Description
The Grace Alta Merritt Lucas Collection consists chiefly of personal
correspondence and family photographs. The collection also contains legal
documents and correspondence with attorneys in Helena, Montana regarding the
Lucas's property there.
Background
Grace Alta Merritt Lucas (1885-1977) was the granddaughter of Sarah
Griffiths and Benjamin Rosser, Welsh immigrants who settled in Iowa. The
Rossers had five children one of whom, Mary, was Alta Merritt Lucas' mother.
Mary Rosser married Lawrence G. Merritt (1884) and, at twenty-six, Alta Merritt
married Julius Robert Lucas in Indianapolis. The Lucases lived in Helena,
Montana for most of their married life, later moving to Salt Lake City, where
they were divorced in 1921. Mrs. Lucas then settled in Stockton, California
where she and her ex-husband were part owners of the Muldowney & Lucas
printing Company. From 1930 she worked as a printer for a Stockton newspaper
until retiring in 1976.