The Ferry family collection consists of letters and typescripts of letters from William Montague Ferry and his wife Amanda White Ferry describing their trip from Ashfield, Massachusetts, to Mackinac Island and their missionary work among the Indians; letters, 1862-1901, of Colonel William M. Ferry, University of Michigan regent, particularly to his wife and other relatives while serving in the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry during the Civil War; speeches and letters from contemporary politicians to Thomas White Ferry, lumberman and U.S. Senator; and two scrapbooks of newspaper clippings on the Ferry family. Correspondents in the collection include: Susan B. Anthony, Henry P. Baldwin, Zachariah Chandler, Schuyler Colfax, William M. Evarts, Hamilton Fish, Rutherford B. Haye, Whitelaw Reid, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
William Montague Ferry was born September 8, 1796 in Granby, Massachusetts. After training and study to become a member of the clergy, Ferry was licensed and ordained by the Presbytery of New York in 1822. He then offered his services to the United Foreign Missionary Society, and was subsequently appointed to explore and preach among the Indian tribes of the northwest. The result of this exploration was the establishment of, and Ferry's appointment to, the Mackinac mission on Michilimackinac. Ferry worked among the Indians for more than a decade, then because of failing health, he moved downstate to Ottawa County, arriving in 1834. For the remainder of this life, he was a clergyman in Grand Haven, also for a time postmaster of the city. In 1823, he had married Amanda White. Ferry died in 1868.
William Montague Ferry, Jr. was born to the Rev. William Montague and Amanda (White) Ferry on July 8, 1824, in Michilimackinac, Michigan. Ten years later his family moved to Grand Haven, Michigan, where Ferry resided for over forty years. His academic training began under his father and continued with one year at Sanderson Academy in Ashfield, Massachusetts, followed by a year at the University of Michigan's Kalamazoo branch. Ferry served as a regent of the University of Michigan from 1858 to 1863. In August of 1861 he enlisted in the 14th Michigan Infantry, being honorably mustered out in April 24, 1865. He ran unsuccessfully for governor of Michigan in 1870 on the Democratic ticket. He was later appointed by the governor to be a member of a commission to revise the state constitution. He was elected mayor of Grand Rapids in 1876, but then moved to Park City, Utah, in 1878 where he became actively involved in the territory's mining operations. He represented Utah on the National Democratic Committee from 1884 to 1892, and in 1893 was commissioner of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1904 he was nominated on the American ticket to be governor of Utah. He was also a member of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee and of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. Ferry married Jeannette Hollister of Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 29, 1851; they had six children. Ferry died January 2, 1905, at Park City, Utah, and was buried in Grand Haven.
Thomas W. Ferry, the younger brother of William Montague Ferry, Jr., was born June 1, 1827, in Michilimackinac, Michigan. Educated in the public schools, Thomas Ferry served as a representative to the state legislature from Kent and Ottawa counties in 1851. He was also a senator from the thirty-first district during the 1887/88 year, a member of Congress from 1865 to 1871, and a U.S. Senator from 1871 to 1883. While in the House, Ferry was chairman of the sub-committee on the New York Post Office building. While in the Senate, he was elected president pro tem and became acting vice-president upon the death of Vice-President Wilson, a position he held until March 4, 1877. As a senator Ferry was chairman of the committees on rules, post offices, and post-roads, and a member of the committee on finance. He presided over the impeachment trial of Secretary of War Belknap and at the joint convention of the 1877 electoral count. Although a leading candidate for re-election in 1883, his name was withdrawn from the candidacy after a long and heated contest. Thomas W. Ferry died in October of 1896 in Grand Haven, Michigan.
