Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

The Alexander McMichael account book contains copies of the Pennsylvania merchant's receipts, dated 1770-1800. McMichael purchased rum, molasses, and other goods and services. Some receipts reflect rent payments and estate finances.

The Alexander McMichael account book contains copies of the Pennsylvania merchant's receipts, dated November 23, 1770-January 20, 1800. The accounts, written in multiple hands, pertain to McMichael's purchases of food and services. The volume documents 4 rent payments collected by John Oldden and William Zane on behalf of Mary Zane (July 20, 1782-April 21, 1783), as well as a collection made on behalf of her estate (February 10, 1783). Other individuals who held accounts with McMichael included Philadelphia banker Cadwalader Morris (1741-1795), Caleb and Amos Foulke, Daniel Benezet (1723-1797), and Joseph Whelan.

The Charles Fowler collection consists of letters and documents concerning financial disputes over royalties for the works of Noah Webster, Fowler's time at Amherst College, and other subjects.

This collection consists of 8 letters and 2 documents pertaining to Charles C. Fowler, grandson of lexicographer Noah Webster, and his family. Several items relate to financial disputes over income from Noah Webster's published works, such as a contract regarding the division of the royalties, signed on August 12, 1854; the contract includes 4 additional notes in which Charles C. Fowler acknowledged his receipt of the money (1860-1863). Fowler wrote to his father, William C. Fowler, about the contract on June 9, 1855, and received 3 letters from his father about family finances (November 3, 1856; December 25, 1857; and December 1857). Two of the financial letters concern land "granted to the late Noah Webster." The collection also contains a note from William Fowler to his daughter Emily (January 14, 1854).

Other material pertains to Amherst College, including a page of notes that Charles Fowler wrote about a reunion meeting of the Class of 1851 (August 9, 1854). He received a letter from R. C. Russell, a friend, discussing personal matters (December 28, 1856), and Russell also wrote a letter to William W. Fowler regarding the payment of William's debts (September 19, 1857). The final item is a letter from Charles Fowler to the mayor and aldermen of New York City, in which he requested a position in the Office of Commissioner of Deeds for the City and County of New York (March 1855).

This collection is made up of four letters from sugar planter and cattle farmer Charles Gordon Gray of Fairfield, St. James, Jamaica, to his father Charles Gordon Gray, Sr., at Stratton House in Somersetshire. The Gray family had three plantations in St. James, Jamaica, including Virgin Valley, Prospect, and Fairfield. The younger Charles Gray provided his father with updates on the status of crops and rum production, shipments of sugar, financial and legal matters, enslaved laborers and a mention of the potential for revolt, and the handling of Prospect Pen land.

This collection is made up of four letters from sugar planter and cattle farmer Charles Gordon Gray of Fairfield, St. James, Jamaica, to his father Charles Gordon Gray, Sr., at Stratton House in Somersetshire. The Gray family had three plantations on Jamaica, including Virgin Valley, Prospect Pen, and Fairfield. The younger Charles Gray provided his father with updates on the status of crops and rum production, shipments of sugar, financial and legal matters, enslaved laborers and a mention of the potential for revolt, and the handling of Prospect Pen land.

See the box and folder listing below for details about the contents of each letter.

The Denckla-Maison family papers contain business and family correspondence and financial documents primarily concerning various land holdings and other financial matters of the Denckla and Maison families, who owned substantial property in Pennsylvania throughout the mid-19th century.

The Denckla-Maison family papers consist primarily of intra-family correspondence, usually regarding monetary affairs and real estate. Several themes are common throughout the collection, with a number of letters comprising lengthy correspondence series between different members of the family. Throughout the late 1800s, William P. Denckla and his wife, Julia wrote to his sister, Mary, asking her for financial support. The collection also includes a significant amount of correspondence from William Maison to his parents, Peter and Augusta Maison, describing his life with the Pollock family in Como, Illinois, in the 1850s and, later, his intent to permanently settle there. Other main topics of correspondence are land transactions, insurance policies, and Mary Denckla's inheritance of C. Paul Denckla's estate. Several items relate to the property dispute between William Pollock and Peter Maison, and other legal cases and lawsuits are also well represented. Though the bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, the collection also holds documents and ephemera. Among these are several notarized powers of attorney, hand-drawn maps, financial calculations, and business cards. Particular examples include a series of invoices for seats at a local church, a poem entitled "Hard Times," a deed for a grave plot and use of a sepulcher, and a certified copy of Augustus Denckla's will.

1. Executrix of estate of C. Paul Denckla, by Mary Denckla, 6 January 1861-2 November 1885
2. Executrix of estate of C. Paul Denckla, by Mary Denckla, 19 November 1861-19 May 1888
3. C. Paul Denckla receipt book, 30 December 1823-26 October 1843
4. Kate M. Maison travel journal, 12 May 1869-30 July 1870
5. Peter and Augusta Maison letter book, 17 November 1858-8 March 1862
6. Augusta Maison letter book, 20 March 1862-14 July 1874
7. C. Paul Denckla receipt book, 18 November 1843-3 December 1853
8. C. Paul Denckla receipt book, 1852-1876
9. Peter and Augusta Maison receipt book, 8 August 1825-24 August 1885
10. Henry J. Denckla receipt book, 1 March 1845-19 August 1851
11. [Augusta Maison] account book, 15 November 1866-26 January 1876
12. Isaac Wampole receipt book, 7 August 1815-26 November 1826
13. C. Paul Denckla account book, 12 October 1842-14 December 1842
14. Mary Denckla account book, 12 September 1869-21 June 1872
15. [Augusta Maison] account book, 3 January 1874-4 January 1884
16. [Augusta Maison] account book, 6 January 1873-12 December 1884
17. [C. Paul Denckla] rent book, 7 May 1844-January 1853
18. [C. Paul Denckla] rent book, 11 October 1854-6 April 1872
19. [Mary Denckla] rent book, 1877-1889
20. Inventory of the estate of Paul Denckla, by Mary Denckla, 8 November 1861-9 May 1867

This collection is made up of correspondence, legal documents, financial records, school essays, ephemera, and other materials related to the family and descendants of Maskell Ewing of Radnor, Pennsylvania. The bulk relates to Maskell Ewing and his son, Maskell Cochran Ewing.

This collection is made up of correspondence, legal documents, financial records, school essays, ephemera, and other materials related to the family and descendants of Maskell Ewing of Radnor, Pennsylvania. The bulk relates to Maskell Ewing and his son, Maskell Cochran Ewing.

The Ewing family correspondence dates between 1784 and 1937, though the bulk falls between 1789 and 1845, with later groups dating from the Civil War and the mid-20th century. The earliest items include letters from Elinor Gardiner Hunter to her son James, written in the late 18th century, and incoming correspondence addressed to Maskell Ewing (1758-1825), often related to his financial affairs. Throughout the 1820s, Maskell Cochran Ewing (1806-1849) received letters from his mother and sisters while he studied at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. These letters reflect his military education and document women's lives in rural Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. Maskell Cochran Ewing occasionally wrote letters from the academy, and received letters from former classmates in the years immediately following his graduation. Several letters addressed to Maskell Cochran Ewing date from the Civil War.

The Ewing family's diaries, journals, school books, and a sketchbook primarily belonged to Maskell Cochran Ewing and James Hunter Ewing. One of Maskell Cochran's journals contains notes from a surveying expedition for the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal (1828). James Hunter Ewing composed 3 journals during the Civil War era.

Legal and financial documents comprise the bulk of the collection, with much of the material relating to the financial, legal, and real estate affairs of Maskell Ewing, with some items concerning Maskell Cochran Ewing's military career. Maskell Cochran Ewing kept a series of account books in 1859, intended for student use. Also of note is a set of United States debt certificates for goods seized for use by the Continental Army between 1780 and 1783. Bonds, receipts, financial records, and legal documents related to specific disputes also appear in the collection.

The Ewing family papers also include essays on many different topics, a manuscript map of West Point, and ephemera postcards, photographs, printed materials, and calling cards.

The Gardner family papers document the management of Joseph Gardner's Jamaica plantation after his death in 1780. The letters primarily concern Joseph's brother Theophilus Gardner, a Philadelphia merchant, who inherited the estate and attempted to manage and sell the property over the course of the following decade.

The Gardner family papers consists of 7 letters, 2 drafts of letters, and 1 financial document. The financial document is a note for £1103 with interest, addressed to John Gardner. The next six items are letters sent to Joseph's eldest brother Theophilus Gardner, who was the "heir at law" to the estate.

Items include the following letters: James White of Savanalamar, Jamaica, who informed Theophilus of his brother's death (1780); Andrew A. Robinson of Kingston, Jamaica, who warned that the estate was being mismanaged (1784); John Wedderburn, temporary manager of the estates, who described the production of and debts accrued by the estate and looked into having the property sold (1785 and 1786); and John Cunningham of Montego Bay, Jamaica, who took over the estate management (1789). The final three items are letters from Theophilus Gardner while he is in Jamaica with his daughter Betsy, including a letter and draft to his wife Peggy in New York, in which he described in detail his efforts to settle the estate (1789). The final item is a draft of a letter, written by Theophilus Gardner, that further details dealings with the estate (1789). These documents provide insight into plantation management and the difficulties of estate transfers in 18th-century Jamaica.

The Gray family papers document the family relationships of William and Eckley Gray, while serving in the Union Army, and Lucy Doan Gray, William's wife and Eckley's mother, as she managed the family farm in New Salem, Illinois.

The papers of William and Eckley Gray present an unusual view of side-by-side service of a father and son during the Civil War. As a junior officer and enlisted man, respectively, the Grays present strikingly different personalities, the stable and directed father paired with his unstable and seemingly rudderless son. Information on military aspects of the war is relatively scarce in the Gray papers. However, the collection provides excellent insight into the effect of the war on family relationships, hinting obliquely at some of the long term effects that the war had on some of its participants.

In a sense, the heart of the collection is the letters written by Lucy Gray. More than anything, the anguished tone of her letters stands out, as she pleads with the men to return home and assist the family and farm, or as she complains about the Eckley's profligacy, drinking and gambling. The tension between mother and son, and his occasional, half-hearted efforts to patch things between them take on a particularly tragic tone given the apparent aimlessness of his later life and his death by drug abuse.

Among the more interesting individual letters in the collection are three letters from Eckley to his mother, one describing a night-time bombardment at Vicksburg (1863 July 9), another discussing the anti-Lincoln attitudes of the soldiers of the Veterans Reserve Corps (1864 October 10), and an extraordinary letter (July 19, 1864), bemoaning Lincoln's latest call for troops and his apparent inhumanity.

The Gray Family Papers include a manuscript receipt book dating circa 1840s-1860s, which belonged to William Gray. The recipes are largely medicinal, including entries for treatment of influenza, Dr. Thomas Hopes remedy for cholera morbus, a powder of mandrake, plaster for a lame back, Beeches Black salve, saline laxative, Beeches emetic, anti-billious powder, lotion for "Falling of the hair & Impetigo," a treatment that "cured Mr Gess's boy of Epilepsy of five years Standing The boy is 9 years old," mild counter-irritating linaments, ipicac, lotion for "falling of The hair and all scaly Eruptions," paste for piles, Dr. White's Toothache Drops, diaphoretic powder, a treatment "for Secondary Syphilis," and a treatment for cholera. Opium is an ingredient in multiple recipes. Non-medical recipes include an entry for making gunpowder from sawdust and several short recipes for corn bread and tea bread.

This account book contains records of Hannah Weldin's expenses between 1841 and 1855. The entries pertain to purchases of fabrics and apparel, shoes, and household items, as well as donations to religious societies. The final two pages consist of a list of books purchased between 1839 and 1857.

This account book (34 pages) primarily contains records of Hannah Weldin's expenses from February 13, 1841-December 28, 1855 (31 pages). She recorded her purchases of many different items, particularly related to apparel and sewing. Weldin bought fabrics such as calico, muslin, linen, gingham, cambric, and "French Merino"; pre-made items such as dresses, cloaks, handkerchiefs, gloves, shawls, scarves, collars, and bonnets; and related items such as buttons, beads, thread, lace, trimmings, and whale bones. She purchased shoes and boots and occasionally paid to have them mended. Some entries pertain to purchases parasols, pens, pencils, stationery, blank books, a hymnbook, combs, a toothbrush, lavender oil, and varnish.

Weldin occasionally donated to religious causes, such as a Sabbath or Sunday school and a foreign mission society, and had her daguerreotype taken on at least three occasions after 1849. Other entries reflect payments "for Education" (September 1855), for attendance at a lecture (March 13, 1855), and for a horticultural exhibition (September 20, 1855). On two occasions, she recorded expenses associated with having a "tooth pluged" (September 24, 1851, and September 20, 1855). The final 2 pages contain a list of books purchased between 1839 and 1857, including religious volumes, novels, poetry, and nonfiction.

In 1880 Hattie A. Abbott used this "Common School Writing Book" produced by Cheney & Clapp, Booksellers and Stationers, of Brattleboro, Vermont, for penmanship exercises and to record her personal expenses. Only the first page was used for brief penmanship exercises. Abbott recorded purchases of clothing and fabric, jewelry, writing supplies and postage, sewing and cleaning supplies, a valentine, candy and ice cream, tintypes and pictures, car fare and other travel expenses, and other items.

In 1880 Hattie A. Abbott used this "Common School Writing Book" produced by Cheney & Clapp, Booksellers and Stationers, of Brattleboro, Vermont, for penmanship exercises and to record her personal expenses. Only the first page was used for brief penmanship exercises. Abbott recorded purchases of clothing and fabric, jewelry, writing supplies and postage, sewing and cleaning supplies, a valentine, candy and ice cream, tintypes and pictures, car fare and travel expenses, and other items.

A two-page colored advertisement for "Meteor Set Everblooming Roses" copyrighted in 1889, with illustrations of roses and a front veranda and garden, is laid into the volume.

The Henry Addison papers contain correspondence from Addison during his time as a loyalist exile in England during the Revolutionary War.

The Henry Addison collection consists of 38 letters written by Addison while an exile in England during the Revolutionary War. The majority of the letters are addressed to fellow exile and brother-in-law Jonathan Boucher. The letters not addressed to Boucher included one letter written to Addison's son Daniel Addison dated March 1, 1779 regarding Daniel's obtaining a commission in the British Army; a letter to George Germain seeking compensation for Addison's loses when fleeing America (April 1777); and a letter to Sir Guy Charleston asking advice in collecting debts and compensation (October 7, 1783). There is also a letter and petition from James Chalmers regarding injustices to his Maryland loyalist regiment enclosed in a letter to Boucher (1783).

Addison's letters document the life of an exiled, loyalist American including his political thoughts, financial hardships, health, and attempts to return to America. The letters describe Addison's life in Shropshire England and his travels though the county. His financial troubles are a frequent topic with Addison commenting on debts he occurred when going into exile, attempts to borrow money, reclaiming debts owed to him, and receiving compensation for property lost while fleeing America. In addition Addison's son Daniel is the topic of many letters as Addison attempted to secure him a position in the British Army, ensure that Daniel will be taken care of after his father's death, and reign in his expensive lifestyle.

In addition the letters provide insight into Addison's thoughts about the war. He comments on military progress, the British conduct of the war and English politics, including his eventual acceptance of independence and willingness to return to America. He also writes about his loyalist sympathies including the connections between loyalism and Anglicanism. Addison also took an active interest in the peace negotiation, particularly the status of confiscated property. Addison's letters written after his return to American detail his own attempts to regain lost property.

The collection also includes transcripts of Addison's letters to Boucher. In addition the collection came to the Clements with transcripts of other letters written to Boucher. The Clements does not own the originals letters.