OHY_Mss1148 Guide to the Ephraim Peter Roberts papers circa 1775-1968 Roberts (Ephraim Peter) Papers Finding aid prepared by Geoffrey B. Wexler Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Oregon Historical Society, Research Library © 2006
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Finding aid encoded by Geoffrey B. Wexler 2006 July 20 Finding aid written in English. Finding aid based on DACS ( Describing Archives: A Content Standard) Oregon Historical Society, Davies Family Research Library Research Library
1200 SW Park Avenue Portland, Oregon 97205 Phone: 503-306-5240 Fax: 503-219-2040 E-mail: libreference@ohs.org
Mss 1148 Roberts, Ephraim Peter, 1825-1893 Ephraim Roberts papers circa 1775-1968 1.75 cubic feet 4 document cases, 1 oversize folder Papers of a missionary from Vermont and Maine who served in Panape, Micronesia, in the mid-19th century and later settled in The Dalles, Oregon. Includes journals of Roberts and his wife Myra Farrington Roberts, correspondence, family letters, biographical materials and genealogies. Materials in the collection are inEnglish Biographical Note

Ephraim Peter Roberts was born at Danbury, Vermont, October 23, 1825. After completing studies at Williams College in 1854, he entered Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine, and was ordained by the Congregational Church at Bangor on July 28, 1857. On Septermber 8, 1857, he married Myra Holman Farrington of Holden, Maine, born there September 22, 1835. Both having been certified as missionaries by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, they sailed from Boston on October 30, 1857, en route to Micronesia via Cape Horn and Honolulu. Fellow passengers on the Eliza and Ella were the David Dwight Baldwins, also newlyweds, on their way to the American Board mission at Lahaina, Maui.

After a six month voyage to Honolulu, the Roberts stayed there three months until the missionary packet Morning Star was made ready for its second voyage to Micronesia. The ship sailed June 30, 1858, with Ephraim and Myra Roberts, Mrs. Luther Halsey Gulick and three of her children, and Mrs. Gulick's brother-in-law, Theodore W. Gulick. They arrived at Ponape, Caroline Islands, on August 18th.

The Roberts spent the next three years at Shalong, Ponape, replacing Dr. and Mrs. Luther H. Gulick who, with the A. A. Sturges', had established the Ponape mission in 1852. During these years the first two of the Roberts' nine children were born. By mid-summer of 1861 their fellow missionaries to Micronesia decided that the Roberts' should leave Ponape for a number reasons. Two-year-old Charlotte Roberts had somewhat fragile health, and fear for her life was heightened by the death of the Sturges' little girl at Ronkiti, Ponape. Also, whaling vessels were calling less frequently at the islands, life there was increasingly isolated, and mission work was not proceeding as had been hoped. When Mrs. Sturges's health seriously failed, making necessary her return to Honolulu, the Roberts were urged to go too.

They again sailed on the Morning Star, in July of 1861, wound up their American Board affairs in Honolulu, and embarked for San Francisco in September. From there they sailed to Portland, Oregon, and settled for a time at White Salmon, Washington Territory. In 1868 they took up a homestead near The Dalles, Oregon, engaged in sheep raising and fruit growing, and devoted much time to the Congregational Church in that area. Ephraim Roberts died February 6, 1893, and Myra Roberts died February 18, 1912.

The collection consists of correspondence, journals, and genealogical notes on the Roberts and Farrington families. The journals (1857-1961) of Ephraim and Myra Roberts relate to the voyage to Micronesia on the packet Morning Star and to their stay in Ponape. Included are early Farrington family letters, letters received by Ephraim Roberts while at Williams College and Bangor Theological Seminary, letters to the Roberts from their families in Maine and Vermont, and letters from fellow missionaries in the Pacific. Correspondents include: Hiram Bingham, Jr., Elias Bond, Titus Coan, Samuel C. Damon, Edward P. and Sarah Doane, Charlotte C. Dole, Daniel Farrington (Myra's brother in California), Jonathan S. Green, Louisa L. Gulick, Luther Halsey, David B. and Sarah Lyman, George and Nancy A. Pierson, Benjamin G. Snow, A. A. Sturges, Booker T. Washington, and Charles H. Wetmore.

The collection is arranged in the following series: Series A: Correspondence, 1775-1968Series B: Journals and notebooks, 1856-1898Series C: General files, 1832-1968

The collection is also available on microfilm at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

The collection is open to the public.

The Oregon Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library prior to any use of reproductions. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use of reproductions may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright holders.

Ephraim Peter Roberts papers, Mss 1148, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

Library Accessions 10244, 10337, 10342, 10343, 10357.

Additional materials were added to the collection in 1969.

The "Farrington memorial pamphlets," published in 1880 and 1899, were separated to the book collections of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library and cataloged individually.

Spight, Ruth Stephenson, The story of Ephraim Peter Roberts, 1825-1893, and Myra Farrington Roberts, 1835-1912 [Oakland, Calif., 1970]

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Roberts, Ephraim Peter, 1825-1893--Archives Roberts, Myra Farrington, 1835-1912--Archives Bingham, Hiram, 1789-1869--Correspondence Bond, Elias--Correspondence Coan, Titus, 1801-1882--Correspondence Damon, Samuel Chenery, 1815-1885--Correspondence Doane, Edward P.--Correspondence Doane, Sarah Wilbur--Correspondence Dole, Charlotte Close Knapp, 1813-1874--Correspondence Farrington, Daniel, fl. 1856--Correspondence Green, Jonathan S. (Jonathan Smith), 1796-1878--Correspondence Gulick, L. L. (Louisa Lewis), 1830-1894--Correspondence Halsey, Luther, 1794-1880--Correspondence Lyman, Sarah Joiner, 1805-1885--Correspondence Lyman, David B.--Correspondence Pierson, Nancy A.--Correspondence Snow, B. G. (Benjamin G.)--Correspondence Sturges, A. A.--Correspondence Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915--Correspondence Wetmore, C. H. (Charles Hinckley), 1820-1898--Correspondence Farrington family Roberts family American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions Dalles (Or.)--History Hawaii--History Maine--History Pohnpei Island (Micronesia)--History Missionaries--Hawaii--History Missionaries--Micronesia--Pohnpei Island--History Women--Diaries Missionaries Oregon Diaries Letters (correspondence) Genealogies

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Series A Correspondence 1775-1968 1/1 Transcripts and copies of selected letters 1856-1859 Letters to Ephraim P. Roberts while at Williams College and Bangor Theological Seminary

Copies on reel 1 of microfilm

 1/2 1846-1849 1/3 1850-1851 1/4 1852 1/5 1853 1/6 1854 1/7 1855 Letters to Ephraim P. Roberts at Bangor, including letters from the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions

Copies on reel 1 of microfilm

 1/8 1856 1/9 1857 January-June 1/10 1857 July-December Letters to Ephraim P. Roberts at Ponape, Hawaii, and in the Pacific Northwest

Copies on reel 4 of microfilm

Includes letters from Hiram Bingham, Jr., Elias Bond, Titus Coan, Samuel C. Damon, Edward P. and Sarah Doane, Jonathan S. Green, Luther Gulick, Theodore W. Gulick, George B. C. Ingraham, Edward Johnson, David B. Lyman, George Pierson, Lowell Smith, Benjamin G. Snow, A. A. Sturges, and Charles H. Wetmore

 1/11 1858 1/12 1859 January-June 1/13 1859 July-December 1/14 1860 1/15 1861 1865 undated 2/1 Family letters written to Ephraim and Myra Roberts while they were in Micronesia 1857-1861

Copies on reels 2 and 5 of microfilm

 2/2 Letters to Myra F. Roberts from her brother Daniel Farrington in California 1856

Copies on reel 2 of microfilm

 2/3 Letters to Myra F. Roberts from American Board wives 1857-1861

Includes letters from Sarah W. Doane, Charlotte C. Dole, Louisa L. Gulick, Sarah G. Lyman, Lucia G. Lyons, and Nancy A. Pierson

Copies on reels 3 and 4 of microfilm

 2/4 Ephraim Roberts letters to Myra Farrington 1856-1857

Copies on reel 4 of microfilm

 2/5 Myra Farrington letters to Ephraim P. Roberts 1856-1857

Copies on reel 4 of microfilm

 2/6-8 Journal and letters of Ephraim and Myra Roberts, mostly written at Shalong, Ponape, Caroline Islands 1858-1861

Copies on reel 3 of microfilm

 2/9 Letters of Ephraim and Myra Roberts 1857 September-December 2/10 Robert family letters and copies 1897-1968 2/11 Ephraim Roberts letters to friends and family (except Myra Roberts) circa 1856

Copies on reel 4 of microfilm

 Farrington family Farrington family letters 2/12 Family letters, mostly to and from Myra Farrington Roberts 1841-1866

Copies on reel 2 of microfilm

 2/13 Early Farrington family letters circa 1775-1816

Copies on reel 2 of microfilm

 2/14 Later Farrington family letters and other papers 1865-1881

Copies on reel 5 of microfilm

 2/15 General letters and papers, including Ephraim Roberts's will circa 1870-1936

Includes letter (typed letter, signed) from Booker T. Washington, 1906

Copies on reel 3 of microfilm

 4/1 Envelopes from letters received circa 1832-1860 Series B Diaries and notebooks 1856-1898 2/16 Daily memoranda book of Ephraim P. Roberts 1856 3/1 Ephraim P. Roberts journal 1857-1859

Journal, Boston to Honolulu, 1857 October-1858 March, and Honolulu to Micronesia on the Morning Star, 1858 June-August. Included is a list of "vessels at Ponatik, 1858-1859."

Typescript transcription included. Copies on reels 2 and 3 of microfilm

 3/2 Ephraim Roberts pocket notebook pages, receipts, and floor plan of house in The Dalles circa 1898 undated

Copies on reel 2 of microfilm

 3/3 Commonplace book of Ephraim and Myra Roberts circa 1857

Includes copies of letters sent

 Series C General files 1832-1968 3/4 Myra Farrington Roberts school compositions circa 1847-1855

Copies on reel 5 of microfilm

 3/5 Ephemera and printed matter 1854-1947

Includes calling cards, newspaper clippings, obituaries, medical information, materials related to the American Board of Foreign Missions

Copies on reel 2 of microfilm

 Oversize Folder Printed matter, list of names, and Ephraim Roberts's diploma from Williams College 1854 undated 3/6 Myra Farrington Roberts reminiscences (typescript and manuscript) undated

Copies on reel 3 of microfilm

 3/7 Roberts and Farrington families biographical materials, notes, clippings 1843-1968

Copies on reel 5 of microfilm

Eulogy of John Farrington by J.R. Munsell, 1843 October 22 Genealogical notes, circa 1846-1857 Farrington genealogy (notebook), 1859 Speech, with family history, for Farrington reunion, 1878 August 27 Postcard for Farrington reunion, 1882 "The story of Ephraim Peter Roberts and Myra Farrington Roberts," compiled by Mrs. Kenneth Roberts Stephenson, 1968 Information on the ship Morning Star, undated Clippings, 1912-1926 Recipe book, undated

3/8 Genealogical and biographical materials 1873-1936 3/9 Roberts and Farrington family genealogies and biographical materials 1897-1963

Copies on reel 5 of microfilm

 Oversize folder Farrington family tree undated 3/10 Pocket Bible (New Testament) and Daily scripture promise belonging to Ephraim Roberts 1832-1845 undated