is not unheard of in Quakerism. In his book of genealogy and reflections, the girls’ father, Thomas Hazard (1797–1886) connects the family’s “strong religious tendencies” to his own interest in spiritualism.[2] This interest in mediumship comes up several times in the letters, first in 1864 when one of the girls reports that “Pa writes us, that at a circle which he attended a few days ago a clairvoyant medium described our house at Vaucluse perfectly” (February 24, 1864), and later when one of the girls attends a circle with their father in Philadelphia:
“Yesterday morning Pa & I had a sitting with a Mrs. Robinson, a trance speaking medium. The communication from mother was the most beautiful I ever heard. She spoke to us just as she used to on earth, using the same expressions. It seemed as if I could almost see her – we are going again on Monday.” (February 8, 1867)
That is, the pair spoke to Frances Minturn Hazard, who had died in 1854.
Of interest to researchers of the Hazard family and Rhode Island Quakers.
[1] Caroline Elizabeth Robinson, The Hazard Family of Rhode Island, 1635–1894 (Printed for the Author, 1896).
[2] Thomas R. Hazard, Recollections of Olden Times (Sanborn, 1879), 228.
The girls were educated and often write from school; Anna and Esther attend the ‘Friends School’ in Providence, which is probably the Moses Brown School, and Gertrude attends Dr. Dio Lewis’s School for Young Ladies in Lexington, Massachusetts. Founded by Diocletian Lewis, a temperance and physical culture advocate, the school incorporated his exercise system developed to condition weaker individuals. Gertrude describes a regimen of thirty minutes of walking plus an hour and a half of exercise, and discusses Dr. Lewis:
“Dr Lewis gives familiar lectures on any subject which the scholars propose. He is a very pleasant, genial man, and takes part in the games & dancing with the greatest spirit. There are about 20 scholars. Some of them board in the village, but are subject to the rules of the school. This building is very large, and is mostly occupied by the patients of Dr Lewis’ ‘Movement Cures’, to whom most of his time is devoted. The scholars and patients associate together. Indeed, we are under very little constraint, the teachers leaving our actions to be regulated by our own sense of propriety; and they seldom find occasion to reprove the scholars for misdemeanors.” (November 23, 1864)
Meanwhile, Anna and Esther’s education is more on the religious side; Esther writes:
“We have not been to meeting very often since we returned from our lovely visit to Newport, but the first Sunday morning I did think all the time of it as I said I was going to. We were edified this morning by a sermon from Elizabeth Meader, or rather a torrent of noise, so that I am nearly deafened now. I don’t think I ever heard a more horrible combination of sounds from the mouth of any human being.” (January 8, 1865)
Though speaking in tongues is most strongly associated with Pentecostalism, it is not unheard of in Quakerism. In his book of genealogy and reflections, the girls’ father, Thomas Hazard (1797–1886) connects the family’s “strong religious tendencies” to his own interest in spiritualism.[2] This interest in mediumship comes up several times in the letters, first in 1864 when one of the girls reports that “Pa writes us, that at a circle which he attended a few days ago a clairvoyant medium described our house at Vaucluse perfectly” (February 24, 1864), and later when one of the girls attends a circle with their father in Philadelphia:
“Yesterday morning Pa & I had a sitting with a Mrs. Robinson, a trance speaking medium. The communication from mother was the most beautiful I ever heard. She spoke to us just as she used to on earth, using the same expressions. It seemed as if I could almost see her – we are going again on Monday.” (February 8, 1867)
That is, the pair spoke to Frances Minturn Hazard, who had died in 1854.
Of interest to researchers of the Hazard family and Rhode Island Quakers.
[1] Caroline Elizabeth Robinson, The Hazard Family of Rhode Island, 1635–1894 (Printed for the Author, 1896).
[2] Thomas R. Hazard, Recollections of Olden Times (Sanborn, 1879), 228.