Alice and Ellen Stiles correspondence

Ellen E. Stiles was born August 9, 1836 in Southbury, CT and died May 26, 1914, in Southbury, CT. Rev. O. J. Munson (Series V) was among the ministers who officiated at her funeral. Alice Maria Stiles was born April 2, 1846 and died on 13 August, 1920, in Southbury, CT. Both sisters are buried in White Oak Cemetery, Southbury, CT. Their parents were Henry B. Stiles and Frances (Patty) C. Seeley, both born in Southbury. There was a third sister, Jennette, or perhaps Mary Jennette, born in 1833 or 1834, who married James Garnsey Curtiss in1860. Mary Jennette died in 1893. The couple had seven children. One of these, Mrs. Annie Summers of Woodbury, CT, was the informant for the death certificate of Alice Stiles. Alice left two nieces, two nephews and five great nephews and nieces, but was the last of her family (Stiles). Her obituary discloses that she was a devoted Methodist, joining the church at the age of 13.

Alice is the major correspondent in the collection. There are in fact very few letters written by Ellen (Nellie). Friends of the sisters became teachers in the post-Civil War period (Series VIII). Rose M. Kinney taught at Tillotson Collegiate & Normal Institute, Austin, TX, which opened in 1881. It became Huston-Tillotson in l952. It is today a largely black institution but has no racial policy. It is church-affiliated: United Methodist, United Church of Christ, also United Negro College Fund. The school is non-profit.

Lizzie Stevenson writes from Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama. The College was formed in 1865 as a private four year institution. It was founded as a school for the children of former slaves. The first building had been a Baptist Academy and was bought for $23,000 with 20 acres. In l869 the first charter for Talladega College was issued by a Probate Judge. The first Baccalaureate was l895, and the enrollment in 2006 is 642 students.

A letter from M. J. Robinson (Robbie) in 1878 finds her teaching at Straight University in New Orleans, LA. She writes that it has been the best year of her life. Straight University was founded in 1869, later became Straight College. Union Normal School, established in the same year was later named New Orleans University. Dillard University succeeded both, and was chartered in 1930. Straight University began as elementary level, later secondary, then collegiate and professional levels. It is a historically black school, related to United Methodist Church. In 1884 M. J. Robinson is teaching at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Coe College today has 1300 students in a four year program.