Letter from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman, concerning her dreams, missing her father, visiting Pacific University, and runaway Indian boys.
Letter from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman. She discusses her light workload at the Indian Training School, cleaning her house, and a description of gifts she sent.
Letter from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman, on decorating, teaching at the Indian Training School, and receiving bills.
Letter from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman, on a weekend trip to Portland, teaching at the Indian Training School, and the weather.
Letter from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman, on the local news, requesting news from her father, her own illness, and a future visit.
Envelope from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman. This letter was placed in the care of Mary's uncle, Francis Denison. Francis was the brother of Mary Denison Lyman and lived from 1813 to 1892.
Letter from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman. She reports the death of Joseph Unthank (1815-1883) and her decision to quit her teaching job at the Indian Training School to study music.
End of a letter from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman. She requests that they wait to return home until all of their party can join them.
An unsigned letter by Elizabeth Theresa Boise (1826-1904) to Mary Denison Lyman (1828-1874) regarding race relations in Salem, Oregon. The letter discusses the marriage of an African American woman named America Waldo in Salem in early January, 1863.
Boise recounts attending the wedding along with some other white women and two white men. (Other sources identify America Waldo's husband as Richard Bogle, also an African American.) She describes how the next day, the people of Salem verbally attacked them for having participated in the integrated wedding, and that their names were published in two newspapers in order to shame them. Boise goes on to describe other unrest regarding race relations, including tensions over the preaching of the abolitionist Congregational Church minister Obed Dickinson ("a monomaniac upon the negro equality question"); and the birth of a mixed-race baby to a woman named Roxanna. This was very likely Roxanna Holmes, an African American woman whose parents were brought to Oregon as slaves in 1844.
The letter is unsigned, but the writer has been identified as Elizabeth Theresa Boise (1826-1904) by researcher Brian W. Johnson. Boise was an unmarried woman teacher who immigrated from Massachusetts to Oregon in 1853-54. At the time this letter was written, she was likely teaching in or near Salem. She had known Mary Denison Lyman for at least nine years. Mary's husband, Rev. Horace Lyman, had been the head teacher at La Creole Academy near Dallas, Oregon, circa 1855, while Elizabeth was the assistant teacher. The "Reuben" mentioned in this letter was Elizabeth's brother, Judge Reuben Boise; and the "Ellen" mentioned was Reuben's wife, Ellen Frances Lyon Boise.
Letter from Margaret Duncan Lyman to her father-in-law, Reverend Lyman, and to her husband/cousin, Horace Sumner Lyman. She expresses her concern for him and how much she misses him.
Letter from Margaret Duncan Lyman to her father-in-law, Reverend Lyman, and to her husband/cousin, Horace Sumner Lyman. She gives her husband tips on contacting her and discusses the weather.
Letter from Margaret Duncan Lyman to her father-in-law, Reverend Horace Lyman and to her husband/cousin, Horace Sumner Lyman. She discusses family health, photographs, and a forgotten umbrella. Her letter is short and hurried, since she is trying to finish before the stagecoach arrives.
