Sharpless-Reeve family papers
Scope and Contents
The collected papers of the Sharpless and Reeve family of New Jersey and Philadelphia. Much of the correspondence is between Edward Sharpless (1831-1894), a New Jersey Quaker minister, and his sister, Anna N. Sharpless, who married John Newbold Reeve in 1857. Their daughter, Mary Offley Reeve, worked as a school teacher when young and became involved in temperance and evangelical Christianity. She shared these interests, reflected in diaries and other writings, with Annie Way Smith, a long-time friend. The collection illustrates Quaker responses to early twentieth century social and religious trends.
Dates
- Creation: 1852 - 1957
Creator
- Reeve, Mary Offley, 1861-1947 (Person)
- Smith, Annie Way, 1867-1938 (Person)
- Sharpless, Edward, 1831-1894 (Person)
- Reeve, Anna N. (Anna N. Sharpless Reeve), 1825-1891 (Person)
Limitations on Accessing the Collection
Collection is open for research.
Copyright and Rights Information
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Biographical / Historical
Blakey Sharpless and Mary Offley Sharpless were Quakers who married under the care of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting in 1820. Blakey taught at Westtown School early in his career and then moved to Philadelphia where he became a partner to Thomas Kimber in a book publishing and selling business. He and his wife retired to Haddonfield, New Jersey, where she lived until her death.
Their children were Daniel, Isaac, Anna N. Martha P., Mary (1828-1834), Edward Sharpless, and Mary (1837-1909). Martha P. Sharpless married Edward Bettle (prominent in New Jersey politics), and Mary (1837-1909) married William Bettle (farmer, near Haddonfield, New Jersey. Anna N. Sharpless (1825-1891) married John Newbold Reeve of Medford, New Jersey, in 1857 under the care of Haddonfield Monthly Meeting. He was the son of John Newbold Reeve and Priscilla W. Sheppard Reeve.
Anna and John Newbold Reeve had three children: Walter S. Reeve, Mary Offley Reeve, and Edward Blakey Reeve. Walter married Adelaide Buzby in 1881 under the care of Burlington Monthly Meeting, New Jersey. In 1891, Edward B. Reeve married Virginia Antrim, a non-Quaker, and they had three children. In 1922, their daughter Mildred married Leon A. Fritchman who worked in Shanghai, China, in the 1930s.
Mary Offley Reeve attended Westtown School and briefly taught school in Medford, New Jersey. After Westtown, Mary O. Reeve lived with various family members in New Jersey and Ohio, and later, in Bedford, Pennsylvania, with her friend Anna Way Smith.
Annie Way Smith was the daughter of Samuel and Jane Wilson Way of Deer Creek Monthly Meeting in Harford, Maryland. Samuel was a farmer, and Jane W. Way was an Elder in the Meeting. They had four children: Annie, Mary, John, and Edwin S. Way. Annie Way married Edmund Landus Smith in 1900. Both had worked as teachers and subsequently Edmund became a family physician, settling his practice in Fishertown, Pennsylvania. Annie Way Smith was widowed in 1932, and the two women continued to live on Julianna Street, Fishertown, until Annie's sudden death in 1938.
Extent
2.5 Linear Feet (5 boxes)
Language
English
Overview
The collected papers of the Sharpless and Reeve family of New Jersey and Philadelphia. Much of the correspondence is between Edward Sharpless (1831-1894), a New Jersey Quaker minister, and his sister, Anna N. Sharpless, who married John Newbold Reeve in 1857. Their daughter, Mary Offley Reeve, worked as a school teacher when young and became involved in temperance and evangelical Christianity. She shared these interests, reflected in diaries and other writings, with Annie Way Smith, a long-time friend and member of Fishertown Monthly Meeting. The collection illustrates Quaker responses to early twentieth century social and religious trends.
Arrangement
Arranged in four series.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchase, Accession 2016.031
Source
- Valentino, Carmen (Person)
Topical
- Evangelical Quakers
- Evangelicalism
- Lay ministry -- Society of Friends
- Quaker women -- 20th century
- Quaker women -- Diaries
- Quaker women -- United States -- Diaries
- Quakers -- Diaries
- Quakers -- New Jersey
- Temperance -- Pennsylvania -- Societies, etc.
- Temperance -- Societies, etc.
- Temperance and religion -- Society of Friends
- Women teachers -- Pennsylvania
- Title
- Sharpless-Reeve family papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Susanna K. Morikawa
- Date
- January 2020
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
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