Manuscript Group 866, McDowell Family Papers, 1792 – 1966

Archives Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, & Photographs

Manuscript Group 866, McDowell Family Papers, 1792 – 1966, 122 boxes

Call Number: MG 866 + box and folder number

Summary

• Biographical Note
• Scope and Content Note
• Related Collections
• Container List

Summary:

Personal papers and organizational records of the McDowell and allied families. The collection includes the following sub-groups:

1. William Anderson McDowell (1789-1851) — correspondence; journal; sermons; and church records.  Included are letters received by McDowell in Philadelphia as corresponding secretary of the Board of Domestic Missions of the Presbyterian Church, 1833-1850; and a volume of sermons and essays, ca. 1792, by Rev. Uzal Ogden of Newark’s Trinity Church (See MG 882). Born in Bedminster Township, educated at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), and married to Shepard Kollock’s daughter Jane, Rev. William Anderson McDowell was a Presbyterian minister in Bound Brook and Morristown, and in Charleston, South Carolina.  While in Charleston, 1823-1832, he became an intimate friend and spiritual confidant of the abolitionist Angelina Grimké (1805-1879).

2. Augustus W. McDowell (1820-1878) — letters received; military records; a medical notebook and dispensatory; essays, including compositions entitled ” Slavery” and “The South can Live without the North.”  Dr. McDowell was a son of William Anderson McDowell and a physician in Bedminster Township. Between January 1, 1863 and the end of the Civil War, he served as a United States Army surgeon and hospital administrator.

3. William Osborne McDowell (1848-1927) — papers of a founder of both the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution.  The son of Augustus W. McDowell, William was a founder of McDowell Brothers and Company in New York City, an investment firm specializing in silver mining, railroads, and land speculation.  He reorganized the Montclair Railroad and the Midland Railroad of New Jersey, among others.  He founded the Human Freedom League and the Cuban American League.  He served as president of the League of Peace.

4. Rachel K. McDowell (1880-1949) — papers of William Osborne McDowell’s daughter, who was a reporter for the Newark Evening News and the New York Herald, and served as religious editor for the New York Times from 1920 to 1948. The McDowell Family Papers include letters of:

Gift of Mrs. Lester L. McDowell, 1977.

Biographical Note:

Papers, 1792-1950, of the McDowell family of Pluckemin, Bedminster (Somerset County) and Newark (Essex County), New Jersey.  Includes papers of Rev. William Anderson McDowell (1789-1851), a Presbyterian pastor of churches in Bound Brook and Morristown, N.J. (Morris County), as well as Secretary of the Board of Domestic Missions of the Presbyterian Church (1833-1850) and moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church; and his wife, Jane Kollock McDowell (1791-1867), sister of Rev. Dr. Sheperd Kosciusco Kollock.  William A. McDowell’s son, Dr. Augustus W. McDowell (1820-1878), served as a surgeon in the Civil War, where he was stationed at army hospitals St. Louis and Ironton, Missouri, as well as in Washington, D.C. Staten Island, Indianapolis and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Also, Dr. McDowell’s wife, Anna Marie Osborne McDowell (1821-1897), members of the Osborne family, and the children of Augustus and Anna, Jennie (?-1922), Charles Edward (1853-1937), Frederick Henry (1848-1927) and William O. (1848-1927).

William O. McDowell, a financeer and businessman, was also a founder and member of numerous patriotic and international organizations, and a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1913. His business ventures included railroads, mining and land speculation.  He reorganized the Montclair Railroad (N.J.), the New York, Ontario and Western Railroad of New Jersey, and the Midland Railroad of New Jersey, and consolidated many others. He was president of the San Antonio Silver Mining Company of Nevada, the Patent Company of Newark and New York, the Coal and Iron Exchange and the Greenwood Lake Improvement Company.

He was a founder of the American Institute of Christian Philosophy, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Order of the American Eagle.  He raised money to complete the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal, lobbied for the establishment of a national university in Washington, D.C., and initiated the Columbian Liberty Bell project, which sent a replica of the Liberty Bell on tour throughout the U.S.  He founded the Cuban American League of the U.S., which supported Cuban independence, and the Pan Republic Congress, which strove for the  standardization of  international weights and measures, customs regulations, and the resolution of international disputes.  His interest in international affairs led him to become a leader in the universal peace movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, founding the Human Freedom League, and the League of Peace, a forerunner of the United Nations.

Also, William O.’s wife, Josephine Timanus McDowell (1850-1921), and their children, Pauline T. Akins (b. 1874), Nora McDowell Culver (d. 1944), Rachel Kollock McDowell (1880-1949), Malcolm McDowell (1880-1920), William Timanus McDowell, Ezra Osborne McDowell (1886-1979) and Eulilee McDowell Cook.  Rachel was a reporter for The Newark Evening News (1902), religious news editor of The New York Herald (1908), and became the first religious news editor of the New York Times in 1920, where she remained in that position until 1948.  She lectured on religion across the country and on radio, and wrote a weekly article for The Presbyterian.  She was also founder of the Pure Language League for newspaper writers, to discourage the use of blasphemous and profane language.

Scope and Content Note:

Papers include: diaries, correspondence, photographs, Civil War medical and military records, travel journals, medical notebooks, writings, financial and legal papers, land deeds, estate papers, sermons, a commonplace book, genealogical notes and printed materials.  Bulk of the papers are those of William O. McDowell: correspondence, business diaries, newspaper clippings, political tracts, financial and legal records, that document all aspects of his involvement in business ventures and patriotic and international organizations.  Includes letters of: Jane Addams, Althea Bedle, William Jennings Bryan, John Burt, Andrew Carnegie, Walter E. Edge, Marcus Hanna, Garrett Hobart, Henry Cabot Lodge, Alfred H. Love, Henry Luce, William McAdoo, Jacob Riis, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Theodore Roosevelt, Charles Scribner, Bertie K. Shipley, Alfred E.Smith, William Sulzer, William Taft, Peter Vroom, Booker T. Washington and Woodrow Wilson.

The papers of Dr. Augustus W. McDowell include records accumulated during his service as a Civil War surgeon: statistical reports of casualties, monthly medical reports of soldiers, which include names, hometown, and occupation, hospital supply vouchers and lists of materia medica.  Also, a medical notebook listing diseases, with symptoms and recommended treatments.  Also, his writings on such subjects as: reminiscences of his Civil War service, women’s suffrage, religion, Darwinism, memories of Drs. Henry VanderVeer and Cornelius S. Suydam, Japan, a history of the Presbyterian Church of Lamington, N.J., slavery, smallpox, and temperance. Papers of Anna Marie Osborne include over 60 letters received from Dr. McDowell during the Civil War, as well as letters from her children.

Papers of Rev. William A. McDowell include his handwritten sermons, addresses and writings, diaries, records of the Presbyterian Church Board of Missions, church birth and death registers, financial records, estate papers, and letters received.  Correspondents include Angelina Grimké, John Napier, W.D. Snodgrass, John Witherspoon, J.K.Kollock, his brother, Rev. John McDowell of Elizabethtown, also a prominent Presbyterian minister, and other family members.  Letters from William’s son, Augustus, describe the initial years of his medical practice and include descriptions of patient cases and treatments.  Also, a history of the Pluckemin, N.J. Presbyterian church.  Papers of Jane Hay Kollock include letters from Angelina Grimké and family members, a commonplace book, financial records, a land deed, and a history of Elizabethtown.

Papers of Josephine include letters received, 1865-1920, primarily from her mother, husband and children, financial records, insurance policies, family photographs, land deeds, and calling cards.

Papers of Rachel include letters received, 1898-1949, from her parents, siblings, and religious leaders, copy letters, 1909-1940, religious articles, items pertaining to her involvement with the New York City Women’s Press Club, the League of American Pen Women, and the New Jersey Women’s Press Club, (Check) photographs of family, friends and religious leaders of all faiths, travel documents, insurance policies, financial papers, and estate papers.

Additional William O. McDowell Papers are located at the New York Public Library.

Related Collections:

Manuscript Group 882, Trinity Cathedral in Newark Records
Manuscript Group 899, John McDowell (1780-1863) Sermon outline book

Container List:

Processed by Susan Chore and Kim Seltzer

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