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Grand Rapids, Michigan businessman and politician; correspondence, business papers; scrapbooks, and photographs.

The Frank D. McKay collection is divided into the following series: Correspondence; Topical Files; Business and financial papers; Newspaper clippings and scrapbooks; and Photographs.

Saginaw, Michigan, lumberman and businessman, and Michigan State Tax Commissioner, 1912 and wildlife conservationist and sportsman. Papers include extensive correspondence files, business records and photographs.

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.

The Michigan Central Railroad Company was originally incorporated to provide rail service between Detroit, Michigan and St. Joseph, Michigan. The records consist of letter books of the company president and general manager, administrative records, financial papers, maps, and photographs. Included is correspondence from Alpheus Felch, James F. Joy, and William Woodbridge.

The Michigan Central Railroad Company record group is an amalgam of various records received from different donors. The materials have been divided into the following series: James F. Joy Administrative Records and Agreements; Letters Received; Miscellaneous; President/General Manager/Chairman files; and List of Stockholders.

Records of the Mitchell and McClure Lumber Company of Saginaw, Michigan and Duluth, Minnesota. Correspondence and financial papers concerning company land and lumbering enterprises, and later activities in home building, silo construction, and silage production; records of A.J. Stevens & Co. and McClure-Stevens Land Company of Gladwin, Michigan also business files and diaries of company co-founder, William C. McClure.

The record group is divided into the following series: Mitchell and McClure Lumber Company; William C. McClure materials; Other Business Enterprises; and Financial records. In addition to the records of the company, the record group includes documentation of other enterprises, such as home building and silo construction and silage production. There are also some records of the A.J. Stevens Land Company of Gladwin, Michigan. The William C. McClure series is important for the run of personal diaries maintained by McClure in the period of 1872-1903.

Ann Arbor, Michigan family. Ledger, of Elijah W. Morgan, attorney and businessman, compiled in the 1840's containing his comments and evaluations of business and professional abilities of early businessmen of Washtenaw County, Michigan; correspondence, autobiography, and other miscellaneous business papers and deeds; also correspondence, drawings, and writings of his wife Lucy Stow Morgan, including letter describing life and customs in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1831; and other papers of Elijah's parents, including autobiographies of Elisha Morgan and Polly Babcock Morgan.

The Morgan family collection consists primarily of the personal and business papers of Elijah W. Morgan, one of Ann Arbor's pioneer citizens who had a distinguished career as an attorney and banker; letters and other materials of his wife Lucy Stow Morgan; and autobiographies and scattered papers of Elijah's parents, Elisha and Polly Babcock Morgan of Watertown, New York.

The bulk of the collection consists of the personal and business papers of Elijah W. Morgan. This includes correspondence (1821-1889), autobiographical material, essays on religion and temperance, and a large section of business and financial papers generated as a result of his law practice or his various business dealings.

Morley Brothers Papers, Series 4. This series consists almost entirely of oversized financial volumes. It is organized into two major series: Morley Bros. Company Organizational Records and the Morley Family/ Personal Papers. Together they provide a detailed history of this Saginaw business family. Researchers and staff should exercise caution in lifting the large, heavy volumes!

Morley Brothers Series 4: Volumes, 1836, 1967, and undated, 187 [mostly oversized] volumes. The series consists only entirely of oversized volumes of various types of business financial records. The series is organized into two major subseries: 4-1 Morley Bros. Company Organizational Records and 4-2 Morley Family/ Personal Papers. Together they provide a detailed, although incomplete history of this Saginaw business family.

Overall the materials are in good condition, but a few volumes are dirty or have loose covers or pages. There are also eight locked volumes, likely gross entry journals that could not be unlocked due to the way the lock is attached to the volume. Many of the volumes are very large to huge in size, and weigh a lot, requiring two people to lift safely. A few are missing covers or have some loose pages and are in folders. There are also a few volumes consisting only of loose pages in folders. Researchers and staff should exercise caution in lifting the large, heavy volumes!

Also of note is the beautiful penmanship exhibited in some of the volumes, notably General Gross Entry Book [end of the month, which includes lists of employees], 1900-1903. These volumes all have lovely penmanship. It is obvious that clerks with good penmanship were successfully employed by the company. Eight of these volumes are locked closed.

Some volumes do not have titles. If titles have been added by the archivist, they are in square brackets []. Description, notes, and the contents of the volumes are also described in square brackets [].

Morley Brothers Company Organizational Records, 1836, 1967, and undated, includes 163 [mostly oversized] volumes organized into Companies Morley Bought Out, and then alphabetical by title/ type of volumes Morley generated concerning its own business transactions. Each type of volume documenting functions are then organized chronological, numerically, and/or alphabetical, depending on original order. The company records provide a very complete view of the company’s history, financial practices and business connections. There are three volumes which may be of particular interest to researchers. Scrapbooks of Invoices, 1867-1893, includes the earliest extant company receipts pasted into scrapbooks. The earliest Saginaw Michigan, history, is found in the Day Book and Journal, 1836-1843, which documents a trading store of dry goods, July 1842-1843, and 1836 land sales Saginaw, Michigan, of Day, Little and Company, and the Saginaw City Company, 1836. The Employee Records subseries documents the human aspect of the company and includes employee pay rolls and traveling salesmen records, documenting who worked what job, at what wage, for how long, in what years, in which unit of the business and in which location.

The organizational records are organized into: Companies Morley Bought Out, 6 volumes, 1836, 1917; Accounts, 5 volumes, 1868, 1950; Bank Books, 4 volumes, 1886, 1940; Business Correspondence, 2 volumes, 1890s; Cash Books, 13 volumes, 1879, 1939; Delinquent/ Suspended Accounts, 2 volumes, 1892-1902; Employee Records, 11 volumes, 1876, 1948; Gross Entry Books/ Journals, 8 volumes, 1866, 1926; Locked Volumes [Gross Entry Books/ Journals [end of the month]], 8 volumes, 1883, undated; Indexes, 10 volumes, 1882, after 1886, undated; Inventories, 13 volumes, 1886, 1900; Journal Entries [General Profits, Losses, Accounts Only], 11 volumes, 1882, 1965; Ledgers, Business, Alphabetical, 16 volumes, 1883, 1892; Ledgers, Business General, Numbered, 6 volumes, 1882, 1912; Ledgers, City, 5 volumes, 1889, 1902, undated; Ledgers, Country, 8 volumes, 1893, 1902, undated; Morning Business Meetings, 2 folders, 1948-1950; Notes and Bills Receivable, 2 volumes, 1870-1886; Oil [Purchased], 1 volume, 1886-1949; Purchases, 5 volumes, 1888, 1901; Visitors Register, 1 volume, 1904-1967; Saddlery Company Statistics, 1 volume, 1901-1903; Sales, Daily/ Monthly, 11 volumes, 1876, 1936; Scrapbooks of Invoices, 3 volumes, 1863, 1867; Stocks and Bonds, 2 volumes, 1901, 1917; Taxes, 1 volume, 1885-1913; Trial Balances, 5 volumes, 1 folder 1886, 1952

The Morley Family/ Personal Papers, 1886, 1953, and undated, includes 24 [mostly oversized] volumes, 1 oversized folder, 1 box (.5 cubic ft.), and are organized alphabetically by the name of Morley family members documented in the collection including: Edward W., George B., Helen Wells, Lucy B., Paul F. H., and Ralph. The family members each either created their materials or someone created the material specifically for them. Materials for each family member are organized by type of material, mostly accounts or legal documents, and chronologically. Material general to all of them or unidentified is in Morley Family (General) Papers. Most of this series is financial, insurance, taxes, or estates related. There is one address book, undated. The box (.5 cu.ft.), 1891, 1934, undated, includes miscellaneous financials or estate records, as well as obituaries of George W. Morley, Sr. (1914) and P.F. H. Morley (1931), an article on their store fire (1934), and a name card and Christmas calling card, both undated.

Edward W. Morley, 5 volumes, 1886, 1919; George B. Morley, 1 Ov. folder, 1935; Helen Wells Morley, 4 volumes, 1906, 1963; Lucy B. (Mrs. R.C.) Morley, 4 volumes, 1917, 1940, undated; Paul F. H. Morley, 2 volumes, 1920, 1950; Ralph (R.C.) Morley, 1 volume, 1928-1939; Morley Family Papers, 1 box (.5 cu.ft.), 8 volumes, 1886, 1953

The Morley Brothers is now completely processed. See also the finding aids for Morley Brothers Series 1-3. Other Morley related collections in the Clarke include: Paul F. H. Morley’s Log of the Lodge collection, the Wells family papers, and the Mershon and Morley Company books of plans for portable buildings.

Processing Note: During processing, any loose, acidic materials, mostly relevant newspaper clippings, were photocopied and the copies retained. The original clippings and any peripheral materials were withdrawn during processing. Materials withdrawn totaled less than .25 cubic foot.

Printed catalogs were separately cataloged.

Also in the collection were catalog pages in large, red, hard plastic loose leaf binders were sent to Morley product distributors. Each distributor kept updating the pages with new products of interest to their customers. As a result, most of the distributors’ were very similar with pages inserted in various orders. A sample of distributors’ volumes were retained and separately cataloged. 20 distributor volumes were withdrawn from the collection during processing.

Papers of Franklin L. Parker and the Parker family of New York (State) and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Family correspondence, business papers, diaries, 1850-1893, and other materials concerning land transactions.

The Franklin L. Parker collection relates mainly to land investments and other financial dealings, and family matters. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Letterpress books; Land records; and Personal and miscellaneous.

Lawyer at Coldwater, Michigan, Civil War officer, U.S. Marshal of Eastern District of Michigan and Minister to Belgium. Correspondence from family, friends and associates regarding personal and business affairs, military matters, and Democratic politics; miscellaneous other materials and photographs.

The John G. Parkhurst collection consists of correspondence from family, friends and associates regarding personal and business affairs, military matters, and Democratic politics; miscellaneous other materials and photograph. the collections has been divided into the following series: Correspondence; John G. Parkhurst Civil War service; John G. Parkhurst diplomatic and other activities; and Other family materials, business records, and miscellaneous.

Records of railroad companies, mainly Michigan lines, absorbed with the merger of the New York Central Railroad Company and the Pennsylvania Railroad Company into the Penn Central Transportation Company.

The nature of the records of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad reflects the recent history of the two companies. When the Penn Central Transportation Company was formed in 1968, the offices of New York Central--the junior merger partner--were dismantled and only a small percentage of records retained. Therefore, the extant New York Central records consist almost entirely of minutes and account books of a routine nature. By contrast, records of the Pennsylvania Railroad were relatively undisturbed by the merger and are today richer and more varied than those of the New York Central. The Penn Central records are most useful for their documentation of the growth of the railroad industry. They depict an industry in constant flux due to the opportunities for success offered by a burgeoning industry and the intense competition among railroads that resulted. A single volume of records often contains minutes of two or more railroads, reflecting either the failure of the original company or its takeover by or merger with another company.

Besides documenting the history of individual railroads and of the railroad industry as a whole, the Penn Central records are a good source on the economic and commercial development of Michigan and neighboring states, and provide insight into the rise and decline of various towns along the railroad. Minutes of New York Central subsidiaries, for example, contain discussions of negotiations with town officials over the proposed construction of tracks, bridges, depots, and the like. Similarly, the locality files in the Superintendent--Toledo Division series of the Pennsylvania Railroad records consist of correspondence and memoranda regarding improvements to, or the abandonment of, stations in small towns in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. This series also contains substantial correspondence files on Toledo, Detroit, and Grand Rapids.

Labor and social historians will find the Penn Central records useful in illuminating the lives of workers and in documenting relations between management and workers. More than 40 feet of labor relations files of the Ann Arbor Railroad include agreements between the company and unions, grievances, petitions concerning work rules and pay, wage and hour schedules, and circular letters. There are small series of labor relations files of other companies scattered throughout the collection. Researchers will also find information on the workplace and working conditions in the locality files of the Superintendent--Toledo Division series of the Pennsylvania Railroad; these files contain, for example, memoranda concerning clubrooms and sleeping quarters for workers in city depots.

There is very little technical material in the Penn Central records; photographs are likewise scarce. The most notable exceptions are in the car ferry files, found in three subseries of the Pennsylvania Railroad records: General Manager--Western Region, Vice-President and General Counsel, and Subsidiaries: Mackinac Transportation Company. The car ferry files include maps, plans, specifications, blueprints, and some photographs.

A large portion of the collection consists of records of small railroads that ran through Michigan or were based in Michigan. Records of these companies are brief, often including nothing more than articles of incorporation, a few pages or a volume or two of minutes, and perhaps some annual reports and financial records. Although many of these railroads were subsidiaries of either the Michigan Central Railroad, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, or the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, they have been filed under the parent company of which the sub-system was a part (New York Central, Pennsylvania, or Ann Arbor Railroad) to promote ease of access. Thus, for example, records of the Canada Southern Bridge Company, a subsidiary of Michigan Central Railroad, are filed under New York Central Railroad, the parent company of Michigan Central. Researchers uncertain of the parentage of a particular railroad should look in the subsidiaries section of the contents list under Ann Arbor, New York Central, and Pennsylvania Railroads. The railroads in each of these subsidiaries sections are arranged in alphabetical order.

Brief histories of individual railroads can be found in the "Green Books"--the annual reports of the New York Central Railroad Company and its subsidiaries. There are several published histories of the Pennsylvania Railroad in boxes 183 and boxes 155-157 and on microfilm in box 60.

A card file giving the date of incorporation, name changes, and parentage of subsidiaries of the Michigan Central Railroad, Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, and the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad has been photocopied and can be found in box 1 of the collection. This folder also contains a list of records in the Public Archives of Canada of Grand Trunk and Great Western Railway system properties in the United States. Finally, there is a section of Aids, Gifts, Grants and Donations to Railroads Including Outline of Development and Successions in Titles to Railroads in Michigan by the Michigan Railroads Commission (1919).

Information in this finding aid concerning the histories of the various railroads was drawn from the collection itself, from sources compiled by the project archivists, and from the following published sources: William Frederick Dunbar All Aboard! A History of Railroads in Michigan (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969) and Henry E. Riggs, The Ann Arbor Railroad Fifty Years Ago (Ann Arbor Railroad Company, 1947?)

Records of the retail business activities of the Phelps family of Manton, Michigan in Wexford County.

This record group covers the years 1890 to 1964 and consists of the diaries and a biographical sketch of Charles D. Phelps, a history of the business written by D. Maynard Phelps, and various business records. The business records series consists of income tax returns, papers pertaining to the sale of the business, and miscellaneous inventories, journals and a ledger.