Fitch family correspondence, 1845-1868

Full finding aid (pdf)

Collection Scope and Content

The Fitch family letters contain letters from multiple members of the Fitch family. The bulk of the letters are from Frances (Fannie) Anderson to her cousin Mary Perley (nee Fitch); these letters are posted from Paris, Savannah, Georgia, and Bridgton, Maine. The second largest collection of letters is from Almira Fitch to her daughter, Caroline. There are also multiple dance hall cards from Portland, Maine dances throughout 1848 signed by Henry Perley.

Biographical/Historical Note

Luther Fitch (1803-1877) was a resident of Portland, Maine and served as a Judge of Probate. He and his wife Rebecca had seven children: Mary, Caroline, Harriet, Almira, Andrew T., Edward, and Luther. Andrew T. Fitch, a physician, moved to New York in 1853, having failed to obtain a job at Chelsea Hospital (Mass.). Luther Fitch, M.D. (b. 1821) moved to California in 1850 and settled in Foster’s Bar, Yuba County where he mined for gold and ran a medical practice. Edward Fitch pursued a real estate and brokerage business in Chicago, in partnership with Frederick Harding. In 1853, he married Helen Adelaide Hovey (b. 1838). Mary Fitch married Henry Perley in 1851, and Perley died in 1860 at the age of 37. They had one child, George Allen Perley, who died in 1858. Mary never remarried and spent most of her time visiting friends and relatives in Maine society, and traveling abroad.