Lucy Fletcher Kellogg Family Papers

Collection

Identifier: RG 30-088

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection, which consists of correspondence, notebooks, legal papers, and printed materials, documents the lives of Lucy Fletcher Kellogg and her family.

Kellogg's account of her life is preserved in both manuscript and printed forms, 1879 and 1881. In addition to information on family life and changes of residence, Kellogg describes her youth in New England, where she produced textiles in her parents' home to support herself. Family letters (1836-1851) discuss feelings of isolation in rural Louisiana, the education of children, and abolition. Notebooks kept by Lucy Fletcher Kellog date from 1829-1880s and contain diary entires from several Kellogg family members, copied newspaper articles and ephemera, and handwritten entires. Two notebooks kept by Kate Birge, 1882 and undated, contain poetry, letters, recipes, and other handwritten entries.

Family legal papers and nineteen Civil War letters written by George M. Kellogg are also included in the collection.

Dates

Creation: 1829-1899
Other: Date acquired: 1975 June 13

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Unrestricted.

Biographical Sketch

Lucy Fletcher Kellogg was born in 1793 in Worcester, Massachusetts, the third child of Ebenezer (1764-1824) and Mary Goldthwaite Fletcher (1765-1824). Ebenezer and Mary had four other children: Ebenezer (1788-1862), Fanny (1790-1844), Adolphus (1796-1866), and Louisa (1798-1880). Lucy attended a common school and, with her siblings, attended dancing school at her father's tavern. During her childhood, the Fletchers lived in Sutton, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire before returning to Worcester in 1800.

In 1809, Lucy Fletcher attended a boarding school in Sutton. During the War of 1812, Lucy and her sister wove and sold textiles, including fine shirting, gingham, and bed ticking. In 1817, Lucy joined Fanny Fletcher McClellen and her husband, James "Deacon" (1789-1867) in Chautauqua, New York. Lucy worked as a schoolteacher there for several years.

On February 7, 1819, Lucy married Titus Kellogg Junior (1797-1848), whom she had met while living in a boarding house in Chautauqua. The Kelloggs had six children: Mary Fletcher (1819-1890), Charles Augustus (1821-1897), William Edwin (1823-1894), Marcia Louisa (1825-1864), George Martin (1837-1904), and Lucy Philanda (1832-1909). Four of the couple's children attended the Oberlin Collegiate Institute (Oberlin College).

Mary and Charles Kellogg were enrolled in the Oberlin Collegiate Institute during the Panic of 1837, when both their family and the College suffered from financial setbacks. Titus Kellog and his business partners faced a serious financial shortfall, which led the Kellogg family to move to Louisiana in 1838. The Kelloggs settled in Brossier Parish, Minden, Louisiana, where Titus eventually purchased a 200-acre cotton plantation. Enslaved people, whose names have been recorded within this collection, worked the land.

Titus Kellogg died from a fever on August 29, 1848, leading Lucy Fletcher Kellogg to sell their land in Louisiana. After staying with Charles in New Orleans for a short time, Lucy and her younger children relocated to Oberlin, Ohio. There, they often lived with Mary and her husband, James Harris Fairchild. Lucy Fletcher Kellogg died in 1891.

Sources Consulted

Autobiographical Account of Lucy Fletcher Kellogg (handwritten), written at age 82. "Memorial to C.A. Kellogg," Keokuk, Iowa (printed), n.p., undated (probably 1897).