Making a Connection

     The Kilbuck collection was one of the first that I was tasked with assessing, researching, organizing, and cataloging. It still remains, after a multitude of other collections, one of my most fond and well remembered. The Kilbuck collection consists primarily of letters, journals, articles, and notes written by John and Edith Kilbuck about their time as missionaries and educators in the Alaskan wilderness. The collection dates from the early 1880s until the late 1920s.
     John Henry Kilbuck was the great grandson of Gelelemend, head Chief of the Delaware Native Americas, and a descendent of Netwates, King of the Delaware’s. He was born on May 15th, 1861 in what was then Indian Territory in Kansas. John spent much of his youth at a nearby Moravian mission.  The missionaries identified John as a gifted, young individual- this allowed him to receive a formal education at Nazareth Hall in Pennsylvania; later, he attended Moravian College and Theological Seminary from which he graduated with a B.A. in 1882 and a B.D. in 1884. After his graduation and ordination, John returned home to Kansas and met Edith Romig whom he married in 1885. The newly-wed couple journeyed to Alaska shortly after their marriage to serve as missionaries.
     My fascination with this collection lies in the character of both John and Edith. I spent a fair amount of time reading correspondences, journals, and papers written by John and Edith in order to properly organize the collection. In doing so, I was indirectly drawn into their lives. John and Edith wrote extremely comprehensive and inclusive journals to one another, and the inclusion of the small details in my opinion gives off the most profound effect.  It was all the small details that drew me into the lives of John and Edith. I discovered their extreme perseverance and good nature. They accomplished so much in the face of adversity. Despite losing his arm in a fishing accident, John was able to continue his work in Alaska, accomplishing so much more through his ingenuity and strong desire to live his life. This incident is only one of many that speaks to John’s perseverance and dedication to his mission-being able to personally examine their lives was highly rewarding and I highly recommend stopping into the Archives to read their correspondence. For out of all of the collections I have worked with so far, the Kilbucks have been the most intriguing.
                                                                                                 -Fred Carter