Ward-Macomber family papers

This collection, the Ward-Macomber Family Papers, 1829-1974, contains material relating to Levi Alfred Ward's son Levi Frederick Ward (1842-1907) and his family. On October 13, 1864 Levi Frederick Ward married Alice Smith (1844-1913). They had three children. Levi Smith Ward (1864-1926) married Florence Yates (1871-1931) in 1895. They had one son, Levi Yates Ward (b. 1904), who later changed his name to Andrew Lee Yates Ward. Laura Page Ward (1867-1959) married Francis Selden Macomber (1867-1956), a Rochester lawyer, also in 1895. Frederic Kemp Ward (1876-1910) married Hortense Thomas (1878-1909), the daughter of the architect John R. Thomas (1848-1901). Frederic Kemp and Hortense Ward had two children, Frederic Kemp Ward, Jr. (b. 1904) and Caroline Allen Ward (b. 1905). After their parents died, the children lived with their aunt and uncle, Laura Page and Francis Selden Macomber. The collection consists primarily of correspondence. The first four boxes contain letters written by Francis Selden Macomber and Laura Page (Ward) Macomber (Pagie) to each other. Most of the letters date from 1890 to 1925. The fifth and sixth boxes house correspondence written to the couple by other family members and friends. Boxes 7 and 8 contain other family correspondence, including many letters written by Levi Frederick Ward (Lee) to his wife Alice (Smith) Ward (Allie) in the 1860s and 1870s. There is also an exchange of letters between Frederic Kemp Ward (Fritz) and his fiancée, Hortense Thomas, written in 1902. Most of the letters center on family activities or on business of pleasure trips, especially European trips, made by various family members. There is a group of letters written by Frederic Kemp Ward, Jr. (Ted) to his aunt, his uncle and his sister during several summers spent at camp in Maine. Caroline Allen Ward (Sister) and her brother also wrote to their aunt and uncle from the boarding schools they attended during the latter part of the second decade of the 20th century and the early 1920s. The collection includes a box of Laura Page (Ward) Macomber's diaries, written between 1890 and 1914, some genealogical material, personal and business papers belonging to the family, and newspaper clippings. In addition, there are four boxes of photographs. The first box contains several miniatures, thirteen ambrotypes, four daguerreotypes, and two photographs in cases. In the next two boxes are photographs of family members. The last box houses some oversize photographs of family members, of the Rochester flood of 1865, and of other Rochester buildings. This box contains some oversize photographs of Caroline Allen Ward, Hortense (Thomas) Ward, John R. Thomas, Levi Smith Ward, Laura Page (Ward) Macomber, Frederic Kemp Ward, Levi F. and Alice (Smith) Ward. It also contains some photographs of the 1865 Rochester flood, some interior and exterior photographs of the house that Frederic Kemp and Hortense (Thomas) Ward built at 80 Westminster Road in 1903, and some photographs of St. Peter's Church, Rochester, N.Y. In addition, the box contains a memorial statement written on parchment to Mr. and Mrs. Levi F. Ward from the Rochester Lawn Tennis Club on the occasion of the death of Frederic Kemp Ward in 1910.