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Start Over You searched for: Repository University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library ✖ Remove constraint Repository: University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library Subjects Business records. ✖ Remove constraint Subjects: Business records. Date range 1920 to 1939 ✖ Remove constraint Date range: <span class="from" data-blrl-begin="1920">1920</span> to <span class="to" data-blrl-end="1939">1939</span>Search Results
8 microfilms (3 linear feet)
The S.S. Kresge Company corporate records are arranged topically, and primarily relate to the company's activities in the years 1945-1965. To trace the company's history from 1912-1945, the researcher should use the applicable annual and quarterly reports, the minutes from Meetings and Proceedings of Directors, Shareholders, and Incorporators, and materials from the historical files. The latter contain interesting periodicals and company pamphlets that pertain to the company's history both before and after 1945.
For the postwar years, the researcher should turn again to the annual and quarterly reports, meetings and proceedings minutes, and historical files, but should supplement them with use of minutes from the Executive and Operating Committees, and Sebastian Kresge's correspondence with the company president for the years 1953-1966. The minutes from the Executive Committee almost always contain brief summaries of committee decisions. Property purchases, modernization and construction programs, divided action, personnel (retirements and salaries), and tax matters comprise the majority of areas in which the committee made decisions. Minutes are not available for every meeting of the committee, but there are often notations at the top of existing minutes which indicate that for certain meetings no written record was kept.
The minutes from Operating Committee meetings reflect the postwar concerns with competition from discount stores and the need to increase Kresge sales and merchandise turnover. They are particularly detailed for the years 1945-1950, but thereafter are somewhat frustrating in that the writer often discusses what topics were covered at the meetings but fails to summarize the contents of the discussions. There are included with the minutes occasional reports made by the President and other officers to the committee on various topics. These are particularly interesting; see, for example, the 1946 and 1961 reports on sales problems and new programs. The quantity of minutes from 1959-1963 is considerably smaller than that from earlier years because President Cunningham relied on contacts with individual regional managers and department heads rather than group meetings.
The files of correspondence between Sebastian Kresge, founder of the company and chairman of the board from 1925-1966, and company presidents Frank Williams and Harry Cunningham are very useful for tracking the continued involvement of Kresge in the corporation's affairs, and for documenting major corporate concerns and operations. Among the latter are organizational changes, competition from discount and other variety-type stores, deteriorating downtown store neighborhoods, attempts to purchase competitors Kress and Zayre, trial programs to establish a Kresge credit program for its customers, and the emergence of the K mart idea. There is a limited amount of such correspondence (2"), but it is quite rich in content.
20 microfilms (10.5 linear) — 2 oversize volumes — 1 oversize folder — 0.5 linear feet (papers not microfilmed) — 8 film reels
The Stanley Kresge Papers, an important source for the researcher interested in the history of the S.S. Kresge Company/K mart Corporation; the work of the Kresge Foundation; and the Kresge family, have been divided into six series: Kresge Company/K mart Corporation; Kresge Foundation; Organizations; Personal; Speeches; and Visual Materials. The collection has now been microfilmed to allow inter-library access to the collection. These 21 microfilm rolls comprise the bulk of Kresge's collection. Excluded from the microfilming have been a few folders of restricted financial materials, two oversize ledgers, and, of course, the motion picture films. The following finding aid is a guide to the entire collection with appropriate indication of files and other materials not part of the microfilm edition.
Stanley S. Kresge Papers, 1909-1985
20 microfilms (10.5 linear) — 2 oversize volumes — 1 oversize folder — 0.5 linear feet (papers not microfilmed) — 8 film reels
3 linear feet — 33 microfilms
The Stearns papers consist of three boxes of manuscript material and thirty-three rolls of microfilm. Virtually all of this concerns Stearns' complex business dealings. There is no personal correspondence and but a single manuscript folder describing Stearns' political career. The microfilmed material are volumes primarily detailing the history of the Stearns Salt and Lumber Company. The records fall into two distinct groups, those created before 1900 and those done after the turn of the century.
Before 1900 the company's records are very straightforward. They consist of cashbooks, journals and ledgers. The only complication is that there were two sets of ledgers. The ledgers from Ludington apparently are the main records of the firm, those maintained at Bennett, Michigan, were of Stearns' box manufacturing, saw, planing and shingle mills. The records were microfilmed chronologically.
After the turn of the century the firm's record keeping became far more bulky and opaque. For microfilming, these records were divided into six groups: general ledgers and journals, sales ledgers, lumbering operations, payrolls, mill and manufacturing reports, and miscellaneous records (some of firms other than Stearns Salt and Lumber).
The general ledgers and journals are arranged chronologically. There are three types of ledgers (transfer ledger number 1, transfer ledger number 2 and transfer ledger number 3) and two types of journals (a general journal and a journal 2B). Apparently each ledger type and journal 2b had some specific purpose, but all explanatory material has been lost, and the entries are very cryptic. These records were filmed in their entirety.
Because of their bulk, the company's sales records were sampled. Every third account was filmed. A sufficiently large sample remains to allow a researcher to statistically reconstruct the firm's trading patterns.
Stearns kept a separate set of books detailing work in the field. These are grouped together as "Lumbering Operations" records. They include ledgers, journals, cashbooks, and sales records. The volumes are arranged chronologically. Most were sampled. Every third ledger account was filmed. Every other month of the journals was filmed. Because of their complex arrangement sampling of the sales records would have been very difficult, and thus they were filmed in their entirety.
Payrolls were also sampled. Every third month was filmed. Camp payrolls apparently refer to field operations, Ludington payrolls to workers at Stearns' home operations. The "Record of Employees" is a very brief volume giving a great deal of information about Stearns' Ludington office workers and middle level administrators. Marital status, children, club affiliations, property ownership, and financial status are among the items included.
Mill and Manufacturing records are production reports of Stearns' Ludington operations. They were filmed in their entirety. The miscellaneous volumes include a wide variety of documents, all filmed in their entirety. Included are inventory control books, records of land transactions, a sand register, records of the Stearns Warehouse Company, the Epworth League Railway and the M. Reichardt & Son Piano Manufacturing Company.
3.4 linear feet — 1 oversize volume
The Todd Family Papers consist of three series: Personal, Savings and Loan Institutions, and Photographs.
2 linear feet
The collection was accumulated and donated by Ada Health Owsley, the daughter of W.B. Heath, who had himself married into the Tower family. Most of the collection relates to the business dealings of Tower family members. The most important exception is a portion of the correspondence dealing with the Civil War service of Angelo Tower, a captain with Company E, Sixth Michigan Cavalry. These papers include both letters to his family and other documents relating to his military responsibilities. The collection, both correspondence and financial records, documents the development and commercial growth of Ionia, Michigan, and includes various records of Louis S. Lovell, bank cashier W.B. Heath, and George W. Webber, president of the Second National Bank of Ionia. The fact that there are some papers of George W. Webber, a banking competitor to the Towers is curious. Perhaps a possible merger of the two Ionia banks led to the storage of retired records in a common area. Regardless, the banking records of Tower and Webber offer some insight into the commercial development of Ionia.
3 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
The Tuomy Family papers document the daily life of three generations of a pioneer Ann Arbor area family. The three linear feet of papers span the years 1840-1966 with the bulk of the material falling within the decades bound by 1905-1945. The papers have been divided into four series, a small set of documents with biographical information, a larger set of personal and business correspondence, and family material arranged as a set of topical files. There is also a box of unidentified family portraits
A strength of the Tuomy Family papers is the documentation of daily life for a prominent Ann Arbor family from 1900 until the 1960's. Kathryn G. Tuomy's materials provide good exposure to the life of an Ann Arbor woman who has a university education and a family business to maintain. The papers are weaker in their coverage of the Tuomy and Tuomy real estate business. There is only marginal documentation regarding Cornelius W. (Bill) Tuomy's time in political office as drain commissioner. The photographs are not strongly backed up by the written documentation regarding the Tuomy and Tuomy real estate office and properties.
9.5 linear feet — 2 oversize folders
The Victor Lemmer Papers concerns the history of the western portion of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, particularly Gogebic County, as well as his work as the agent for the Gogebic Industrial Bureau. The collection has been divided into the following series: Correspondence; Photographs; Personal/Miscellaneous; Gogebic Industrial Bureau Files; Research Files; Collected Materials; and Writings/Speeches.
Victor F. Lemmer Papers, 1860s-1974 (majority within 1922-1974)
9.5 linear feet — 2 oversize folders
46.5 linear feet — 1 oversize folder — 14 microfilms
The William Mershon collection consists of correspondence dealing with Mershon's various activities as a lumberman, Saginaw businessman, and member of the State Tax Commission in 1912. Subjects included in the papers are Michigan wildlife conservation, the Michigan Sportsmen Association, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, the Michigan State Tax Commission, Michigan politics, the Democratic party, personal business investments, lumbering and mining interest, and personal affairs.
The collection also includes diaries, a book of notes on hunting and fishing trips, and various business records such as cash books, time books, ledgers, and journals. These primarily concern his investments and lumbering business. Many of the business records are available on microfilm. The collection also includes photographs.
28 linear feet (in 30 boxes) — 15 oversize volumes — 15 oversize folders
The William C. Weber papers cover 28 linear feet (30 boxes), outsize folders, and 15 outsize volumes. Besides information on timber and mineral lands in Michigan, the important aspects of the Weber papers include information on the development of the Cultural Center of Detroit and Weber's very controversial role in it, items on the Detroit-Windsor bridge and tunnel and the development of the Border Cities, and the papers of his two sons, especially the letters they wrote as students at the University of Michigan and their class notes and examinations.
There is one foot of materials related to the Cultural Center (Box 19 and outsize folders) and another of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and Ambassador Bridge (Box 20 and outsize folders).
Architectural site plans and property maps of the Detroit Cultural Center are also found in the outsize unbound material.
The collection includes maps relating to Weber's his land holdings in northern Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, including maps of land survey, of timber estimates, and tax and title status for Michigan lands, maps of Windsor subdivisions, maps of coal mining region around Caryville, Tennessee and property maps of the Detroit Cultural Center.
William Christian Weber Papers, 1858-1940
28 linear feet (in 30 boxes) — 15 oversize volumes — 15 oversize folders
2 linear feet
The Williams Family [Owosso] collection consists of 2 linear feet of material. It includes the personal and business papers of four generations of Williamses from 1838 to 1953. However, the bulk of the material relates to the family of Alfred Leonzo Williams between 1860 and 1890.