Abstract Correspondence, sermons, deeds, wills, and estate inventories of three generations of the Dean family of Connecticut and Illinois. Includes many letters from Lucretia Mason Dean and her daughter Lucretia Dean Gore, whose husband was a Congregational minister. Also letters between a young Lucretia Mason Dean her cousins and Hitty, Lucy, and Betsey Bond before her marriage to Reverend Darius Gore, regarding courtship and other issues. Additional topics include religion, illness, death, and family...

Abstract Descriptions of farm life in Tazewell County, Illinois, including discussions of routine farm activities, farming expenses and property valuations, illnesses and medicinal cures, family births and deaths, local events, and weather conditions. Also trip accounts by Roberts and his wives, descriptions of the technical aspects of making lithographic plates and miscellaneous sketches of Robert's home and towns he visited in Illinois.