Arthur Edward Mattox and Hulda Florence Parks Mattox collection
Creator: Mattox, Hulda Florence Parks
Date: April 7, 1908 - December 21, 1908
These courtship letters were written by Arthur Edward Mattox, Turney, Missouri, and Hulda Florence Parks Mattox, McPherson, Kansas. They were married December 23, 1908, in McPherson, Kansas, and moved to Turney, Missouri, where they raised their children.

C. Whipple [Aaron.D. Stevens] to Jenny Dunbar
Creator: Stevens, Aaron D.
Date: October 7, 1859
The last of three "love letters" written by Aaron D. Stevens, alias Charles Whipple, to a girl he apparently had only recently met. He desperately desired a closer relationship. It was dated October 7, 1859, "near Harper's Ferry." (He had been writing for at least a month and had not received a letter from her.) Stevens rode with John Brown in Kansas, participated in the Harpers Ferry raid on October 18, 1859, and died on the Charlestown gallows in the spring of 1860.

Charles Arbuckle to Lewis Allen Alderson
Date: November 1831-August 1832
These four letters are from Charles Arbuckle to Lewis Allen Alderson. Arbuckle writes from Alderson's hometown of Lewisburg, West Virginia. In the letters, Arbuckle encourages Alderson to propose to Miss Lucy B. Miles, whom Alderson marries the day after he graduates from the University of Ohio in 1832. Arbuckle states that "an amiable woman next to religion is man's greatest consolation" but he seeks to remain a bachelor himself. Arbuckle also attended the Staunton Convention leading up to the election of 1832. Alderson later moved to Atchison, Kansas, in 1858 and was a prominent Baptist minister. He died in Atchison in 1881.

Civil War Valentine
Date: between 1861 and 1865
Joseph Forrest sent Valentines to Elizabeth Ehrhart during the Civil War. They were residents of Macon County, Illinois, and became engaged in 1858. Joseph enlisted on July 25, 1861 at Decatur, Illinois and fought as a private with Co. A of 8th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. The couple married Aug. 9, 1863. The Forrests moved to Jewell County, Kansas in 1872, where Joseph served as a Methodist Minister. In 1875, they moved to Minneapolis, Kansas.

Civil War Valentine
Creator: W. Momberger
Date: between 1861 and 1865
Joseph Forrest sent Valentines to Elizabeth Ehrhart during the Civil War. They were residents of Macon County, Illinois, and became engaged in 1858. Joseph enlisted on July 25, 1861 at Decatur, Illinois and fought as a private with Co. A of 8th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. The couple married Aug. 9, 1863. The Forrests moved to Jewell County, Kansas in 1872, where Joseph served as a Methodist Minister. In 1875, they moved to Minneapolis, Kansas.

Civil War Valentine
Date: between 1861 and 1865
Joseph Forrest sent Valentines to Elizabeth Ehrhart during the Civil War. They were residents of Macon County, Illinois, and became engaged in 1858. Joseph enlisted on July 25, 1861 at Decatur, Illinois and fought as a private with Co. A of 8th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. The couple married Aug. 9, 1863. The Forrests moved to Jewell County, Kansas in 1872, where Joseph served as a Methodist Minister. In 1875, they moved to Minneapolis, Kansas.

Clifford W. Beers papers
Creator: Beers, Clifford Whittingham, 1876-1943
Date: 1903-1955
Beers' papers, largely, consist of handwritten and typed incoming and outgoing letters, as well as some correspondence about Beers. Correspondents include some family members, such as his wife Clara's parents and Clifford's brother George, but mostly include friends and acquaintances, such as Erua Geuil Perriu, Marie O.Ley, Paul "Mac" McQuaid, Elizabeth Warner, Louise Gaffney, Dr. and Mrs. Toulouse, Mary Louise Bok, William and Alice James, and others. The subjects of the letters mostly concern Beers' efforts toward bettering the lives of patients with mental illnesses and the publication of his book, A Mind that Found Itself. The materials also include Beers' courtship letters to Miss Jepson (parts of which were removed by Clara before she donated them to the Menninger Foundation, as she deemed them too personal) and letters he wrote to her after they were married. Some letters are in French.

Guy Alfred Coover Collection
Creator: Coover, Guy Alfred
Date: 1898 - 1907
This is a collection of letters written by Guy A. (Alfred) Coover to Mrs. M. (Margaret) T. Coover, his mother, during the Philippine-American War, and related newsclippings. Coover was a member of Company D, 20th Regiment, Kansas Infantry and the letters date from 1898 to 1899. Margaret Coover lived in Walnut, Kansas. Guy Coover was mustered in on June 14, 1898 as a private, promoted to corporal on July 27, 1899, and mustered out with his regiment. Letters from Guy Coover to his wife Gertrude Dutton of Springfield, Missouri are also included. Two other items in the Coover Collection are available on Kansas Memory as separate items: a broadside titled To My Countrymen The Americans (scan forthcoming); and a Roster of the 20th Regiment, Kansas Infantry (item 442386).

J. W. Cummings to Harold Fatzer
Creator: Cummings, J. W.
Date: November 27, 1953
In this letter J. W. Cummings, a resident of Kansas City, Kansas, appeals to state attorney general Harold Fatzer to not desegregate public schools. According to Cummings, integration would lead to miscegenation and would be the downfall of society. He writes that "we must keep our country great by not permitting a Policing action forcing communities into a like pattern, forming a state against our will. We must have the liberty of community majority choice, to accept or reject the kind of life our children live." He also believed that those causing this "unrest" were violating the principles of democracy and had been unduly influenced by Communist doctrine.

James Griffing to J. Augusta Goodrich
Creator: Griffing, James S. (James Sayre), 1822-1882
Date: August 29, 1855
James Griffing wrote from the steamboat New Lucy on the Missouri River to his fiancee, J. Augusta Goodrich, in Owego, New York. Griffing, a Methodist minister, was on his way back to New York to get married. He commented upon the concerns that Ms. Goodrich likely was experiencing as she prepared to leave her New York home to join him in Kansas Territory. Griffing tried to convince Ms. Goodrich that they would make a good home for themselves in Kansas. He also expressed the opinion that the "excitement upon the slavery question" in Kansas Territory was exaggerated, and that serious violence over the issue was unlikely.

Leigh R. Webber to Miss Brown
Creator: Webber, L. R.
Date: May 28, 1862-May 29, 1862
A letter written by Leigh R. Webber from "Steamer Robert Campbell Jr. near Liberty Mo.," is addressed to Miss Brown, a daughter of John Stillman Brown, a Unitarian minister who lived west of Lawrence, Kansas. Webber describes how his fellow troops have become more experienced soldiers "who fight for liberty and law." He discusses the march from Fort Riley to Fort Leavenworth and conditions on the boat that was taking them further south. He also mentiones William Brown's new law position with former Kansas Territory governor Wilson Shannon.

Letters to Kate Newland
Date: 1862-1890
Collection of letters to Kate Newland from several acquaintances, one being Vinnie Ream. Some were written by her romantic suitors, including Samuel Stephens, William Nelson, J.H. Malott, A. McCartney, Alex W. Johnston, A.T. Herbert, Lewis Stafford, and Jacob Sproat, the man she eventually married.

Lewis Stafford to Kate Newland
Creator: Stafford, Lewis
Date: March 26, 1861-January 24, 1863
These letters are from a larger collection of Civil War letters written by Lewis Stafford of Grasshopper Falls, Kansas, to his girlfriend Kate Newland, also of Grasshopper Falls and later Lecompton and Topeka. Stafford served in Company E of the 1st Kansas Infantry as a Lieutenant and then a Captain. The regiment was formed at Fort Leavenworth. The headings on the letters are from various locations and give a sense of where his regiment was stationed. The locations include Fort Leavenworth, KS; Chillicothe, MO; Tipton, MO; Lawrence, KS; Fort Scott, KS; Fort Riley, KS; Trenton, TN; Corinth, MS; Grand Junction, TN; and on the Mississippi River. Almost all of the letters include expressions of his feelings for Miss Newland and he conveys his emotions about her quite eloquently. Many of the letters describe the movement of the regiment from this place to that, the social life (including mentions of drunkenness) in the Kansas towns where they are staying--particularly after pay was received, and rumors about where they would be sent. Others include his impressions of the areas through which they were traveling and details of his day-to-day military activities. Stafford died in a logging accident on January 31, 1863, at Young's Point, Louisiana. For the present, the scanned transcripts follow the handwritten letters.

Lewis Stafford to Kate Newland correspondence
Creator: Stafford, Lewis, d. 1863
Date: March 1861-January 1863
Civil War letters written by Lewis Stafford of Grasshopper Falls, Kansas, to his girlfriend Kate Newland, also of Grasshopper Falls and later Lecompton and Topeka. Stafford served in Company E of the 1st Kansas Infantry as a Lieutenant and then a Captain. The regiment was formed at Fort Leavenworth. The headings on the letters are from various locations and give a sense of where his regiment was stationed. The locations include Fort Leavenworth, KS; Chillicothe, MO; Tipton, MO; Lawrence, KS; Fort Scott, KS; Fort Riley, KS; Trenton, TN; Corinth, MS; Grand Junction, TN; and on the Mississippi River. Almost all of the letters include expressions of his feelings for Miss Newland and he conveys his emotions about her quite eloquently. Many of the letters describe the movement of the regiment from this place to that, the social life (including mentions of drunkenness) in the Kansas towns where they are staying--particularly after pay was received, and rumors about where they would be sent. Others include his impressions of the areas through which they were traveling and details of his day-to-day military activities. Stafford died in a logging accident on January 31, 1863, at Young's Point, Louisiana.

Ralph Prickett and Keturah Rathbun near Simpson, Kansas
Date: 1917
This is a photograph of Ralph Prickett and Keturah Rathbun near Simpson, Kansas. Ralph and Keturah were married May 11, 1919.

Sene Campbell to James Montgomery
Creator: Campbell, Sene
Date: January 4, 1859
Sene Campbell, writing from Fort Scott, Kansas Territory, to Captain James Montgomery, expresses her anger at Montgomery for his role in the killing of her fiance, John Little. Little was killed on December 16, 1858, at Fort Scott by a group of free state supporters led by Montgomery, who had entered the town to free Benjamin Rice, a free state advocate being held prisoner there. This is an unusual letter from a female threatening violence in response to the death of husband-to-be.

Spencer Kellogg Brown to Kitty Cordelia Gould Brown
Creator: Brown, Spencer Kellogg, 1842-1863
Date: April 15, 1860
This letter, written from Osawatomie by Spencer Brown, was addressed to his older sister Kitty (Cordelia Gould) Brown. He playfully berated her for sending a "microscopic" letter, and he offered her his personal opinion about her current suitor, describing this young man as a "milk-and-water infant." In general, the letter gave an intimate glimpse into this sister/brother relationship and demonstrated that even during hard times, life continued.

Walker Winslow correspondence
Creator: Winslow, Walker, 1905-1969
Date: circa 1943 - 1969, undated (bulk 1948-1951)
This handwritten and typed correspondence is between Walker Winslow (also under the name Harold Maine) and his third wife, Edna Manley Winslow. The letters can be chatty and newsy, providing details about each of their daily lives and activities, what they were reading or music to which they were listening, their work (his writing and therapy, her writing and painting), and other related topics. The letters can be very self-reflective and analytical regarding their relationship to each other, relationships with others, their health and various injuries and illnesses they each had, money, their mutual loneliness, Edna's drinking, and other topics. There is also correspondence with friends and relatives of Winslow and/or Edna, Winslow family photographs, some sketches Edna drew, and extensive correspondence between Winslow and Dr. Karl Menninger. Walker Winslow was the author of "The Menninger Story" and "If A Man Be Mad." Some of the letters were written while Winslow was working at and writing in Topeka, Kansas. They were also written while the Winslows lived separately in Santa Fe, New Mexico; various parts of California (especially Big Sur or Oakland); various parts of New York (especially Rochester and New York City); and in Kansas. The letters document the rise and fall of their brief and intense relationship. Given the nature of some of the content, several pieces of correspondence have not been made available on Kansas Memory, but they are still available to researchers.