Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts and Archives Department

PLUMB-FAILEY-PARROTT FAMILY
PAPERS, 1814-1910

Collection #
M 0003
OM 0126

Table of Contents

Collection Information
Historical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Folder Listing
Cataloging Information

Processed by
Charles Latham
2 October 1994

COLLECTION INFORMATION

HISTORICAL SKETCH

This collection concerns several generations of the Plumb family, originally of Barnstable, Massachusetts, which married into the Coffin family of Nantucket, and the Failey family, one member of which married a member of the Parrott family of Indianapolis.

A principal source of the letters is Sarah Cannon (Sturtevant) of Nantucket (fl. 1826-1836). She writes regularly to her aunt in Hudson, New York, who is married to Samuel Plumb, a merchant. Most of the letters are addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Plumb.

Samuel Plumb's brother, Jared Plumb (born 1788), began life in Barnstable, and moved by stages to Washington (Court House), Ohio, where he settled in 1831. He married Alice Coffin of Nantucket (born 1790). Their granddaughter, Cora Plumb, married James F. Failey, who had moved to Indianapolis from St. Albans, Vermont. The son of this couple, Robert B. Failey (1884-1970) of Indianapolis, married Mary Parrott, the daughter of Burton E. Parrott and Lusa Comingore.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

This collection, filling one manuscript box and one oversize folder, contains correspondence, photographs, and clippings dated 1814-1910. It is arranged chronologically.

The bulk of the correspondence, dated 1826-1836 (Folders 2-5), is addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Plumb of Hudson, New York. Samuel Plumb receives letters from his brother, Jared Plumb, who moves to Washington, Ohio, during the period. Mrs. Plumb receives letters from female relatives in Nantucket, particularly her niece, Sarah Cannon, who in 1832 becomes Sarah Sturtevant.

Perhaps the most interesting correspondent is Jared Plumb. On 1-17-1831 he describes moving to Ohio and his prospects there. On 5-18-1834 and 11-4-1834 he discourses on the Erie Canal, Jacksonian politics, and the pestiferous climate of Ohio. On 2-15-1853, visiting in Hudson, he writes to his wife about lectures he has recently heard about events in Europe: Louis Kossuth, Louis Napoleon, and the young Emperor Francis Joseph, whom he describes at 21 as "a most contemptible character, dissolute and abandoned to debauchery," pursuing a course "calculated to form a complete and unfeeling tyrant"-- a far cry from the benevolent grandfather figure of Viennese operettas. The collection also contains (Folders 6, OM 126) commissions of Joseph C. Plumb as notary public, dated 1863 and 1890.

The collection also contains several photographs; these include several portraits of Jared C. Plumb, once described as "the best dressed man in Cincinnati" (Folders 9, 10). Also of interest are three pictures of the interior of the Burton E. Parrott residence at 1314 North Alabama Street in Indianapolis, taken about 1900.

FOLDER LISTING

CATALOGING INFORMATION

For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:

1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog
2. Click on the "Local Catalog" icon.
3. Search for the collection by its call number, using the letter or letters designation and four digits (e.g., M 0715, SC 2234).
4. When you find the collection, go to the "Holdings" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.

END