Isaiah and Martha Lang papers

Abstract

Important Information for Users of the Collection

Historical Note

Isaiah Sanborn Lang, a farmer, was born in 1823 and lived in Candia Village, New Hampshire. Lang married Martha Ladd in 1848, and they had several children. During the 1860s, he farmed the old family homestead with its "stony" ground, while many of his relatives moved to the Minnesota frontier, where one wrote that the "soil is deep and rich - there are no stones and the land don't need manureing." Lang's farming activities included raising sheep and making maple syrup. He was also involved in selling real estate and preparing tax returns.

Lang corresponded with many of his relatives, particularly cousins and his maternal uncle, David Marston Sanborn of Baltimore, Maryland. Sanborn was born in New Hampshire in 1801 and became a physician after graduating from Bowdoin College. His first wife, Esther, died in the late 1850s. They had one daughter, Martha Sanborn Hood. In 1863, Sanborn married a twenty-year old woman, Amanda Jester, forty years his junior. After several years, they drifted apart, and Amanda spent prolonged periods of time with her family in Delaware. Sanborn was a landowner in Baltimore City and Howard County, owning at one time five houses in the city and two farms in Howard County. He died after a prolonged illness on July 24, 1873 and was interred at Elkridge Landing.

Before David M. Sanborn's death, he turned over the deeds and title to everything he owned to Isaiah S. Lang, and named him executor of his estate. When Isaiah arrived in Baltimore, Sanborn's widow and daughter thought that he had come to help them with the affairs of the estate. They were surprised to learn that Isaiah intended to assert his claim and dispose of the property. Amanda and Martha hired an attorney who brought suit against Lang on behalf of Amanda and Martha asking that the deeds be declared invalid and that the doctor's property be restored to his widow and daughter. In February 1874, the Circuit Court of Baltimore City handed down a decree denying the claims of Amanda and Martha Hood upon the estate of Dr. David Sanborn. Justice Pinckney expressed his condemnation of Dr. Sanborn's acts but went on to say that the deeds were bona fide and within the law and were therefore valid. This decision was appealed to the Maryland Court of Appeals. On July 1, 1874, the Court of Appeals of the State of Maryland, after having read the proceedings of the Circuit Court of Baltimore City and hearing the arguments of both attorneys, overturned the decision of the lower court (Court of Appeals of Maryland 41 Md. 107; 1874). They found that a husband could strip himself and his wife of all his possessions at will but he could not do so with the sole and fraudulent intent to deprive her of the property and to keep her from his estate.

Isaiah Lang died in 1904.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The papers of Isaiah S. and Martha Lang span the period 1858 to 1928 and consist of correspondence to Lang and his wife from various relatives and a small amount of business records. Approximately one-half of the correspondence is from Lang's maternal uncle, David M. Sanborn. All the Sanborn correspondence was written from Maryland locations, including Baltimore City, Marriottsville (Howard County), and Hanover (Howard County). In his letters, Sanborn calls himself an abolitionist, although he mentions his slave, Elize, several times. He also discusses economic and social conditions in Baltimore during the Civil War.

Additional correspondents of the Isaiah and Martha Lang include relatives who moved to the frontier area of Minnesota: Ann Jane Campbell, A. E. Clay, Elizabeth Clay, James P. Clay and Ursula Stone. These letters contain economic and domestic information about frontier farming in Minnesota. A teacher friend, W. A. Worthen, of Laurel, Maryland also wrote several letters to Isaiah Lang describing his new life in the "South" and providing information about Lang's uncle, David M. Sanborn.

Custodial History and Acquisition Information

The University of Maryland College Park Libraries purchased the papers of Isaiah S. and Martha Lang from Carmen D. Valentino in 1989.

Processing Information

Arrangement of Collection

The collection is organized as two series.

• Series 1: Correspondence
• Series 2: Business Records

Detailed Description of the Collection