Stumph. Letter to Hannah Elizabeth Bowell, 1857

This collection contains a letter from a member of the Stumph family in Ottawa, Illinois, to Hannah Elizabeth Bowell of Jefferson, Pennsylvania. The letter is dated March 17, 1857, and describes a wolf hunt that took place a few weeks earlier.

This letter was written by a member of the Stumph family, with an unknown first name. Stumph wrote to Hannah Elizabeth Bowell (1837-1916) of Jefferson, Pennsylvania. In 1857, the two were engaged and talking about plans to marry once Stumph settled in Ottawa. Ultimately, however, Bowell stayed in Pennsylvania and married William Black sometime prior to 1862.

This collection consists of a letter from a member of the Stumph family to Hannah Elizabeth Bowell of Jefferson, Pennsylvania. The four-page letter is from Ottawa, Illinois, dated March 17, 1857. Stumph opened the letter with a few lines about their correspondence and added a note that if their engagement is "irksome," they can call it off. He mentioned later in the letter that he was not ready to be married yet and wanted Bowell to come to Illinois first. Stumph responded to inquiries about his health by telling a story of a wolf hunt he participated in recently. During the hunt, Stumph was in a riding accident and was injured. According to Stumph, eleven hundred horseman and fifteen to twenty Native Americans participated. Group wolf hunts like the one Stumph described occurred regularly in the 19th century, usually in winter months. While there were populations of wolves in Northern Illinois during this time, coyotes were also often mistaken for Gray Wolves during "wolf" hunts.

The Library purchased this letter in 2022 with the support of the Bruce C. Creamer Fund.