Lyman Copeland Draper Sep 4, 1815 - Aug 26, 1891
Collector of memorabilia about early western pioneers he collected a priceless treasure-trove
of documents about the settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee and Ohio, about the South, and
about the Indians who inhabited the land between the Allegheny Mountains and Mississippi
River. Eventually his materials filled 250 manuscript volumes covering the period from 1742
to the mid-1800s. Although he intended to use the materials to write biographies of the great
pioneers, with the exception of Kings Mountain and its Heroes, he never did. A
partially-completed manuscript on Daniel Boone was finally completed by an editor in 1998
Elected corresponding secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society, a position he held from 1854 until his retirement 33 years later.
Upon his death Draper willed his personal documents to the Society, forming the nucleus of its
manuscript collection on frontier history, the largest and most important in the nation
Spiritualism gained a boost after the Civil War, particularly among parents wanting to contact their dead sons. In 1869
Draper, long associated with the Baptist Church, converted to Spiritualism, driven partly by the possibility of conversing with
the spirits of his dead heroes. He claimed to have contacted his daughter Helen, George Rogers Clark, and Simon Kenton.
Lydia Chadwick Draper May 2, 1811 - May 23, 1888
Hellen Draper 1847 - Oct 7, 1864 Æ 17
