This collection centers around the correspondence of the family of Albert Gallatin Ewing. Along with correspondence regarding the personal affairs of the Ewing, Davidson, Marsilliot, and Stevenson families, there are letters covering a wide variety of subjects – social, business, and religious.
Included is correspondence dealing with business affairs, religion and politics in Nashville in 1835; letters touching on business and religious connections with the Church of Christ in Clarington, Ohio in the 1850’s and the Eureka Christian Church in the 1880’s; three letters of personal content from Alexander Campbell, founder of the Disciples of Christ; and descriptions of a European tour made by James B. Stevenson in the summer of 1875. The letters of James B. Stevenson, his wife, and his brother, Adlai, constitute nearly a fourth of the entire collection. Of particular interest are four letters describing Civil War sentiment in Nashville, Morgan Town, and Wheeling; a pilot’s description of riverboat travel in the 1860’s; and four letters written by Adlai E. Stevenson I.