1800s Handwritten Letter Lot Steelman Family Egg Harbor Searsport ME Ship Capt

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WELCOME TO SALLYS DIARIES: (The photo above showing the 1920's girl writing in the diary is just my logo)There are a total of 7 handwritten letters in this lot and between them all there are 29 pages of writing. Some are not dated but the others date from the late 1800's so I'm assuming they are all from that era. All of the letters date between 1883 and 1892 and are written by various members of the Zephaniah Steelman family of New Jersey and the Sargent family of Searsport Maine .Zephaniah Steelman was born in 1842 and became a sea captain. He married Celia (or Cecilia) M. Sargent (b. 1850) of Searsport Maine in 1869. According to the 1900 census report they had one child, Margaret L. who is the "Maggie" on the 1892 Harriss & Sons Ship Brokers cover envelope of Savannah Georgia . In fact while in Savannah Celia talks about visiting the Harriss family.Maggie (Margaret) ended up marrying George Middleton. Zephaniah ended up moving in with George and Margaret when Celia died in 1909.Zephaniah owned what the MVUS lists as a barge, probably a sailing schooner outfitted with an engine so she could hold more cargo. The address on the cover says 2808 Ann Street , the center of Philadelphia 's shipping industry. The owner of that address is listed as James Ewan who I believe turns out to be the father of Helen, the young girl who Celia appears to be caring for on board the ship when she writes the most important 12 page letter (practically a diary itself) of the group in 1892.There are also letters to Alida from her mother and her husband Richard. Alida's from Searsport but I haven't figured out who she is but I believe she is Celia's sister. I did find a 1901 will in testament for Celia and the witnesses were Alida Thompson and Richard S. Thompson. Perhaps this Alida who witnessed Celia's will being written up was her granddaughter?The letters are wonderful, especially the 12 page letter written while on board their ship while traveling to Savannah Georgia . I've taken a few excerpts from a few of the letters to give you a better idea of the contents. And please note the only cover I have is the one shown in the scans above......"Monday Afternoon July 30 th , 1883Dear Brother, I received your letter on our arrival here. Your Uncle was much pleased with the news in your letter. Maggie Zeph and I went on an excursion to Newport News yesterday. Capt. Clayton's wife met us at the depot. We had a splendid time and did not get back until 11 o'clock at night. Capt. Adams came down to the vessel to see Zeph so we missed him but Zeph will see him before we leave. We are to load coal for Poughkeepsie N. Y. and a deck load of staves for Bayonne Staten Island . Think we shall begin unloading Wednesday. We will be here a week at least. Hope not any longer. I don't' know whether Alida is home yet or not. Maggie and Hosea have gone ashore for a walk this afternoon. Zeph is getting impatient at having so much detention. There is one vessel ahead of us yet to unload. Jim is bound to Baltimore from Lane's Cove with paving block. He was ready to leave July 24 th .......Your Sister Celia M. Steelman." (This letter goes on for another two pages)"Searsport, Oct. 6 th , 1883Dear Alida, I received your picture yesterday afternoon. Please accept my thanks for it. It is the best picture you have ever had taken. You must have had an eye opener. I never saw your eyes look so large before......I would like to know where Zeph is. I have not seen Jim arrive at Augusta yet. If Celia has had Maggie's picture taken I would her to send one down to me.....I had a very strange dream about Maggie Mair. Is there anything the matter with her or the family....I hope you will burn this letter after you have read this. Don't even let Rich see it. It is written soo badly.....Yours with love, Mother." (And this letter is much longer as are the others I've quoted here)"At Sea. Sunday April 3 rd Off Georgetown ,My Dear Maggie, Supper is just over. We had cold ham, fried potatoes, salmon, can peaches, doughnuts, bread butter and tea. It has been a very long day. Quite warm, light wind and we have not gone very far today. Helen's birthday, 5 today. I gave her an orange and cut her out a lot of paper dolls. I wrote on last Monday to you and sent a dollar in it for ma. Tuesday I made gingham pants for Helen and we were out to sea by 9 P.M. Wednesday I fixed my brown wrapper, sewed some for Capt. and dressed a doll. Miss Lilly Steelman, your old one. Thursday was a day one of Paddy's Hurricanes. Very heavy sea and no wind and if we did not do some pitching and rolling all that day and night. Helen vomited twice and was thrown out of the arm chair and had 2 bad falls and I got thrown out of the arm chair 2 or 3 times so I put Helen in my bed and I read most of the time and held on. The medicine case came open and 3 big bottles of medicine got broken. We had the fence around the table....I don't go on deck at night as it gets too damp and I stay down by the fire. I have taken my medicine regularly, had a splendid appetite....Tuesday 4 P.M. Well here we are at last off Lighbee (?) and tug boat R. M. C. Smith alongside. Such a time as we have had rolling around. Such light winds and head ones. As Helen says we have the fences around the table all the time.....Yesterday we were off Charleston and tug boat came out and spoke us and promised to report us......We are now going over the bar and past the bell buoy and Helen and I will go on deck to see the sights. S. Carolina on one side George on the other. Everything looks so nice and the flowers in the gardens are beautiful. The wind is blowing rather fresh. We shall get up to Savannah by 7:30 Capt says......Your loving mother, C. M. Steelman. Savannah at last 8 P.M. a ground off our dock all safe and well.""Wednesday April 6 th , I could not get my letter into the office last night so here is a P.S. We got into the wharf early this morning. Helen rolled out of her berth early this morning, she was not much hurt, she thought the vessel did it. Mr. Harriss came on board this morning and gave me an invitation to come up to his house and made them a visit and stay while the vessel was here but I did not on account of my ____ but I am to go up tomorrow......I like this Mr. Harriss very much. He is slender, about Rich's height and age I should judge. He said Helen looked very much like Capt. Ewan.....I sleep pretty well night when I don't have to keep awake and watch that I don't roll our of bed. I have slept with Helen a good bit on account of keeping her in bed. Hosea has been very kind. He keeps a good fire and asks me what I want to eat.....I suffer so with the heat today. I feel as though I were ready to go to Grease. It is between 80 and 90 in the cabin. Here and out on deck in the sun, well it is warm. I shall have to look up summer fashions and my woolen stockings are almost setting me wild. I shall go ashore and buy cotton tomorrow. I am sorry Aunt Alida is miserable, tell her to pack up and come down on the steamer and go back with me a trip on the vessel. We shall be here 3 weeks probably.....The colored men are singing working on the vessel. Sometimes it is real nice, the trees are all in leaf and flower and I am going to market early in the morning with the Capt. I speck your pa would show you off if you were here."" Savannah April 13 th , 1892Dear Maggie, You cannot imagine how disappointed I was when your father came back at noon from Mr. Harriss office and no letters. I felt like crying......Capt. Norberry and wife came after us to go out riding. They had a nice barouche, pair of fine gray horses and colored driver in Livery who looked as though he owned Savannah . We were all ready as per agreement and off we went......We went out to Buena Vesta the cemetery and among the first monuments I saw was one to Aaron Rippard.......I have never enjoyed anything like it except a carriage ride I had out in Barbados. After driving all around among the avenues we went down to Thunder bolt on the sound and we stopped at a hotel to rest the horses and treat the driver. He preferred whiskey straight. We took oysters and Helen had bread and milk.....We saw a little colored girl holding her baby sister and it was such a black fat cute little thing. We stopped and admired it and Helen was ready to cry. We could not get her anywhere near it. Mrs. Norberry laughed over Helen's being so afraid of them and we came back to hotel and started back to the city a different road from the way we had come. They brought us to the vessel and it was then 5:30. We had been gone over 4 hours and they went to their vessel which is way the other side of town. Capt. Norberry and your father were planning to go halves on expenses and our Stevedore Mr. Jones paid for the carriage especially for my benefit. Capt. Norberry has another Stevedore.....Your loving mother, C. M. S."There is more than what I've quoted here. Each page of the letters measures about5" x 8" and they are a bit foxed, especially the cover. Nice group of maritime ephemera. read more

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