Summary Information
Caroline Chamberlain Family Papers
1749-1954
Mss 618; Micro 887; PH 6668; PH 4195
0.4 c.f. (1 archives box), 1 reel of microfilm (35 mm), and 4 photographs (1 folder and 1 box)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers preserved by Caroline Chamberlain and her sisters, Mable Adams and Claudia Chamberlain, documenting their ancestors in the Adams, Norton, Cranch, and Smith families. Daughters of Wisconsin Congressman Henry Cullen Adams, the women were connected through both parents to relatives of President John Adams. The collection consists of family correspondence, a 1749 book of music, sermons, genealogy charts, and diaries kept by Elizabeth Cranch Norton while living in Massachusetts, by Jacob Porter Norton during service in the War of 1812 and while living in Georgia, and by Richard Greenleaf Norton while sailing from Boston to California in 1849. Included are photostats of a letter from John Adams to William Custis, July 15, 1812, and a letter from his daughter to her cousin Elizabeth Cranch, 1788. Also included are images of Richard Greenleaf Norton and Jacob Porter Norton.
Portions of this collection are available only on microfilm.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00618 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
The genealogy of Caroline Chamberlain, her sisters Mable and Claudia, and brother Ben C. Adams leads through both parents to Colonial residents of Massachusetts. The ancestry of their mother, Anne Burkley Norton, includes her father, Richard Greenleaf Norton (1829-), a Madison, Wisconsin, optical instrument maker; his father, Jacob Porter Norton (1793-1846), a Mount Zion, Georgia, resident and veteran of the War of 1812; Jacob's father, the Reverend Jacob Norton (1764-), and mother, Elizabeth Cranch (1763-1811), sister to the wife of President John Adams; and Elizabeth's parents, Judge Richard Cranch (1726-1811) and Mary Smith (1741-1811) of Weymouth and Quincy, Massachusetts.
Their father, Henry Cullen Adams (1850-1906), was congressman from Wisconsin's Second District from 1903 to his death. His father, Benjamin Franklin Adams (1822-1902), was a fruit grower in Wisconsin who had been a
classics professor at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. Benjamin was the son of Isaac Ward Adams (1779-1860) of Vernon, New York, who was the son of Asa Adams (1729-1826) born in Ashford, Massachusetts, and third cousin to President Adams.
Scope and Content Note
The papers in this collection primarily document the maternal side of Caroline Chamberlain's ancestry and are concentrated in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They include correspondence, diaries, sermons, and other materials.
The correspondence is mostly original and chiefly between family members. However it does include photostat copies of a letter from John Adams to William Custis, July 15, 1812, and a letter from his daughter, Abigail Adams Smith, to her cousin Elizabeth Cranch, 1788; a typed copy of a letter from William E. Channing to Jacob Norton, April 14, 1814, reacting to a theological manuscript by Norton; and a few photostat copies of certificates of appointment.
The diaries, some of which are available only on microfilm, were kept by various family members. Richard Greenleaf Norton kept one in 1849-1850 while sailing on the ship Reindeer from Boston to San Francisco and recorded in the back his expenses while prospecting for the next couple of years; some associated papers are also present. Jacob Porter Norton recorded in a diary his War of 1812 experiences in the 4th U.S. Army Regiment and subsequent events; also entered in this same volume is a copy of a genealogical essay written in 1820 by his uncle, jurist William Cranch. Several diaries by Elizabeth Cranch record her courtship by Jacob Norton, refer to her uncle John Adams and her cousin John Quincy Adams, and document the social, domestic, and intellectual life enjoyed by a well-bred educated Massachusetts woman of the period. One diary, 1826-1827, was kept by Elizabeth Cranch Norton (1802-), daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Norton, while she was a school teacher at Hingham, Massachusetts.
The other papers in the collection from the maternal side of the family include several handwritten sermons by Jacob Norton, a printed Discourse by the Reverend Peter Whitney delivered at the burial of Judge Richard Cranch and his wife Mary; and a volume of music composed or copied by Elizabeth Smith, believed to be Mary's mother.
Items documenting the ancestry of Henry Cullen Adams consist of photostat copies of genealogy charts prepared by Howard P. Moore on the descendants of Henry Adams and Isaac Ward Adams, and a pocket-size account book of expenses of Benjamin F. Adams while a student at Hamilton College, 1841-1845.
The photographs include three images of Richard Greenleaf Norton: one daguerreotype, one carte-de-visite, and one tintype; and one daguerreotype of Jacob Porter Norton.
Related Material
Another collection with information on part of this family is the William Cranch Papers held by the Cincinnati Historical Society and described in NUCMC entry MS63-166.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented and loaned for copying by Caroline (Mrs. Fred A.) Chamberlain, Madison, Wisconsin; Mable Adams, Madison; and Claudia (Mrs. A.A.) Chamberlain, Huron, South Dakota, 1957.
Processed by Karen Baumann, 1984.
Contents List
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Mss 618
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Series: Maternal Papers
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Correspondence, 1775-1850, undated
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Box
1
Folder
2
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Richard Greenleaf Norton papers, 1847-1868
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Box
1
Folder
3
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Elizabeth Cranch Norton diary, 1826-1827
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Elizabeth Cranch diaries
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, 1787-1788 and , 1795-1796
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Box
1
Folder
4
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Original diaries
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Micro 887
Reel
1
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Typed copies
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Reel
1
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, 1793-1794 (Typed copy only)
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Reel
1
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Jacob Porter Norton diary, 1812-1846, including genealogy by William Cranch
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Mss 618
Box
1
Folder
5
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Jacob Norton Sermons
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Box
1
Folder
6
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Discourse on Richard and Mary Cranch, 1811
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Box
1
Folder
7
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Elizabeth Smith music book, 1749
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Series: Paternal Papers
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Box
1
Folder
8
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Genealogy charts, 1953-1954
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Box
1
Folder
8
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B.F. Adams Account Book, 1841-1845
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PH 6668
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Series: Visual Materials
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Folder
1
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Richard Greenleaf Norton
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PH 4195
Item
473
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Jacob Porter Norton
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Item
474
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Richard Greenleaf Norton
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