Guide to the Fordyce Family Papers,
1839-1979

Collection consists of correspondence, account books, notebooks, photographs and deeds of the Fordyce family of Scipio Center, Cayuga County and Monroe County, New York. Includes letters and papers of the Nathaniel Horton Fordyce family of Monroe County, New York, 1839-1925, 1969. Many of them are letters to Nathaniel and Henrietta's daughter, Cornelia, a schoolteacher, from sisters Helen, Frances and Mary, her brother Horton and from Henrietta. Also, courtship letters of Horton (Nathaniel Horton, Jr.) Fordyce to Julia Heusner of Rochester, New York, and other letters from Heusner and Fordyce friends and relatives, 1846-1919. Includes letters to Cornelia Fordyce from family and friends, 1851-1919, some written by cousins fighting in the Civil War, 1861-1864; letters from Addie Gilson to Cornelia Fordyce, 1877-1907; photocopies of letters, papers and clippings concerning the Ohio branch of the Fordyce family, 1890-1979; correspondence includes letters from Ernest Thompson Seton, field notes, glass slides, articles, and clippings, largely concerning ornithology, by and about George Lincoln Fordyce, a Cleveland businessman and naturalist. Also, daguerreotypes, portraits and photographs of family members and friends; photograph albums, newspaper clippings; wallpaper samples from the Fordyce house; menus, invitations, postcards and stock certificates; letters, scrapbooks and photographs from the travels of Oscar F. and Rebecca Fordyce Gayton.

This collection has been divided into parts by the donor; each is described below. The donor has made transcriptions of the first four parts plus two parts not included in the collection. There are photocopies of other papers also not included. Each part is arranged chronologically; the transcriptions are generally arranged alphabetically by author, and chronologically.

Letters and papers of the Fordyce family are housed in 6-3" legal size Hollinger boxes. The collection also includes 2-4" legal size boxes of portraits, photographs and albums, daguerreotypes; and 1-16" box containing five looseleaf notebooks of transcriptions.

Series I, 1839-1925, 1969, consists of the letters and papers of the Nathaniel Horton Fordyce family of Monroe County, New York, and of a few friends and relatives. Many of the letters are to Nathaniel and Henrietta Fordyce's daughter, Cornelia, a schoolteacher, from sisters Helen, Frances, and Mary, and brother Horton, and from Henrietta.
Boxes 1-2.

Series II, 1846-1919, is mostly the courtship letters of Horton (Nathaniel Horton, Jr.) to Julia Heusner of Rochester, whom he married in 1896. In them he discusses the progress of the rooms he is adding to the farmhouse at Scipio for their own use. (Julia died in 1898 in childbirth.) Other letters are from Heusner and Fordyce friends and relatives.
Box 3

Series III, 1851-1913. These letters are from more than fifty friends and relatives to Cornelia Fordyce. A few letters, 1861-1864, are written by cousins at the battlefront. The transcripts of these letters are alphabetically arranged by sender.
Boxes 4-5.

Series IV, 1877-1907. Addie Gilson is the author of this extensive correspondnce--she wrote at least weekly to Cornelia--filled with thoughts on religion, her infirmities, and news of various family members and friends. Addie apparently was confined to a wheelchair much of the time. Beside writing many letters, she used her time in bottling and distributing "Dr. Hammond's Great Remedy."
Boxes 5-10.

Series V, ca. 1890 and later, is transcriptions only and concerns the "Ohio Fordyces." It includes photocopies of papers and letters and newsclippings, and narratives by the donor about family members; also articles by and about George L. Fordyce, businessman and noted Cleveland naturalist.
Boxes 11-20.

(Appendix #1-6, looseleaf notebook, includes supplementary material, miscellany, notes for Part VI, copies of a few pages of Benjamin Fordyce's account book.)

Series VI. Additional papers. Louise G. Coulson material.
Boxes 21-43.