Eleanor (Nelly, as she wrote it, or Nellie) Lytle Kinzie Gordon was born in Chicago June 18, 1835. She was the "daughter of John A. [sic] and Juliette (Magill) Kinzie." Eleanor Lytle Kinzie married Mr. William Washington Gordon II. Gordon rose to the rank of Captain in the Confederate army during the Civil War. and was given the rank of Brigadier General in 1898 (Spanish/American War) when he volunteered for the U.S. Army at the request of President McKinley. He was appointed to the Puerto Rico Peace Commission. After their marriage, they lived in his home city of Savannah, GA, in what now is known as the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace (Low being the founder of the Girl Scouts, 1912). Mary Willliams Blatchford apparently was a friend from her younger days, during her first twenty-two years in Chicago, 1835-1857. By 1861 and the opening of hostilities between the Union and the Confederacy keeping up old friendships across the Mason-Dixon line would have been difficult. These two letters apparently represent a re-kindling of this old amity between the women over a half century after Gordon had left Chicago. But the warmth of Gordon's letters to her old friend is palpable.
Eleanor Kinzie Gordon published in 1910 apparently at her home in Savannah, Georgia, John Kinzie, the "Father of Chicago--A Sketch: http://archive.org/details/johnkinziefather00gord .
Nelly Gordon's first letter, to her old Chicago friend Mrs. Blatchford, perhaps of early July 1910, is a response to a "thank you" note for a copy of her 1910 sketch of Gordon's grandfather, John Kinzie or McKenzie (1763-1828), father of John H. Kinzie (1803-1868). Mrs. Gordon asks Mrs. Blatchford to report to Mr. Blatchford (a founder of the Newberry Library) that she has more copies of her privately-produced 1910 book.
The second letter, dated July 27, 1910, is written in response to receiving a group of photos of the Blatchfords from Mary, and she also sends them a copy of her collection of poems in memory of a deceased daughter, Sarah Alice Gordon (b. 1863).
Another daughter of Mrs. Gordon's, Juliette Gordon Low, was the founder of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace museum, Savannah, is the Gordon home near Low's later home that also served as the first Girls Scouts headquarters. The the 1910 sketch of John Kinzie, mentioned in the letters, and the subsequent 1914 second edition of the Juliette (Mrs. John H.) Kinzie account of the Battle of Fort Dearborn with its appended family history both served to deal with the issue of the legitimacy of the children of the John Kinzie second "marriage" to Eleanor McKillip, notably Mrs. Gordon and also by 1914 her increasingly high-profile daughter, Juliette ("Daisy") Gordon Low (1860-1927).
The two letters were purchased ca. 1988-90, at the book sale of the Newberry Library.
Eugene Hotchkiss III was born and raised in Highland Park, IL, the son of a stock broker and the sister of George F. Kennan. He attended Dartmouth College, served in the U.S. Navy in the 1950s, and worked in student affairs at Dartmouth and at the Claremont colleges in Los Angeles. He served as Executive Dean of Chatham College, Pittsburgh, prior to becoming president of Lake Forest College in 1970. He retired in 1993. He also was active in many civic roles locally during and after his presidency of the College.
Edward Arpee (1899-1979), the brother of Armenian historian and theologian Leon Arpee, was a career (over thirty-five years, beginning ca. 1929) professor at Lake Forest Academy. He was the spouse of Katherine Trowbridge Arpee (granddaughter of Chicago wholesale grocer and later LF resident Calvin Durand), and father of Harriet Sherman of Lake Bluff. Arpee graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary and wrote various notable books, including "History of Lake Forest Academy" (Chicago: Alderbrink Press, 1944) and "From Frigates to Flat Tops" (1953).
The Arpees lived at 383 N. Washington Road, less than a block from the Academy, and about a block south of Mrs. Arpee's parents' home on College Road. According to the Apree's, the home was once a summer rental property for Onwentsia residents when it was owned by Van Weganen Alling. One of the past renters was Adlai Stevenson, who later built his farm in Libertyville.
Sources:
"Senior master Publishes an Historical Documentary," Spectator [Lake Forest Academy], April 20, 1964, 1.
Biographical Details gathered by, Arthur H. Miller Archivist & Librarian for Special Collections
Alicia Patterson Guggenheim was the daughter of Alice Patterson (nee Higinbotham) and famed founder and editor of the New York Daily News, Joseph Medill Patterson. Patterson Guggenheim had two sisters, Josephine and Elinor, as well as a half-brother, James “Jimmy” Patterson. She grew up in Libertyville, Illinois and developed a love of hunting, horseback riding and travel at an early age. Alicia Patterson Guggenheim followed in her father’s footsteps and became a writer at both the New York Daily News and Liberty magazine in her 20s. It was during this time that Patterson Guggenheim became interested in aviation and earned her transport pilot’s license in 1934, only the tenth woman in America to do so. Patterson Guggenheim was married three times, first to James Simpson (1927-1930), then to Joseph Brooks (1931-1939) and finally to Harry Guggenheim (1939-1963), whom she was married to until her death. Along with Guggenheim, Patterson Guggenheim founded and became publisher and editor of the newspaper, Newsday, in 1940. Newsday won a Pulitzer Prize in 1954. Patterson Guggenheim died at age 56 in 1963 due to complications from stomach surgery.
Amanda Smith Hood (April 30, 1967-) is the daughter of Stephen Smith and Jean Kennedy Smith, former ambassador to Ireland and John F. Kennedy’s sister. She was born and raised in New York City and later graduated from Harvard College. Smith Hood holds a PhD in special education. She married tax lawyer Carter Hood in 2000; the couple have two children. Smith Hood is the editor of the book, Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy, published in 2001. In 2011, she authored the book, Newspaper Titan: The infamous life and monumental times of Cissy Patterson, a biography of socialite and newspaper editor and publisher Eleanor Medill “Cissy” Patterson.