Friday, January 3, 2014

1860s Autograph Album Presented by Isaac Rhodes Lounsberry of Sing Sing, New York, to future wife Abbie Jane Haight


1860s autograph album presented to Abbie Jane Haight by her future husband Isaac Rhodes Lounsberry of Sing Sing, New York.  They married on 12 April 1863.



Isaac Rhodes Lounsberry signed a page in the album, at Sing Sing, New York, on November 27, 1862, which may have been the date he presented the album to Abbie.



Some of the autographs in the album were collected after the couples' marriage.

See another post featuring an album from Sing Sing, New York here.

The album measures approximately 7" x 5-1/2" and contains nearly 20 pages signed by Abbie's relatives and friends.  An alphabetical list of the senders appears at the end of this post.

The album contains three pages of engravings, in addition to the title page, below.  The album was published in New York by Leavitt and Allen.



Two greeting cards are tucked inside the album, and one is pasted to the back end paper.  One of the loose greeting cards was given to Ida Lounsberry by her father Isaac Rhodes Lounsberry.



From online research, hopefully correct: [corrections and additions welcome!]

Abbie Jane Haight was born 16 August 1846, the daughter of James E. Haight of Yorktown, New York, according to a biography of her husband, Isaac Rhodes Lounsberry, written after his death and included in the Biographical History of Westchester County.  

The 1850 Census of Yorktown has Abbie in the household of Richard and Sarah Tompkins.  Whether James E. Haight had died and his widow, possibly named Sarah, had remarried Richard Tompkins, or if Abbie was being brought up by other people entirely, I don't know.

Abbie's cousin Edna signed a page at Sing Sing, New York, on May 3, 1863.



As mentioned above, on 12 April 1863, Abbie Jane Haight married Isaac Rhodes Lounsberry, son of Henry and Catherine R. (Quereau) Lounsberry.  Catherine's mother was Charity (Rhodes) Quereau.  Isaac was born about 1832 at Croton, New York.

The couple had, I believe, 5 children:

  1. Sarah Lounsberry, born about 1864; married Nelson Laraway
  2. Catherine Lounsberry, born about 1866
  3. Ida Lounsberry, born about 1868; married Henry Palmer
  4. Jane C., "Jennie", born about 1870
  5. Isaac Rhodes Lounsberry, born 18 March 1877; m. Florence Irene Walker.
If you have corrections and/or additions to the information above, or information on any of the signers listed below, please leave a comment or contact me directly.  Thanks!

Mrs. Anna Terwilliger signed a page on July 16, 1862.  She may have been the same Anna Terwilliger who signed a page at Sing Sing in July of 1862, or a daughter.



One page was signed by two people who added some frills to their signatures, making them hard to read.  One person was Dorcas U. Knox, and the other Sarah M. Hunt or Hurd or Hurst or ?









List of signers:  [Note: given names within a specific surname may not be in alphabetical order.]
  • U. C. U., or W. C. W., signed at Sing Sing, New York, on July 28, 1862
  • Mary
  • Emma, signed at Sing Sing, New York, on January 18, 1863
  • "Your cousin" Edna, signed at Sing Sing, New York, on May 3, 1863
  • Anonymous
  • E. M. W., signed at Sing Sing, New York, on July 30, 1862
  • Sarah M. Hunt or Sarah M. Hurst or ?; she shared a page with Dorcas U. Knox.  They both fancied up their names, making them hard to decipher.
  • Anonymous
  • Abbie J. Haight; album owner; she was presented the album by her future husband Isaac Rhodes Lounsberry
  • Dorcas U. Knox; she shared a page with another signer, possibly Sarah M. Hunt or Sarah M. Knox or ?  They both fancied up their names, making them hard to decipher.
  • I. R. Lounsberry, who presented the album to Abbie J. Haight.  He was her future husband Isaac Rhodes Lounsberry; he signed a subsequent page in the album at Sing Sing, New York, on November 27, 1862.  They would marry on April 12, 1863.
  • Miss Kate A. Lyon
  • Augusta Scott, signed on July 16, 1862, at Sing Sing, New York; she signed the following page as well.
  • S. B. Stanley
  • Mrs. Anna Terwilliger, signed on July 16, 1862; she may have been the Anna Terwilliger who signed another page.
  • Anna Terwilliger, signed at Sing Sing, New York, in July 1862; possibly the same person as Mrs. Anna Terwilliger who signed another page.
  • P. Washburn
Sing Sing, in Ossining, New York


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