Adams, Phillips, and Mix families papers

Collection – Multiple Containers

Identifier: MS-1253

Staff Only

Collection Overview

Abstract

This collection dates from 1850-1932 and documents the lives of members of the allied Adams, Phillips, and Mix families of Hancock and Defiance Counties, Ohio, from the late nineteenth through early twentieth centuries. The collection is primarily comprised of over 300 letters exchanged among family members and other associated individuals, while additional materials include various personal writings, school papers, financial and legal documents, and documents relating to the Civil War service of Jacob Adams (1842-1930).

Dates

Creation: 1850-1932, undated
Creation: Majority of material found within circa 1860-1900

Extent

1.11 Cubic Feet (3 letter archive boxes)

Creator

Adams family (Family)
Adams, Jacob, 1842- (Person)
Adams, Sarah Belle Phillips, 1850-1922 (Person)
Fulmer, Clarissa E. Mix, 1850-1926 (Person)
Good, Sarah E. Mix, 1852-1929 (Person)
Mix family (Family)
Mix, Enos B., 1826-1907 (Person)
Mix, Perley Wray, 1874-1939 (Person)
Mix, Sarah L. Adams, 1872-1964 (Person)
Phillips family (Family)
Phillips, William, 1820-1900 (Person)

Scope and Contents

The Adams, Phillips, and Mix families papers contain correspondence and a small set of additional documentation relating to particular periods in the lives of certain members of the Adams family of Hancock County, Ohio and the Phillips and Mix families of Defiance County, Ohio. While the collection dates from 1850-1932, the bulk of the collection covers the period from roughly 1860 to 1900. Family members most thoroughly represented in the collection include Jacob Adams and his wife Sarah Belle (Phillips) Adams, as well as Sarah E. (Mix) Good, while other represented family members include William Phillips and his wife Mary Ann Kepler (parents of Sarah Belle (Phillips) Adams), Enos B. Mix and his wife Rebecca Loverna (Randall) Mix (parents of Sarah E. (Mix) Good), and their children Perley Wray Mix and Clarissa E. (Mix) Fulmer. Many additional family members are also represented in the collection, but to a much lesser degree.

The collection is arranged into two series. The first series, Correspondence, comprises the vast majority of the collection in the form of over 300 letters exchanged among family members, friends, and associates from 1858-1929, though the bulk of these letters date from the 1860s, 1880s, and 1890s. Most letters dating from the 1860s document Jacob Adams's service in the Ohio 21st Infantry Regiment during the Civil War; Sarah Belle Phillips's schooling at Maineville Academy in Warren County, Ohio and the lives of her family members and friends during that time; Jacob's work as a school teacher in Hancock County; and Jacob and Sarah's courtship leading up to their marriage in 1870.

Many of the letters from the 1880s and 1890s are written by Sarah E. (Mix) Good to her parents in Defiance while living with her husband and children in Nebraska. These letters generally touch upon Sarah's work on her family's farm, raising and educating her three children, her husband James's business dealings, James's death and the settling of his estate, and the lives of Sarah's parents and her many siblings. Other letters from this time period include those from Sarah's brother Perley Wray Mix to his parents in Defiance while attending telegraphy school in Wisconsin, and letters from Sarah's sister Clarissa E. (Mix) Fulmer to her parents in Defiance from her home in Jamestown, Kansas.

While the majority of the letters are written by Jacob Adams, Sarah Belle Phillips, Sarah E. (Mix) Good, Perley Wray Mix, and Clarissa E. (Mix) Fulmer and therefore document particular periods in these individuals' lives most fully, it should be noted that the letters cover a vast range of subjects of interest and pertaining to their immediate and extended family members and friends as well, and thereby provide intimate glimpses into the broader histories and familial and social orbits of the allied Adams, Phillips, and Mix families.

The second series makes up a much smaller component of the collection and is comprised of other family papers dating from roughly 1850-1932, including writings and documents relating to Jacob Adams's Civil War service; a photocopy of the printed Diary of Jacob Adams, Private in Company F, 21st O.V.V.I., published in 1929 by the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society; compositions and personal remembrances, most of which seem to have been written by Sarah Belle Phillips and Jacob Adams, either for personal edification or school assignments; school essays written by Sarah Belle Phillips while at Maineville Academy; documents relating to Jacob Adams's school teaching in Hancock County; a personal autograph book belonging to Jacob and Sarah Belle (Phillips) Adams's daughter Sarah L. "Sadie" Adams; and various legal and financial documents such as tax and shipping receipts, appointments to civil service positions, land deeds and title abstracts, and estate documents relating to several members of the Adams, Phillips, and Mix families.

Biographical / Historical

The Phillips, Adams, and Mix families of Hancock and Defiance Counties, Ohio, were allied through the marriage of Jacob Adams (1842-1930) and Sarah Belle Phillips (1850-1922) in 1870, and through the marriage of Jacob and Sarah's daughter Sarah L. "Sadie" Adams (1872-1964) to Perley Wray Mix (1874-1939) in 1895. Following is a brief sketch of each of these families, focusing on the generation(s) primarily documented in this collection.

Adams family. Paul Adams, Jr. (1811-1850) was born to Paul Adams (1758-1833) and Abagail Parkhurst Adams (b. 1774) in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, where he married Margaret Diehl (1808-1891). While in Pennsylvania, the couple had two children, including Manson Augustus Adams (1833-1911) and Sarah Elizabeth Adams (1835-1883). They then moved to Ohio, eventually settling in Hancock County. The couple had several more children once in Ohio, including Martha Jane Adams (1838-1903), Paul P. Adams (1840-1911), Jacob Adams (1842-1930), Margaret Maria Adams (1843-1846), William Adams (1846-1929), and Hannah Adaline Adams (1848-1936). After Paul Adams, Jr.'s death in 1850, his wife Margaret married David Dorsey (1800-1880).

The Adams family member most represented in this collection is Jacob Adams (1842-1930), Paul and Margaret's fifth child. Jacob served in Company F of the 21st Ohio Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. After the war, he returned home and taught school in Hancock County before marrying Sarah Belle Phillips (1850-1922), the daughter of William Phillips and Cynthia Shawhan Phillips, in 1870 in Defiance County. Jacob and Sarah then resided at their farm in Highland Township, Defiance County, and had three children, Addie Adams (1871-1945), Sarah L. "Sadie" Adams (1872-1964), and Delle Adams (1875-1964). In addition to farming, Jacob continued to teach school in Defiance County, served several terms as Highland Township treasurer and justice of the peace, and served on the county central committee. Toward the end of his life, he revisited and edited the diary he kept during his Civil War service, and published it in 1929 through the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society as the Diary of Jacob Adams, Private in Company F, 21st O.V.V.I.

Phillips family. William Phillips (1820-1900) was born to Isaac Phillips (b. 1826) and Ruanza Kelly Phillips (d. 1884) in 1820 in Hamilton Township, Warren County, Ohio. He married Cynthia Shawhan (d. 1855), with whom he had two children, Sarah Belle Phillips (1850-1922) and James Alonzo Phillips (1854-1884). Upon Cynthia's death, William married Mary Ann Kepler (1827-1910) in 1856 in Defiance, Ohio. The family then resided in Ayersville in Defiance County, and William and Mary would go on to have several more children, including Rachel Phillips (b. 1857), Samuel Kepler Phillips (b. 1859), Robert William Phillips (b. 1862), Mary Elizabeth Phillips (1865-1949), Josiah Miles Phillips (1868-1964), and Isaac Kelley Phillips (b. 1873).

The Phillips family is primarily represented in this collection through Sarah Belle Phillips (1850-1922), the first child of William Phillips and Cynthia Shawhan Phillips. Though her family resided in Ayersville in Defiance County upon William's marriage to Mary Ann Kepler in 1856, Sarah received her education at Maineville Academy in Warren County, Ohio. While at Maineville, Sarah stayed with her aunt Sarah A. Phillips Leever, sister of William Phillips. Sarah then married Jacob Adams (1842-1930) in 1870 in Defiance County, and over the next five years she and Jacob had three children, Addie Adams (1871-1945), Sarah L. "Sadie" Adams (1872-1964), and Delle Adams (1875-1964). Sarah and her family lived at their farm in Highland Township, Defiance County.

Mix family. Levi Mix (1794-1875) was born to Amos Mix (1759-1844) and Clarinda Barnes Mix (1767-1850) in New York. He married Sarah Shaffer (d. 1850) in 1811, and the couple settled in Ohio and had several children, including Jacob M. Mix (1812-1852), Uri Mix (1815-1897), Solomon Mix (1818-1893), Lucinda Mix (1820-1901), Enos B. Mix (1826-1907), Christiana Mix (b. 1829), Clarinda Mix (1831-1908), Sarah Mix (1835-1925), Elexis Mix (b. 1844), and Juda Mix (b. 1845).

The Mix family members most represented in this collection are Enos B. Mix (1826-1907) and Rebecca Loverna Randall Mix (1832-1896) and their children Sarah E. Mix (1852-1929), Perley Wray Mix (1874-1939), and Clarissa E. Mix (1850-1926). Enos B. Mix, son of Levi Mix and Sarah Shaffer Mix, spent his early life in Knox and Allen Counties in Ohio and went on to serve in the Mexican-American War from 1847-1848. After the war, Enos married Rebecca Loverna Randall in 1849 in Allen Township, Union County, Ohio, and the couple settled in Defiance, Ohio on a farm situated on land granted to Enos by the U.S. Government in exchange for his military service. In addition to farming, Enos held various prominent local offices in Defiance. He and Rebecca Loverna had several children, including Clarissa E. Mix (1850-1926), Sarah E. Mix (1852-1929), Allen E. Mix (1853-1926), Levi Mix (1853-1878), Ella Mix (1863-1896), Willard Mix (b. 1872), William Mix (1872-1876), and Perley Wray Mix (1874-1939). After Rebecca Loverna's death in 1896, Enos married Nancy Hanna Heilshorn (1868-1909).

Enos and Rebecca Loverna's daughter Sarah E. Mix married James Everett Budd Good (1851-1896) in Defiance in 1874. Sarah and James lived in Defiance for the next several years, where they had one daughter, Alta (b. circa 1885), and James worked as a veterinarian. By 1887, the family had relocated to Nebraska, living first in the town of Duff, then Butka, and finally Long Pine in Brown County, where by 1892 James was working as an editor and publisher of the Long Pine newspaper The Republican Journal. By 1895, James was also editing and publishing the newspaper The Star Journal, based in Ainsworth in Brown County. Sarah and James had at least two more children in Nebraska, Ora (1887-1971) and Victor (b. 1891), before James death in 1896. Following James's death, Sarah took on his responsibilities as publisher of The Republican Journal, but it is not known how long a period she continued to work in this capacity. Later in life she presumably relocated to Jamestown in Cloud County, Kansas, where her sister Clarissa lived, and where she is buried.

Enos and Rebecca Loverna's son Perley Wray Mix left Defiance as a young man for Wisconsin to attend Western Union's telegraphy school, but was presumably residing in Defiance again by 1895, when he married Sarah L. "Sadie" Adams (1872-1964), daughter of Jacob Adams and Sarah Belle Phillips. Perley served as a postal worker in Defiance beginning in 1902, retiring in 1932 due to ill health. Perley and his wife Sarah had four children, Esther Lenore Mix (1896–1975), Dorothy Lael Mix (1898–1919), Gordon Adam Mix (1903–1997), and Robert Enos Mix (1911–1981).

Enos and Rebecca Loverna's daughter Clarissa E. Mix had married Jacob Fulmer (1845-1937) in Defiance in 1871, and by the time her first child Frank Fulmer (b. 1873) was born, she and Jacob were living in Kansas, where they settled in Jamestown in Cloud County. Five more children followed, including William Allen Fulmer (1875–1958), Herbert S. Fulmer (1877–1963), Lloyd G. Fulmer (1879–1945), Florence H. Fulmer (1882–1964), and Mabel Fulmer (1883–1966).

Conditions Governing Access

No known access restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Researchers using this collection assume full responsibility for conforming to the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright, and are responsible for securing permissions necessary for publication or reproduction.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The Correspondence series is arranged chronologically. The series comprised of other family papers is grouped into folders according to common provenance and/or functions/characteristics of the materials, though there is no particular order to the folders themselves.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The collection was acquired through a series of donations from Jody Gonda from 2015 to 2017.

Processing Information

The collection was processed and the finding aid prepared by Nick Pavlik, Manuscripts and Digital Initiatives Archivist, with assistance from graduate student assistant Laura Ann Figurski, 2019-2021.