Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of a letter from Carrie Ober of Three Oaks, Michigan, to a family member in Massachusetts, describing recent fires in the upper Midwest.
Carrie E. Ober and her husband, Albert Ober, moved from Beverly, Massachusetts, to Three Oaks, Michigan, around 1870. Three Oaks is a village in Southwest Michigan that had a stop on a high-traffic route of the Michigan Central Railroad.
The collection is comprised of an October 14, 1871, letter from Carrie Ober to her cousin Isa. The letter begins with Carrie's opinion of life in "the west" and news about mutual acquaintances. It then describes outbreaks of fires in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois, including the Great Chicago Fire, and recounts details such casualties and acres of land burned.
The Library purchased this letter in 2019 with support from the Bruce C. Creamer Fund.
| Illinois History and Lincoln Collections
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