A Collection of Seven Letters on Keewaydin Camp Letterheads from a Father to his Son, during his Freshman Year at Harvard University
The Keewaydin Camps themselves are among the oldest summer camps in America having been established in 1893 by A. S. Gregg Clarke, whose camp nickname was "The Commodore". As the original site for the camp grew to be crowded and as Clarke felt, too near civilization, he gradually expanded his camps to include several different locations, all over American and Canada. Furthermore Clarke also extended the memberships to the camps from men, to also eventually include young boys and eventually girls as well. By the 1920s, the camps were run by a Board of Directors, of which included George W. Creelman, under the name of Keewaydin Camps Limited Partnership. Creelman himself would also serve as Vice President of the Limited Partnership for several years, (during which time the correspondence takes place in). As a Vice President, like many of the man important to the running of the camps, Creelman was given a nickname, the "Colonel". By 1938 the camps were so numerous and the board so large with very diverging interests, that it was agreed upon that they should be disbanded with many of the camps being purchased by individual camp directors or board members. This is what Creelman and his business partner William K. "Major" Gunn did for the camp on Devil's Island, by Lake Temagami (spelled Timagami on the letterhead), which was one of the original camps purchased by Clarke. Eventually Creelman and Gunn would sell the camp in in 1947 to other members of the original board. Although many of the camps under the original banner of Keewaydin Camps folded over the years, those still in business in 2002, reunited under one corporation, the Keewaydin Foundation, and are still in existence today.
George Willis Creelman was born on October 1872 in Nova Scotia, Canada to John Dennis Creelman (1844-1898) and Rachel Brenton (1852-1938). He had three siblings Gilmore Brenton Creelman (1877-1967), Arthur Bradford Creelman (1881-1949) and Susan Anna Creelman Place (1885-1981). He married Helen Lousie Douglass (1874-1955) on December 27, 1906, and had three children George D. Creelman (1908-1981), Margaret C. Creelman Nelson (1910-1993), LTJR Brenton "Brent" Welles Creelman. (1912-1944). George attended high school at Cambridge Latin School and received his B. A. from Harvard in 1896 and began teaching math at several private schools, including Hotchkiss School, of which he would eventually become the Master of Mathematics there. He was first on the Board of Directors for Keewaydin Camps, served as Vice President for the camp for several years before purchasing one of the in 1938 and eventually selling it in 1947. His nickname at the camp was Colonel. He died on December 2, 1951 in Florida, while wintering there. He is buried at Hotchkiss Cemetery, in Lakeville, CT.
Brenton "Brent" W. Creelman, is George's youngest son, and the recipient of the letters. Brenton graduated Hotchkiss School in 1931, and was attending Harvard University at the time of the correspondence. He graduated from Harvard in 1935. In 1937 he was engaged to Miss Bernice Hempel (1913-2002), before breaking it off. In 1940 he married Elizabeth Rollins (1915-2006). Both him and his wife taught at Eaglebrook School, a private middle school for boys in Deerfield, MA. With the start of WWII, Brenton enlisted in the Navy on December 9, 1942, and became an officer reaching the rank of Lieutenant Junior. He was captain of PT-311, a Motor Torpedo Boat a part of the Patrol Torpedo Boat Program in Italy. In the early morning hours of November 18, 1944 while patrolling the waters in the Ligurian Sea (south, southwest of La Spezia, It), Creelman's boat struck a land mine and sank. Only five crew members survived, unfortunately Brenton Creelman was not one of them. Brenton is listed among the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial in Florence, Italy.
To view the collection, please click on the following link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/EyqjiUA3eJ8Kfqzw8. General wear. Edge wear to several letters.
Price: $225.00
Item #29001800