John Otis Wattles (d. 1859) was an abolitionist, spiritualist, educator, women's rights advocate, and founder of several utopian communities and schools in Ohio and Kansas. He was the son of naval captain and musician Erastus Wattles and the brother of abolitionist Augustus Wattles (1807-1876). Wattles was a radical Hicksite Quaker and the co-founder of the Prairie Home Community in Logan County, Ohio, and the Clermont/Excelsior, Ohio utopian community (destroyed in a flood that killed most of the inhabitants in 1847). John Wattles moved his family to several towns in Indiana in an attempt to start other utopian communities. In the early 1850s, John and Augustus Wattles moved their families to Kansas where they founded the town of Moneka in 1857. The Wattles brothers were active defenders of John Brown. Augustus Wattles assisted in publishing the Herald of Freedom in Lawrence, Kansas, and his home was the headquarters of John Brown after 1858. John Wattles traveled extensively throughout the United States to promote his utopian communities in Ohio and Kansas, and he lectured as an abolitionist and spiritualist. None of his utopian communities existed for more than a few years. John Wattles died while working to develop a railroad that would connect Moneka to city centers in Missouri. The city's population of 200 was made up entirely of abolitionists, and by the end of 1859 all its inhabitants had moved out.
John Wattles married Esther Whinery (1819-1908) in 1844. As a teenager, Esther Whinery worked as an elementary school teacher even though her plans to attend Oberlin College were never realized. Esther Wattles worked with her husband to promote the abolitionist movement, assisted John Brown in his activities, and was the founding member of several women's rights and temperance groups. She stayed in Kansas during the Civil War and moved her children and one niece to Oberlin, Ohio, in 1865. Near the end of her life she moved to Coconut Grove, Florida, where she died in 1908.
John and Esther Whinery Wattles had three daughters. Lucretia Celestia Wattles (1849-1933) was born in Grand Prairie, Indiana. She attended Oberlin College, studied music in France, and had a long career as a piano professor at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Lucretia Wattles retired to Coconut Grove, Florida, and the L. Celestia Wattles Fund at the Conservatory of Music was created in her memory in 1949. Harmonia Wattles (1851-1924) was born in Williamsport, Indiana, and attended Oberlin College. She was a public school teacher in Ohio and New Jersey before her marriage to fellow Oberlin graduate and educator Marshall Woodford. The Woodfords founded the Warren Public Library in Warren, Ohio, and Harmonia served as its librarian. After her husband's death in 1895, Harmonia moved to Oberlin where she served as the Dean of Women at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She retired to Coconut Grove, Florida, and died in Massillon, Ohio, in 1924. Theano Wattles (1853-1949) was born in West Point, Indiana. She graduated from Oberlin College and had a brief career as a teacher in several schools in Ohio. She studied abroad for three years and married lawyer and manufacturer Franklin Everett Case in 1879. The couple moved to California where Theano pursued nature study and painting. Theano died in California in 1949.
John Otis Wattles and Esther Whinery Wattles Family Papers, ca. 1820s-1960 (bulk dates 1838-1864), consist of articles of incorporation, autobiographies, by-laws, correspondence, essays, genealogy charts, journals, ledger books, lists, magazine and newspaper clippings, memoirs, minutes, notes, obituaries, poems, a scrapbook, speech texts, and wills. Most documents include transcriptions.
This collection is of value to researchers studying the history of utopian communities in Ohio and Kansas, particularly the Prairie Home, Ohio community, Grand Prairie Harmonial Association and the Friends for Universal Inquiry and Reform. Those studying 19th Century American beliefs regarding women's rights and Hicksite Quakers will find this collection valuable. Researchers studying the abolitionist movement in the United States will find the speech texts, essays, correspondence, and journals of John Wattles useful. Those studying family life and relations in the mid-19th Century will find the correspondence and journals in this collection valuable since John Wattles wrote to his siblings, wife, and children throughout his frequent travels, and Esther Wattles was a prolific letter writer to her family as well. The correspondence and journals of Esther Whinery Wattles will be of particular interest to those studying women's history and the history of women's participation in the abolitionist, utopian, and temperance movements. Those studying the Civil War should note that the journal of Esther Wattles includes her first-hand account of the battle of Lacygne, Kansas, and her activities as a nurse. Researchers of women's education in the 19th Century and at Oberlin College will find this collection useful. Some events and daily life of Augustus Wattles are described in the correspondence and journals of the Wattles Family.
The collection is arranged in four series.
All photographs have been removed to PG 550 John Otis Wattles and Esther Whinery Wattles Family Photographs.
Processed by Margaret Burzynski-Bays in 2009.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 5041 John Otis Wattles and Esther Whinery Wattles Family Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Virginia R. Heiss in 1994.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.