The collection consists of letters of the family covering a period from 1833 to 1902. Also included are newspaper clippings (1916-1968)-one of interest is "Little Stories of Canton Families", various obituaries and legal documents, family tree and a Universalist Church Directory dated 1898.
Letter from the Southworth collection dated November 8, 1902.
Collection Overview
The Southworth family in St. Lawrence County goes back to Rev. Constant Southworth, minister at Brick Chapel, Canton, who came from Vermont in 1820. In 1836 the family returned to Vermont but Egbert Henry Southworth, a young boy, remained with the Leonard family. He had various jobs throughout his life; a merchant selling from a cart between Plattsburg and Utica, a clerk for Ebenezer Miner in Canton, a sawmill operator, as well as jobs in the butter and cheese industry, before he turned to farming. He was known as a progressive farmer by building modern barns and using modern methods. He introduced the Holstein cow and helped organize the Dairymen's Association in St. Lawrence County. E.H. Southworth was born 1827 and died in 1917.
The collection was donated to St. Lawrence University in 1984 by Sandra Southworth Reid, a direct descendant of E.H. Southworth.