The Knapp Family Correspondence consists of over 100 items including letters, envelopes, photographs, and postcards. Many letters are from Orlando Knapp to his sister Charlotte. There are also some from Thomas Edmonds and Mary Olmsted to Charlotte.
Portrait of Charlotte Knapp.
Collection Overview
Charlotte Knapp was born in Westport, New York, in 1831 and later moved with her family to Pierrepont, New York. She married Thomas Edmonds, of Angola, Indiana, and returned with her husband to Pierrepont where she gave birth to four children. In 1862 her husband enlisted in the 12th Indiana Volunteers with her brother Orlando. In 1863 Charlotte lost all her children to diphtheria. During the war she corresponded often with her brother Orlando, and with Thomas until he died. In 1870 she married again, this time to a farmer named Richard Bell. They had two children while she was in her early forties. Then in 1875 she died and was buried in a cemetery west of Pierrepont.
Born in Pierrepont, New York, in 1839, Orlando Knapp moved to Indiana, sometime around 1859, where he met and married Armina Cordelia Edmonds. They had two children before she died in 1862. At this point Orlando enlisted in the 12th Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry. While away from home he wrote to his sister, Charlotte, who lived in Pierrepont. After the war Orlando became a traveling salesman, eventually settling in Howard City, Michigan. In the mid 1870’s he ran a grocery store with his son James. He died in Howard City in 1917.