Dusenbury Family Collection
Scope and Contents
The Dusenbury Family Collection provides a glimpse into the everyday life of members of the Dusenbury family in the 19th century. The bulk of the collection consists of personal letters written to Celestia Deuel (nee Bishop), and other members of the Bishop, Conde, and Warriner Families. Subject matter generally focuses on health and farm related issues. Reference to events such as the California Gold Rush and the Civil War can be found in a few letters (1849 and 1863-1864, respectively).
A small portion of the letters, (1848-1854) either discuss or are written in a form of shorthand described by the writers as “fonography.” The shorthand resembles Pitman Shorthand, which was introduced by Isaac Pitman in the mid-1800s and was referred to as “phonographic writing” (Pitman, 1915)
In addition to the personal letters, the collection includes a genealogy detailing the Dusenbury family line from the 1600’s through 1990 and miscellaneous ephemera. The ephemera include such diverse items as an 1895-1896 almanac and a 1943 gas ration card.
References
Pitman, Benn and Jerome B. Howard. The Phonographic Dictionary and Phrase Book. Cincinnati : The Phonographic Institute Company, 1915.
Dates
- Creation: 1840 - 1991
- Creation: Majority of material found within Bulk 1846-1854
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright has been assigned to the San José State University Library Special Collections & Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the SJSU Special Collections & Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital reproductions of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Biographical / Historical
The bulk of the Dusenbury Family Collection consists of personal letters sent to Celestia Bishop Deuel. Mrs. Deuel, born Celestia Bishop in Indiana in 1830, spent much of her childhood and young adult life in Whitewater, Wisconsin. She married Theodore C. Deuel in 1852 in Bradford County, Wisconsin. The Deuels lived in Kansas from 1859-1860, when they moved back to Wisconsin for a short time before returning to Kansas in 1866. In 1883, Theodore and Celestia Deuel were living in Fairmount, Kansas and had ten children (Cutler, 1883). Newspaper clippings found in the collection indicate that the Deuels relocated to Fullerton, California, around 1901. Mrs. Deuel died in 1912. Mrs. Deuel is connected to the Dusenbury family through the marriage of her daughter, Samantha Estelle Deuel to Frank Elmer Dusenbury in 1894 (Carver, 1991).
References
Cutler, William G. Leavenworth County, Part 42, in History of the State of Kansas. Chicago, IL. : A.T. Andreas, 1883. http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/leavenworth/leavenworth-co-p42.html
Carver, Margaret Robinson. “A Dusenbury genealogy : being principally a study of the ancestors and descendants of Moses Dusenbury, Jr. (1750-1840) and his sister Elizabeth (Dusenbury) Gager with notes on the allied families Robertson, Jagger - Jager - Gager, Mudge, Redfield, Winne.” Revised Edition. 1991.
Extent
1 Box
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Dusenbury Family Collection provides a glimpse into the everyday life of members of the Dusenbury family in the 19th century. The bulk of the collection consists of personal letters written to Celestia Deuel (nee Bishop), and other members of the Bishop, Conde, and Warriner Families. Included is a genealogy detailing the Dusenbury family line from the 1600’s through 1990 and miscellaneous ephemera. Mrs. Deuel’s connection to the Dusenbury family is through the marriage of her daughter, Samantha Estelle Deuel to Frank Elmer Dusenbury in 1894.
Arrangement
The Dusenbury Family Collection is arranged in to two series: Series I: Personal Letters; Series II: Genealogy and Ephemera. Series I, Personal Letters is arranged alphabetically by sender and then recipient followed by date. Series II, Genealogy, is arranged with the Dusenbury Genealogy placed first followed by an alphabetical by format arrangement of the ephemera.
Physical Location
Vault 1: Range 21A, Bay 22
Processing Information
Processed by: Nissa Nack Reviewed by: Danelle Moon Date completed: 2014
Cultural context
Function
Genre / Form
Geographic
- Title
- Dusenbury Family Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Nissa Nack
- Date
- 2014
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the SJSU Special Collections & Archives Repository
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
San José State University
One Washington Square
San José, CA 95192-0028
(408) 808-2062
(408) 808-2063 (Fax)
special.collections@sjsu.edu