Commonplace book

This collection contains a commonplace book, letters, and other items compiled by the extended Gaillard and Hurtel families of Claiborne and Mobile, Alabama.

The commonplace book, written by Alphonse Hurtel, contains images and approximately thirty-five pages of handwritten quotations. Two obituaries are handwritten on pages 220 to 226: a biography of John Hurtel written by members of Mobile's Get-Away Club and an obituary for Thomas Noel.

The collection contains approximately twenty letters, all written or received by members of the extended Gaillard and Hurtel families and dated between 1838 and 1885. Frequent correspondents include Thomas Gaillard and his wife Marianne Gendron Palmer and their children Edmund Gaillard and Martha Rebecca Gaillard (referred to as Bec or Becca in the letters). The letters report family news, describe outbreaks of disease, the purchase or rent of new homes, and the birth and death of family members. In one interesting letter addressed to Bec Gaillard, a friend named Mollie outlined her reasons for breaking off her engagement with her fiance and asked for Gaillard's advice.

The collection also contains miscellaneous documents and items compiled by family members, including genealogical materials, a typescript biography of Thomas Gaillard, a lock of Catherine Gaillard's hair, and an 1879 abstinence pledge written by Gordon Hurtel.