| |
News
Releases
Events
About
Wheaton College
Resources
for Media
For Wheaton
Community
|
|
|
|
Wheaton College is pleased to announce a new acquisition to its Wheaton College archives. The College has procured a letter, written as a recommendation for alumnus Anson T. Hemingway, grandfather to Ernest Hemingway. The letter was penned by Wheaton’s first president, Jonathan Blanchard. The College also obtained a photograph of Anson Hemingway in his later years.
 David Malone, head of Archives and Special Collections at Wheaton College, purchased the letter and photograph from a dealer in Florida, via eBay. The letter makes a strong connection between Jonathan Blanchard and Anson Hemingway, as well as helping establish the context in which Ernest Hemingway grew up. “The letter gives us an example of the efforts of the college to help an alumnus find his way in the world,” says Malone. "Anson is an example of the many graduates of Wheaton College who have served their country in the military or through religious, social and community development organizations, as well as through business."
The Wheaton College Archives and Special Collections is located on the third floor of the Billy Graham Center, located at 500 College Avenue (campus map) in Wheaton, Illinois. The letter and photograph, along with hundreds of boxes highlighting the College’s history, may be viewed by request in the department’s Manuscripts Reading Room, open Monday-Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
 About Anson Hemingway
Anson Tyler Hemingway, the son of Allen Hemingway and Harriet Louisa Tyler, was born in East Plymouth, Connecticut in 1844. The family came to Chicago in 1854.
During the Civil War, Anson enlisted in the Army as a private with the 72nd Illinois Regiment. Near the end of the war, he re-enlisted in Company H, US Colored 70th Regiment as 1st Lieutenant. He also served as provost martial of the Freedman's Bureau in Natchez. After his time in the military, Anson attended Wheaton College. After two years of study, Anson, a friend and admirer of Dwight L. Moody, went on to serve as general secretary of the Chicago YMCA for ten years before establishing a real estate business in Oak Park, Illinois.
Anson married fellow Wheaton student Adelaide Edmonds, who graduated in 1867. Together they had four sons and two daughters. An avid outdoorsman, Anson gave his grandson Ernest a special tenth birthday present of a 20-gauge shotgun. Anson Hemingway passed away in 1926 at the age of eighty-two.
|
|
