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]