John & William Geddes Letters

Introduction

The Geddes Letter Web Site is a collection of over 100 letters written between early Washtenaw County settler John Geddes and his brother William in Pennsylvania. The letters begin in 1825 and end in 1844 when William moved to a farm in Pittsfield Township. The letters were found in abandoned house in Groton, Massachusetts in the late 1990s. They were purchased by Professor Russell E. Bidlack from a collector and later donated to the Bentley Historical Library. Professor Bidlack transcribed many of the letters and was assisted by members of the Washtenaw County Historical Society. The Geddes Letter website is a collaboration between the Ann Arbor District Library, the Bentley Historical Library, and the Washtenaw County Historical Society. The letters offer a first-person glimpse of the social, political, and economic life in Washtenaw County before 1850. In early letters, the bachelor brothers discuss their quest for finding a suitable bride. Other letters discuss family health—always of great concern in an era of outbreaks of cholera and tuberculosis.