Herbert F. Boughey Papers Series 2, 1901-1933, and undated

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Restrictions:: Herbert F. Boughey Papers Series 2 is open for research.

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Summary

Creator:: Boughey, Herbert F.
Abstract:: Boughey Series 2, 1901-1933, and undated, includes biographical material, correspondence, an assortment of financial and banking records, legal records, and miscellaneous, such as catalogs, township charts, and newspaper clippings.
Extent:: Approximately 12 cubic ft. (in 30 boxes, 3 Oversized Folders)
Language:: English
Authors:: Collection processed and finding aid created by Marian’s HST 583 class, M. Matyn

Background

Scope and Content:

The entire collection, 1896-1934, and undated, includes biographical material, correspondence, an assortment of financial and banking records, legal records, and miscellaneous, such as catalogs, township charts, and newspaper clippings.

Series 2, 100-1933, and undated, was largely processed, one box or more per person, by a class of 20 processors (30 boxes, 3 Oversized Folders, approximately 12 cubic ft.) during Archives Administration Class, History 583 in spring term 2012.

Processing Note: Non-Michigan materials, duplicates, reading materials, material of a peripheral nature were removed from the collection during processing. Extremely dirty and moldy materials were also removed, with material of importance being photocopied. Extremely acidic materials were also photocopied and the originals were then withdrawn from the collection.

Box 1, processed by Bronwyn Mroz Benson, contains general receipts for a number of the members of the Boughey family, including clothing, groceries, medical, and automotive. The receipts also include bills paid to a number of city services in Traverse City, as well as some banking receipts. Also included are personal correspondence of Grace Boughey and business correspondence of Herbert Boughey pertaining to his stock holdings.

Box 1, processed by Nicole Brandt, contains general receipts, both of a business and personal nature, for a number of members of the Boughey family, mainly husband and wife, Herbert and Grace. There were also personal documents and receipts for Boughey daughters Helen and Ruth. One receipt was also found made out to a Mrs. Greenstead who is believed to be Boughey’s mother or mother-in-law. The business receipts include various large companies, mainly in the Traverse City area, which specialized in lumber, steel, mercantile, wood, coal, and railway. Personal receipts include numerous companies for gas, electric/light and power, grocery, medical/drugstore, and clothing/shoe stores. Personal documents included two newspaper clippings, correspondence among family members and to Boughey family members from physicians, report cards for one of the Boughey daughters, and donation slips. Box 2 (Legal-size) processed by Nicole Brandt, contains Receipts of The Hannah and Lay Mercantile Company Retail, Traverse City, Mich., 1916-1920.

Boxes 1 and 2 (Legal-size), processed by Cynthia Engerson, include correspondence, business and personal receipts, and certificates of membership to various committees and leagues. The topically grouped material is divided into business and personal respectively and arranged alphabetically. Business correspondence relate primarily to insurance. Receipts are comprised of business and personal expenditures including bank transactions, medical bills, lumbering and general hardware, insurance, telephone records, clothing and energy expenses. Prominent organizations related to this material include Citizens Telephone Company, Battle Creek Sanitarium, First National Bank, Montgomery Ward and Company, Standard Oil Company, and Western Union Telegraph Company. Membership and subscription receipts belong to organizations related to war relief efforts such as The American Relief Committee for Widows and Orphans of the War in Germany, the “Belgian Children’s Fund,” and the International Peace Forum. Publication subscriptions include the American Boy, the Wall Street Journal, and the World Court Magazine.

Box 1, processed by Katharine Gallaher, contains the personal correspondence of Herbert F. Boughey’s son, Herbert P. Boughey. These letters are from different members of the Boughey family, including his parents, Herbert and Grace, and sisters, Ruth and Helen. There are some letters from Herbert’s school pen pal William, who lived in Oakland, California. Also included are some examples of Herbert P. Boughey’s homework and drawings of a Decaland badge and blimp, 1918, undated. There is also a list of references concerning the Todd Seminary for Boys in which Herbert F. Boughey is listed in the folder titled Todd Seminary…1917.

Box 1, processed by Tressa Graves, contains business correspondence dealing with property in Leelanau County, Michigan, Oregon, British Columbia, Canada and various other locations. The box also contains correspondence with Saginaw [Michigan] Real Estate, Quesnel Gold Mining Company in Washington state, and Willison court case materials, in which Mrs. Willison had claims against Crotser, Boughey, Otte, and Moran, 1925-1926. Box 2 (legal-size), processed by Tressa Graves, contains meeting minutes with Quesnel Gold Mining Company, Washington and various business information and agreements.

Box 1 processed by Anjali Grose, contains general and specific business correspondence pertaining to the Oregon and Colorado properties, Edgar J. Daly Real Estate, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway Company, Manistee and North-Eastern Railroad Company, and J.O. Nessen and Company, among others. This box also contains Western Union telegrams, a Wickes Brother Stock Company Catalog, hotel receipts, business cards, business receipts, bond subscription lists, bank statements, township charts, and personal correspondence. There is a copy of a large hand-drawn map in the Oregon business correspondence folder.

Box 1 and 2 (Legal-size), processed by Andreah B. Grove, includes personal correspondence, certificates of registration, and business correspondence relating to B.E. Taylor Builder and Realtor, Detroit-Traverse Realty Company, Edward G. Hacker Company, Grand Traverse Bond and Mortgage Company, Pure Oil Company, Simon Redbird, Swift and Company, and many more. Simon Redbird was a Native American (Ottawa) carpenter from Leelanau, Michigan, who worked for Boughey in Genoa, Nebraska. (For more on Redbird, see Farrah McDaniel’s Boughey boxes.) Also included is an Oversized folder of a blueprint of Leland Township, Leelanau County, Michigan, undated.

Box 1, processed by Emily Grover, contains general and specific business correspondence pertaining to Herbert F. Boughey’s banking, investments, insurance, legal correspondence, tax, and letters and receipts between potential customers concerning lumber and other goods, 1911-1916. Railway records from the Adams Express Company, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad Company, Manistee and North-Eastern Railroad Company, and Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Sault Sainte Marie Railway Company are also contained here. The box also contains personal correspondence, Michigan Certificates of Registration, Michigan Republican State Central Committee information, and correspondence with Chase S. Osborn. Box 2 (Legal-size), processed by Emily Grover, contains newspaper clippings (copies) that deal with Chase S. Osborn’s career and information regarding lumber and crops. This box also contains an Abstract of Title to property in Leelanau County, Michigan.

Box 1, processed by Adam J. Hamlin, includes personal and business correspondence, 1915-1919. Items of note include a postcard featuring World War I recruits practicing infantry drill at Fort Sheridan, Illinois; an invitation to the Alumnae Banquet at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, featuring seminars on fattening diets, fever diets, blood building diets and hyper-reducing diets. The invitation includes hand-written recipes on back; circular offering to “furnish Russians, Poles and Lithuanians” for unskilled labor (presumably mailed to Carp Lake Lumber).

Box 1, processed by Jake Huss, contains business records from transactions with various companies as well as donation “thank yous” from groups such as the National Republican Congressional Committee, American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, and Anti-Saloon League of Michigan, among others. It also contains insurance records for everything from vehicles to lumber products as well as bank transactions with multiple Traverse City area banks. Personal Records includes Boughey’s 1916 draft card as well as his 1917 hunting and trapping license. Box 2 (Legal-size), processed by Jake Huss, contains mostly balances due and freight manifests from various companies, 1917-1919, undated.

Box 1, processed by Hannah Jenkins, contains financial records regarding the Carp Lake Lumber Company from 1910 to 1912, as well as general correspondence and order requests to the company from 1909 to 1912, and a couple undated documents. The box also contains correspondence regarding Mr. Boughey’s real estate business. Personal folders include documentation from Mr. Boughey’s involvement in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and Mr. Boughey’s interest in the Marble Company’s Game Getter Gun hunting rifle, manufactured in Gladstone, Michigan. Also included are general correspondence to Mr. Boughey from 1911 to 1912, invitations to meetings and conferences of which some are political in nature, and correspondence regarding Mr. Boughey’s political interests in the Roosevelt Campaign. Box 2 (Legal-size), processed by Hannah Jenkins, contains one folder of legal sized material including an undated list of second-hand boiler details and their prices, a financial record from January 30, 1912, and a political document from July 8, 1912 regarding Mr. Boughey’s involvement in the National Progressive Party.

Boxes 1 and 2 (Legal-size), processed by Farrah McDaniel, contain general business correspondences pertaining to the lumber business in Michigan and Oregon; a mining endeavor in Canada; and a variety of real estate ventures, both individually and in conjunction with someone else, throughout the states of Michigan, Oregon, and Wisconsin. The boxes also contain personal letters between the Boughey family, land deeds, personal receipts, insurance papers, and a letter from Herbert F. Boughey regarding the desire to patent a car windshield defroster. The Last Will and Testament of Grace Boughey, along with a codicil to the 1923 Last Will and Testament of Herbert F. Boughey, are located in the Boughey Legal Correspondence folder. In the Boughey Family, Personal Correspondence, 1930-1933, undated, is Correspondence from Grace Boughey to Herbert Boughey dated March 23, 1931, which includes a very candid conversation about female menopause and menstruation.

Box 1, processed by Marie Morgan, contains both general and specific information regarding H. Boughey’s business and personal life. In this box there is correspondence between H. Boughey and a number of businesses in Michigan, Oregon, and British Columbia. Besides correspondence between businesses, there are also receipts for many things pertaining to the business, newspaper clippings, telegrams, bank statements, and personal correspondence. The majority of the box contains information regarding H. Boughey’s lumber business, but there is also information regarding automobiles, hunting expenses, government paperwork, and other miscellaneous items. Two documents that particularly stand out in this box are the personal letters between a Ms. Helen Boughey and the Police Chief of Allen Park. The chief writes that Ms. Boughey had a violation against the city and must pay her debts or consequences will happen. There is also correspondence with Simon Redbird, 1927-1929. Box 2 (Legal-size), processed by Marie Morgan, includes miscellaneous legal-size materials: a list of U.S. merchants and manufacturers, undated; a copy of a right-of-way, undated; an analysis of earning for the First National Bank, Traverse City, 1927; a letter to stockholders of the Quesnel Gold Mining Company, Bellingham, Washington, 1926; and Meeting Minutes of the Sheppard Development Company, also of Bellingham, 1926. 1 Oversized folder has Hotel Cadillac Receipts, along with a large lumber receipt, 1926-1928.

Box 1, processed by Elizabeth Portenga, contains general and specific business correspondence pertaining mostly to companies in Michigan, 1912-1913. The main contents contain shipping orders, business correspondence, lumber orders, lumber inquiries, billing information, inventory, delivery status, account statements, a warranty deed, invoices, tax information, receipts, payments, stockholder meeting notes, credit information, dividends, supply information, lumber quotes, and work requests. The box also includes a Western Michigan Development Bureau Bylaws booklet, a Powers Theater, Grand Rapids, Michigan, program, lot drawings, a road map, a building blueprint, information from Boughey’s correspondence and work in Oregon, and personal letters from Governor Osborn inviting Boughey to his hunting cottage.

Box 1, processed by Kate Pritchard, contains general and specific business correspondence pertaining to Herbert F. Boughey Lumber, Cherry Home Company, The Haserot Company, The Lord and Bushnell Company, Southwestern Lumber Company, Standard Oil Company, Wakefield Fries, and Company Real Estate Rental and Loan Agency. The box also contains Western Union Telegrams, business receipts, business orders, bank statements, shipping instructions, New York Life Insurance statements, car insurance statements, and personal correspondence. Box 2 (legal-size), processed by Kate Pritchard, contains documents of general and specific business correspondence re: the Cherry Hill Company, Herbert F. Boughey Lumber, as well as contracts and receipts. 1 Oversized folder contains a map of Chippewa County, Michigan, with a timetable for the Arnold Transit Company for tourist season for 1906 connecting Mackinaw City, Mackinac Island, and Sault Ste. Marie via steamships.

Box 1, processed by Jessica Rodgers, includes business and personal receipts, and correspondence, 1925-1931. Of particular interest to researchers is the Lane Bryant receipt of the Boughey women, documenting dresses, hats etc. Other women’s clothing stores are also represented.

Box 1, processed by Liz Waterhouse, contains general and specific business receipts and correspondence pertaining to Edgar J. Daly Real Estate, First National Bank, H.P. Palmer Jones Company, Hannah and Lay Mercantile Company, The Stearns Company, Western Michigan Development Bureau, among others. This box also contains Western Union telegrams, hotel receipts, bank statements, personal miscellaneous items, personal correspondences, and business miscellaneous. There is a large hand-drawn map of possible building and land plots along Drift River (copy), undated, located in the Business miscellaneous folder, 1910-1911, undated.

Box 1, processed by Briăna White, contains business correspondences pertaining to the lumber business and associated investments in paper, flooring, and cherry production. This box also contains personal papers of the Boughey family, as well as information regarding donations, bills, letters, stocks, receipts, taxes, and correspondences between Former Governor Chase Osborn and Herbert Boughey. Of note is a receipt in Donations for the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, undated.

Box 1, processed by Lisa White, contains general and specific business correspondence pertaining to the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad Company and the Manistee and North-Eastern Railroad Company. This box also contains Western Union telegrams, personal correspondence, business receipts, personal receipts, and payroll records. Of particular interest, in business correspondence from 1911, is a letter from Wylie Cooperate stating that was an error in log scaling on their part. Mr. Boughey stated that he was short twenty-three Basswood logs from his order. Wylie Cooperage was offended that Mr. Boughey and his associate, Mr. Pease, accused him (Cooperage) of purposely trying to short them, and that he was sending a check to cover the overcharge. In Boughey personal receipts from 1911, taxes on Mr. Boughey’s personal property in Northport Village were $4.05. Also, this folder contains a register of deeds with Traverse City, Michigan, in account with Carson Warner. In Boughey personal receipts from 1912, there are financial records regarding Mr. Boughey’s furnished housekeeping rooms at 915 Thurman Street, Portland, Oregon. J.A. Parmele reported that there was no change in the house and that the rent balance is $32.42. Also, two of the tenants owed $21.00 in back rent, as they were currently unemployed, but they would pay soon.

Box 1, processed by Sandra Wonsey, contains business correspondences pertaining to Herbert F. Boughey and his lumbering business as well as other associations, 1918-1920. It also contains sources related to business transactions, such as Western Union Telegrams, banking receipts, business receipts, figures, orders, insurance coverage, and real estate ventures. The contents paint a picture of business success and problems as well. This collection also includes personal aspects of Mr. Boughey’s life. It contains his Draft card registration, Corrective Eating Society, and his monetary contribution to the National Republican Congressional Committee and letter from them. Box 2 (Legal-size) contains banking transactions that show his substantial business dealings. It contains publications from The Standard Oil Company stockholders, minutes from the Board of Directors of Francis H. Haserot Company. It show cases typical real estate correspondence one between Herbert F. Boughey and Governor Chase R. Osborn.

Biographical / Historical:

Biography:

Herbert F. Boughey (1872 or 1863-1968) was the son of a Midwest-born father and a German immigrant mother. Boughey settled in various locations in Leelanau County, Michigan, throughout his life, including the Traverse City area, and he owned a home in Leland. Boughey owned Carp Lake Lumber Company, in Bingham, Michigan, on the Leelanau Peninsula, which manufactured lumber, shingles, bark, and wood products. R. Case was the Chairman, J.O. Crotser, Vice-Chair, H.F. Boughey, Treasurer, and W. P. Crotser, Secretary of the company. The lumber company sales office was located at 615 Union Street, Traverse City. According to the federal census for Michigan, Boughey had other occupations during his life including grocery store proprietor, operator of an insurance office, and dealer of (age implements? [the description on the census is difficult to read]).

He owned and sold real estate in Michigan, Oregon, and British Columbia, Canada.

Also, Boughey owned the Cherry Home Company, which grew cherries in Traverse City, Michigan. The cherries were shipped to the Haserot Company in Ohio, which was a canning company that canned food, rice, coffee, cheese, fruits, nuts, and fish.

He was very active politically as a Republican, although he also was interested in the National Progressive Party. He maintained correspondence with Governor Chase S. Osborn.

Boughey donated to various charities, including, notably, The American Relief Committee for Widows and Orphans of the War in Germany, the Anti-Saloon League of America, the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief (see Box 1 processed by Huss), and the International Peace Forum. Other organizations he supported included the New We-Que-Tong Club, and the Western Michigan Development Bureau, and the Central Methodist Episcopal Church.

During World War I, Boughey registered and was involved with the draft board. Boughey often delayed paying his bills and wrote a rough draft of an original story about logging.

Boughey had an idea to create and patent the first car windshield defroster, which he conveyed in letter to Messrs. Owen and Owen in Toledo, OH (which may refer to the owner(s) or the Libby-Owens Company, makers of windshields for the Fords Model A) on December 30, 1930. Earlier that year, on January 6, 1930, Thomas J. French of Minneapolis, Minnesota had already filed a patent application for a window defroster. It was patented on August 4, 1931 (#1817305) and was nothing more than a window scraper, similar to modern windshield wipers. It was not until September 27, 1935 that Edward S. Cornell, Jr. of New York filed his patent application for the hot air window defroster, which was patented on June 21, 1938 (#2121753), eight years after Boughey had first submitted his idea to Owen and Owen. (See Boxes 1-2 processed by F. McDaniel.)

In 1899, Boughey married Grace (1880-), with whom he had three children: Ruth Boughey Semmes (1900-), Herbert P. Boughey (1906-), and Helen Boughey (1907-). When Ruth married Spencer Semmes in November 1921, she moved to Blythville, Arkansas. Herbert F. Boughey conducted business in Arkansas after Ruth moved there. Herbert P. Boughey attended Todd Seminary in Illinois around 1925. Herbert P. spent time periodically in the Battle Creek Sanitarium and State Psychopathic Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1917-1925, for anxiety, nervousness, possibly depression, and breathing difficulties. While in school in Traverse City he corresponded with a pen pal, William, from Oakland, California. Grace often shopped at Lane Bryant stores. She donated to/was involved with the Christian Scientists.

In 1900 and 1910, a widow, Harriet Greenstead, lived with the Bougheys in Traverse City. In the 1900 census she is listed as Herbert’s mother, in 1910 as his mother-in-law. She and her parents were born in England. Harriet immigrated to the United States in 1870. Harriet was a dressmaker. In 1900, Harriet’s daughter, Fannie E., age 18, born in Michigan, also lived with the family and attended school. By 1910 Fannie was gone, probably married, and Harriet had retired. Also in 1910, a boarder, William P. Needham, an Irishman, lived with the Bougheys. He was a teacher at a business college.

Herbert F. Boughey also maintained correspondence with Simon Redbird. Simon Redbird (1864-) the son of Stephen and Nancy Redbird of Leelanau, Michigan, was a Native American gentleman whose family, like so many others, was hit very hard by the Great Depression of the 1930s. He resided primarily in Grand Island, Nebraska during the years of 1930-1932, according to correspondences with Herbert Boughey, but worked briefly in St. Josephs, Missouri in 1929 as well throughout Nebraska, including Geno, Nebraska, in 1929 and Crawford, Nebraska, in 1930. Mr. Redbird was also the proprietor of eighty acres in Leelanau County, Michigan, which he conjectured held “about or over three thousand dollars’ worth of hardwood timber.” [Correspondence to M. Herbert Boughey from Simon Redbird on April 21, 1932.] From this we concluded that Simon Redbird and Herbert Bo[ughey were either business acquaintances via the lumber industry or former employee/employer, as Mr. Redbird’s was employed in the carpentry trade, which encompassed cabinet working, woodworking, and neat finisher; he was also a self-proclaimed skilled workman [with] mechanic experience, was familiar with building construction and designing, and could work as an architectural draftsman or mechanical draftsman. [Correspondences to M. Herbert Boughey from Simon Redbird on July 10, 1930; September 6, 1930; and October 29, 1930.] The federal census in 1870-18809 lists Redbird as living in Michigan, in 1900 on the Fort Lewis Reservation, La Plata, Colorado, and from 1910 through 1930 in Nebraska. (This information is from the collection.) [Note: There is a Carp Lake village near Paradise Lake, south of Mackinaw.]

Addition to Biography from Farrah McDaniel: Herbert Boughey had an idea to create and patent the first car windshield defroster, which he conveyed in a letter to Messrs. Owen and Owen in Toledo, Ohio, – which may refer to the owner(s) of the Libby-Owens Company, makers of windshields for the Ford Model A company – on December 30, 1930. Earlier that year, on January 6, 1930, Thomas J. French of Minneapolis, Minnesota had already filed a patent application for a window defroster. It was patented on August 4, 1931 (#1817305) and was nothing more than a window scraper, similar to modern windshield wipers. It was not until September 27, 1935 that Edward S. Cornell, Jr. of New York filed his patent application for the hot air window defroster, which was patented on June 21, 1938 (#2121753), eight years after Boughey had first submitted his idea to Owen and Owen.

Addition continued from Farrah McDaniel: Simon Redbird (1864-) the son of Stephen and Nancy Redbird of Leelanau, Michigan, was a Native American gentleman whose family, like so many others, was hit very hard by the Great Depression of the 1930s. He resided primarily in Grand Island, Nebraska during the years of 1930-1932, according to correspondences with Herbert Boughey, but worked briefly in St. Josephs, Missouri in 1929 as well throughout Nebraska, including Geno, Nebraska, in 1929 and Crawford, Nebraska, in 1930. Mr. Redbird was also the proprietor of eighty acres in Leelanau County, Michigan, which he conjectured held “about or over three thousand dollars’ worth of hardwood timber.” {Correspondence to M. Herbert Boughey from Simon Redbird on April 21, 1932.] From this I have concluded that Simon Redbird and Herbert Boughey were either business acquaintances via the lumber industry or former employee/employer, as Mr. Redbird’s was employed in the carpentry trade, which encompassed cabinet working, woodworking, and neat finisher; he was also a self-proclaimed skilled workman [with] mechanic experience, was familiar with building construction and designing, and could work as an architectural draftsman or mechanical draftsman. [Correspondences to M. Herbert Boughey from Simon Redbird on July 10, 1930; September 6, 1930; and October 29, 1930.] The federal census in 1870-18809 lists Redbird as living in Michigan, in 1900 on the Fort Lewis Reservation, La Plata, Colorado, and from 1910 through 1930 in Nebraska.

Acquisition Information: