The papers of Henry Wadhams Buel, M.D. (1820-1893) and his sister, Mary Jane Buel Brace (1827-1884), of Litchfield, Conn., consisting of approximately 135 letters, 1842-1856; an album kept by Mary Buel Brace, purchased for her by her brother in New York City in 1846; 15 valentines to Mary Buel Brace from the 1840s; and three 1874 letters from Mary Buel Brace to her daughter, Emily.

For a detailed overview of the 135 letters, 1842-1856, and genealogical information related to Henry Buel and Mary Buel Brace, click on "Show Digital Content Links" at left and then "Buel, Henry and Mary Buel Brace correspondence and genealogical overview."

Henry Wadhams Buel graduated from Yale College in 1844 and received his M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City in 1848. He remained in the city as house surgeon in the New York Hospital until 1849, when he was appointed resident physician of Sanford Hall, a private insane asylum in Flushing, L.I. After traveling in Europe, he returned to Litchfield in 1854 and established a sanitarium, the Spring Hill House for Nervous Invalids, in Litchfield in 1858. He was president of the Connecticut State Medical Society, the Litchfield Medical Society, and a member of the State Board of Charities. At the time of his death, he was president of the First National Bank of Litchfield. He first married Mary Ann Laidlaw of Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1859. She died in 1864 and he then married her sister, Catherine Laidlaw in 1867. She died in 1882. He and his first wife had four children.

Mary Jane Buel Brace married Thomas K. Brace Jr. of Hartford in 1853. The younger brother of Jonathan Brace, who was a minister in Litchfield from 1838 to 1844, Thomas Brace started in the publishing business. In 1857, he was elected secretary of the Aetna Insurance Co., which had been founded by his father in 1819. He resigned the position due to health reasons in 1861, but continued as a director until his death in 1870. Thomas and Mary Brace had four children.

Henry and Mary were among the five children of Dr. Samuel Buel (1782-1854) and Minerva Wadhams Buel (1793-1874) of Litchfield and were cousins of John Wadhams Buell and Mary Theresa Buell, children of Capt. Samuel Buell (1783-1863) and Minera Wadhams's sister, Anne (1777-1865).