Contributed by Maine Historical Society
Description
Kiah B. Sewall (1807-1865) wrote to his wife, Lucretia, in Portland about the possibility of joining a law firm in Mobile and settling there.
Sewall, a native of Phippsburg and 1829 graduate of Bowdoin College, had lost money in land speculation before the couple married in 1836. Since then, he had mostly lived away from Lucretia -- she in Portland, he in New York.
Sewall tried to make money, pay his debts, and study law. He left New York in February 1839 due to ill health. He had not yet completed his legal internship.
He wrote that if he could come to terms about working with the lawyers he met in Mobile, "will it not be my duty to accept it and will not my wife, under all the circumstances, judge it best for us both? I have labored to long for nothing ..."
He suggested she could go to Mobile the following winter and see if she liked it -- then return to Portland and her parents for the summer.
Transcription
About This Item
- Title: K.B. Sewall on settling in Mobile, Alabama, 1839
- Creator: Kiah Bayley Sewall
- Creation Date: 1839-04-03
- Subject Date: 1839
-
Locations:
- Portland, Cumberland County, ME
- Mobile, AL
- Media: Ink on paper
- Local Code: Coll. 105, Box 1/2
- Collection: Sewall family papers
- Object Type: Text
Cross Reference Searches
Standardized Subject Headings
- Debt
- Land speculation
- Real estate investment
- Sewall family
- Sewall, Kiah Bayley, 1807-1865--Correspondence
- Sewall, Kiah Bayley, 1807-1865--Health
- Sewall, Kiah Bayley, 1807-1865--Travel
- Sewall, Lucretia Day--Correspondence
People
For more information about this item, contact:
Maine Historical Society485 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101
(207) 774-1822 x230
Website
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