Christensen family papers

The papers of the Christensen Family document over 175 years in the lives of several generations of individuals with ties to South Carolina, Massachusetts, and Denmark. This collection consists of correspondence, business records, photographs, pamphlets, deeds, diaries, and ephemera acquired and generated by the family of Niels Christensen (1840-1909), a native of Denmark and former Union soldier, and Abbie Holmes Christensen (1852-1938), a native of Massachusetts who settled in Beaufort with her family at the close of the Civil War.

Much of the history of this family can be found in correspondence that reflects the life events of the Christensen's. Abbie, in particular, was an avid writer and correspondent. She wrote faithfully to her parents, siblings, children, other relatives, and friends. The letters reflect day-to-day, mundane activities and thoughts, as well as an awareness of events happening in the world around the correspondents. They offer a window onto the Civil War, Reconstruction, Beaufort life, World War I, the 1920s, the Great Depression, religion, spirituality, world leaders, race relations, and education. The collection also reflects the participation of Abbie and her daughters in the suffrage movement and in women's rights efforts. The collection includes letters from Mary Coes (Abbie's cousin and a dean at Radcliffe College at the turn of the nineteenth century), Clara Barton, Laura Towne, Ellen Murray, and other educators and women's rights proponents.

The papers reflect the many interests of the Christensen family and their involvement in community and political activities. The central figures in the collection are Abbie and Niels Christensen. The papers document the operation of the Christensen family businesses: N. Christensen & Sons, dealers in hardware, lumber, and building materials, and Christensen Realty Company, which specialized in the sale of timber land and large tracts of plantation land. The collection also documents the efforts of Abbie and Niels to maintain the Port Royal Agricultural School during post-Reconstruction years. Additionally, the papers reveal Abbie's role in the evolving ethnic and social fabric of low country South Carolina immediately following Reconstruction, as well as her involvement in the suffrage movement and her interests in holistic medicine, spirituality, and her participation in the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (Rosicrucian Order).

The Christensen Family Papers also trace the lives and varied interests of the six children and many grandchildren of Niels and Abbie. From running the family business to teaching school in Tennessee to serving as a South Carolina senator to working as an engineer on the Savannah River Power Plant, the Christensen children and grandchildren participated in a wide range of activities in the South. This is largely reflected and recorded in the correspondence among family members that ranges from the early 1880s up through the 1980s.

Although this collection is referred to as the Christensen Family Papers, it also contains information pertaining to the Holmes and Winch families, Abbie's relatives. Abbie's father, Reuben Holmes (1820-1906), was born into poverty and raised for most of his life in Massachusetts. An entrepreneur of sorts, Reuben owned several businesses over the course of his life. He was an inventor who sold his patents to a large firm and never profited from his designs for a wheel-and-paddle-driven butter churn and a rubber-covered clothes wringer. Reuben was in the forefront of business and reform endeavors in Westboro. In 1855, he was appointed Fence Viewer and Sealer of Weights and Measures. He owned the town's first steam-driven grist and lumber mill. He volunteered as a Sunday school teacher at the country's first reform school, the Lyman School in Westboro.

In 1848, Reuben married Rebecca Winch. Rebecca was born in 1824, the fifth child of James and Sally (Kilbourn) Winch. The Winches were a more prosperous family than the Holmes; James was a respected bricklayer, and Sally took in borders. The Winches became the largest landowners in Holden by saving money and buying real estate. Rebecca attended Leicester Academy, a prestigious co-educational school founded just after the American Revolution. Upon completion of her educational training, Rebecca became a teacher. She stopped working when she married Reuben. Rebecca gave birth to their first child, Abbie Mandana Holmes, on January 28, 1852, in Westboro. Georgiana Rebecca Holmes was born in 1860.

Around the time of Georgiana's birth, Reuben experienced financial troubles and decided to try his luck outside of Massachusetts. His entrepreneurial side took him briefly to New Jersey around 1862 where he found work as a traveling salesman. He returned to Massachusetts when a fire destroyed the family home in 1864; at that time, he and Rebecca decided to take part in a missionary experiment at Port Royal, South Carolina. Before the Civil War, Beaufort and the Sea Islands were home to wealthy planters and a large slave community. During and immediately following the war, the area became the site of a free labor experiment. The Holmeses relocated to the South as abolitionists hoping to participate in this interracial community at Port Royal. Reuben spent a few months on his own in Beaufort trying to obtain work as a manager on a vacant plantation. After a battle with typhoid, he returned home for a brief period of time. During the fall of 1864, he and Rebecca returned to South Carolina with their two daughters.

Rebecca was plagued by poor mental health in adulthood and probably did not really ever adjust to the move to the South. In 1867, she was admitted to Bellevue Hospital in New York for treatment. Her condition did not improve, and on February 27, 1868, she died in the hospital. At the time, Abbie was attending the Ipswich Female Seminary in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Reuben immediately called her home to care for the house and her sister. It appears that Abbie and Georgie grew very close in the years following their mother's death, and they shared a strong bond for the rest of their lives.

In 1869, Reuben married Charlotte Keith, a missionary teacher from Massachusetts. They had two daughters, Almeda and Charlotte; Abbie and Georgie enjoyed a close relationship with their stepsisters. In 1870 Reuben took a small contract for building a piece of the Port Royal and August Railroad, then later purchased a large tract of land near Varnville, South Carolina. He constructed a sawmill, a store, and several houses. He named the village Almeda, after his first daughter with Charlotte. He engaged in the lumber business for a number of years before he decided to return to the North. Reuben died in 1906 in Providence, Rhode Island, where he had built two wharves, constructed several houses, written his memoirs, and played an active role in the Methodist church.

At the time of her father's second marriage in 1869, Abbie was of college age. She was suddenly free to pursue her studies so she returned to the North for her educational training. She studied at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts, from 1872-1874. Her father called her home in 1874 after Charlotte died (later that year he married Charlotte's sister, Sarah Keith). While Abbie did not receive a degree from Mount Holyoke, she was prepared to commence a teaching career when she returned to Beaufort. Abbie settled into a life of caring for her family and teaching in an African American school in Beaufort. She had several friends in the Beaufort area and appeared to have an active social life within the community. In 1874, she and Niels Christensen began courting.

Little is known about Niels Christensen's childhood and early years of adulthood. He was born in 1840 in Denmark to Frederik and Marie Baker Kristensen, who were innkeepers. He had at least one sibling – a sister. Upon arriving in the United States in 1862, he enlisted in the Union Army as a private in the 145th New York Infantry of Volunteers. On January 14, 1864, he mustered out and was honorably discharged at the rank of 1st sergeant at Tullahoma, Tennessee. A month later, he enrolled in New York and mustered into service as a private with Company B, 102nd New York Infantry Volunteers. In May of 1864, he was wounded in action and honorably discharged several months later as sergeant at Savannah, Georgia. In January of 1865, he once again mustered into service, this time as captain of Company H, 44th United States Colored Infantry. Over the course of the next year, he was stationed in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Hunstville, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; and Nashville, Tennessee. From 1867 to 1870, Niels served with the peacetime army at Fort Wayne in Detroit, Michigan. In 1870, he passed a civil service exam and became the keeper of the national cemetery in Beaufort; he tended the graves of more than 8,000 black and white Union soldiers until 1876.

In 1874, when he met Abbie, Niels was ready to settle down and start a family. Several years earlier, he had consulted a psychic to learn about his prospects for meeting a future wife. He even tried to meet women through matchmaking services. In 1865, the psychic he consulted, Madame Swedenburg, predicted that he would eventually meet a suitable woman:

Asking the magic pebble about the future prospects of Niels Christensen, I got the following revealed before me. . . . I see you to walk through a long and almost happy life, but as no life is without troubles and sorrows, I see some very dark spots on yours, too. Do not (lose) hope and self-confidence. . . . You have to be extremely careful in the choice of a wife, very few will suit for you. You shall never look for a Beauty, or for money. You shall look out for a well educated, for an intelligent, and for a virtuous lady, no other will ever be able to make your domestic happiness.*

After nearly ten years of trying to meet women through personal agencies and other means, Niels must have believed that Abbie was the answer to Madame Swedenburg's prediction. The couple married on April 13, 1875, in Beaufort's Charles Street Baptist Church. A year later Abbie gave birth to their first child, Niels Christensen, Jr., on April 21, 1876. Frederik Holmes was born on December 9, 1877. James (Jamie) was born on September 5, 1880; Arthur Olaf was born in 1882; Andrea Rebecca was born in 1884; and Abby Winch (Winnie) was born in 1887. Jamie Christensen died from diphtheria in 1885; he was buried in the national cemetery, where Niels tended his grave.

During the years from 1876 to 1887 Abbie remained busy at home in Beaufort raising her children. It is also important to note that during this time Abbie turned a hobby into a writing career. Ever since she had first moved to the Beaufort area, Abbie collected tales of slave life in pre-Civil War Beaufort. It was while at Mt. Holyoke that Abbie first started to write down some of the tales she remembered from her childhood. Her first story “De Wolf, De Rabbit An' De Tar Baby” was published in the Springfield Daily Republican on June 2, 1874. After publishing tales in the serial format for around ten years, Abbie finally found a publisher, and in 1892 Afro-American Folklore Told Round Cabin Fires on the Sea Islands of South Carolina was published as a collection of tales recorded in the dialect of the Sea Islands.

Abbie had hoped to move back to the Northeast at some point, but Niels did not want to leave Beaufort. In the years following the Civil War and after his position at the cemetery ended, Niels assumed an active role within the Beaufort business community. Around 1876 he founded a hardware store in town and began work as a general contractor; over the next ten years, the business grew and expanded. When his sons came of age he welcomed both Niels and Frederik when they expressed an interest in joining him. In 1879 Niels was selected to serve as Commissioner of Elections for Beaufort Country, and in 1886 he became the acting Intendant at Beaufort. For all of these reasons, plus the fact that he enjoyed a measure of social status in the community, Niels probably did not want to relocate to the Northeast.

Abbie compromised by educating their children in the north. During the 1880s and 1890s, when all of the children were in school, Abbie seemed to spend more time in Massachusetts than in South Carolina. Evidence of the strain that this arrangement placed on their marriage is obvious in the correspondence exchanged between Niels and Abbie during this time.

It was also probably while Abbie was on her own with the children in New England that she became involved in the temperance and suffrage movements. In 1888, while in Boston, she joined the Women's Christian Temperance Union. In 1889 she received a personal visit from Frances Willard, the president of the WCTU; and in 1890 members elected Abbie to the board of directors of the Women's Temperance Publishing Association (affiliated with the WCTU) on which she served for two years.

The catalyst for her increased participation in activities outside of the family may have been an inheritance she received in 1882 from her uncle, Alden Winch. Winch, the former director of the American News Company of New York, left her cash and assets of more than $17,000. Through the inheritance, Abbie was able to bring more control into her marriage. She lent Niels $12,000 to put into his businesses and real estate interests. Abbie kept some money and stocks and bought property in Beaufort. Essentially this gave her life-long independence.

In 1883, Abbie used some inheritance money to help found an interdenominational “Union” church in Beaufort – the Carteret Street Church. The idea may have grown out of memories of services Abbie attended with her parents when they first moved to Beaufort in the 1860s. A Union Army chaplain used to conduct services for the community in the Arsenal at Port Royal, and Abbie wrote about these occasions in her journals. Abbie and Niels, along with other northern transplants, worked diligently for several years to bring the project to fruition.

In 1898, a group of individuals – including Abbie and Niels Christensen – came together to discuss the feasibility of founding a school for African American children in Beaufort. The entire Christensen family worked with both white and African American citizens in Beaufort to make the Port Royal Agricultural School a reality. Founded in 1901, the school served the Beaufort community for over forty years. (See the biographical note on page 13 for detailed information on the school and the Christensens' role in its founding.)

Niels, Sr. died in 1909 after an illness of several months. Abbie was by his side when he died. After Niels' death, Abbie became very involved in several alternative forms of Christianity. After her son Jamie's death in 1885 Abbie had originally turned to the practice of “Mind Cure.” It was the application of the principle of mind over matter. Through hypnotism, massage, and telepathy, the practitioner strove to heal him- or herself. The final cure was as much about the restoration of moral and mental wellness as it was about physical healing. After her husband's death, Abbie's interest in Mind Cure grew even stronger. Years later, in 1929, she joined the Rosicrucian Order of Christian Mystics, a Christian-based sect that espoused the power of the spiritual over the material and the kinship of all humanity. Mind Cure and Rosicrucianism were but two in a series of alternative religious and medical practices Abbie practiced over the course of her life. Abbie probably took solace in these practices. She also collected rare plants and dispensed homeopathic remedies to her friends and family. In later years, Abbie often spent time at various solarium retreats across the country as a means of restoring her mental and physical well being; often her daughter Andrea accompanied her on these extended trips.

In 1932, Abbie accepted a position as the Elector at Large for the Socialist Party in South Carolina. She served as a delegate for the presidential candidate, Norman Thomas. Her family supported her decision to express her political beliefs in a public forum. This represented the only time Abbie publicly supported a political candidate.

Abbie died in Greenville on September 21, 1938. She had been visiting with Andrea when she suddenly became ill. She passed away in a matter of days. She was remembered by family and friends in South Carolina and Massachusetts. The staff and students at the Port Royal Agricultural School memorialized her and started a scholarship in her name.

Abbie's interests lived on in her children. Throughout her life, she tried to enlist them in her causes. Niels, Jr. matured into a very politically minded adult. He followed in his father's footsteps for a time in the family business before he established himself independently. He purchased the Beaufort Gazettein 1903 and served as publisher and editor for nearly twenty years. When N. Christensen & Sons failed financially, Niels assumed the leadership of Christensen Realty, a successful Beaufort realty company. He also became very involved in South Carolina politics. He was first elected to the Senate in 1905. He served for twenty years and was involved in a variety of committees and special projects. He was also very active in the day-to-day affairs of the Port Royal Agricultural School. Niels married Katherine Wales (“Nancy”) Stratton in 1912. They had four children: Niels, III (born in 1913); Anne Wales (born in 1916); Stratton (born in 1918); and Andrea (born in 1923). Niels, Jr. died in 1939 from injuries sustained in a car accident.

Frederik, too, was very involved in business and civic affairs in Beaufort. He was the first son to join his father and business; he remained loyal to the Christensen family businesses for as long as they endured. He participated in many Beaufort citizens' groups and civic organizations. Frederik married in the late 1920s. He and his wife, Helen Burr, had one child, Frederik Burr Christensen (born October 7, 1929). Frederik, Sr. died in 1944.

Of the five children, Arthur was the most inclined to strike out on his own. For years, he seemed to resist returning to Beaufort. Educated at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he did not seem to know what to do with his life. For a period of time, he jumped from job to job. For a few years after finishing his education, he traveled throughout the United States and South America working on mining projects. For a period of time he lived in New Jersey and worked as the manager of the Stoneware Electric Stove Works in New York and traveled from door to door trying to sell stoves. Perhaps in some ways, he was most like his grandfather, Reuben Holmes, in that he possessed a wandering spirit and could not, or did not want to, settle down. He was briefly married from approximately 1912 to 1916 to a woman named Helen Eddy. They had a son, Minot; however, after the divorce not a word was mentioned about the marriage or the child. Arthur married Lillian Dutton and had two daughters, Cornelia and Carroll.

Andrea Christensen was perhaps the most artistic of the Christensen children. Additionally, she introduced her mother to many various holistic healing procedures and shared an interest in Mind Cure. Andrea also accompanied her mother on many trips to solariums throughout the country. Andrea and Abbie enjoyed a close relationship and exchanged letters throughout their lives. Andrea married Lawrence Orr Patterson, a Greenville attorney; they had one adopted daughter, Dorothy (Dot).

Abbie Winch Christensen never married and remained her mother's faithful travel companion throughout her life. Educated at Radcliffe College, Winnie seemed to possess some of that wandering instinct present in Arthur and her grandfather Holmes. Although she always returned to Beaufort, Winnie traveled the world during the course of her life. She served in France on the Civilian Committee of the Beaufort County Chapter of the American Red Cross from 1918-1919. While in college, Winnie had developed an interest in English folklore. She joined the English Folk Song Society and the Appalachian Club while at Radcliffe. One of her strongest passions was for English folk dancing; she taught it at several summer camps and at the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan, Kentucky. She taught at the school for many years. Winnie traveled extensively with her mother; mother and daughter went on a transcontinental cruise in 1921. They also spent time traveling throughout America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.

In view of the lamentable condition of ignorance, superstition, poverty and vice prevailing among many of the people in our Sea Island Plantations, it is proposed to establish a School on Port Royal after the Tuskegee plan.

- Minutes of the Trustees' Meetings Port Royal Agricultural School

Abbie's legacy lived on not only with her children and grandchildren but also in the hundreds of students who received an education at the school she worked so diligently to found and build into an institution. In 1898, a group of individuals – including Abbie and Niels Christensen – came together to discuss the feasibility of founding a school for African American children in Beaufort. The involved parties decided to take as their inspiration the educational institutions founded by Booker T. Washington and Samuel Chapman. Abbie believed that Washington's Tuskegee Institute, with its emphasis on practical training and the molding of positive character, represented a strong model school. Additionally, she looked to Chapman, the founder of Hampton Institute, for other educational ideas. Abbie also emulated the work of Laura Towne and Ellen Murray of the Penn School and Rachel Mather of the Mather School.

The dream became a reality in October 1901 and the school started with seven pupils; by January of 1905, 150 students were in attendance. The Port Royal Agricultural School aimed to instruct African American students in better cultivation of land, care of stock, and improved manner of living. Additionally, the institution offered instruction in carpentry, bricklaying, printing and other trades. Coursework for females included cooking, sewing, nursing, and homemaking. Implicit in all aspects of the program was an effort to achieve the moral elevation of its students.

Edinburg Mahone (a Tuskegee graduate) accepted the position as the first principal. In 1902 the school trustees were W. H. McLeod (President), W. S. Dorset (Secretary), and N. Christensen (Treasurer). Abbie Christensen also assumed an un-named position with the board. By 1905, Abbie had moved into a more formal position with the board – that of Secretary. She worked alongside McLeod (President), Thomas Lee (Vice President), and Niels Christensen (Treasurer).

In 1904, Mahone left his position in the midst of controversy. The board hired Joseph S. Shanklin, the school's agricultural instructor, as his replacement. Joseph and his wife, India, worked together to advance the mission set forth by the board of trustees – to educate and prepare African Americans to lead self-sufficient and moralistic lives. India taught domestic science to the girls at the school and maintained a fairly personal relationship with Abbie; they exchanged numerous letters up until Abbie's death in 1938.

By 1919, Port Royal Agricultural School (more commonly known as the Shanklin School) was well established with an endowment of around $11,000 and situated on hundreds of acres of land in Beaufort. Expenses were high, though; during that year the trustees applied for the institution to become a County Training School as a means of receiving additional funding. In 1920, Port Royal Agricultural School became the Beaufort County Training School, although it was always known as the Shanklin School to area residents. By becoming a county school, the institution was able to pool both public and private resources to promote its mission of industrial education and was able to meet the need for African American teachers since it was ostensibly known as a teacher's training site.