Lockwood Family Correspondence, 1863-1866

Abstract

Aaron Lockwood was born July 8, 1825 in Wentwang With Fimber, Yorkshire (England) and later immigrated to the United States with his brothers William and Joseph. Selina Vanwormer, born in New York in 1814, married Aaron on June 12, 1863 in Jackson County, Michigan; she died February 8, 1895 while he passed 8 days later, both in Spring Arbor, MI . During the 1860s, the Lockwoods owned 80 acres in Concord, Jackson County and grew wheat, corn, and oats. The collection contains three letters written by Aaron and Selina Lockwood in 1863 and 1866 to members of the Lockwood family in England. In a letter from 1863, Aaron laments the scarcity of farm labor and the imposition of a national draft (an event that led him to lie about his age to avoid service). Selina's letter from November 16, 1863 notes the draft will take place in January 1864 and references the heavy costs of the war and its impact on the Union. In a final letter from 1866, Selina rejoices at the conclusion of the war and abolition of slavery, but frets about the state of the government in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln's assassination.