Series I contains correspondence between family mambers regarding business, church issues, and town and family matters. The lives of the Brushes and Lockwoods seem to have been threaded with intrigues, drama, and disputes, many of which are documented here. The correspondence between Mary Angelina Brush and George Lockwood is of interest, as is the correspondence between Julia Reynolds and Shubel Brush; Shubel courted an extremely reluctant Julia Reynolds shortly following his wife's death. She continued to evade him, but letters are evidence of his determination in her regard. The correspondence between the Brushes and the Aspinwall branch of the family provides details of life in upstate New York, where the Aspinwalls were settled. Despite the distance that separated them, the two branches of the family remained intimate and made frequent visits to each other.
It was the practice of Shubel Brush to use any available scrap of papers to draft is horrespondence, and much of the drafts have been preserved here - although there is no indication of whether or not the drafts were finalized and sent. This practice was adopted by Mary Angeline and Henrietta, whose correspondence includes draft letters on long strips of paper. Frequently, family members would each address the same person individually, but on the same slip of paper - thus providing several different viewpoints on a specific topic; also, it was standard for the recipient to use the same sheet of paper when returning correspondence to the original writer, thus conserving valuable paper and providing the researcher with a thread through the correspondence.
