Vose Stearns McCormick Family Papers
Finding aid prepared by Claire D. Kennedy.
Manuscripts Department
© 2010
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
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Title: Vose Stearns McCormick family papers
Dates: 1834-1953
Collection Number: mssVose Stearns McCormick family
Creators:
McCormick, Nellie Stearns and
Vose, Cynthia Lisetta
Extent:
7 boxes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Manuscripts Department
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract:
This collection primarily documents the activities of members of the Vose, Stearns, and McCormick, dating from 1834 to 1949,
and chiefly reflects their life in
Los Angeles, California. In particular, this set of papers documents the activities of the Hollenbeck Ebell Club of Los
Angeles through the personal documents, correspondence,
diaries and photographs of Cynthia Lisetta Vose (born 1839) and her daughter Nellie Stearns McCormick (born 1869).
Language of Material: The records are in English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
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.
[Identification of item]. Vose Stearns McCormick Family Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
The collection was a gift of Mrs. Lois Estelle Hartman, her daughter Billie Van Heyningen and her cousin Sharon Hartman Strom,
April 27, 2006.
The addenda was a gift of Sharon H. Strom, April 2012.
Cynthia Lisetta Vose was born in 1839 in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Her family including her parents Nathaniel Vose and Cynthia
Smith Belcher Vose and her siblings Edgar and
George Vose, were early settlers of farm land in Lake County, Illinois. In 1857, Cynthia Vose married George Kimball Stearns.
The couple had three children named Harry Stearns (born 1858),
Elmer Paine Stearns (born 1860) and Nellie Stearns (born 1869). Harry, upon completing his BA at Dartmouth College worked
as a salesman for the Lippincott book company. Elmer attended Lake
Forest College for two years, worked as a telegraph operator and then moved to Southern California in the late 1880s. Harry
joined Elmer in California to run a fruit ranch in Suisan,
California, in hopes of recovery from his suffering of tuberculosis. Harry died in 1888 of the disease in Gurnee, Illnois,
after his mother brought him back from California by train to
attend to his final months. George Kimball Stearns died in 1894. Cynthia Vose then married her cousin, Nathaniel (Nat)
Vose born in 1850 of Warren, Illinois in 1895. The two shared similar
interests in spiritualism, homeopathic healing and "free thinking."
Cynthia's daughter, Nellie Stearns married John Frances McCormick, an Irish immigrant laborer, in 1895. Their daughter Beatrice
was born in 1895 and their son,
George Stearns, in 1897. The entire family, including Nat Vose's mother Mary Ellen, moved to Pasadena, California, in 1900
with hopes of joining Elmer Paine Stearns in working
a citrus farm, but the citrus boom had begun to collapse. John Frances McCormick found a job with the Los Angeles Railway
as a switcher and then as a motorman.
Nat Vose operated a cobbler shop and on the side worked as a homeopathic healer and massage therapist. Elmer Paine Stearns
with his wife Alice Day Stearns and sons Verne,
Harry and Trevette, moved to El Paso, Texas to take a position as chair of English and Botany at an agricultural college
in Juarez, Mexico. Elmer wrote his family frequently
describing his experiences living and teaching in and near Mexico.
In 1906, Cynthia bought a lot outside the city limits to the east of Indiana Avenue and the neighborhood of Boyle Heights
on Occidental Street. This semi-rural location allowed
the family to raise chickens and laying hens for sale and to grow vegetables and fruits. In 1910, after the departure of
Nat and Mary Ellen Vose to Ventura County,
Cynthia built another house a few blocks to the west on Occidental Street, which became an extension of Lan Franco Street
after the city of Los Angeles expanded to the east.
The McCormick family would live with Cynthia, who now described herself as a widow in the city directory and in the census,
at 3650 Lan Franco Street until her death in 1932.
The family used Cynthia's income from investments in real estate loans, the sale of her properties in Illinois, and John's
wages as a workman for the Los Angeles Railway to live a comfortable
middle class lifestyle, and both Beatrice and George Stearns graduated from Los Angeles High School. Cynthia Vose, was
an active and enthusiastic participant in the spiritualist movement,
the Audubon society, the suffrage movement in the Political Equality League and the Hollenbeck Ebell Club. She was a member
of the "People's Church" on 233 Broadway in Los Angeles.
Her daughter, Nellie Stearns McCormick was also very involved in the Hollenbeck Ebell club, serving as president for many
years and filling the role of Abraham Lincoln in
their theatrical History pageant. Nellie was also a participant in the Mother's Clubs, which was the predecessor to the
Parent Teacher Association (PTA). She was also involved in
the votes for women movement and not only voted regularly, but served on election boards and supervised polling places
when women received the right to vote in California in 1911.
In the 1920s Nellie was active in the California State Federation of Women's Clubs conventions. At this time John Frances
McCormick, Nellie's husband, became a mason. He and his
wife became active in the Eastern Star at the local Masonic Temple.
Nellie and John's daughter Beatrice (Bea) Kathleen McCormick married an older man named Lloyd Hartman as soon as she graduated
high school. Lloyd Hartman had a working class
background and often had trouble finding work. Their two daughters, Lois and Frances, were born in 1917 and 1926.
In 1918, George Stearns McCormick married his wife Pearl Amy whom he had met while working at the Broadway department store,
where she was a clerk. The couple had three
daughters by 1924. George Stearns and his family moved away from Los Angeles, first to Fresno, California, and then to
Klamath Falls, Oregon, but visited on occasion.
This collection primarily documents the activities of members of the Vose, Stearns, and McCormick, dating from 1834 to 1949,
and chiefly reflects their life in
Los Angeles, California. In particular, this set of papers documents the activities of the Hollenbeck Ebell Club of Los
Angeles through the personal documents, correspondence,
diaries and photographs of Cynthia Lisetta Vose (born 1839) and her daughter Nellie Stearns McCormick (born 1869).
The papers are arranged in three series: Family History, Hollenbeck Ebell Club and Los Angeles Transit Lines Women's Club;
Photographs; and Addenda.
Within the Family History series (box 1), the items are arranged: manuscripts, correspondence and ephemera. The items are
filed alphabetically by name or subject within those subdivisions. Within the Hollenbeck Ebell Club and Los Angeles Transit
Women's Club
series (in boxes 2 and 3) the papers are also arranged first by creator name, in this case Cynthia Lisetta Vose or Nellie
Stearns McCormick, and
then by manuscripts, correspondence and ephemera under that subseries. The items are then filed chronologically within
the subdivisions of manuscripts, correspondence and ephemera.
Box 4 contains photographs. The items within this series are arranged alphabetically by name or subject.
The Vose Stearns McCormick family papers contains personal papers in the form of manuscripts, correspondence, ephemera and
photographs that document the
activities of the family members of the Vose, Stearns and McCormick families. The family's activities documented within
this set of papers range from 1834 to 1949.
Limited documentation exists of the family's beginning in Stoughton, Massachusetts and their move west and settlement in
Lake County, Illinois.
The bulk of the documentation covers the family's life in Los Angeles, California. In particular, this set of papers documents
the activities of the Hollenbeck Ebell
club through the personal documents, correspondence and photographs of Cynthia Lisetta Vose and her daughter Nellie Stearns
McCormick.
Documentary forms include genealogical lists and narratives, poetry, an autograph book, day books, play scripts, speeches,
notes, correspondence, keepsakes, hymn books,
linen, education certificates, a penmanship notebook, Los Angeles Railways newsletters, obituaries and newspaper clippings.
In particular, prominent within this collection are the poetry and
club writings of Cynthia Lisetta Vose and Nellie Stearns McCormick as well as the play scripts and photographs from the
historical pageants hosted by the Hollenbeck Ebell Club.
There is also limited documentation in regards to the activities of the Los Angeles Transit Lines Women's Club. Other subjects
include: agricultural colleges in Mexico,
frontier life in Illinois, and rabbit hunting in California.
The addenda consists of 31 daily diaries written by Cynthia Lisetta Vose from 1900 through 1932. There are also clippings
and printed ephemera related to the
Hollenbeck Ebell Club, Los Angeles Railway Women's Club, and Nellie Stearns McCormick.
The papers are arranged in 4 series: Family History, Hollenbeck Ebell Club and Los Angeles Transit Lines Women's Club; Photographs;
and Addenda
McCormick, John Frances
McCormick, Nellie Stearns
Stearns, Elmer Paine
Vose, Cynthia Lisetta
California Federation of Women's Clubs
Hollenbeck Ebell Club
Agricultural colleges--Mexico
Clubs--California--Los Angeles--History--Sources
Frontier and pioneer life--Illinois
Rabbit hunting--California--Photographs
Women--California--Diaries
Women--California--History--20th century--Sources
California--History--20th century--Sources
Los Angeles (Calif.)--History--20th century--Photographs
Los Angeles (Calif.)--Social life and customs--20th century--Sources
Appointment books--California--20th century
Diaries
Ephemera--California--20th century
Family papers--California--Los Angeles--20th century
Letters (correspondence)--California--20th century
Photographs--California--20th century
Family History
Box 1
Family History
Hollenbeck South Ebell Club and Los Angeles Transit Women's Club
Box 2
Hollenbeck South Ebell Club
Box 3
Hollenbeck Ebell Club and Los Angeles Transit Lines Women's Club
Folder 1
Folder 4
Folder 5
Folder 11
Photographs
Box 4
Photographs
Addenda
Box 5
Addenda--Diaries
Box 6
Addenda--Diaries
Box 7
Addenda--Diaries, clippings, and printed ephemera
Folder 6