Draper Manuscripts: Daniel Brodhead Papers, 1775-1846

Container Title
Volume   12
Reel   17
Series: Joseph Brant Papers: 12 F
Scope and Content Note

Draper's notes on the later years of Brant's life, 1794-1807, accompanied by papers of Brant and by newspaper clippings about the Brant memorial erected and unveiled in Brantford, Ontario, in 1886.

Two original letters written by Brant (March 15, 1796 and April 18, 1797) discuss land claims and other business, and a third letter (March 6, 1806) was a personal communication to William Claus. Copies of speeches (1796 and 1803) and of Brant correspondence Draper obtained from other collectors and from a Brant relative, Mrs. Kate Kerr. These letters pertain to Brant's interest in land claims in the United States and Canada, to the education of two of his sons at Dartmouth College (the successor to Eleazer Wheelock's school which Brant had attended), and to disagreements over the Mohawk tract on the Grand River and dissatisfaction with Brant's leadership. Among these copies are letters written by Brant to Joseph Chew (1796), William Claus (1802), George Clinton (1799), the Earl of Moira (1802), Thomas Morris (1797), Oliver Phelps (1800-1803), Timothy Pickering (1794), Philip Schuyler (1795), Stephen Van Rensselaer (1800), and James Wheelock (1801-1802); and letters received by Brant from Hendrick Aupaumut (1807), Sir John Johnson (1801), and Robert Liston (1797).

Woodcut sketches of some of the bronze sculptures on the Brant memorial and of Percy Wood, the sculptor, illustrate the newspaper clippings about the monument.