Augustus Wattles collection

Biographical sketch: Augustus Wattles was born to a Quaker family in Lebanon, Connecticut on 7 August 1807. He attended the Oneida Institute in Whitestown, New York and later entered the Lane Theological Seminary near Cincinnati, Ohio. There he began organizing schools for African American boys and interesting himself in the abolitionist cause. He traveled to New York to lecture on the subject, and he arranged to buy land in Ohio upon which to settle former slaves from Kentucky so that they could provide for themselves; this became a center for the Underground Railroad. He also at this time married Susan E. Lowe, from Whitesborough, New York.

In 1855, soon after Kansas territory opened for settlement, Wattles moved his family to Washington creek in Douglas County. In 1857 they moved to Moneka, Linn County. Acquainted with John Brown, he did not agree with Brown's violent methods, though he did not participate in a planned rescue attempt after Brown was captured at Harpers Ferry.

Wattles died in Mound City, Linn County at the age of 69 in 1876.

Abstract: The collection mostly consists of photocopies and typed transcripts of correspondence to and from the Wattles family. These letters include correspondence between Wattles family members, such as Susan to her husband Augustus or to Susan from her grandchildren, 1847-1893; as well as letters from Clarina Irene Nichols to Susan Lowe Wattles, 1859-1861, among other correspondents. Also in the collection is a biographical sketch and Across Missouri in 1863 written by Emma Wattles Morse, Augustus Wattles' granddaughter.