by Susan Martin, Senior Processing Archivist

In my last post, I introduced you to a woman named Sarah, of New Braintree, Massachusetts, and a letter here at the MHS that she wrote to a cousin, probably in 1874. Thankfully she’d mentioned a few friends or relatives in the letter, and I could identify them using digitized copies of published genealogies. But who was Sarah?
Some of the people she mentioned in her letter were Lucius Prouty, the Peppers, Miss Wood, Dwight, Hattie Prouty, Lizzie Whipple, and Frank. I’d zeroed in on the children of Homer R. Prouty of North Brookfield, Massachusetts, for three reasons: many of these names appear in that branch of the family, North Brookfield is right next to New Braintree, and the time period was right.
But I didn’t know Sarah’s connection to the Proutys. (I should note that it was common at the time for people to refer to relatives by their full names, when so many names were reused. For example, if you had a sister Mary and a cousin Mary, you’d likely refer to your cousin by her full name to distinguish her.)
I searched the Prouty genealogy for Sarahs (79 results), backed out a generation to expand my search to cousins and aunts, and even clicked through Prouty and Pepper plots at Walnut Grove Cemetery, but I couldn’t turn up anyone that seemed likely to be our correspondent. When I’m stuck, I find it usually helps to go back to the original letter for more clues.
I was confident I had the right family. Brothers Lucius, Charles, and Dwight were all mentioned in the letter. Lucius married Miss Pepper, and Dwight and Charles both married Misses Wood. Hattie (Harriet) was the wife of another brother. Lizzie Whipple baffled me at first, until I stumbled on Elizabeth Quimby (Allen) Whipple, buried in New Braintree. This name stood out to me because the mother of Lucius, et al., was none other than Nancy (née Allen) Prouty. So I dove into the Allen genealogy.
Lizzie was, in fact, a first cousin of the Proutys in Sarah’s letter. She also had a 17-year-old son Frank, who turned out to be the linchpin of my investigation. Sarah had written, “Frank is at Poughkeepsie and hopes to recieve [sic] his diploma about the first of April.” Frank Herbert Whipple was indeed attending Eastman Business College in 1874.
Lo and behold, Lizzie had a sister Sarah. I initially discounted her because she was married, and our correspondent wasn’t. Then I saw that she didn’t marry until 1877. I’d finally found the woman who wrote the letter.
Sarah E. Allen was born in 1831 and died in 1906. Census records confirm she worked as a dressmaker before her marriage at the age of 45 to Charles Curtis Rice, a telegraph lineman. I couldn’t identify the letter’s recipient, her “dear Cousin,” but was glad I could at least give Sarah her due and add her to the MHS catalog.
