Frederick
Ayer Records
1865-1867, 1900
0.8 linear feet
NOTE: A paper copy
of the finding aid,
with container list,
is available at the
Atlanta University
Center Archives for
in-house consultation
and may be obtained
for a fee.
Rev. Frederick Ayer (b. 1803 d.1867) was a veteran
missionary appointed by the American Missionary
Association (AMA) to establish schools for freedmen
in Atlanta. He and his wife moved from Belle
Prairie, Minnesota to Atlanta in 1865. His first
students were from a class formerly taught by
two ex-slaves, James Tate and Grandison B. Daniels.
The classes were taught first in an old church
building and later in a boxcar purchased by the
AMA. Ayer served as the AMA's superintendent
of schools and financial agent and was one of
the eleven signers of the Atlanta University
charter.
The Frederick Ayer Records include correspondence,
insurance policies for the Storrs School and Washburn
Orphan Asylum, faculty monthly reports, and financial
papers related to the construction of school buildings
and salaries and accounts for Atlanta University
faculty and staff. The correspondence includes Ayer's
descriptions of conditions of the newly freed slaves
when he arrived in Atlanta. There are also letters
with Rev. Erasmus. M. Cravath, Secretary of the Middle
West Department of the AMA, and one of the signers
of the Atlanta University charter, who later served
as President of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
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