Collection Summary
Information for Researchers
Biography
Scope and Content
Collection Summary
Collection Title: Walsworth Family Papers,
Date (inclusive): [ca. 1842-1906]
Collection Number: BANC MSS 70/131 c
Creator: Walsworth family
Extent:
Number of containers: 2 boxes, 2 cartons and 1 oversize folder
Repository: The
Bancroft Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: Correspondence, diaries, Mss., scrapbooks and clippings of Presbyterian minister Edward Brown Walsworth and his wife, relating
to their voyage around the Horn in the Trade Wind, 1852; life in San Francisco, Marysville and Oakland; voyage to Hawaii,
1858; visit to Yosemite; association with the Oakland Female College. Also included: letters, accounts and papers of the Gibson
and Pierson families, 1806-1874; and genealogical materials relating to the Pierson, Walsworth and Redington families.
Languages Represented:
English
Information for Researchers
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Walsworth family papers, BANC MSS 70/131 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Material Cataloged Separately
Biography
Edward Brown Walsworth, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 29, 1819, moved with his family to New York State when
he was fifteen years old. There he received his early education, and there he joined the Presbyterian Church. Having decided
to become a minister, after graduating from Union College in 1844, he continued his studies at the Auburn Theological Seminary,
and later at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Upon his graduation in 1848, he accepted his first call in East
Avon, New York. Here he met Sarah A. Pierson who was to become his wife.
In 1852 Mr. Walsworth offered his services to the American Home Missionary Society, and left for California with Mrs. Walsworth
on the
Trade Wind, traveling around Cape Horn, arriving in San Francisco in February, 1853. In California he organized the First Presbyterian
Church in Oakland, then went on to Marysville, returning to Oakland some ten years later. At this time, Walsworth founded
a college for women, the Oakland Female College of the Pacific, thereby combining his love of church and education. He was
also a trustee and one of the founders of the Oakland College School. In 1872 he returned to New York, settling in Albion,
and later accepting the chancellorship of Ingham University at LeRoy for three years. He spent his last years as resident
pastor in Livonia, where he died in 1891.
Scope and Content
The papers, a gift of Warren Howell, March 9, 1970, contain correspondence of both Mr. and Mrs. Walsworth from 1852 to 1890;
a diary of Edward Brown Walsworth, 1853, describing the end of his voyage in the
Trade Wind and his arrival in San Francisco; four volumes of diaries of Mrs. Walsworth,1852-1862, concerning the voyage to California,
and life in San Francisco, Marysville and Oakland; papers relating to the Female College of the Pacific; scrapbooks of Edward
Brown Walsworth relating to his ministerial career and to his interest in education; manuscripts of his writings and sermons,
including the text for a Guide Book, New York to San Francisco via Panama, written in 1867; clippings; deeds for property
in Marysville;and early family papers containing miscellaneous accounts and documents of the Gibson family, 1806-1842, and
of the Pierson family, 1827-1874.
There is also genealogical material for the Pierson, Redington and Walsworth families.
A key to the arrangement of the papers and a list of major correspondents follow.