Guide to the Mitchell and Barnes Families Papers,
1791-1999

Papers consist primarily of correspondence, land and other legal documents, daybooks, photographs, and clippings. Early documents largely concern the transfer and use of land in central and eastern New York. Much of the correspondence comprises letters to Harriet (Hattie) Newell Mitchell (1822-1899) and her sister, Charlotte (Lottie) E. Mitchell (1834-1916), daughters of John (1798-1886) and Phoebe Tichenor Mitchell (1801-1837), and letters to Emily (Minnie) Ann Mitchell, daughter of William I. (1825-1904) and Emily Ann Steenberg Mitchell (1826-1847); other major correspondents include Orrin S. Wood (1817-1909), brother-in-law of Ezra Cornell, Bradford T. Mitchell (1837-1879), William L. Mitchell (1825-1904), and Amelia Mitchell (Mrs. Henry Preswick, 1829-1912). Also, autograph book of Minnie Mitchell, including poems by David Starr Jordan and members of the Grove Literary Society, 1871; and composite photograph of members of the Winter Course Rice Poultry Club, 1913-1914.

This correspondence concerns the death of Orrin Wood's wife of only ten months (Mary I. Mitchell, 1821-1842), his trip to Maine with Ezra Cornell and other travels, his impressions of Washington, D.C., where he went to learn telegraphy, his work in Canada with the Montreal Telegraph Company and with several New York telegraph posts, including the Utica telegraph office, and his marriage to Julia Forbes; Bradford T. Mitchell's work, also in telegraphy, in various places including Ottawa, Illinois, where he married Mary Miller, speculation in gold, silver, and Treasury notes with the aid of the telegraph, politics, his partnership in a boot and shoe business, and their move from Illinois to Utica; Emily (Minnie) Mitchell's visit to Saratoga Co., her marriage to Samuel Burling Barnes (1852-1908), her feelings regarding living with her in-laws on a farm in White Plains, N.Y., housekeeping, social life, relatives, and children, especially her daughter Harriet M. Barnes ("Little Hattie," 1886-1957); and, in letters from Hattie and Lottie, farming on land east of Ithaca, N.Y., friends and relatives, and events in the Ithaca area. Additional correspondents include Ella L. Atwater, Samuel Barnes, M. K. A. Benchley, Esther M. Boughton (Mrs. Henry Landon), Sarah Butts, William N. Cobb, Carrie J. Dodge, Armitta Drake, Mary J. Edwards, G. C. Hall, M. C. Johnston, David Starr Jordan, Mary Ann Miller Mitchell, Hiram Morse, E. R. Pinkney, Cornelia Preswick,

Eugene Henry Preswick (Cornell University Class of 1883), Orrin C. Steenberg, Fred I. Steenberg, Emily Ann Steenberg, and Hoffman and Catherine Steenberg. Also included are daybooks (ca.1806-1835) containing financial records and medical remedies; Minnie Mitchell's diary of 1869, which relates to everyday accounts of work, church, friends, family, and visits to Saratoga Co.; and class notes, examinations, and laboratory instructions of Harriet M. Barnes (Cornell University Class of 1912). Material deals with areas of Allegany, Cayuga, Chemung, Dutchess, Montgomery, Onondaga, Saratoga, Tioga, Tompkins, Washington, and Westchester Counties.

Also, two "family record" cross-stitch samplers in wicker trays with glass tops; pressed and mounted botanical specimens; and dressmaking paterns, including the "Rodmure" by Annie R. Dick, Albany, N.Y.