Duncan, Foster, Gibson family papers

The Duncan family series comprises the personal papers of Henry T. Duncan as well as his relatives and ancestors. These relations include Elizabeth Pyke, Stephen Duncan, Henry T. Duncan Jr., Lily Duncan, and Mary Duncan. The majority of the series is correspondence and business papers. A significant portion of the correspondence consists of letters between Henry T. Duncan and his second cousin, Stephen Duncan. Henry and Stephen primarily discuss business in their letters. For instance, in 1840 Stephen Duncan wrote Henry Duncan about an order for Henry Clay cordage damaged during a tornado in Natchez on May 7th. Henry and Stephen also discussed politics; tariffs on foreign fiber, cordage, and cotton bagging; and slavery. Stephen Duncan (1787-1867), second cousin of Henry T. Duncan, was the wealthiest cotton planter in the South prior to the US Civil War and the second largest slave owner in the country. He owned plantations throughout Louisiana and Mississippi. Henry and Stephen were partners in the sale and transportation of cordage and bagging manufactured in Kentucky and sold in support of cotton plantations. Stephen Duncan opposed the Confederacy and relocated to New York City in 1863.

The Foster family series comprises the papers of Hart Gibson Foster and his mother, Elizabeth Dunster Gibson Foster, as well as Foster family relatives including Harrison Gardner, Addison Gardner Foster, Florence Jones Vining, and Martha Ann Weatherbee Foster. The series also contains assorted legal, genealogical, military records and printed materials. Hart Gibson Foster (1890-1976) was the grandson of Nathaniel Hart and Mary Gibson. His papers primarily document Foster's early education at Philips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and at Yale University; his business activities in the cement pipe industry; his career in the U.S. Army (WWI and WWII); and his work in the oil and gas industry, banking, real estate, and farming. There are also files pertaining to Foster's wife, Florence Jones Vining. During the 1930s, Vining served in the Federal Housing Commission and in the U.S. Department of the Interior. Correspondents of interest in this portion of the collection include Vice President Alben Barkley, General George Duncan, Chief Justice Fred Vinson, Senator M.M. Logan, congressional representatives Emmet O'Neal and Edward O'Neill, and Louisville Courier-Journal editor Mark Etheridge. The Foster family became connected to the Gibson family when Harrison G. Foster married Elizabeth Dunster Duncan Gibson in 1889. The family originally settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1638, but later Harrison G. Foster along with his mother, Martha Wetherbee, and father, Addison G. Foster, moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. From Minnesota, Harrison G. Foster and his wife and eldest son, Hart G. Foster, moved to Tacoma, Washington in 1890. In 1901, the Foster family moved back to Minnesota where they remained until circa 1917 when the family moved to Lexington, Ky.

The Gibson family series comprises the personal papers of Col. Nathaniel Hart Gibson, Mary Duncan Gibson and their relatives. The majority of the series consists of correspondence between family members such as Tobias Gibson, Louisiana Hart Gibson, and Randall Lee Gibson. Also included is information concerning the Ingleside estate, copies of newspaper clippings, genealogical information, and assorted papers and printed materials. Letters to and from Gibson family members discuss slavery leading up to and during the Civil War. In 1855, Henry T. Duncan wrote to his daughter, Mary, that she should not mention the slaves in correspondence while attending school in Massachuessets because he feared abolitionists would discover the letters. William Gibson wrote his brother about the impending war and the difficulties of cotton slaves working sugar plantations in 1860. Further, Henry T. Duncan and Preston Gibson wrote letters to members of Gibson family about relocating slaves from Kentucky to Louisiana before the war. After the Civil War, Gibson family letters regard the sale of plantation lands and the freedman's bureau. In 1868, C.R. Greathouse writes to Nathaniel Hart Gibson about the over payment of black teachers by the bureau. The Randall Lee Gibson sub-series consists of letters written to and from Randall Lee Gibson (1832-1892), Nathaniel Hart Gibson's older brother, which document Randall Lee's career as a sugar planter, Confederate officer, U.S. Congressman, and Senator from Louisiana. The Gibson family has ties, through marriage, to several prominent 19th and early 20th century families, particularly the Duncans, Prestons, Pykes, Harts, Timberlakes, Fosters, Van Meters. The Kentucky Gibson family originally came to the state around 1827 when patriarch Tobias Gibson married Louisiana Breckinridge Hart. Tobias Gibson was privately educated in Lexington and even though he maintained several estates in Louisana his primary residence was in Lexington, Ky.

The Assorted manuscripts, photographs and printed materials series comprises books, clippings, correspondence, drawings, notes, photographs, and records related to the Duncan, Foster and Gibson families but with an unclear provenance. Correspondence includes letters by significant 19th century educators like Louis Agassiz and David Sayre. Drawings are architectural and artistic sketches. Notes include lists or narratives for events. Books, magazines, poems were presumably owned by family members. The photographs appear to primarily depict persons near the turn of the twentieth century.