CHANNING SEABURY:

An Inventory of His Family Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society

Manuscripts Collection

Part or all of this collection is restricted.
For details, please see restrictions.

OVERVIEW


	Creator:	Seabury, Channing, 1842-1910.
	Title:	Channing Seabury and family papers.
	Dates:	1854-1955, 1987-1988.
	Language:	Materials in English.
	Abstract:	Correspondence (1855-1934, 1987-1988), diary (1854-1863), newspaper clippings, and miscellany, all relating to the family of Channing Seabury, a businessman of St. Paul (Minn.) and later chairman of the Board of State Capitol Commissioners (1893-1908), including his sister, Caroline Seabury, who taught (1854-1863) in Columbus, Mississippi.
	Quantity:	0.25 cubic feet (1 box).
	Location:	P1253: See Detailed Description for shelf locations.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Channing Seabury was born in Southbridge, Massachusetts, on January 5, 1842. There is no information on his early life, except that he lived in New York City before coming west.

Seabury came to St. Paul in 1860 at the age of 18. From that time until 1865 he worked for the J.C. and H.C. Burbank Company. In 1865 the firm was taken over by Amherst H. Wilder, and for two years Seabury was Wilder's partner in the wholesale grocery company. From 1867 to 1872 Seabury was treasurer of the Northwestern Union Packet Company, and from 1872 to 1882 he was associated with C. Gotzian and Company, wholesale boot and shoe manufacturer. In 1882 he entered the firm of Maxfield, Seabury and Company, wholesale grocers. In 1891, with the retirement of Maxfield, the firm became Seabury and Son. Seabury remained with this firm until his death in St. Paul on October 28, 1910. He was also the chairman of the Board of State Capitol Commissioners from 1893 to 1908.

Seabury married twice: first in 1870, in Terre Haute, Indiana, to Frances Cruft, and second in 1883, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Elizabeth P. Austin. There were four children: John, Gerald, Paul, and Edith.

The above biographical information was located in the Minnesota Historical Society Scrapbooks, 59:93-94.

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SCOPE AND CONTENTS

Letters (1864-1867) from Seabury to his aunt and uncle in Brooklyn (New York) describe his life in St. Paul and his association with Amherst H. Wilder and Auguste Larpenteur in business ventures. The next group of letters (1904-1907) concern mural paintings created for the capitol building in St. Paul. The rest of the correspondence (1910-1934) consists of scattered letters to Seabury's widow, Elizabeth, from various friends.

A diary (1854-1863) of Caroline Seabury during her residence in Columbus records her observations on slavery, the beauty of the countryside, her relations with Southerners, and, as the Civil War progressed, the battles fought, the effects of the war on the populace, and her journey north in 1863 through the army's lines.

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions:

Quotation or publication from the Caroline Seabury diary requires written permission.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Channing Seabury and Family Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 7677; 10,745; 10,792; 14,177; 14,361; 14,993

Processing Information:

Catalog ID number: 990017150560104294

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION


Location
P1523	Correspondence, undated and 1855, 1863-1867.
		Consists of nine letters written by Channing Seabury to his aunt and uncle, Edwin D. and Mary L. Plimpton, Brooklyn, New York. The first letter (December 11, 1855) was written by Seabury from Bridgwater and gives data on his schooling and on Caroline and her school. The rest of the letters (1865-67) were written by Seabury from St. Paul, Minnesota, and give fairly detailed accounts of his relationships with Amherst H. Wilder and the grocery firm. Also included are detailed descriptions of hunting expeditions on the Mississippi River, his new house, the weather, his future plans, the Minnesota wheat crop, lumber business, financial affairs of the First National Bank of St. Paul, family news, and his reasons for breaking his association with Wilder.


		Correspondence, 1904-1907.
			Contains letters from artists commissioned to paint murals for the walls of the Minnesota state capitol. Correspondents include artists Edwin Blashfield, Kenyon Cox, Edward Simmons, Howard Pyle, H. D. Walker, F. D. Millet, and F. G. Fogbaum, as well as Cass Gilbert, Booth Tarkington, and Knute Nelson. Many of the letters contain personal remarks and thank the Seaburys for their hospitality.


		Correspondence, 1910-1934.
			Consists of scattered letters to Seabury's widow, Elizabeth, from various friends and includes an undated letter from Caroline Seabury to her uncle and a letter from "Caddie" in Drews Mills, Washington Territory, to his sister, describing the area..


		Diary, 1854-1863.
			Kept by Caroline Seabury, sister of Channing, while teaching in a Female Seminary in Columbus, Mississippi, the diary opens with Seabury's departure from the Jersey City Ferry on October 7, 1854, the beginning of her trip south to Columbus, Mississippi. The notes on the trip are extensive (pp. 3-19). There is information on the journey by train to Washington, D.C., by boat for fifty miles on the Potomac, by train from Acquia Creek to Montgomery (with intermittent rides on ferries and boats), and a 150-mile trip by stage from Montgomery to Columbus. There is very little comment on her experiences as a teacher in the Institute. Most of the entries for her years in Columbus deal with the institution of slavery, the beauty of the country, her growing appreciation of Southerners, the health of her sister Martha (who came to stay with her and to teach in the South), and the smallpox epidemic in 1857. Particularly vivid is her description of the hiring of and bidding for Negro slaves.
			With the growing crisis between the North and South, Seabury's position in the South became very difficult. She reports on June 1, 1860, that "The last election seemed to arouse all the sleeping demons of hate towards the North, and let them loose in this land, but this promises for more bitter fruits--if words mean anything." On a visit to the North in the summer of 1860, she was repelled by the violence of feeling observed there, and she returned to the South with her feelings of friendship for her people there heightened: "Not that I love or believe in the institution of Slavery..." She reports her feelings as South Carolina and Mississippi seceded, when the people "were trying to make it a joyful event." "It brings no such to me, it seems more like a leap in the dark flying from ills which perhaps we have to more dreadful ones we know not." When she heard that the North expected that the war would be over in three months, she wrote that "They can understand little of the terrible earnestness with which all women as well as men have entered into it."
			As the war went on, she wrote of the battles, the Southerners' firm belief in victory, the reports of Northern brutality, the brutalizing effect of war on everyone, and her experiences in the hospital at Columbus when 800 wounded men were brought in from the battle of Shiloh.
			When, in 1862, the principal of the Institute decided to employ only teachers of Southern birth, Miss Seabury went to a plantation close to Columbus to tutor the daughters of the owner. Here she describes the customs of the plantation dwellers (briefly) and her increasing desire to back home to the North. Her thoughts went constantly to St. Paul, Minnesota, where her brother Channing Seabury lived. An interesting interlude during her stay at the plantation was the visit of a "hard shelled Baptist minister." She paraphrases his sermon. Also described are a country wedding of two slaves, and a barbecue.
			In July, 1863, Caroline received news that she might be able to go through the lines and return to her home. She went to the Piney Woods, close to Waverly, Mississippi, where she met a wagoner who had agreed to take her through the lines. As she made the long trip by wagon, she saw many whites and Blacks fleeing from federal troops, saw sickness, poverty, and hunger. Southerners along the way described the struggle as "the rich folk's war." She went through West Point, Mississippi, swarming with soldiers, and through Coffeeville, Greenwood, and Panola, Mississippi. She passed through the lines at Coldwater. When she arrived in Northern territory, she made a Union flag. When she reached Memphis, she went by boat and train to Cincinnati, and then, finally, home to New York.
			The diary is not a day-by-day account; rather Caroline prepared long entries whenever she had something of interest to report. Since she records in the diary that she intended to take shorthand notes on her experiences, it is possible that the actual entries were made sometime after their occurrence.
			The last pages of the diary contain samples of United States and Confederate currency, pictures of Civil War leaders, and newspaper clippings on the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination.


		Diary (transcript), 1854-1863.
			Prepared in the 1980s by Mankato State University professor Suzanne L. Bunkers. It also contains a few biographical notes on Caroline.


		Newspaper clippings, undated and 1860-1870.
			Pertains to the Civil War and contains a copy of a speech delivered in the United States Senate by Hiram Rhodes of Mississippi, entitled: "How Slavery was Destroyed."


		Miscellaneous, 1936, 1955.
			Contains a reminiscence by Seabury's daughter about her father (1936) and a memorandum (1955) about the diary of Caroline Seabury.


		Research notes on the Seabury family, 1987-1988.
			Genealogical, biographical, and vital statistics information (all photocopies) relating to Caroline Seabury, including a genealogical chart, and biographical information concerning her ancestors and siblings; a copy of her death certificate (1893); a cemetery plot diagram (Oakland Cemetery, St. Paul); obituaries of Channing, Caroline, and John Seabury; and articles relating to the Columbus Female Institute and Waverly Plantation. These materials were all used by Mankato State University professor Suzanne Bunkers, their donor, when she edited Caroline's diary for publication.

RELATED MATERIAL

A published version of the diary of Caroline Seabury (1854-1863) is located in the Minnesota Historical Society reference library.

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CATALOG HEADINGS

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:: African Americans -- Social conditions.; Agriculture -- Minnesota.; Architects -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.; Artists -- United States.; Education -- Mississippi.; Mural painting and decoration -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.; Slavery -- United States.

Persons:: Blashfield, Edwin Howland, 1848-1936.; Cox, Kenyon, 1856-1919.; Fogbaum, R. G.; Gilbert, Cass, 1859-1934.; Larpenteur, Auguste Louis, 1823-1919.; Millet, Francis Davis, 1846-1912.; Nelson, Knute, 1843-1923.; Plimpton family.; Pyle, Howard, 1853-1911.; Seabury, Caroline, 1827-1893.; Simmons, Edward, 1852-1931.; Tarkington, Booth, 1869-1946.; Walker, H. O. (Henry Oliver).; Wilder, Amherst Holcomb, 1828-1894.

Organizations:: Minnesota State Capitol (Saint Paul, Minn. : 1905- ) -- Pictorial works.; Minnesota. Board of State Capitol Commissioners.

Places:: Columbus (Miss.) -- Description and travel.; Confederate States of America.; Saint Paul (Minn.) -- Commerce.; Saint Paul (Minn.) -- Social life and customs.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- African Americans.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Public opinion.

Document Types:: Diaries.

Occupations:: Businessmen -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.; Teachers -- Mississippi -- Columbus.

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