This collection of 73 letters and poems, bound together and numbered, was presented to the Andover Historical Society in 1932 by the Rev. F. R. Shipman, pastor emerities of the South Church , who had received them from Mrs. Callahan. Shipman, who died in 1934, retained the literary rights.  

Mary Ann Loring, daughter of Thomas and Sally Loring, was born in Andover in 1813. She had brothers Jacob and John R. Loring and a sister Sarah, who by 1834 had married a man J. Stickney and was living in Newburyport. In 1834 she was engaged to a young man named Frederick, but he had no prospects and was going to have to go to sea, so that on her brother Jacob’s urging, she broke with him. Shortly thereafter she became engaged to Anthony D. Currier, merchant of Newburyport. He fussed about her religious views; accused her of being a Universalist sympathizer. He was annoyed that she enjoyed her work at an unspecified factory in Andover and did not seem to be in a hurry to resign and marry him. Yet they were married October 8, 1835 and settled in Newburyport. 

The letters and a few poems, all addressed to Mary Ann, were bound into a book in the nineteenth century. They mostly date from 1834-5, but there are a few earlier and later.. They are not very revealing of spiritual development or social mores, but do shed some light on the lack of opportunities for women in the 1830’s. Mary Ann sacrificed her independent life as wage earner by marrying Anthony Currier, but without her letters, it is difficult to trace her motives. Of some interest is letter number 48 of June 1836 addressed to Anthony Currier from a Charles Gerrish, probably a clergyman, of Oberlin Ohio. The letter, almost certainly written by a missionary from what was then the center for Anti-Slavery and evangelism, is full of religious fervor, and mentions regretfully that Mary was not religiously converted. An 1839 letter to Mary Ann , Number 49, from Louisville, Kentucky, by J. Spring Russell, describes a visit to Mammoth Cave. 

Processed by Mary F. Morgan, November 1982.