Local History Collections

(Description ID: 595535)

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums

Aaron B. Levisee

LH-195

Introduction
Biographical Sketch
Scope and Content
Inventory

Introduction
The collection was donated to the Hayes Presidential Center in 1975 by Martha Pratt Lawry, Lafayette, Indiana.

Biographical Sketch
Aaron Burton Levisee, the youngest of nine children, was born March 18, 1821, in New York to Aaron and Anna Levisee. He moved to Sandusky County, Ohio, with his widowed mother and a brother and sister in 1832. Levisee attended the University of Michigan for several years until financial hardship forced him to end his studies without a degree. He moved to Louisiana where he taught in a private school. He attended law lectures in New York in 1853 and 1854 and then returned to Shreveport, Louisiana, to begin his law practice.

A Republican and an anti-secessionist, Levisee remained in the South during the Civil War and served two years in the Confederate army, a member of the Inspector General’s Department at the end of the war. In 1868 and 1872 he was elected to a judgeship in his judicial district and to the state legislature in 1874. Levisee, a presidential elector in 1876 supporting Rutherford B. Hayes, created a controversy with his statement that he had been offered $100,000 to vote for Tilden over Hayes in the Electoral College.

In 1881, Levisee and his son moved to South Dakota where they established a law practice. While there, Levisee prepared and published the Dakota Codes for Dakota Territory. Upon retirement in 1893, Levisee returned to Clyde, Ohio, where he wrote two books: Two Ways to Heaven and Christianity Versus Orthodox Theology, or the Deception Unmasked. He also tutored in French, Latin, and English. He died February 16, 1907.

Scope and Content
The bulk of this collection contains photograph albums of the Fuller and Levisee relatives of Clyde, Ohio of which most were taken in the late nineteenth century. There are also two letters by Dermont Fuller to his parents and letters from A. B. Levisee to Taylor Fuller. The collection also contains assorted books, two written by Aaron B. Levisee, and other material relating to the Levisee and Fuller families of Clyde, Ohio.

Inventory
Ac. 2291
1 ½ linear feet

Box 1

Books:

• Lecky, Wm. Edward Hartpole, History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne, (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1870). Vol II only [A. B. Levisee’s copy]
• Chase, Theodore R., The Michigan University Book, 1844-1880, (Detroit: Richmond, Backus, and Co., 1880). [A. B. Levisee’s copy]
• Sandusky County Historical Society Yearbook, 1918, 1922

Miscellaneous Group Photographs:

• Fuller Family: Dermont, Emma Levisee, Karl, Taylor
• Barney, Mrs, G. H.
• Becker, Bertha Dam?
• Beeker, Melta Angel (Mrs. Jim)
• Curtis, Ruth (Mrs. Fred)
• Fuller, Martha Wilder (Mrs. D. E.)
• Jackson, Grace (Mrs. Fred)
• Jones, Ione Smith (Mrs. Robert B.)
• Mann, Nettie (Mrs. W. T.)
• Persing, Hattie Wickwire
• Tiffany, Mille Richards (Mrs. Charles)
• Tiffany, Stella Robinson (Mrs. George)
• Harkness ? (1/2 of picture and caption missing)

Photograph Album 1:

• Fuller, Bernard, p. 16
• Fuller, Dermont, pp. 12, 20
• Fuller, Emily Levisee, pp. 22, 23, 26
• Fuller, Faye Stone, p. 11
• Fuller, Martha E, p. 13
• Fuller, Taylor, p. 15
• Fuller, William, p. 17
• Fuller, Zella, pp. 10, 18
• Levisee, A. B, p. 15
• Storey, Mattie, p. 20
• Tew, Emily Stone, p. 18
• Wilder, Edna, p. 14
• Wilder, Nettie, p. 14

Photograph Album 2:

• Bush, Amelia Tew, p. 26
• Collins, Effie Tew, p. 39
• Fuller, Dermont, p. 32
• Fuller, Jennie Worthington Plum, p. 31
• Fuller, Lina Stone, p. 11
• Geer, Ethie, p. 12
• Geer, Hetty, p. 12
• Geer, Taylor, p. 13
• George, Joseph, Jr, p. 36
• Inglehart, Alberta, p. 8
• Mason, Anna, p. 44
• Mason, Lettie, p. 44
• Mason, Mary Ann, p. 7
• May, Isaac, p. 2
• May, James and Olive, p. 6
• Richards, Allie, p. 19
• Richards, Billy, p. 47
• Richards, Diantha and daughter Em, p. 4
• Richards, William, p. 5
• Stone, Edith, p. 21
• Stone, Lucy Richards, p. 29
• Stone, Rolland, p. 20
• Stone, Will J, p. 28
• Straight, Aldonus & wife, p. 33
• Terry, Thompson, p. 37

Box 2

Books:

• Levisee, A. B., Christianity Versus Orthodox Theology, or the Deception Unmasked,
  (Akron: Geo. C. Jackson & Co., 1899)
• Levisee, A. B., Two Ways to Heaven, (Akron: Geo. C. Jackson & Co., 1901)

Photograph Album 3:

• Babcock, Dr. Mary, p. 2
• Bible covers inscribed "T.W. Stone," with newspaper articles laid in (obituaries,  celebrations,  announcements, etc.)  about the Levisee/Fuller families and other relatives

Box 3

Books:

• Macaulay, Thomas Babington, The History of England from the Accession of 
  James II, vol. I, (Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and Co., 1857) [A. B. Levisee’s copy]

Photograph Album 4 unidentified:

Folder 1:

• Miscellaneous Newspaper Clippings
• Manuscript Copy, "The Pegasus," 2 pp. [clipping attached]
• Newspaper Clipping: "Cats Think," by A. B. L[evisee]. In Clyde Enterprise, July 16, 1895
• Newspaper clipping from Ohio State Journal, Dec. 12, 1876 re A. B. Levisee’s refusal 
  of bribe as Louisiana elector
• Newspaper clipping from Fremont Journal, Aug. 27, 1897 re Sandusky County 
  Pioneer & Historical Society picnic and A. B. Levisee’s speech
• Five copies of "Death Notice" for Mrs. Emily L. Tew, March 17, 1896

Folder 2:

Miscellaneous Manuscripts Correspondence:

    Fuller, Dermont E.

• To "Dear Parents" dtd Portland, Dakota, June 15, [1886]
• To "Dear Parents" dtd Portland, [Dakota], June 18, 1886 Levisee, Aaron B.
• To Taylor [Fuller] dtd Shreveport, LA, Feb. 14, 1866
• To Taylor Fuller dtd Georgetown, Washington, March 2, 1907
• To Taylor Fuller dtd San Francisco, CA, June 4, 1879 (typed copy)

    Levisee, Mrs. A. B.

• To Mr. & Mrs. Howard Pratt dtd Huntington Beach, CA, July 31, 1962

Folder 3:

• Miscellaneous Prints
• Miscellaneous family notes and copies of biographical material about the Levisee family
  and Fuller relatives