Preliminary Guide to the William H. Hartwell Papers

Processed by D. Tambo and T. Lewis
Department of Special Collections
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone: (805) 893-3062
Fax: (805) 893-5749
Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html
© 2003
Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Preliminary Guide to the William H. Hartwell Papers, ca. 1865-1963

Collection number: Wyles Mss 37

Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara

Contact Information:

  • Department of Special Collections
  • Davidson Library
  • University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Santa Barbara, CA 93106
  • Phone: (805) 893-3062
  • Fax: (805) 893-5749
  • Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
  • URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html
    Processed by:
    D. Tambo and T. Lewis
    Date Completed:
    25 September 2003
    Encoded by:
    David C. Gartrell
© 2003 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Descriptive Summary

Title: William H. Hartwell Papers,
Date (inclusive): ca. 1865-1963
Collection Number: Wyles Mss 37
Creator: Hartwell (William H.)
Extent: .2 linear feet (1 half-size document box)
Repository: University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Department of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, California 93106-9010
Physical Location: Del Sur
Language: English.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

None.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

Preferred Citation

William H. Hartwell Papers. Wyles Mss 37. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mrs. F. W. Nordhoff, 1963.

Biography

William Herman Hartwell was born in Keene, New Hampshire on August 28, 1844. He was the seventh of eight children, though only four would live past early childhood. His parents had both died by the time he graduated from school in 1862, when he decided to enlist in the Union Army to fight in the Civil War. He was mustered into Company I of the 9th Regiment of the New Hampshire Infantry on August 15, 1862. He fought in numerous battles, including Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Cemetery Hill, rising through the ranks to sergeant by the spring of 1863. He was captured by Confederate forces on September 30, 1864 and held as a prisoner-of-war for five months. With the conclusion of the war, he received an Honorable Discharge in June 1865.
Rather than return to New Hampshire, Hartwell and his brother decided to head out west to make a new life for themselves. Although his brother was killed by Indians in Kansas only two years later, Hartwell eventually settled in Kirkwood, Illinois and started a family with his first wife, Lila Pence, whom he married in 1871. They had two sons, Albert and Robert. After working as a village clerk and tax collector, Hartwell took his family to Iowa in 1878. Three years later, however, his wife died. In 1890, he married again, to a widow named Mrs. Florence Ellis, née Chapin. She bore him two daughters, Marian and Ruth. By 1915, the family had moved to Santa Barbara, California, where William Hartwell died on May 23, 1924 at the age of 79.
In 1939, Ruth Hartwell married Franklin W. Nordhoff, and she diligently collected and transcribed her father's writings and reminiscences of the Civil War, even submitting one of his accounts to the editors of American Heritage magazine. A widow for some forty years, she died in 1995.

Scope and Content of Collection

The collection contains handwritten reminiscences of the Civil War, and the period following it, by William H. Hartwell, New Hampshire Infantry, 9th Regiment (Vol), Co. I. Also included is some commentary by his daughter, Ruth Hartwell Nordhoff, who donated the collection.

Box 1: 1

"Civil War Prison", 1956

Abstract: [Account of Hartwell's experiences in Salisbury Prison, North Carolina, Oct. 1864 to Feb. 22, 1865 - drawn from his notebook, and submitted for publication by his daughter]
Box 1: 2

"Personal Military and Civil History", ca. 1898, 1914

Abstract: [Includes photos of Hartwell and family as well as information about Hartwell's participation in the Civil War, compiled by the Soldiers and Sailors Historical and Benevolent Society]
Box 1: 3

Reminiscences of the Civil War - incl. Sept. 17, 1862 Battle of Antietam, n.d.

Abstract: [Handwritten account by Hartwell, in bound ledger, along with some handwritten transcriptions of the same by Hartwell's daughter]
Box 1: 4

"Two Years [1865-1867] of Ranch Life on the Santa Fe Road", n.d.

Box 1: 5

Untitled Story, n.d.

Abstract: [Probably period after the ranch episode - includes daughter's commentary]
Box 1: 6

Miscellaneous Correspondence and Documents, 1865, 1880, 1883

Abstract: [Including Civil War pass and supporting letters re Hartwell's request for a military pension]