The Hastings, L. mss., 1904-1957, consist primarily of letters
from Indiana author, Elizabeth Jane Miller, (Mrs. Oren S. Hack),
1878-1961, to Lyndona Hastings, (Mrs. Carl Boatman Rutherford),
1890- , of Denver, Colorado and later Bellflower, California.
Miller made the acquaintance of the Hastings family while staying
in Denver, taking a particular interest in both Lyndona and her
sister, Leona Elizabeth. In her first letter to Lyndona, Miller
reported having read her "story of the nickel" and was so
delighted by it that she had to tell the young author "so on
paper". Thereafter Miller writes about her life and activities in
Indiana, her own children and what they are reading and doing as
they grow up, and comments on the general state of affairs of the
country. In a short note of 9 July 1930, she tells of her brother
Percy's death following a knife and gun battle with a hold-up man
in Los Angeles, and in her letter of Dec. 8, 1950, she encloses
an article published in the Sunday Indianapolis Star Magazine
about her. Also present are two letters to Lyndona's mother: one
from Mrs. Buchanan, "News" representative, who requests
information regarding Miss Miller's visit to the Hastings and
about her "opinion of Colorado", and one from Elizabeth Miller in
1920, thanking Mrs. Hastings for the photograph of Lyndona and
her young daughter. A photocopy of Clergymen, College Presidents
& Prominent Men of America Praise THE YOKE ... by Elizabeth
Miller (Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill Co., ca. 1906) completes the
collection. Collection size: 20 items