Ellen Steele Sturges Papers: Finding Aid
Finding aid prepared by Stephanie E. Clayton, April 1, 2011.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical
Gardens
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
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The Huntington Library. All rights reserved.
Overview of the Collection
Title: Ellen Steele Sturges Papers
Dates (inclusive): 1852-1946
Bulk dates: 1852-1894
Collection Number: mssSturges papers
Creator:
Sturges, Ellen Steele.
Extent:
40 items. 1 box.
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains 40 items by and related to Ellen Steele Sturges (1837-1930) of Michigan, Montana, and San Bernardino,
California, and her family.
Items chiefly include manuscripts of short stories by Sturges, some ephemera, and a few letters, notably including an 1852
letter from
Sturges' father, Ebenezer Steele (1808-1901), with a report of his missionary work among the Ojibwa Indians, in Michigan.
Language:
English.
Access
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
Administrative Information
Publication Rights
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to
quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such
activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is
one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item]. Ellen Steele Sturges Papers, The Huntington Library,
San Marino, California.
Provenance
Gift of Joanna P. Leonard, June 8, 1948.
Biographical Note
Ellen Steele Sturges (1837-1930) was the daughter of Ebenezer Steele (born 1808). She was born on October 21, 1837,
in Connecticut. Her mother, Mary Pilgrim, died in 1848, most likely due to complications from the birth of her third child.
Ellen’s father remarried that fall.
His second wife, Phebe, was a former teacher and a widow. By 1852, Steele was working as a missionary in Michigan for the
Methodist Episcopal Church among the Ojibwa tribe.
Ellen (also known as "Nellie") married teacher David Brainerd Sturges (1839-1910) in 1860.
Ellen graduated from Wesleyan Seminary in Albion in 1858, and graduated from nursing school in December 1864. She began teaching
in 1865 and the Sturgeses taught in Montana before moving to San Bernardino, California, in 1876.
David Sturges was a county superintendent in 1881 and he founded the Sturges Academy in San Bernardino in 1883. The school
was coeducational and was one of the first college preparatory
schools in the area. Sturges closed the school around 1894 and taught at the local high school. He was a principal from 1897-1903
and
a vice-principal in 1903. His work in the school district ended with his death in 1910. Sturges Junior High School (now closed)
and Sturges Theater (now Sturges Center for the Performing Arts) were named after him.
Ellen wrote short stories for family and friends throughout the late 19th century. Most of the tales are set on the frontier.
She may have sent a few out for publication under the name “Elwhit Steele.”
Ellen Sturges died on March 10, 1930.
Scope and Content
This collection contains 40 items (17 manuscripts, 4 letters, and 19 pieces of ephemera) by or related to Ellen Steele Sturges
(1837-1930) of Michigan, Montana, and San Bernardino, California, and her family.
Items chiefly consist of manuscripts of short stories written by Sturges, as well as two hymns.
There is also a short 1-page autobiography by her father, Ebenezer Steele, and a small collection of genealogical and biographical
notes detailing Ellen
Steele Sturges’s family and David Brainerd Sturges’s life. One letter in the collection is a rejection notice from S.S. McClure
Limited and includes an
edited copy of “The Little Somnambulist.” An 1852 letter contains a report by Ebenezer Steele regarding his missionary work
in 1852 with an Ojibwa tribe in Michigan at "Na-yuh-mah-kauny" (or Naomikong).
There is also a short note from Ellen’s stepmother,
Phebe Steele, recounting Ebenezer Steele’s recollections of “Training Day” in Massachusetts. The ephemera includes Ellen Steele
Sturges’s nursing certificate, a
Montana homestead certificate from 1877 to David Sturges, and a Confederate States bond issued by the Central Business College
of Sedalia, Missouri, from 1864. There is also an obituary for Ellen Steele Sturges, a
photograph of David Brainerd Sturges, two photographic postcards of their house in San Bernardino, California, and a view
of buildings in Virginia City, Montana, by photographer O.C. Bundy, circa 1875.
Related Materials
-
Steele family correspondence.
(Call number: mssHM 73830-73862)
- "Diary of Ellen W. Steele Sturges "From Salt Lake City to St. George in an Emigrant Wagon, 1876" in the
San Bernardino County Museum Quarterly (1965).
Arrangement
Manuscripts and correspondence arranged alphabetically by author, followed by ephemera and photographs.
Indexing Terms
Subjects
Sturges, David
Brainerd.
Sturges, Ellen Steele
-- Archives.
American fiction -- Women
authors.
Frontier and pioneer life --
Fiction.
Hymns, English -- United
States.
Missionaries --
Correspondence.
Ojibwa Indians.
Women -- California.
Women authors, American -- 19th century
-- Archives.
San Bernardino (Calif.)
-- History -- 19th century -- Sources.
San Bernardino (Calif.)
-- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Virginia City (Mont.) -- Photographs.
Forms/Genres
Hymns -- United States -- 19th century.
Letters (correspondence) -- United
States -- 19th century.
Manuscripts -- United States -- 19th
century.
Additional Contributors
Bundy, O. C.
Steele, Ebenezer, 1808-1901.
Folder 1
Steele, Ebenezer, 1808-1901. Untitled autobiographical piece beginning, "I was born in Boston …"
[Before 1901].
Physical Description: 1 item (1 p., handwritten).
Folder 2
Sturges, Ellen Steele. An Unexpected Romance [short story signed "Elwhit Steele"].
[Undated].
Physical Description: 1 item (7 pp., typescript).
Folder 3
Sturges, Ellen Steele. Etchings: Divining for Water [short story].
[Undated].
Physical Description: 1 item (4 pp. handwritten).
Folder 4
Sturges, Ellen Steele. Hymns.
1867
Physical Description: 2 items (2 leaves, handwritten, and an envelope).
Folder 5
Sturges, Ellen Steele. Peggy Pemberton: A Tale of Training Day [short story].
[After 1876]
Physical Description: 1 item (6 pp., typescript, and an address card).
Folder 6
Sturges, Ellen Steele. Richard of Whittington, yeleped [sic] Dick. A Tale of Olden Times [manuscript, Chapters I, II, and
VIII only].
[Undated]
Physical Description: 3 items (26 pp., handwritten).
Folder 7
Sturges, Ellen Steele. The Little Somnambulist [short story].
[1894].
Physical Description: 1 item (5 pp., typescript).
Folder 8
Sturges, Ellen Steele. The Philanthropist [short story].
Before 1860.
Physical Description: 1 item (2 pp., handwritten).
Folder 9
Sturges, Ellen Steele. The Shady Philosophy and Sunny [essay].
1859 February 8.
Physical Description: 1 item (7 pp, handwritten).
Folder 10
Sturges, Ellen Steele. What the Mistletoe Hid in a California Cottonwood [short story].
[Undated].
Physical Description: 1 item (4 pp., typescript).
Folder 11
Sturges, Ellen Steele. Wonderful Times in Wonderland [manuscript of Sketch Nos. 1 and 2 by "Aunt Hattie Storytell"].
[Undated].
Physical Description: 2 items (14 pp., handwritten).
Folder 12
-----. Biographical and Genealogical Notes.
[Before 1948].
Physical Description: 3 items.
Folder 13
McClure, S.S. 1 rejection letter to Ellen Steele Sturges [with 5 pp. typescript copy of story "The Little Somnabulist" with
manuscript edits].
1894 April 13.
Physical Description: 2 items
Folder 14
Steele, Ebenezer. 1 letter to Rev. J.H. Pitezel.
1852 January 30
Physical Description: 1 item (2 pp., handwritten).
Folder 15
Steele, Phebe. 1 note "About Training Day."
1893 November
Physical Description: 1 item (1 leaf, handwritten).
Folder 16
Miscellaneous Ephemera.
1864-1877.
Physical Description: 3 items (1 damaged).
Consists of Ellen Steele Sturges’s nursing certificate from the Office of Superintendent of Women Nurses, a
Montana homestead certificate from 1877 to David Sturges, and a Confederate States bond issued by the Central Business College
of Sedalia, Missouri, from 1864.
Folder 17
Newspaper Clippings.
1939-1946.
Physical Description: 5 items.
Folder 18
Photographic Material.
[Undated].
Physical Description: 8 items.
Consists of a studio portrait photograph of David Brainerd Sturges; a photograph of the exteriors of a church and buildings
with a handwritten caption "Log hut above x is building
where Mr. & Mrs. Sturges taught in Virginia City" by O.C. Bundy of Virginia City, Montana; two photographic postcards of the
Sturges house in San Bernardino; and 4 commercial images of Glacier National Park, Montana,
published by Kiser Photo.
Folder 19
Poems.
1857 and undated.
Physical Description: 3 items (6 leaves, handwritten).
Consists of handwritten copies of poems including one set transcribed by Ellen Steele Sturges to David Sturges, dated 1857.
