Inventor Name
Field, Stephen Dudley
Repository
Stockbridge Library Association
Main Street
Stockbridge, MA
413-298-5501
Physical Description
ca. 2000 items and 1 carton.
Summary
Correspondence, genealogical materials, reminiscences, local histories, mss. of writings, financial papers, deeds, patents, transcripts of court cases, sermons, scrapbooks, obituaries, newspaper clippings, photos, and other papers, of Rev. David Dudley Field (1781-1867), clergyman of First Congregational Church and local historian, and his descendants. Includes papers of his sons, David Dudley Field, Jr. (1805-1894), lawyer, of New York, N.Y.; Jonathan Edwards Field (1813-1868), lawyer in New York who later returned to Stockbridge and became president of Massachusetts State Senate; Stephen Johnson Field (1816-1899), lawyer who later became chief justice of California Supreme Court and justice of U.S. Supreme Court; Cyrus West Field (1819-1892), businessman involved in the paper industry and the Atlantic Cable; and Henry Martyn Field (1822-1907), clergyman and editor of a Presbyterian newspaper, The Evangelist, and his wife, Henriette Desportes Field (1813-1875), a native of France who came to the U.S. to avoid implication in the Praslin murder case (Paris, 1847). Also includes papers of Stephen Dudley Field (1846-1913), inventor and son of Jonathan Edwards Field, including patents for the electric railway and elevator, records of Stockbridge Electric Company, American Electric Railway Company (inc. 1885), and Western Union Telegraph Company, and information concerning a dispute with Thomas A. Edison over a patent for an electric motor; and of author Rachel (Field) Pederson (1894-1942) including correspondence and transcripts (typewritten) of The Patchwork Quilt (1924) and other stories and plays.