Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Governing body of the Episcopal church in western Michigan, established in 1874; records include bishops' files, diocesan organization and committee files, photographs, scrapbooks, diocesan historian files.

The records of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan are a rich resource of material, not only for the programs and activities of the Episcopal Church in western Michigan, but also for their documentation of the role of the church in the life of the various communities served by the diocese.

Records from the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan first came to the Bentley Historical Library in 1972. Since then, the diocese has made several significant additions to their records. In 1999 the record group was reprocessed with the aim of drawing together like materials. The record group now consists of twenty-two separate series. These are: Bishop's Files, Chancellor, Treasurer, Diocesan Historiographer, Standing Committee Files, Miscellaneous Files, Diocesan Record Books, Publicity Files, Defunct Parish and Mission Churches Files, Diocesan Committee Files, Diocesan Organization Files, Diocesan Financial Records, Visual Materials, Sound Recordings, Scrapbooks, Western Michigan University (WMU) Ministry Files, Women's Organizations, Miscellaneous office and staff files Bulletins of Church Services, Church of Christ the King, Miscellaneous parish materials, and Miscellaneous diocesan materials.

A pioneer Detroit, Michigan family, established the Ferry Seed Company and other business enterprises, active in civic and cultural affairs. Papers document the family and its business, cultural, political and philanthropic activities.

The Ferry family papers document the rise to prominence of this family who first gained their fortune as seed merchants. The papers also reveal the workings of other Detroit businesses, the development of the Detroit Institute of Arts, turn-of-the-century Michigan politics, and the suburban development of Grosse Pointe. The papers span the years 1758 to 1989 with the bulk of the materials covering 1855 to 1959. The collection consists of: account books, ledgers, journals, and business reports; blue prints, deeds, titles, abstracts, and mortgages; correspondence (business and personal); appointment books, diaries, scrapbooks, and clippings; receipts and tax returns, photographs, and printed miscellanea. It is important to note that the Michigan Historical Collections does not house all extant Ferry materials. The donor, Dexter M. Ferry, III, retains possession of several early account books, ledgers, and journals related to D.M. Ferry & Co.; he also kept some family correspondence and virtually all photographs.

The Ferry family papers arrived at the Michigan Historical Collections in an order based on when the donor reviewed the materials. In the course of reprocessing, this order was altered, and an arrangement assigning primacy to the generation of Ferry who created the document was followed. This reprocessing has resulted in three series: Historical and Background, materials predating Dexter M. Ferry; Dexter M. Ferry; and Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. The few problems presented by overlap between generations are duly noted in the contents list. Within these generational series the materials are arrayed in business, personal, philanthropic, and political subseries. Given the natures of the family and the family business, the researcher should note that murkiness exists between subseries divisions. In general these dividing principles work well. They preserve Dexter M. Ferry, III's original order at the folder level while facilitating access by independent researchers.

The strengths of the Ferry collection are myriad. The family correspondence provide unique insight into a family which grew wealthy but remained close-knit. Especially interesting are the long runs of correspondence between Dexter M. Ferry and his mother, Lucy Ferry Crippen, and Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. and his mother, Addie Miller Ferry. The former run reveals much about the fluid society of late nineteenth-century Detroit, and the latter reflects the pressures of more rigidly defined social strictures. The correspondence between Ferry, Jr. and his sisters, Blanche Ferry Hooker and Queene Ferry Coonley, are illuminating on the handling of the family business in the changing economic climates of the twentieth century.

Some facets of the development of the Detroit business community are well documented as the family invested heavily in local real estate and business. The strengths of the present collection revolve around the Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. materials relating to business and finance in Detroit from 1920 to 1950, particularly the banking community's reaction to the crisis of the Depression. The links between automobile touring, the good roads movement, and the development of ancillary industries to support the burgeoning automotive industry are fairly well documented by Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.'s papers. Young Ferry's close association with the development of the Detroit Institute of Arts is extremely well documented and these papers provide a case study of twentieth century patronage.

A somewhat refracted view of Michigan politics at the turn of the twentieth century is provided through the scrapbooks and clippings on Dexter Ferry's failed campaign in 1900 for governor of the state. The papers are stronger in their documentation of Dexter Ferry, Jr.'s political involvement with the local governance of Grosse Pointe. Here the details of community control are thoroughly covered by correspondence, reports, and minutes.

Residents of Englishville and Grand Rapids, Michigan; family papers.

The collection is comprise of two series: Correspondence and Other family papers. Included is business and family correspondence of Abby Field, a worker with the Church of Christ of Englishville and Grand Rapids, Michigan. There is also correspondence of Myron and Susan Field Buck, Sylvester Field and Flora Bennett. Beyond correspondence, the collection includes a scattering of newspaper clippings, legal papers, diaries, and other materials relating to personal affairs, farm life and the Civil War.

Records of the business enterprises of Oren Stone of Stony Run (later South Grand Blanc) and Flint, Michigan. The firms were known variously as Flint Woolen Mill, Stone Woolen Mill and Stone, Atwood and Co. Also includes daybooks and ledgers detailing the operation of his general stores in Stony Run and Flint, Michigan, and letter books, invoices, journals, cashbooks, order books, ledgers, and other business records from the woolen mill business.

The records of the business enterprises of Oren Stone consist of 232 volumes and a folder of miscellaneous loose items. Beginning in 1851 when Stone was working in Stony Run, the records extend up to 1910. The collection includes some of the records of Stone's mercantile activities in Stony Run and Flint primarily in the 1850's and 1860's. The great bulk of the collection, however, pertains directly to the activities of the Flint Woolen Mills. Since 1867, these have been arranged by type of record, including letterpress books of correspondence, invoices, order books, cashbooks, inventories, ledgers, journals, and daybooks. Some of the records relate to specific activities within the mill such as knitting, carding, spinning, weaving and finishing, and dyeing.

Student at Hillsdale College, soldier during the Civil War with the 64th Illinois Volunteers. Diaries, 1860-1872, describing student life, wartime activities, trip to Europe and the Near East, and western trip containing impressions of Indians and Mormons; also correspondence, various writings, and commonplace book, 1872.

The Francis Wayland Dunn collection consists of diaries, correspondence, writings, and miscellaneous personal materials.

The Franklin H. Bailey collection contains correspondence, diaries, a scrapbook, photographs, and other materials (including military discharge papers, Civil War songbooks, and scientific papers). 56 letters written to his parents in Adrian, Michigan from 1861-1865 detail his time in the military, with references to camp life, religion, sickness, concern over money matters, and skirmishes in which he was engaged, including a graphic account of the battle of Pittsburg Landing. An additional undated Civil War letter from Minerva Bailey's first husband, Levi Greenfield, reports on rumors of victories at Richmond and Vicksburg. Later correspondence includes letters he wrote to his wife while on a trip abroad in 1873 and a scrapbook of letters, 1880-1901, primarily concerning educational matters. Diaries (1865-1883) at least partially written in Pitman shorthand provide additional information on his war service, student life at Hillsdale College, finances, and teaching and scientific interests. A poem titled "Big Yank" refers to the Peninsula Campaign in 1862.

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.

Soldier in the 6th Michigan Cavalry, Company M., during the Civil War. The collection includes a diary containing entries that describe camp life, Civil War soldiering, and the weather. Also, portraits.

The Frank P. Grommon papers consists of a diary containing entries that describe camp life, Civil War soldiering, and the weather. Also includes portraits.

Republican governor of Michigan, 1905-1910. Account books, and legal and business papers of P. Dean Warner, Oakland County, Michigan, farmer and cheese manufacturer; and political scrapbooks and other papers of his adopted son, Fred M. Warner, largely concerning election campaigns; and photographs.

The Fred M. Warner papers include papers of P. Dean Warner and Fred M. Warner. Included are letters, legal documents, business papers, a volume recording customers of Warner's cheese business, and scrapbooks. Except for a few folders relating to aid given to California following the 1906 earthquake, there are few documents relating to Warner's terms as governor.

Professor of rhetoric and journalism at University of Michigan. Correspondence concerning his professional activities, particularly his interest in linguistics and English language and speech, and papers, 1917-1918, concerning war issues course at the University, manuscripts of articles and speeches, diary, 1903-1909, day-books, 1903-1922, and miscellaneous notebooks and journals; also photographs.

The Fred Newton Scott collection includes correspondence, drafts of articles and reviews, diaries, daybooks, some personal materials, and photographs.

The correspondence is the core of the collection, consisting mainly of incoming letters to Scott from friends, colleagues, students, publishers, editors, authors, and learned societies. The letters deal mainly with literary and language questions and with Scott's lecture engagements, book reviewing, and other writings. The correspondence, arranged chronologically, is between Scott and four categories of individuals: Students; Journalists and publishers; Professional associates; and University colleagues and other.

I. Students

The wide-ranging influence of Scott's philosophy and teaching is amply illustrated through letters from his former students. They kept him informed of how they were putting his principles into practice as journalists or in academic teaching, and sought his advice on further developments in their work. The accomplishments of women students who had studied with him are particularly noteworthy. Gertrude Buck, whose dissertation on metaphor was considered a definitive study at the time, became a professor at Vassar College. In 1898, she had received the first Ph.D. in Rhetoric awarded by the University of Michigan. Other women students who went on to distinguished careers included Marjorie Nicolson, English professor and dean of Smith College; Helen Mahin, professor of journalism, University of Kansas; Ada Snell, Wellesley College; and Phyllis Povah Drayton, actress. Georgia Jackson was one of the first women to serve on the editorial staff of The American Boy magazine and later became editor of the Literary Digest. Other students of Scott were Frank Mitchell, Katherine Reed, Alice D. Snyder, Katherine Taylor, and Joseph M. Thomas.

Perhaps the most locally prominent among men graduates was Lee A. White who became editor of The Detroit News. Scott also numbered among his accomplished students, Avery Hopwood, playwright and donor of the Hopwood prizes; Wilfred B. Shaw, author and editor, and Director of Alumni Relations at the University of Michigan; Paul Osborn, playwright; Edgar A. and Paul Scott Mowrer, journalists; Joseph Thomas, Dean of the Senior College, University of Minnesota; James O. Bennett, journalist, The Chicago Tribune and Walter A. Donnelly, editor and Director of the University of Michigan Press.

II. Journalists and Publishers

As Scott developed courses in journalism he called on editors and publishers, some of whom had been his students, to lecture on the practical side of newspaper work. Much of this correspondence concerns arrangements for, and contents and evaluations of, these lectures. Since he was also concerned with improving journalistic writing, some letters deal with projects he undertook in cooperation with editors to raise the standards and styles of reportorial work. These professionals included James O. Bennett, Edmund Booth, George Booth, Frank Cobb, J.W. Cunliffe, Willard B. Gore, W.W. Harris, Roy Howard, Frank G. Kane, James M. Lee, Louis Ling, Milton A. McRae, C.M. Marstow, Robert Mountsier, Edgar Ansel Mowrer, Paul Scott Mowrer, Chases S. Osborn, E.G. Pipp, Arthur C. Pound, James Schermerhorn, James E. Scripps, Edwin E. Slosson, and Lee A. White.

III. Professional associates

Many of the letters in F. N. Scott's papers deal with his work on the National Council of Teachers of English and other professional organizations in which he played an active role. These are scattered throughout the collection but are not listed here. The largest amount of correspondence is that related to his interest in setting up an academy for the improvement of the English language. A British organization, the Society for Pure English, had been founded in 1913. In early 1922, a committee was organized, with Scott as chairman, to work with a British committee consisting of Robert Bridges, Henry Newbolt, and J. Dover Wilson, to form an international academy of English. The members of the American committee were: Henry Seidel Canby, Charles M. Gayley, Charles H. Grandgent, John L. Lowes, and John M. Manley. Other correspondents within organizations with whom Scott corresponded included John W. Bright, C.G. Hoag, F.P. Keppel, and Louise Pound. There also letters exchanged with Henry Ford.

IV. University colleagues and others

Included here are letters of Professor Thomas E. Rankin dealing with departmental affairs when he was acting chairman of the department in Scott's absence, and also his reactions to the later merging of the department with the Department of English. Aside from departmental and university concerns, the collection includes extensive correspondence with Jean Paul Slusser who became director of the Museum of Art following a long career teaching design and painting at the university. There is also correspondence with Regent Lucius Hubbard who shared Scott's interest in good English usage and in rare books. In addition, Scott was attracted to the health teachings of John Harvey Kellogg, stayed at his sanitarium in Battle Creek, and exchanged letters with him regarding his health regimen. Other correspondents include John Effinger, Peter Monro Jack, Clarence Cook Little, and Charles E. Whitman.