Richard Owen Harris, Harris Family and Milling Company Collection, 1880, 2018, and undated
1 cubic foot (in 3 boxes, 2 Oversized folders)
This collection contains papers, publications, and information concerning the Harris family and Milling Company. Boxes 1-2 include legal-size materials and Box 3 includes letter-size materials. There are three series in this collection; Harris business, personal, and Minnie Vroman Papers. Most of the materials were produced or collected by Richard O. Harris. The materials include adverting materials, inventories, price lists, product information, company publications, photographic materials, insurance and stock information, board of directors meeting minutes, correspondence, and company records and ledgers. The collection is organized by size, alphabetically and chronologically. Both boxes are legal-size.
Of special note are the Articles of Merger and Merger Agreement detailing how the Harris Milling Company was subsumed by the Nebraska Consolidated Mills Company, a badly damaged daguerreotype of an unknown white woman with a broach, who may be Jane Daniel Fulbright (see the last letter in Personal Correspondence folder), and papers for a milling course Richard O. completed.
Also in the collection are illustrative materials, including photographs and sketches of plans for transport trucks with the Harris Milling Company/FAMO logo in watercolor.
Related family materials include: miscellaneous items documenting Richard O. Harris’ daughter Mary Jane Harris (later Waterhouse)’s involvement with local stage events; papers of Minnie Vroman including a 1909 Chicago x-ray receipt and bills related to a week spent at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in 1917 for gastic issues. There are also papers and a photograph (with unidentified people, probably a Boy Scouts troop and leader) atop a submarine at the Beacon Institute of U.S. Submarine Base New London, Connecticut to which an unknown member of the Harris family was affiliated.
A 2019 addition (Box 3) includes a 1938 Central State Teachers College (CSTC) football schedule of home games on a football shaped program, and a CSTC lecture course season ticket for Kathleen Ordway. Mount Pleasant High School materials include: a 1925 student and staff photograph by T. T. Mock, Battle Creek, Michigan, outside the old high school (photocopy 8 pp.); a 1925 commencement program, a black and white photograph of the 50th reunion of the class of 1925 in 1975; and acidic blue line revision drawings (4 pp.), each of which measures 18x24 inches, of the new Mount Pleasant High School by Louis C. Kingscott and Associates, Inc, Kalamazoo (architects and engineers), April 20, 1953 including a presentation drawing, floor plans for the English, Social Science and Language unit, a floor plan for the science unit with a sectional view of the unit, and a floor plan of the commercial unit (in 1 Oversized Folder). Also included is the October 27, 2000 invitation to the historic marker dedication for Harris Mill. Last is John A. Harris materials including his Civil War service records (copies, 10 pp.), a photograph (copy), presentation reading notes of Anne Harris Hunnewell for the Pasadena Civil War Round Table about John Harris (4 pp.), and letter and envelope (copy) about the John A. Harris materials from Anne Harris Hunnewell to her Grandpa Richard. Also included are 1999 copies from the Internet of a list of John’s unit members (4 pp.), and a map of Eureka, Michigan (1 p.).
Processing Note:
Much of this collection was heavily damaged and was infested with stinkbugs. The archivist and processing student met with the university insect exterminator and determined these bugs were not a threat to the collection. All stinkbugs were contained and removed from the collection. Items with mold, mildew, water, or fire damage, as well as acidic papers were photocopied and withdrawn from the collection during processing, about 1 cubic foot total. Also, during processing one general Mount Pleasant item was added to the Vertical Files.
Three-dimensional items transferred to the CMU Museum in February 2019 where they can receive expert curatorial care include: keychain, patch, matchbooks, product cards, dog food and flour bags, Harris Milling Company FAMO Dairy Feed 100 lbs Bag Sketches (24% and 16%, each measures 18x12 inches, undated; Harris Milling Company FAMO Broiler Ration 25 lbs Bag Sketches (1 is 20%, the other has no % indicated), each measures 18x12 inches, undated; Harris Milling Company FAMO 16% Dairy Feed 100 lbs White Bag Sketch, measures 18x12 inches, undated; Harris Milling Company FAMO Self-rising Bleached Flour Cloth 10lbs Bag, stamped “Emergency Quality Milled Under Gov’t. Order W.F.O. 144,” measures 16.5x10 inches, undated; Harris Milling Company FAMO Self-rising Bleached Flour Cloth 10lbs Bag, measures 17x10 inches, undated; Martha White’s FAMO Self-rising Enriched Bleached Flour .5lbs Bags, (1 plain, 1 with images), each measures 11.5x5.5 inches, undated; Harris Milling Company FAMO Self-rising Bleached Flour Paper 10lbs Bag, stamped “Emergency Quality Milled Under Gov’t. Order W.F.O. 144,” measures 19.25x10 inches, undated; Harris Milling Company Hi-Value Dog Food Paper 25lbs Bag, measures 31x11 inches, undated; Harris Milling Company FAMO Beef Builder Paper 50lbs Bag, measures 34.5x16 inches, undated; Harris Milling Sample Bag (linen) and Harris Ranch Almond Bag (cotton), undated; and a booklet: Michigan. Dept. of Agriculture. Selection…, 1961.