EXTENT: 3.67 linear feet (3 containers)

ORGANIZATION: Four series: I. Correspondence and Manuscripts, 1824-1926; II. Photographs, [mid-nineteenth century]-1940; III. Ephemera and Artifact, 1774-1925; IV. Pamphlets and Printed and Published Items, 1817-1909.

FAMILY BIOGRAPHY:
Samuel Hoar of Concord was one of the great 19^th century lawyers of Massachusetts, a man of principle, morality, integrity, directness, and wide-ranging legal expertise. Born in 1778, he married Sarah Sherman (daughter of Roger Sherman of Connecticut) on October 13, 1812 and they had six children, including Ebenezer Rockwood (1816-1895) and George Frisbie (1826-1904). From 1835-1837, "Squire Hoar" represented the Middlesex District in the 24^th Congress of the United States, succeeding Edward Everett. He died in 1856.

Judge Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar was also a lawyer and proponent of abolition. He served as United States Attorney General in the cabinet of Ulysses S. Grant from 1869 to 1870, and as a representative in the United States Congress from 1873 to 1875. He married Caroline Downes Brooks on November 20, 1840, and they had seven children, including Charles Emerson (1850-1912) and Sherman (1860-1898).

Sherman Hoar, born in 1860, served in the United States Congress from 1890-1892 and as U.S. District Attorney under President Cleveland. He died in 1898 of typhoid fever contracted while serving as a general of the Massachusetts Volunteer Aid Association. Sherman Hoar had two children from his first marriage (to Caroline Prescott Wood), including Roger Sherman (born 1887).

Sherman Hoar’s second wife, Mary Buttrick Hoar, was born in Concord on May 30, 1867, one of several children (including Stedman Buttrick, born October 22, 1864) of William and Florence (King) Buttrick. She married Sherman Hoar on December 6, 1892. Mary Buttrick and Sherman Hoar had two children: Stedman Hoar and Elizabeth Hoar Parsons. Mary Buttrick Hoar was active in Concord town life, served as president of the Concord Garden Club, was a member of the Woman’s Club, the Tuesday Club, and Trinity Episcopal Church. She died at her home, Overlea, on December 21, 1952 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

SCOPE AND CONTENT: Papers, 1774-1940 (bulk 1860-1918), generated or collected by four generations of the Hoar family of Concord, Massachusetts. The collection consists of correspondence and manuscript papers, photographs, and printed material belonging to Samuel Hoar (1778-1856); his son, Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (1816-1895); Ebenezer’s children Charles Emerson (1850-1912), Sherman (1860-1898), Clara Downes (born 1852) and Elizabeth (born 1854); Mary Buttrick Hoar (who generated the bulk of the collection; 1867-1952), wife of Sherman Hoar; Mary Buttrick Hoar’s daughter, Elizabeth Hoar Parsons and stepson, Roger Sherman Hoar; and grandchildren Mary Sherman Parsons and Todd Parsons.

The correspondence in the collection ranges in date from 1824 to 1926. The collection also includes more than 130 photographs, ranging from the mid-nineteenth century to 1940, of members of the family from Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar to the grandchildren of Mary Buttrick Hoar; photographs of homes and locations in and around Concord; and a collection of cartes de visite. Ephemera (1774-1925) include broadsides, handbills, printed programs and greeting cards; newspaper clippings; a World War I era medal; and an autograph collection. In addition, there are copies of pamphlets and other published material (1817-1909).

The series includes a single letter to Samuel Hoar (from Edward Everett) dated 11/10/1824, concerning Hoar’s nomination to and the regulations of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Correspondence to Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (ranging from 1859 to 1866) includes material relating to the purchase of land for the Adirondack Club; a note "copied from deed given by Judge Hoar to John M. Cheney, 1864" regarding property boundary lines in Concord; and several notes, some with sketches, from Hammett Billings and Joseph Carew, concerning the Soldiers’ Monument in Concord.

There are three undated manuscript items (circa 1860) from Charles Emerson Hoar’s boyhood. One is a school notebook containing the poem "Epic on the Concord Females" with the note, "This was written just for fun and I hope no one will take offense, C.E. Hoar." The second item is a list of "The Illustrious Club of ten Consisting of Ten Excellent Gymnasts." The third piece is a "Petition of The scholars of Concord School to F.B. Sanborn, Head Master" requesting the removal of two cows from the school playground. It is signed by nine boys, including C.E. Hoar and Julian Hawthorne.

There are several Sherman Hoar items, ranging in date from 1865 to the 1890s. The earliest is a note to Sherman from his mother, Caroline Downes Brooks Hoar. There are two notes from young Sherman to his father, E.R. Hoar, one dated November, 1868, a note from his teacher, S.E. Richardson, and a poem by Sherman about his doctor, Alfred Worcester.

The bulk of the correspondence is addressed to Mary Buttrick Hoar and ranges in date from 1872 to 1926. It includes several letters of congratulations on her engagement to Sherman Hoar (1892), letters from her brother Stedman Buttrick (1893), a note from her sister Beth upon the death of Sherman Hoar (1898), a series of letters from Mary Sherman Woodruff (written between 1916 and 1918, mailed from England and France), correspondence soliciting funds from the Regimental Committee for the 101^st U.S. Field Artillery, 09/05/1917 and 01/15/1918, a letter from the Women’s Auxiliary of the 101^st Artillery concerning the "All America" parade, 03/29/1918, and a Christmas note from Annie Emerson (1926).

Letters from Roger Sherman Hoar to Mary Buttrick Hoar and Stedman Buttrick were written between March and November, 1918, and date from his time at the Coast Artillery School in Fort Monroe, Va.

Series II. Photographs, [mid-nineteenth century]-1940:
The series is organized into five sub-series: family photographs excluding Mary Buttrick Hoar and Elizabeth Hoar Parsons; photographs of Mary Buttrick Hoar; photographs of Elizabeth Hoar Parsons; photographs of locations in and around Concord, Mass.; and cartes de visite and other non-family photographs. Arrangement within each subseries is chronological.

The series contains family photographs ranging from the mid-nineteenth century to 1940. It includes a photograph of E.R. Hoar with his infant grandson, Sam C. Bowles (1890), a photograph of the Daniel Chester French bust of Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, two undated photographs of George Frisbie Hoar, and several of Stedman Buttrick (undated).

The photographs of Mary Buttrick Hoar make up the bulk of the collection and range in date from approximately 1875 to 1924. The earliest is a tintype portrait. Also included are two group photographs of the costumed cast of "Helen of Stow" from June 1889. The photographs of Elizabeth Hoar Parsons range from approximately 1906 to 1936 and include several class photographs from Milton Academy as well as her wedding portraits.

There are a number of photographs of locations in and around Concord, Mass., ranging in date from approximately 1879 to 1936. These include a set of photographs (with negatives) of Overlea and Buttrick Farm, and a series of photographs of homes on Main Street decorated with patriotic bunting.

The collection of cartes de visite include Oliver Wendell Holmes, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thomas Carlyle, U.S. Grant, General Sherman, Charles Sumner, Louis Agassiz, Daniel Webster, Henry David Thoreau, and three of R.W. Emerson. Mounted photographs include Frances F. Cleveland, John M. Forbes, Edward Atkinson, Grace Keyes, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Co. I 6^th Regiment muster at Framingham (1886), and Uell Taylor.

The broadsides, handbills, printed programs and greeting cards range from 1850-1925. These include a broadside for a memorial service for Abraham Lincoln in Concord (04/19/1865), F.B. Sanborn’s "Rules of the Concord School" (a handbill or small broadside), a fundraising flyer for the purchase of land for the fairgrounds for the Middlesex Agricultural Society, other materials related to the society, and Kate Greenaway’s Birthday Book for Children which belonged to Mary Buttrick Hoar. There are printed programs for events including "Mademoiselle Jenny Lind’s Concert" (1850), "Dedication of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery" (09/29/1855), and "Exercises at the Martyrdom of John Brown" (12/2/1859), "Order of Exercises at the Dedication of the Soldier’s Monument, Concord, Mass." (04/19/1867), A National Peace Jubilee Concert (06/18/1869), a report of the "Committee on the Bequest of the Late Ebenezer Hubbard for a New Monument at the Battle Ground" (March, 1873), Roster of Concord Artillery Co. I 6^th Regiment Infantry (1898), Emerson’s Centenary (05/25/1903), and "Souvenir Programme of Events, One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Concord Fight, April Nineteen, 1775-1925." Many programs are from the Concord Lyceum and for productions held at the Concord Town Hall, including "Coupon Bonds" featuring L.M. Alcott in the cast (07/08/1867).

Newspaper clippings range from 1862-1939, and deal mainly with the death of Sherman Hoar (1898) and events of World War I. The single artifact is a committee member’s medal reading "Welcome Home Boys."

The autographs, cut from letters and documents, range from 1774-1876, and include William Lloyd Garrison (03/15/1861).

Series IV. Pamphlets and Printed and Published items, 1817-1909:
This series includes more than fifty printed and published items, including The Act of Incorporation and Constitution of the Fragment Society (1817), four catalogues from F.B. Sanborn’s Concord School (1858-1862), sixteen issues of The Observer (Concord, July 13, 1864-Dec. 7, 1864), and ten pamphlets published by the Concord Antiquarian Society. Arrangement is alphabetical by main entry.

SOURCE OF ACQUISITION: Presented by Mary Sherman Parsons, 02/10/2003.

ASSOCIATED MATERIALS: The Concord Free Public Library Special Collections also include an organic collection of Hoar family papers, 1738-1958 (bulk 1815-1935), and a small, artificially created collection of Hoar family papers, acquired from various sources. Also present are the manuscript of Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar’s address at the dedication of Memorial Hall at Harvard in 1870, the manuscript of his speech at the 19^th of April celebration in Concord in 1894, E.R. Hoar’s manuscript biography of Jonathan Fay Barrett (written for publication in Memoirs of Members of the Social Circle in Concord, Third Series), and individual E.R. Hoar letters in other collections of personal papers (Ralph Waldo Emerson papers and William Munroe papers, for example). Responses to the Committee on General Invitations for the 1875 celebration of the centennial of the Concord Fight in addition to those in the E.R. Hoar papers are found in the Special Collections, in the records of the Committee of Arrangements for the celebration. Letters by Caroline Brooks Hoar as a young woman are located in Concord’s Nathan Brooks family papers, and transcribed Elizabeth Hoar (sister of Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar) papers in the Elizabeth Hoar papers of Elizabeth Maxfield Miller, also in the Concord Free Public Library. The Massachusetts Historical Society holds a major collection of George Frisbie Hoar papers, the Library of Congress a small collection of Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar correspondence. Various collections of personal papers and records in a number of institutions (Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston Athenaeum, Library of Congress, Illinois State Historical Library, University of Michigan, University of Arizona, Haverford College, among others) include letters from members of the Hoar family.

NOTES/COMMENTS: Accessioned 02/10/2003; AMC 086.

PROCESSED BY: Mary Flatley; finding aid completed 04/25/2003; edited by JHG 06/23/2004.

Mounted 3rd July 2004.

c2004 Concord Free Public Library. Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the Curator of Special Collections, Concord Free Public Library.