Category:Rensselaer William Foote Papers

The papers of Rennselaer William Foote include letters to and from Foote from his family, letters to Foote from associates, and his Journal, kept in Florida in 1840.

Letters

Family members

• Charles Augustus Foote, jr. Brother. Did a retail and real estate business both in Delhi and California. Was a civic booster of sorts, lived a long life. His daughter Katherine was the family historian and saved family papers, Ebenezer's and then Rensselaer's, giving them to her cousin, Frances Maynard, and her son Maynard Ford, in the 1940s.
• Margaret Foote Maxwell, daughter of Ebenezer, who, after refusing the offer of marriage from Martin Van Buren, married the minister Ebenezer Maxwell and lived at Arbor Hill after his death. their son was:
• Ebe, Eben, Ebenezer Foote Maxwell. Cousin to Rensselaer, he was the grandson of Ebenezer Foote. Lived on the "old place" Arbor Hill until his death, when senile, he walked out into the woods in winter-time, where he died.
• Harriet Foote Bryan Foote, aunt. Married a druggist Ambrose Bryan, and after his death, her cousin, John Foote, son of Isaac Foote, a judge in Symrna, New York.
• Catherine Foote, Sister. "Never married but spent her life in good works." Catherine was a reglar correspondent with Rensselaer, and lived with the Gould family after the death of her parents.
• James Foote, mentioned in letters. The youngest brother, the loss of his parents may have hit him particularly hard, judging by his rootless, and materially unsuccessful life. He did marry however, and had a daughter Mariah. His, and his families later whereabouts are unknown.
• Kate Foote, Catherine Adelia Foote, niece.
• Margaret Parsons Foote Williams, cousin. Daughter of John Parsons Foote and wife of Williams.
• Roxanna Foote Beecher as the first cousin of Charles Augustus Foote. She married Andrew Ward Beecher and was the mother of Harriet Beecher Stow.
• Charles Augustus Marvine
• Emily [Baldwin] Plummer, cousin. Died in 1852.
• Jesse Baldwin, cousin, merchant of New York City and Jersey City. Rensselaer lived at his house, as a teenager.
• Margaret Montieth, Aunt, on the Baldwin side.
• Harriet Baldwin Vanderpoel. Aunt, married to congressman Aaron Vanderpoel.

Associates and Friends

• Lewis Addison Armistead visited Panama City Florida with him.
• Lewis Cass
• Charles S. Lovell, US 6th? Commander of Fort Humboldt, California
• Carter L. Stevenson
• Joseph L. Tidball, U.S. 6th Infantry
• Winfield Scott Hancock, U.S. 6th Infantry

Journal

Newspaper Articles and Obituaries

Chronology of the Life of Rensselaer William Foote

Provenance

The provenance of these letters is from Rensselaer’s brother Charles Foote, thence to his daughter, Katherine Adelia Foote of Delhi, something of a family historian and genealogist. It is unknown if Rensselaer's sister Kate (Catherine Buren) Foote, or his sister Frances [Foote] Marvine, had any interest in the papers. Charles Marvine and Frances had a daughter, Margaret [Marvin] Maynard who married Isaac Horton Maynard and they in turn, had a daughter, Frances Maynard. Katherine Adelia later gave the papers, in several trunks, and a desk belonging to their ancestor Ebenezer Foote, to her cousin Frances Maynard, now Ford, of Portland Maine and San Fransisco, California, thence to Frances Maynard Ford's son, Maynard Ford, and his wife Jane, when they lived in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Frances Maynard Ford being the grand-niece of Rensselaer Foote, and Maynard Ford was the great-grand nephew. Letter ms collection The Main Street Museum.