About this Source
In the mid-nineteenth century, the McNitts and their correspondents lived near the towns of Irving and Hillsboro in Montgomery County, Illinois. Montgomery County, comprised of roughly 700 square miles of land, is in central Illinois, south of the state capital, Springfield. According to historian William H. Perrin, around the time the McNitts wrote, the landscape consisted mainly of prairie and farmland.
The Kickapoo Tribe inhabited much of the area that would become Montgomery County. The first permanent white settlers arrived in what was then part of Bond County in 1816, establishing themselves on Hurricane Creek, the first important settlement in the county. In 1819, they built the first church in Hurricane Creek. The settlers later petitioned to create a separate county from Bond, and on February 21, 1821, established Montgomery County. Montgomery County transformed over the next twenty years. In 1824, Montgomery County established its first courthouse in Hillsboro. The church and the courthouse were vital aspects of society in Montgomery County as they created spaces where children could go to school, citizens could practice religion, and judges decided judicial cases. These simple structures created a common ground for the community to meet. As time went on, the population increased, built mills, established markets, and the county opened up to the outside world through roads and highways. Even before the Civil War, however, all was not entirely peaceful. Before 1860, residents of Montgomery County took part in the Black Hawk War of 1832 and the Mexican-American War of 1846. As the county residents took up arms again in the Civil War, the community encountered even more changes and conflicts.
In 1882, Hillsboro, the largest town in the county, only had roughly 2000 inhabitants. The McNitt family lived in the neighboring town of Irving. Irving was officially founded in the 1840s, located about two and a half miles northeast of the county seat at Hillsboro. At the time the McNitt sisters wrote the letters in this edition, the town was relatively new. The small size of the towns would have undoubtedly fostered close community bonds, and the McNitts would have known many of their correspondents very well. During the Civil War, soldiers from this tight-knit community joined regiments that served all across the country.
Letter-writing during the Civil War was a common pastime, especially for soldiers deployed to the front. The monotony of Army life bred ample time to write correspondence. The United States Postal Service was in charge of handling the army’s postal needs, providing a valuable service to soldiers on the front line. Letters were the only communication they had with friends and family back home, an important lifeline for maintaining morale when on campaign. Knowing that soldiers on the front did not have regular access to stamps, the postal service allowed soldiers to send letters back home by simply writing “Soldier’s letter” on the envelope. The recipient would then pay the shipping cost. Most mail traveled via stagecoach or riverboat. It wasn’t until August 1864 that the postal service established its first rail lines, increasing delivery speed and volume. Soon after, the postal service started sorting mail in the train cars while en route, greatly increasing the speed at which mail was processed. Stagecoaches and trains would drop mail at local post offices where customers could pick up any letters they had received. Door to door delivery began in 1863 in major cities. The McNitts and others in rural Illinois were not eligible for this new service. Rural delivery didn’t start until 1896. Instead, the McNitts most likely traveled to the local post office to pick up their correspondence in person.
Many of the letters in this edition are from extended family members, though some are suitors courting the young Sophronia McNitt. The tone and content of such courting letters was a balancing act for young suitors as the Antebellum era was “a period in which the sexual impulses [were] systematically repressed and deformed.” The values presented during that period were greatly influenced by a religious revival known as the Great Awakening, which taught people to practice self-control and sexual purity until they reached maturity and were married. The turmoil of war tested those norms as men and women felt unsure about their prospect for survival. Letter-writing provided a way for people to develop companionship and connections. Letter-writing was not only a method of communication but also an opportunity to seek love, or at the very least play with forging romantic relationships. Several letters featured here show soldiers trying to woo Sophronia with romantic advances or expressions.
We want to emphasize the community aspect of this edition, as reflected in the content of the letters. The intertwined and, at some points, convoluted relationships between the writers and the McNitt family expose the County for what it was: a web of courtship, community, and conflict.
Learn more about the McNitt Family Papers at the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections.
See all of the digitized content from the McNitt Family Papers online.
