Family & Correspondent Biographies
Researchers with the Champaign County History Museum have created biographies of each individual correspondent that will provide context to the assembled letters. Some correspondents, such as spouses, have been grouped together to prevent redundancy and because of the constraints of available biographical information.
This section details the lives of Chapin-McNeil family members who play important roles within the family letters. While some individuals have a significant amount of information available about their lives, others (such as Dorcas McNeil, the central figure of the collection) have life stories that have largely been lost to time.
Especially in regard to the women of the Chapin-McNeil family, there is a significant disparity in the biographical information we were able to uncover between genders. The lack of substantive legal rights for women in the mid-to-late 19th century lends itself to a scarcity of documentation that is able to point to major life events, thus limiting the amount and scope of biographical information one is able to garner about female historical figures.
For example, women only gained the ability to own property in the state of Illinois in 1861, and even then, it was only married women who had the privilege--this piece of landmark 19th century legislation that granted married women the ability to own real estate was called the Married Women Property Act. Prior to the institution of the Act, while one might certainly be able to make the assumption that women were involved in the acquisition and upkeep of property, there is no legal documentation to serve as evidence of this fact. This points to the extreme relevance of personal correspondence in ensuring that women's stories are told to the fullest possible extent, which can provide valuable insight into the personal lives, interests, and personalities of the women who helped manage life on the homestead and beyond.