PBA Galleries

Manuscript letters and documents in various hands. Approximately 40 pages of letters from the siblings and parents of the Fargo's living in Stafford or in Batavia, New York addressed to either Lorenzo D. or his wife, Sarah, in Lake Mills, Jefferson County, Wisconsin (Letters dated from 1846-1853). Plus approximately 23 pages of manuscript poetry, journal entries and miscellaneous notes also from this family, one dated as early as 1842, and some addressed to "Miss Rich", before she was married, pre-1840. Various sizes, various dates.

Lorenzo and Sarah were early pioneers of Lake Mills, Wisconsin. They settled there in 1840. The majority of the letters are from their family back home in Genessee County, New York, expressing their concern in each other's health, day-to-day life and curiousity about the western state. Sarah and Lorenzo were both college graduates and were apparently a quite literary family. Many of the letters have brief identification notes apparently from a descendant. One of the poems is to Sarah before she was married, with a quite beautiful paper hair pin, still holding the lock of her friend's hair. In 1899, Lorenzo Fargo made a gift of $5,000 for a public library building; this library is still in operation and is on the National Register of Historic Places.