Description:
"Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States" published for the Washington Benevolent Society and printed by William E. Norman, No. 2, Warren-Street, Hudson, 1811. The front page has a pasted printed label: ""Stephen W. Williams / "Seek science in her coy abode." / No. 27" where "27" is entered in ink. The page after the title page reads: "THIS CERTIFIES, That / Mr. Stephen W. Williams [in ink] / has been regularly admitted a / Member of the " Washington Benevolent Society," of the / County of Berkshire [in ink] / instituted in the Town of / Stockbridge [in ink] on the fourth [in ink] day of / February [in ink] 1812 ["2" in ink]." and signed "Jno W. Hulbert" President / "Henry Brown V. P. / James Burl Secretary." The book spine is stamped in gold, "Washington's Legacy" and the front and back cardboard covers are covered with marbelized paper. This book came from the descendants of Dr. Stephen West Williams (1790-1855) of Deerfield, who married Harriet Taylor Goodhue in 1818. Harriet was the daughter of Dr. Joseph Goodhue (1762-1849) who was a doctor at Fort Constitution, N.H., and moved to Deerfield by 1822. Stephen and Harriet had four children, one of whom, Dr. Edward Jenner Williams (1823-1881), studied medicine with his father and and then moved to Laona, Illinois, where he married Orilla Nancy Webster in 1856. Two of their three sons and their daughter lived to adulthood - Dr. Henry Smith Williams (1863-1943), Dr. Edward Huntington Williams (1868-1944), and Harriet Goodhue Williams Myers (1867-1949) who wrote a privately printed book (1945), "We Three, Henry, Eddie and Me: Henry Smith Williams, Edward Huntington Williams, Harriet Williams Myers." The donor, Helen Myers Curtis (and her sister, Neva Myers Brown), were the daughters of Harriet Williams Myers (see spectacle case, HD 64.168) and William Raymond Myers, and first cousins of Dorothy Williams Hartigan, the daugher of Henry Smith Williams and Florence Whitney Williams. Both Mrs. Curtis and Mrs. Hartigan gave a number of Williams/Goodhue family pieces to Historic Deerfield.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+59.361 |
