c1863-83 Ingram family documents
1- A moving autograph condolence letter signed by John Hall, longtime pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton, concerning the death of Mary Louisa Ingham Emerson, daughter of President Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of the Treasury, Samuel D. Ingham.
Written from Monroe County, Pennsylvania, on September 25, 1883—nine days after Mary’s death in Germany—the letter is addressed to her brother-in-law, George Hale. Hall explains that he learned of Mary’s death from a member of the Ingham family and had written to her husband, the Edwin Emerson.
Hall recalls his unusually close pastoral relationship with Mary, including receiving her into church communion and performing her marriage:
“Her long absence has not diminished the affection I felt for her at our first acquaintance—than receiving her to the communion, than marrying her.”
He describes receiving “a sweet note from her” only a few months earlier and offers heartfelt consolation to the Hale family:
“Mrs. Hale has had to part from an incomparably lovely sister … but surely her change is among the most hopeful.”
Mary Louisa Ingham Emerson was the daughter of Samuel Delucenna Ingham, Pennsylvania congressman and United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1829 to 1831. She married Edwin Emerson in a ceremony performed by John Hall. Their accomplished family lived and traveled extensively in Europe; their papers are now preserved by the New York Public Library.
John Hall was born in Philadelphia in 1806, practiced law and later entered the Presbyterian ministry. In 1841 he became pastor of Trenton’s First Presbyterian Church, where he served for more than four decades.
An intimate and historically identifiable letter joining the Hall, Ingham, Hale and Emerson families, with direct associations to the Jackson administration and nineteenth-century American Presbyterian history.
Writer: John Hall
Recipient: George Hale
Date: September 25, 1883
Place: Monroe County, Pennsylvania
Subject: Death of Mary Louisa Ingham Emerson
Format: One folded sheet; approximately three manuscript pages plus postscript
Signed: “John Hall”
Condition: Original folds, moderate toning, scattered discoloration, minor edge wear and one small puncture; writing and signature remain clear.
2-An original Civil War-era manuscript memorial resolution adopted by the managers of the Ladies’ General Aid Association of New Jersey, at Trenton, following the death of its president, Mrs. Samuel D. Ingham—Deborah Hall Ingham, widow of President Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of the Treasury.
The document is headed:
At the Monthly Meeting Nov. 10,
of the Managers of the General Aid
Association the following expressions re-
garding the late president were adopted.
The deceased is called “Mrs. S. D. Ingraham” in the body—an apparent clerical expansion of the name—but the exterior docket correctly identifies the subject as Mrs. S. D. Ingham and the organization as the “Trenton Ladies’ Aid.”
The New Jersey State Archives confirms that Mrs. S. D. Ingham was an officer of the Ladies’ General Aid Association of New Jersey. The surviving institutional records cover 1861–1865. New Jersey State Archives collection guide
Historical context
The Ladies’ General Aid Association was organized in Trenton on September 11, 1861, only months after the Civil War began. Its members collected and distributed:
- Clothing and blankets
- Food and hospital supplies
- Bed linens and bandages
- Money for Union soldiers
- Relief for military hospitals
- Assistance for returned prisoners of war and veterans’ families
The association raised approximately $3,600 and forwarded supplies to Union regiments, hospitals and a camp for returned prisoners in Wilmington, Delaware.
Deborah Hall married Samuel D. Ingham in 1822. Ingham served in Congress and as Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of the Treasury from 1829 to 1831. Deborah had earlier participated in Washington society during the controversial Petticoat Affair, in which several Cabinet wives refused to receive Secretary of War John Eaton’s wife, Margaret “Peggy” Eaton. Decades later, as this manuscript demonstrates, she occupied an important position in women’s organized Civil War relief work.
Partial transcription
At the Monthly Meeting Nov. 10, of the Managers of the General Aid Association the following expressions regarding the late president were adopted.
Our President Mrs. S. D. Ingraham having recently been removed from us by death, we the Managers of the Ladies’ Aid Association hereby express our deep grief at the loss we have sustained in her decease, and take a sad pleasure in paying our tribute to her many virtues.
In the death of Mrs. Ingraham we have lost a presiding officer, whose uniform urbanity and good judgment strengthened the bond of union by which we are associated; a fellow-laborer whose patriotism, zeal, liberality and industry have added greatly to the efficiency of our association in ministering to the wants of the sick and wounded soldiers of our country. Though we shall see her face no more, we will strive to emulate her sincere piety, her self-denying charity, her admirable talents and her unfaltering loyalty to God and her country.
Our consolation in this bereavement is found in the sure hope that she has rested from her labors and is now enjoying the presence of her Saviour, whom she loved and served on earth; in whose presence is fullness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
Thus comforted, we bow with resignation to the will of our Heavenly Father “who doeth all things well.”
To the afflicted family of Mrs. Ingraham, we tender our warmest sympathies and assure them of our earnest prayers that God will comfort and sanctify them under this sore bereavement.
Exterior docket:
Resolutions
Trenton Ladies’ Aid
in reference to
Mrs. S. D. Ingham
Significance
This is an unusually strong women’s Civil War home-front document because it combines:
- The Ladies’ General Aid Association of New Jersey
- Relief for sick and wounded Union soldiers
- Women’s wartime leadership
- The widow of a United States Treasury Secretary
- A participant in Jackson-era Washington society
- Direct association with the Ingham family represented in the preceding John Hall letter
Although unsigned, it appears to be an original contemporary secretarial manuscript of the adopted resolutions, rather than a later historical transcription.
Date
The manuscript gives November 10 but omits the year. Because the organization operated from 1861 through 1865, it should conservatively be dated:
November 10, circa 1861–1865
The precise year may be recoverable by comparing it with the association’s proceedings preserved by the New Jersey State Archives.
Condition
Very good:
- Original horizontal and vertical folds
- Light toning and minor scattered discoloration
- Small separations or wear at several fold intersections
- Minor ink correction or offsetting on the second page
- Embossed stationer’s device visible in the paper
- Writing remains dark, attractive and fully legible
- No major loss of manuscript text
3- 1831 French Industrial Academy Invitation to U.S. Treasury Secretary Samuel D. Ingham
An imposing original 1831 transatlantic presentation letter inviting Samuel D. Ingham, United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Andrew Jackson, to become an honorary member of the newly established Académie de l’Industrie Agricole, Manufacturière et Commerciale in Paris.
Dated April 11, 1831, the large document combines a dramatic engraved allegory of agriculture, manufacturing and the mechanical arts with printed Academy statutes and an extensive manuscript letter. It is signed by numerous officers of the institution, including its founder, economist and statistician César Moreau of Marseille, and bears embossed institutional seals.
Founded in Paris on December 26, 1830, the Academy sought to gather, compare and disseminate useful discoveries relating to agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, transportation and industrial technology. Its activities included publishing a journal, encouraging inventions and awarding medals for notable achievements.
The Academy informed Ingham that its officers had voted unanimously to offer him honorary membership. It emphasized that his acceptance would lend the young institution international prestige and constitute, “in the eyes of learned Europe,” one of its foremost distinctions.
Ingham was a Pennsylvania congressman, manufacturer and advocate of American economic development who served as Treasury Secretary from 1829 until June 1831. The Academy’s approach was particularly appropriate because questions of tariffs, manufacturing, banking, commerce and internal improvements occupied a central place in Treasury policy during his tenure.
The exterior address panel directs the document to:
His Excellency S. D. Ingham
Secretary of the Treasury of the United States
Washington
Issued only months after the Academy’s founding and while Ingham remained in Andrew Jackson’s Cabinet, this is a compelling artifact of early industrial internationalism and Franco-American commercial relations.
The document is not signed by Ingham; it is an original incoming presentation letter addressed to him and signed by the Academy’s officers.
Date: April 11, 1831
Origin: Paris, France
Recipient: Samuel D. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury
Institution: Académie de l’Industrie Agricole, Manufacturière et Commerciale
Signatures: Numerous Academy administrators, including César Moreau
Format: Large engraved and manuscript broadside-letter with printed statutes, embossed seals and integral address panel
Condition: Numerous folds with considerable splitting, holes and paper loss along the central fold; edge tears, creasing, toning and scattered stains. Most text, the engraved heading, signatures, seals and address remain legible. Suitable for professional archival stabilization.
1- A moving autograph condolence letter signed by John Hall, longtime pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton, concerning the death of Mary Louisa Ingham Emerson, daughter of President Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of the Treasury, Samuel D. Ingham.
Written from Monroe County, Pennsylvania, on September 25, 1883—nine days after Mary’s death in Germany—the letter is addressed to her brother-in-law, George Hale. Hall explains that he learned of Mary’s death from a member of the Ingham family and had written to her husband, the Edwin Emerson.
Hall recalls his unusually close pastoral relationship with Mary, including receiving her into church communion and performing her marriage:
“Her long absence has not diminished the affection I felt for her at our first acquaintance—than receiving her to the communion, than marrying her.”
He describes receiving “a sweet note from her” only a few months earlier and offers heartfelt consolation to the Hale family:
“Mrs. Hale has had to part from an incomparably lovely sister … but surely her change is among the most hopeful.”
Mary Louisa Ingham Emerson was the daughter of Samuel Delucenna Ingham, Pennsylvania congressman and United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1829 to 1831. She married Edwin Emerson in a ceremony performed by John Hall. Their accomplished family lived and traveled extensively in Europe; their papers are now preserved by the New York Public Library.
John Hall was born in Philadelphia in 1806, practiced law and later entered the Presbyterian ministry. In 1841 he became pastor of Trenton’s First Presbyterian Church, where he served for more than four decades.
An intimate and historically identifiable letter joining the Hall, Ingham, Hale and Emerson families, with direct associations to the Jackson administration and nineteenth-century American Presbyterian history.
Writer: John Hall
Recipient: George Hale
Date: September 25, 1883
Place: Monroe County, Pennsylvania
Subject: Death of Mary Louisa Ingham Emerson
Format: One folded sheet; approximately three manuscript pages plus postscript
Signed: “John Hall”
Condition: Original folds, moderate toning, scattered discoloration, minor edge wear and one small puncture; writing and signature remain clear.
2-An original Civil War-era manuscript memorial resolution adopted by the managers of the Ladies’ General Aid Association of New Jersey, at Trenton, following the death of its president, Mrs. Samuel D. Ingham—Deborah Hall Ingham, widow of President Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of the Treasury.
The document is headed:
At the Monthly Meeting Nov. 10,
of the Managers of the General Aid
Association the following expressions re-
garding the late president were adopted.
The deceased is called “Mrs. S. D. Ingraham” in the body—an apparent clerical expansion of the name—but the exterior docket correctly identifies the subject as Mrs. S. D. Ingham and the organization as the “Trenton Ladies’ Aid.”
The New Jersey State Archives confirms that Mrs. S. D. Ingham was an officer of the Ladies’ General Aid Association of New Jersey. The surviving institutional records cover 1861–1865. New Jersey State Archives collection guide
Historical context
The Ladies’ General Aid Association was organized in Trenton on September 11, 1861, only months after the Civil War began. Its members collected and distributed:
- Clothing and blankets
- Food and hospital supplies
- Bed linens and bandages
- Money for Union soldiers
- Relief for military hospitals
- Assistance for returned prisoners of war and veterans’ families
The association raised approximately $3,600 and forwarded supplies to Union regiments, hospitals and a camp for returned prisoners in Wilmington, Delaware.
Deborah Hall married Samuel D. Ingham in 1822. Ingham served in Congress and as Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of the Treasury from 1829 to 1831. Deborah had earlier participated in Washington society during the controversial Petticoat Affair, in which several Cabinet wives refused to receive Secretary of War John Eaton’s wife, Margaret “Peggy” Eaton. Decades later, as this manuscript demonstrates, she occupied an important position in women’s organized Civil War relief work.
Partial transcription
At the Monthly Meeting Nov. 10, of the Managers of the General Aid Association the following expressions regarding the late president were adopted.
Our President Mrs. S. D. Ingraham having recently been removed from us by death, we the Managers of the Ladies’ Aid Association hereby express our deep grief at the loss we have sustained in her decease, and take a sad pleasure in paying our tribute to her many virtues.
In the death of Mrs. Ingraham we have lost a presiding officer, whose uniform urbanity and good judgment strengthened the bond of union by which we are associated; a fellow-laborer whose patriotism, zeal, liberality and industry have added greatly to the efficiency of our association in ministering to the wants of the sick and wounded soldiers of our country. Though we shall see her face no more, we will strive to emulate her sincere piety, her self-denying charity, her admirable talents and her unfaltering loyalty to God and her country.
Our consolation in this bereavement is found in the sure hope that she has rested from her labors and is now enjoying the presence of her Saviour, whom she loved and served on earth; in whose presence is fullness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
Thus comforted, we bow with resignation to the will of our Heavenly Father “who doeth all things well.”
To the afflicted family of Mrs. Ingraham, we tender our warmest sympathies and assure them of our earnest prayers that God will comfort and sanctify them under this sore bereavement.
Exterior docket:
Resolutions
Trenton Ladies’ Aid
in reference to
Mrs. S. D. Ingham
Significance
This is an unusually strong women’s Civil War home-front document because it combines:
- The Ladies’ General Aid Association of New Jersey
- Relief for sick and wounded Union soldiers
- Women’s wartime leadership
- The widow of a United States Treasury Secretary
- A participant in Jackson-era Washington society
- Direct association with the Ingham family represented in the preceding John Hall letter
Although unsigned, it appears to be an original contemporary secretarial manuscript of the adopted resolutions, rather than a later historical transcription.
Date
The manuscript gives November 10 but omits the year. Because the organization operated from 1861 through 1865, it should conservatively be dated:
November 10, circa 1861–1865
The precise year may be recoverable by comparing it with the association’s proceedings preserved by the New Jersey State Archives.
Condition
Very good:
- Original horizontal and vertical folds
- Light toning and minor scattered discoloration
- Small separations or wear at several fold intersections
- Minor ink correction or offsetting on the second page
- Embossed stationer’s device visible in the paper
- Writing remains dark, attractive and fully legible
- No major loss of manuscript text
3- 1831 French Industrial Academy Invitation to U.S. Treasury Secretary Samuel D. Ingham
An imposing original 1831 transatlantic presentation letter inviting Samuel D. Ingham, United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Andrew Jackson, to become an honorary member of the newly established Académie de l’Industrie Agricole, Manufacturière et Commerciale in Paris.
Dated April 11, 1831, the large document combines a dramatic engraved allegory of agriculture, manufacturing and the mechanical arts with printed Academy statutes and an extensive manuscript letter. It is signed by numerous officers of the institution, including its founder, economist and statistician César Moreau of Marseille, and bears embossed institutional seals.
Founded in Paris on December 26, 1830, the Academy sought to gather, compare and disseminate useful discoveries relating to agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, transportation and industrial technology. Its activities included publishing a journal, encouraging inventions and awarding medals for notable achievements.
The Academy informed Ingham that its officers had voted unanimously to offer him honorary membership. It emphasized that his acceptance would lend the young institution international prestige and constitute, “in the eyes of learned Europe,” one of its foremost distinctions.
Ingham was a Pennsylvania congressman, manufacturer and advocate of American economic development who served as Treasury Secretary from 1829 until June 1831. The Academy’s approach was particularly appropriate because questions of tariffs, manufacturing, banking, commerce and internal improvements occupied a central place in Treasury policy during his tenure.
The exterior address panel directs the document to:
His Excellency S. D. Ingham
Secretary of the Treasury of the United States
Washington
Issued only months after the Academy’s founding and while Ingham remained in Andrew Jackson’s Cabinet, this is a compelling artifact of early industrial internationalism and Franco-American commercial relations.
The document is not signed by Ingham; it is an original incoming presentation letter addressed to him and signed by the Academy’s officers.
Date: April 11, 1831
Origin: Paris, France
Recipient: Samuel D. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury
Institution: Académie de l’Industrie Agricole, Manufacturière et Commerciale
Signatures: Numerous Academy administrators, including César Moreau
Format: Large engraved and manuscript broadside-letter with printed statutes, embossed seals and integral address panel
Condition: Numerous folds with considerable splitting, holes and paper loss along the central fold; edge tears, creasing, toning and scattered stains. Most text, the engraved heading, signatures, seals and address remain legible. Suitable for professional archival stabilization.
