UMDL finding aids home

Home

Search

Browse

Bookbag

Help

Manuscripts Division
William L. Clements Library
University of
Michigan

Finding aid for
Tracy Family Papers, 1815-1903

Finding aid created by
Rachel K. Onuf, May 1998

Summary Information

Title: Tracy family
papers
Creator: Tracy
family
Inclusive dates:
1815-1903
Bulk dates:
1815-1893
Extent: 34
items
Abstract:

The Tracy family papers consist of letters written by
members of a large family from Norwich, Connecticut while living
away from home, including two letters from a missionary in India.

Language: The material is in
English
Repository: William L.
Clements Library, University of Michigan

909 S. University Ave.
The University of
Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1190
Phone: 734-764-2347
Web
Site: www.clements.umich.edu

Access and Use

Acquisition Information:

1991. M-2662a23.

Access
Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Copyright:

Copyright status is unknown.

Preferred
Citation:

Tracy family papers, William L. Clements Library, The University
of Michigan

Biography

David and Susan Tracy raised many children in Norwich, Connecticut.
It is likely that David was a descendant of Thomas Tracy, one of the
original proprietors of Norwich. In 1820, David was involved in the
reorganization of the Universalist church of the town into the
"Society of United Christian Friends in the towns of Norwich, Preston,
& Groton."

Two of the older sons, David Jr. and Charles, moved to New York,
where David spent a few years as a shoemaker. Charles helped him in
his business until he got sick and died in April 1818. Son George went
to Mobile, Alabama, where he worked for M. D. Eslava as a cotton
broker. He did well enough to be in a position to offer his "brother"
Henry Allen $500 in 1834, to compensate for "the depression of
business generally" in the north (1834 March 10).

The Tracy's son William went to Philadelphia, where he went to
school and then began to teach Sunday School. He also worked as a
solderer in a Mr. Taylor's shop. In the 1820s heard a couple lectures
given by Mr. Ward, "the India Missionary" (1821 March 4). What he
heard must have stayed with him, for in 1836, William and his wife
Emily moved to the Madura Mission in India, which had been established
by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1834.
They worked at the Tirupuvanum station, and by 1845, William was in
charge of the small seminary. A young daughter, Susan Maria, died
while they were there. In 1851, the Tracys returned for a visit to the
United States, after residing in India for more than 13 years. The
Board's annual report for 1851 states, "The health of both is
considerably impaired, but it is hoped they will be able to return to
their field of labor with renewed strength," intimating that the
couple at least intended to return to India (p.104).

David and Susan's sons may have traveled far and wide, but their
daughters -- Susan, Philena, Mary Ann, Sarah, and Elizabeth -- stayed
put. In 1861, Susan, Elizabeth and Mary Ann were still living together
in Norwich.

Collection Scope and Content Note

This collection is somewhat of a hodgepodge; a few curious lives
come to light, but there are not enough letters to entirely flesh out
the various writers, or connect the lives of what must have been a
large, tight-knit family group. There are 4 letters written by
Charles, shortly before his death, 6 letters from William, while he
was in Philadelphia, 2 excellent letters from his wife Emily, written
from India, 5 written by George, who went down to Mobile, 5 other
family letters, 4 letters written by friends, including a female
schoolteacher, and 8 letters written much later to Louise and
Antoinette Tracy, who were trying to gather genealogical material.

The two most fascinating letters are from Emily, who described the
Indians and their ways, as well as the missionary work that brought
the Tracys to Southern India. Predictably, she was rather negative
about the people she was there to convert. The combination of what she
viewed as laziness and lying left her with little respect for the
Indians. "I know of nothing in America, which is so universal, as
falsehood is among this people, they have a proverb, 'that where the
mouth opens a lie comes out,' and this seems to be litterally the
case," she fulminated (1838 November 16).

After overpaying a couple times, she pronounced that "their great
aim is to get all the money they can, and do as little as possible in
return." To Emily, itinerant beggars were the embodiment of this aim,
so distasteful to her Protestant work ethic: "You would be surprised
to know what a quantity of persons there are in this country, whose
business it is to go from village to village begging . . . some time
ago one of these beggars came to me, and I said I cannot give you
anything, you are a strong stout man, if you will do this work, I will
pay you for it but I cannot encourage any body in idleness, who is
able to work as you are, said he, 'it is not my custom to work, I am a
beggar,' well then, said I, you can go, it is not my custom to support
people who can work, but who are too lazy to do so."

Rats and mosquitoes disrupted their sleep, but an even greater
trial of missionary life was the difficulty of remaining connected to
the loved ones back in America. Writing to the Tracys, Emily asked if
they knew why she had not heard from her own parents. After writing
thirty letters and receiving no response, she had stopped writing, but
not worrying (1839 February 13).

Emily's main preoccupation, however, remained the Tamil people, and
she lamented, "Oh how easily are this people led captive by Satan at
his will." Witnessing people unselfconsciously bathing in public, and
married women performing a fertility ceremony "in the presence of
multitudes of people without the least thought that their was any
indelicacy in it" seemed to intensify her desire to "guide them to the
Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world."

While she was talking to some "deluded pagans" after they had
completed their ceremonies, Emily was asked, "Where did you, a woman,
get so much wisdom'"? She was struck that "this people seem not to get
the idea, that a woman could know how to do anything else beside cook
rice, carry burdens, and gather cow dung for fuel." Emily thought some
of the women she spoke to were bright, and "looked as though they
might have made smart intelligent women had they been properly
educated, whereas now they seem scarcely to have a thought above their
food and dress. O when will the time come when the blindness be taken
from their eyes"?

Norwich was the home base of the Tracy family, and several of the
daughters seem to have never left it, or each other. They probably all
worked to earn their keep. William wrote to his sister Mary Ann, "I am
glad to hear you have steady work some where or other as father will
not have to work so hard as he did before you knew the trade" (1821
June 24). The sons, on the other hand, moved to other places to make a
living, either because they wanted to see the world, or there was no
future for them in Norwich. This collection of letters written to the
women back home documents the men's struggles to get accustomed to
being apart from those they were supposed to support, and be supported
by. A New Year's greeting filled with religious exhortations is the
only "out going" letter from Norwich, written by Susan to her brother
Charles (1815 December 31). This intimates that the sisters provided
their wandering brothers with religious and moral guidance, as well as
keeping them apprised of local news.

Maintaining long-distance familial support was a challenge. Writing
after Charles' death, David eloquently reassured his mother, "I feel
the only legacy he has left writ deeply on my heart, to comfort and be
all to you which we both might have been" (1818 May 1). He was
relieved that his mother had visited Charles just before he died, and
noted that he had "some of the dear boys hair which I mean to have set
in something for my sisters." William told his sister Elizabeth why it
was better that they did not live together: "I should like to see you,
and be with you, but if we were always together, we should lose much
of that pleasure which we feel at meeting after a long seperation, and
when duty calls us apart we should yield to her voice with
contentment" (1825 June 13). At the same time, he asked her to write
to him more frequently, even if he had not responded, for "there are
many of you, while I am alone," indicating his need for frequent
contact with his family.

George had less time to spend thinking about the folks back home:
"I have not been able to think of much except cotton -- it has been
cotton from before day break, untill late in the evening. Some times
it is eleven o'clock before I can leave the office. I have some times
thought that there was more cotton in my head than there was in all
the cotton factories in New England" (1831 May 29). Although he was
unsure if he wanted to stay in Mobile and keep working in the cotton
trade, he was still there a few years later -- but still talking of
moving on: "My future exertions in business may be differently
directed, but as I am not yet determined that it will, or if it is, in
what way, I do not speak of it" (1834 March 10).

Lucinda, a properly educated female native of Norwich, did leave
her home in order to make her living. Unlike the men, who stressed the
flexibility of their business plans -- George in particular -- Lucinda
felt trapped in her position. She wrote to Sarah, "I thought if I
should leave my school it would be uncertain when or where I could
collect one again. This is the way in which I expect to gain my
support & it is best for me to keep with my business. Don't you
think so?" (1832 April 14). She rhapsodized about the haunts of her
childhood home in a rather morose fashion, and blamed her melancholy
on being spurned by a friend, whose desertion had left her quite alone
with her pupils.

Subject Terms

Subjects:

Death.

India.

Missionaries.

Norwich (Conn.)

Religious education of children.

Contributors:

[Abbole?], C. H.

Allen, Henry

Bradley, C.C.C.

Bridgman, George M.

Brown, James W.

Edgerton, Abby S.

Grant, Frank

Lucinda

Martin, John

Post, [I. B.?]

Tracy, Antoinette C.

Tracy, Charles

Tracy, David

Tracy, David Jr.

Tracy, Edwin A.

Tracy, Elizabeth

Tracy, Emily F.

Tracy, George

Tracy, Louise

Tracy, Mary Ann

Tracy, Philena

Tracy, Sarah

Tracy, Susan (or Susanna)

Tracy, William

Tracy, William J.

Contents List

Container /
Location

Title

Box   20 Small
Collections

Tracy family
papers,  1815 December 31-1903 October 21 [series]:

Additional Descriptive Data

Bibliography

Annual Report of the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions. (Boston, 1839-1856).

Longworth's American Almanac, New York Register & City
Directory. (New York, 1816-1819).

Stedman, John W. Stedman's Directory of the City and Town of
Norwich. (Norwich, Conn., 1861).

Wilder, Harriet. A Century in the Madura Mission, South India,
1834-1934. (New York, 1961).

Partial Subject Index

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

1838 November 16

1839 February 13

Cotton

1831 May 29

1834 March 10

Death

1818 May 1

1818 May 3

1838 November 16

1839 February 13

Edgerton Family

1826 October 17

Fires

1816 April 7

1821 March 4

Influenza

1825 March 14

Madurai (India)--Social life and customs

1838 November 16

1839 February 13

Missionaries--India

1838 November 16

1839 February 13

1845 October 2

Missions--India--Madurai

1838 November 16

1839 February 13

Painting--Appreciation

1821 December 30

Religious education of children

1821 March 4

1821 June 24

1821 December 30

1825 March 14

Tract societies--Pennsylvania

1821 March 4

Tracy Family

passim

Ward, William, 1769-1823

1821 March 4

Women missionaries--India

1838 November 16

1839 February 13

Women teachers

1832 April
14

Powered by DLXS
To comment or inquire
about content, contact Clements
University of Michigan
Digital Library