Tefft Family papers

The collection documents members of the Sexton family of Ohio and the Tefft family. Members of the Tefft family were missionaries working with the American Missionary Association (AMA). Of note are documents related to Rebecca Sexton Tefft (1829-1909), who worked at the Mendi Mission in Sierra Leone, Africa, an AMA mission. The American Missionary Association archives contains 92 letters from James Cutler Tefft (1815-1855), which document his being in Africa at the Kaw Mendi Station, the Good Hope Mendi Station, and Freetown, Sierra Leone, from 1851 to 1854. Rebecca Lovisa Sexton was at the Kaw Mendi Station in 1853 and returned in February 1855 after her marriage to James Cutler Tefft. She returned to the United States in 1856 following his death in October 1855.  She married Dr. Martin Tefft (1825-1880), the brother of James Cutler Tefft, in New York in 1857. Martin Tefft was also affiliated with the American Missionary Association in Vermont.

The collection documents family genealogy through portraits of Rebecca Sexton Tefft and Dr. Martin Tefft; photocopies of obituaries for Rebecca Sexton Tefft and her certificate of death (1909); family records, including a handwritten listing of family births and deaths (1792-1903); a summary by Rebecca Tefft of her marriage and family information; a birth certificate of Alfred Jay Tefft (1858); and two printed items kept by Mrs. Tefft: American Missionary, Vol X: No. 10 (Aug 1956) and The Enterprise, Vol IV: No. 2 (Feb 1878). Lastly, a birthday card sent to Arron Tefft Burdick in 1938 serves as an example of racial stereotypes of the time.