The Denby Family

A Register of Its Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Laura J. Kells

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2002

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2007

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms007015

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Copyright Status:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Charles Denby (1830-1904)

Charles Denby (1861-1938)

Edwin Denby

Scope and Content Note

Arrangement of the Papers

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of the Denby family were given to the Library of Congress by Gilbert Wilkes in 2001 and 2002.

The status of copyright in the unpublished writings by members of the Denby family is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Denby Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

The papers of the Denby family span the years 1850-1911 and consist primarily of correspondence and related matter exchanged among family members. The bulk of the letters are between Charles Denby (1830-1904), a lawyer and minister to China, his wife Martha Fitch Denby (“Mattie”), and their children Graham, Charles, Harriet (“Hattie” and “Ethel”), Wythe, Edwin (“Ned”), and Thomas Garvin (“Garvin”). Charles Denby (1861-1938) was also a diplomat in China, and Edwin Denby served as a member of the United States Congress and as secretary of the navy. There are also letters from Martha’s mother, Harriet Satterlee Fitch (“Moo”) and her father Graham Newell Fitch, a doctor who served as United States senator from Indiana.

The major portion of the correspondence from the 1850s is between Charles Denby and Martha Fitch during their two-year engagement. The letters document their long-distance courtship. Charles was a young lawyer in Evansville, Indiana, struggling to make enough money to marry Martha. She was from Logansport, Indiana, and spent part of the time in Washington, D.C., while her father served in Congress.

During the Civil War Charles Denby wrote letters from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama while serving as lieutenant colonel in the Forty-Second Indiana Volunteers. Those from October 1862 describe the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, in which Denby was slightly injured and his horse killed. In late 1862, Denby was appointed colonel of the Eightieth Indiana Volunteers headquartered in Columbia, Kentucky. In addition to describing camp life and home life during this period, correspondence between Charles and Martha Denby indicates that she traveled to visit him while he was in camp in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as at Columbia. An undated account relates to Martha’s stay in the deserted mansion of Clement C. Clay in Huntsville, Alabama.

Correspondence from the mid 1860s through the 1870s records births, deaths, illnesses, and other activities of the growing Denby family, local and national events, and Charles Denby’s work as a lawyer. There are numerous letters from the Denbys’ son Charles (1861-1938) describing his life at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and from their daughter Harriet, who attended Hellmuth Ladies’ College in London, Ontario, Canada.

The Denby family resided in China from 1885 until 1905, starting when the elder Charles Denby was appointed minister to China. He held this post for thirteen years during which time some of the children returned to the United States. Martha Denby made the long trip between the United States and China several times to tend to family members. Son Charles (1861-1938) spent the longest time in China, working in diplomatic service and in business. Edwin Denby served in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service for seven years and wrote letters from Macao, where he was stationed for part of this period. Letters from China describe the official, social, and domestic lives of the diplomatic community in Peking. The Sino-Japanese War and the Boxer Rebellion are discussed in the correspondence. Lengthy letters between family members separated by great distances document efforts to the keep each other informed of events in their lives and indicate the emotional and financial problems caused by the slowness and unreliability of the mail.

The Spanish-American War is also treated in the correspondence. Son Edwin and son-in-law Gilbert Wilkes served aboard the Yosemite (auxiliary cruiser) in 1898. Charles Denby, Sr., spent time in Washington, D. C., as a member of a commission appointed by the president to investigate the conduct of the War Department during the war with Spain. In 1899 he traveled to the Philippines as a member of the United States Philippine Commission. Martha Denby and son Thomas Garvin accompanied him on that trip. A letter from Martha Denby contains a journal describing their activities and the people she met.

Correspondence beginning in the 1890s documents the adult lives of the Denby children. Wythe Denby became a mining engineer in Utah, Arizona, and Alaska. In letters to his mother in 1904 and 1905, Edwin Denby gave accounts of his election to Congress and his early days in Washington. Charles Denby (1861-1938) wrote in 1905 and 1906 describing his work in the State Department. The last letters were written by Edwin Denby to his sister during his honeymoon trip in Europe. The bulk of the correspondence ends with the death of the parents, and subsequent periods of the careers of Edwin Denby and the younger Charles Denby are not documented.

Arrangement of the Papers

This collection is arranged chronologically; undated material arranged alphabetically by correspondent.

Container List