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Charlotte Clement Ripley (1864-1923)

Correspondence, 1870-1963

Doc 519


 

Introduction | Biographical Notes | Scope and Content | Related Collections | Inventory


Introduction

 

            This collection contains primarily the correspondence of Charlotte Clement Ripley (1864-1923) of Rutland, Vermont, and Tacoma, Washington.  The Clement family was prominent in Rutland business and society, traveling widely in Europe and maintaining very close family relationships. Sally S. Taylor, granddaughter of Charlotte Clement, gave the collection to the Vermont Historical Society in 2003 (ms. acc. no. 2003.10).  It occupies one linear foot of shelf space.

 

Biographical Notes

 

Charlotte Clement, whose correspondence forms the largest part of the collection, was one of five children born to Sarah Salome Fish (1832-1906) and Wallace Clement (1835-1921). Her siblings were Florence Anna (1860-1870), Charles Fish (1862-?), Charlotte’s twin brother Frederick Percival (1864-1918), and Henry Wood (1866-1958).

 

Charlotte attended finishing school in Philadelphia and then traveled in Europe for extended periods, maintaining a busy social schedule and correspondence with people in Italy, Holland, France, and other European countries.  After living abroad, mostly in Leghorn, Italy, Charlotte married Thomas Emerson Ripley (1865-1956), also a Rutland native, in Paris in 1891.  The couple took up married life in Tacoma, Washington, where her husband established himself in the plywood business. Charlotte and Thomas had two children: Clements (1892-1954) and Cornelia Emerson (1896- 2000).  Clements married Katherine Ball (1898-1955) and Cornelia married Frederick Barreda Sherman (1892-1989).  Charlotte Clement Ripley died in Rutland on August 12, 1923.

 

Scope and Content

 

This collection gives insight to the life of a wealthy Vermont family in the late nineteenth century as they go about educating a family, finding suitable mates, and leading a very active social life, both at home and abroad.  Business enterprises of various members of the family spanned the continent between Vermont and the state of Washington, involving banking, the Rutland Railroad, real estate, farming, and the plywood industry.  Family members remained in close contact with each other, even as they moved physically apart.  Correspondence from friends and acquaintances from England and France during World War I includes details about war atrocities and the difficulties that affected residents if those countries.

 

The collection also contains correspondence with Mary Cochran, known as Mary Cork, the family’s longtime domestic servant.  The family had a warm and close relationship with Mary Cork, who was at the bedside of Wallace Clement when he died in 1921 at the age of eighty-six.

 

Related Collections

 

The Vermont Historical Society collections include the Clement Family Papers, 1798-1968 (Doc 187-194), which focuses on Charles and Elizabeth Clement who were the grandparents of Charlotte; and the Percival Wood Clement Papers, 1914-1919 (MSA 8 ), which contain the records of Charlotte’s uncle who was governor of Vermont 1919-1921.

 

The library also holds genealogies of the Clement and Ripley families, both written by F. Barreda Sherman, the donor of this collection’s father and husband of : The Clements of Haverill and Rutland, 1642-1969 (929.2/C591r) and The Ripley Family in America (929.2/R482ws)

 

            There are also Clement family items in the VHS museum collection.

 

Inventory

           

I. Genealogy

  Doc 519:1      “Wallace and Sarah Salome Clement,” copied from The Clements of Haverill and Rutland, 1642-1969

                2      “The Clement Family” and “Clement Genealogy: The Family in England,” from Gridley Clement of Mill Valley, California.

                3      Correspondence from professional genealogists, 1903-1907.

 

II. Letters, mostly related to Charlotte Clement

                4      Letters, notebook, written by Charlotte Clement as a young child and young woman, no date.

                5      To Charlotte Clement, 1870-1879.

                6      _____, 1882-1883, while in school in Philadelphia; also a letter from Charlotte to her parents

                7      _____, 1881-1883, mostly from male friends.

                8      _____, in Europe, 1883-1885, from various family members

                9      _____, _____, 1884-1885, from Charles J. Hurd                    

              10      _____, 1884 

              11      Letters from Charlotte Clement in Leghorn Italy, to her parents and brothers 1884-1885, and from England, May, June, 1885

              12      To Charlotte Clement, 1885 (contains one letter in Italian)

              13      _____, 1885-1890, from various family members in the United States,

              14      Correspondence between Sarah Salome Clement and Julia Ripley Dorr, Feb.-April, 1886

              15      Correspondence between Sarah Salome Clement and daughter-in-law, Helen Finletter, 1886

              16      To Charlotte Clement, 1886-1887  (contains letter in German)

              17      _____, 1886-1889, from “Lockwood”

              18      _____, 1888-1889

              19      Correspondence about Charlotte Clement’s engagement

              20      Correspondence between Charlotte Clement and Thomas Ripley, 1888-1891

              21      To Charlotte Clement, 1890-1891

              22      _____, 1888-1891, mostly from brothers Frederick and Charles

              23      Correspondence, 1891-1911; mostly to her mother and between Charlotte and Thomas; includes sketch of house

              24      From Charlotte Clement Ripley to her mother, Sarah Salome Clement, 1906

              25      To Charlotte Clement Ripley from England and France, 1912-1918 (one letter is in French)

              26      Letters of Charlotte Clement Ripley and Thomas Ripley, June & July, 1923

              27      Envelopes addressed to Charlotte Clement, mostly while travelling abroad, most undated.

              28      To Charlotte Clement from her mother, most undated

              29      _____, most undated

              30      Correspondence, Charlotte Clement to her husband, Thomas Ripley, 1914

 

III.  Letters, other Clement family members

              31      To various members of the Clement family: not from Charlotte Clement, 1870-1906

              32      To “Mary Cork”, 1907-1940

              33      From “Mary Cork” to members of Ripley Family

              34      Letter to Sarah Salome Clement from her son, Charles Fish Clement, 1891

              35      Correspondence and list of assets, Wallace Clement to Tom and Charlotte Ripley about Harry Clement’s financial problems, 1917-1918.

              36      Correspondence between Ripley children and grandparents, 1906-1910, undated

              37      Clements Ripley’s letters to his parents, from North Carolina, 1922-1927.  Includes one additional letter, 1921.

 

III.  Other

              38      Paper dolls made by Thomas Ripley for his daughter, Cornelia, ca. 1900

           38.1      Account of Cornelia Ripley’s wedding, January 1923; includes photograph

              39      Florida property settlement, 1930-1963

              40      Script of Play

              41      Poems and clippings kept by Charlotte Ripley, most about World War I

              42      Poems

              43      Miscellaneous Correspondence

              44      Miscellaneous, including: H-O Company ephemera; Saranac Inn letterhead; Rutland Athletic Club annual meeting, 1984

 

Barbara Ellingson

May 2004

ripleycc.doc