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The Charles F. Tew papers contain letters and documents related to Union officer Charles Tew and his family. The letters document Tew's early career in the navy, his Civil War service, and his family's post-war activities.

The Charles F. Tew papers contain letters and documents related to Union officer Charles Tew and his family (1837-1905). The 1985 series is comprised of 448 letters, 2 diaries, 19 military documents (including orders, supply notes, commissions, and furloughs), 1 roll call notebook, 1 subpoena, 9 financial records (receipts), 3 printed items, and 11 items of ephemera.

The letters begin in 1841, during Tew's early career in the United States Navy, and were written to and from Tew, his mother, and his brother. Tew's letters detail his experiences as a young sailor aboard the Columbus, and include descriptions of ship life. In one letter, Tew complained to his mother that they begin scrubbing the deck early in the morning, and that "if you go below the mate will lick you with out mercy…I am sick of a sailor's life" (September 16, 1841). Several letters deal with his attempts to obtain a discharge. He explained to his mother that if he is not released from service he will simply run away again: "I will never consent to stay here five years on any account whatever I had rather they would throw me overboard with a forty two pound shot tied to my neck" (January 17, 1842). Soon after, the navy agreed to discharge Tew.

Most of the 1850-1860 items are incoming letters to Tew from friends and family, dealing with daily life, town gossip and scandals (such as an illegitimate birth (January 9 and 10, 1851)), firefighting, and cockfighting. Of note is a letter discussing "spirit rappings" (February 22, 1850), and a letter about newly instated fugitive slave laws (November 28, 1850).

The Civil War letters begin on November 5, 1861, when Tew wrote that he and his regiment had reached Annapolis, Maryland. The majority of the letters from this period are from Tew to his wife and family, with some letters addressed to either Tew or Amelia from other friends and family members. The letters indicate that, though Tew missed his family greatly, he was proud of his service for his country: "I am winning an inheritance for my children, and for them a name and a country that they may never be ashamed of" (November 28, 1861). Tew often exhibited frustration at the men who did not enlist, as he believed their reluctance to join the cause only lengthened the war. Tew suggested that their civilian pay should be cut in order to encourage them to enlist (November 21, 1863). Though the series does not include Amelia's letters to Tew, his responses indicate that she was often frustrated by his absence. Tew's letters contain vivid descriptions of army and officer life, battles and expeditions, and his illnesses and injuries. Tew described his part in the capture of New Bern and the ensuing skirmishes (March 16, 1862), Drewry's Bluff (May 22, 1864), Cold Harbor (June 5, 1864), and the siege of Petersburg (June 12-August 11, 1864). Tew wrote that many of his men had grown hard and accustomed to battle: "They are without fear as you may say, heardened to the sight of blood…O Wife you know not what it is to meat death face to face, yet I fear it not…" (April 9, [1862]). Beyond the battlefield, Tew discussed his impressions of and dealings with Southern civilians. He described commandeering houses and burning the homes of those who gave information to the Confederate Army (June 15, 1862). He noted the capture of several Confederate prisoners, mentioning that he wished he could have killed them in revenge for the death of Union soldiers (July 30, 1862). African Americans and slaves are also a frequent topic of discussion, and Tew claimed that, though the people in Maryland have slaves do all of their work, "they cannot be as happy as we are at home with our wives and daughters to do our work so neat for us" (November 1861). Tew occasionally discussed his views of African American troops.

Tew resigned from the service in August 1864, but reenlisted in 1865, to the consternation of his wife. In a letter from March 18, 1865, Tew defended his actions, claiming that he was not a bad husband, nor was he deserting his family. After his reenlistement, Tew felt unwelcome in his new regiment (March 23, 1865). The letters from this period contain a discussion of Lincoln's assassination (April 26, 1865), as well as a first-hand account of the execution of the assassination conspirators (July 10, 1865).

After the war, the series consists primarily of family letters, including several from Charles F. Tew, Jr (1877-1880), who traveled around the United States working odd jobs, including painting, piano tuning, and picking cotton, until he died suddenly in Colorado of an illness. His last letter is dated February 21, 1880, and is followed by a payment for transporting his body back to Massachusetts, and a letter from the hospital containing information on his death (May 17, 1880). Family letters, written primarily by Amelia, Charles, and their children, continue through the next few decades, providing accounts of late 19th century family life. Topics include illnesses, romances and marriages (accounts of Mabel Tew's wedding are provided in letters from January 8 and 15, 1888), work, births, vacations, and general family events.

Also included in the series are several printed documents, including a navy broadside (1837); a pamphlet providing "Instructions for Officers on outpost and patrol duty" (March 25, 1862); and a subpoena to appear at a court martial for men who had gone AWOL (October 19, 1865). Also present are three bound volumes: Tew's roll call notebook for the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment (1862-1865), and two diaries from 1862 and 1865 that contain occasional brief entries.

The 2015 series consists of approximately 250 items, primarily Civil War-era military documents and returns related to ordnance, camp equipage, and clothing. Other military documents concern details, furloughs, and passes for Tew and members of his companies. Application materials for pensions, disability, and other matters area also included. The series also features seven letters from 1849 relating to Charles F. Tew's travels to California to participate in gold mining. Ten letters from Amelia M. Tew to her mother in the mid-1850s detail her young and growing family. These are accompanied by various other family letters, documents, and receipts from 1809 to 1902.

The series also includes several photographs, ephemera, and two essays. One, "An Incident at New Berne, N.C." relates to a Civil War battle in which Tew commanded. The other, "My Childhood Days in the First Third of the Century," is a partial memoir written by a mother for her child. Two autograph albums, one from ca. 1833-1836 and ca. 1874-1878, are at the end of the series.

The Dewey papers consist of more than 500 items that concern the Dewey family's business and family life. The collection tracks the movements of Dwight Dewey, physician and land owner, from Iowa, to Washington, and to New York.

The Dewey papers consist of 545 items relating to the Dewey family including 436 letters, 46 financial records, 9 accounts, 12 school exercises, 17 medical books, and 20 miscellaneous items. The bulk of the collection is comprised of letters written to Dwight by his brother Duane; his business partner, E.B. Holden; his uncle, Anson Hart, a banker and realtor in Iowa City; his Keokuk pastor, Reverend John H. Day; and many nieces and cousins. Only a few letters were written by Dwight Dewey. Though almost no mention is made of the Civil War, the letters help to provide insight into civilian life during the war. The letters concern business and family life and track his movements from Iowa to Washington, and to New York.

A substantial number of items relate to the Dewey family's business dealings. The Financial Records series contains receipts for property transactions, commissions and services, real estate taxes, and ledgers from the family store. The Accounts series holds R. Dwight Dewey's physician account books from 1806-1820, 1815-1842, and for 1838; and Dwight C. Dewey's account books for 1848-1851. These books document a doctor's business practices in the first half of the 19th century.

The School Exercises series consists of Dwight Dewey's student essays and penmanship exercises. The Medical Notes series contains detailed notes from some his coursework in medical school. The Medical Books and Journals are notebooks kept by Royal Dwight Dewey while practicing medicine in Turin, New York. He made notes on treatments for colds, syphilis, colic, epilepsy, burns, dysentery, and other ailments, and listed medicinal recipes such as "Pectoral Syrup," "Rheumatic Liniment," and others. There are no accounts of Dwight's medical practice.

Miscellaneous items include wedding invitations; printed materials for the Keokuk Female Seminary, the state University of Iowa, and the Iowa Medical Society; and two lists of medical instruments, one with drawings of scalpel types.

The Jonathan Chase papers contain letters and documents relating to the services of Colonel Jonathan Chase, of the 13th and 15th New Hampshire Militia regiments, during the Revolutionary War. These record Chase's involvement with recruiting soldiers and providing supplies for the army during the war.

The Jonathan Chase papers (74 items) in the Schoff Revolutionary War Collection contain 39 letters, 1 letterbook, and 34 documents and financial records (including receipts, soldier rolls, and commissions) relating to the services of Colonel Jonathan Chase, of the 13th and 15th New Hampshire Militia regiments, during the Revolutionary War. Chase was actively involved in recruiting soldiers and in providing supplies for the army during the war. This collection documents his part in these efforts and includes several wartime letters that depict the military situation in New England.

The Correspondence series contains 39 items, all of which are related to the Revolutionary War. Frequent correspondents include Benjamin Giles, a New Hampshire officer stationed in Charlestown, Massachusetts; Meshech Weare, President of New Hampshire; Major Jonathan Child; Major General Nathaniel Fulsom; and Jacob Bayley. The earliest letters are requests from officers at Charlestown, Massachusetts, with orders for Chase to send flour and meat to feed their troops. Meshech Weare wrote 10 letters on behalf of the Committee of Safety for New Hampshire, headquartered in Exeter. These dealt with military matters, informing Chase of the structure of the militia (July 18, 1777) and calling for him to draft a certain number of men from his militia units to fill a quota mandated by the Continental Congress. Weare specifically recommended that Chase must not trust prisoners of war or enemy deserters (March 9, 1778).

Other notable items include letters dealing with military matters such as deserters (July 23, 1779 and May 27, 1781), and pay incentives for enlisted soldiers (June 20, 1779). A report issued by the New Hampshire House of Representatives, dated April 15, 1781, outlined plans for the defense of the western New Hampshire frontier. One of several letters from Jacob Bayley warned of a possible attack near Otter Creek in Vermont and advised that "each man would equip himself with snow-shoes &c" (February 8, 1780). In an urgent letter, General Peter Olcott advised Chase to have his men ready "to march at a minutes warning to the relief of any quarter which may be invaded" (October 15, 1781). Post-war items, in both the Correspondence and Documents and Financial Records series concern reimbursements from the United States government for expenses incurred during the war. Though most of the items in the collection are official in nature, one letter reveals personal struggles during the war: Elisha Payne, in a letter dated May 12, 1777, explained to Jonathan Chase that he cannot stay with the militia because he must tend to his wife and many small children, and can find no one to take care of his land while he is away; also, he is unsure his health can take the strain.

The 14-page Letterbook contains 34 numbered letters. While the letterbook is largely comprised of copies of records dealing with supplies, food, and money, it also contains letters from Chase, Moses Hazen, Major Jonathan Childs, Jacob Bailey, and Horatio Gates. These describe troop missions and news about the war. Of note are two letters: one is from Moses Hazen mentioning that the French fleet is to be expected to arrive at the end of June, 1780 (p. 9, June [14], 1780); and the other is 1778 letter to the Chairman of the Committee of Bennington discussing the sending the 15th New Hampshire regiment to defend Vermont (p.12-13, [1780]).

The Documents and Financial Records series (34 items) contains lists of officers and soldiers recruited and dispatched by Chase, records of military expenses kept by Chase, and 3 printed items appointing Chase to various official positions. Nine items are regimental returns and other lists of soldiers, including returns for soldiers who marched with Chase to Ticonderoga and Saratoga. One document, of June 10, 1777, lists men under guard, with their infractions. The series contains 12 military records of payments for food, supplies, and soldiers pay. Two of these are post-war accounts kept by Jonathan Child and Jonathan Chase, documenting expenses incurred on behalf of the United States during the war, with calculations of interest up to December 13, 1786, and March 1, 1791.

• May 8, 1781, Jonathan Chase's appointment as "Colonel of the first Regiment in the 3rd Brigade & third Regiment of the Militia of this State [of Vermont]," signed by Thomas Chittenden
• December 25, 1784, Jonathan Chase's appointment as "Colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment of Militia, in the said State of New-Hampshire." signed by Meshech Weare
• September 13, 1786, Jonathan Chase's appointment as "a Brigadier General of the Militia, in the said State of New-Hampshire." signed by John Sullivan and Joseph Pearson. A note on the document, dated June 9, 1791, and signed by Josiah Bartlett, grants Jonathan Chase "leave to resign his Commission as a Brigadier General of the militia."

The Marmaduke Burrough papers contain business and personal correspondence and documents, primarily related to Marmaduke Burrough’s time as United States Consul at Lima, Peru; Calcutta, India; and Vera Cruz, Mexico.

The Marmaduke Burrough papers is comprised of 495 letters, 51 essays and personal papers, 5 drawings, 418 financial records, 20 documents, and 4 items of printed material.

The Correspondence series holds Burrough's business, official, and personal items. The letters are mostly to Burrough though some are copies and drafts of letters by him. Many letters contain routine material on provisioning U.S. naval ships at Vera Cruz or requests from U.S. citizens for assistance, while others are from fellow consuls in Mexico. These describe tensions between U.S. and Mexico over the question of Texas annexation and express opinions on Washington politics. Other notable topics include the arrests of U.S. citizens by the Mexican Navy for being "Texas Pirates," the discussion of an assassination attempt on President Jackson, and the expected election of Martin Van Buren. A few letters are in Spanish and French.

The Essays, Drawings, Personal Papers, and Notes series holds many interesting items, such as a bundle of poems; medicine lists and prescriptions with notes; sketches of the island of Borneo and a beautiful detailed drawing of an Indian man riding a rhinoceros (undated); and a number of essays including travel notes and observations on leprosy.

The Financial Records series consists of bundles of ship provisions and medical inventories, travel notes, receipts, legal documents, accounting sheets, and a subseries of loose receipts and accounts.

The Documents series contains contracts, investment memoranda, an official appointment as consul, debt settlements, partnership agreements, insurance documents, and a deposition of witness for the seizure of an American ship by the Mexican government for importing counterfeit coins into Mexico.

The Printed Materials series holds a booklet called Friends' Miscellany (1831) and three formal invitations.

The William L. Clements Library acquired two newspaper cuttings separately from the Marmaduke Burrough Papers, which have been placed with the collection for their possible relation to the rhinoceroses imported by Marmaduke Burrough, and for ease of research. They include illustrated advertisements for the traveling Menagerie and Aviary, Zoological Institute, New York (at Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Newport, Rhode Island). The Library is currently unclear about whether or not the Zoological Institute rhinoceros is the same as one of the rhinos imported by Burrough.

The Morgan family papers contain the correspondence of three generations of the Morgan family of Ohio, Iowa, and Colorado. Primarily spanning the 1850s and 1880s-1890s, the papers document the Morgans' support for abolition and social reform, as well as their teaching, farming, and business endeavors.

The Morgan family papers consist of 292 letters and 7 documents relating to 3 generations of the Morgan family, primarily in Ohio, Iowa, and Colorado. The collection spans 1834-1913, with most of the items clustered in the 1850s and the 1880s-1890s, with little representation of other decades.

The Morgan siblings wrote nearly all of the approximately 117 letters dating from the 1850s. Their correspondence provides family news, details on their teaching careers, and updates on their health. As the Morgans were very politically and intellectually engaged, they also discussed their opposition to slavery, opinions on various reform issues, and attendance of lectures by such figures as Sojourner Truth (August 25, 1851) and Henry Ward Beecher (January 30, 1856). Eliza Morgan's letters address such topics as bloomers (September 15, 1851: "I can walk faster than ever now and much farther without being tired") and spiritualism (April 18, 1852: "New mediums are being developed constantly all through the country, near and far & some of our nearest neighbors…Milton Maxwell is a shaking medium--that is the spirits can & do shake him [and others too] without his being able to control himself in the least."). Another subject in which the siblings shared an interest was education. Sue Morgan, in particular, wrote of a desire to make it more commonly available: "how much better it is to educate the mass of the people than to confine knowledge to the few[.] if all had an equal chance and were equally educated what a vast amount of suffering and crime might be prevented and Oh what a good leveler would it be to society…" (February 4, 1851).

In the 1880s and 1890s, the most prolific letter writers were Joshua Morgan's sons, Charlie and Wendell. Their letters concern farm life in Colorado and Nebraska, including a boom period for Holyoke, Colorado (March 17, 1888). Sometime during this period, Charlie and Wendell went into business together in Colorado, and this is reflected in their letterhead. The later letters in the collection contain more business-related material and represent more correspondents outside the Morgan family. Many letters (primarily from John Burns and Peter Young) focus on the ongoing care of Celinda Spiker, a relative of Susan Spiker.

The Puffer-Markham family papers (1,875 items) is comprised of business letters, personal letters, legal documents, and financial records related to an extended family with business and agricultural interests in Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, and South Carolina. Also present are letters from five Civil War soldiers, containing descriptions of their wartime experiences.

The Puffer-Markham family papers (1875 items) is comprised of business letters, personal letters, legal documents, and financial records related to an extended family with business and agricultural interests in Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, and South Carolina. Also present are letters from five Civil War soldiers, containing descriptions of their wartime experiences.

The Correspondence series (1535 items) contains family business and personal letters. These largely document William G. Markham's business activities in selling wheat, cattle, and sheep, as well as personal letters from Guy Markham's children, grandchildren, spouses, and friends from upstate New York. The family letters report on news, daily life, sickness, and courtship. Also present are letters related to Charles C. Puffer's business activities: as a banker in Massachusetts before the war, and as a plantation manager in Reconstruction-era South Carolina. Among the personal papers are many Civil War-era letters, involving both business carried on during the war and letters from Union soldiers on the frontlines.

The papers concerning Guy Markham and his son William Guy Markham are almost exclusively related to business matters. Guy was involved with farming in and around Rush, New York. William G. Markham, who inherited much of his father's land, established himself in the cattle industry. Throughout the 1870s, he received orders for Durham cattle (shorthorn heifers) from New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, and as far as Denver, Colorado, and Walla Walla, Washington Territory. Letters concerning his interest in cotton are also represented. He was president of the Sea Island Cotton Company, trustee of the Port Royal Cotton Company, and an associate with the United States Cotton Company. Beginning around1880, Markham became heavily involved with wool production and corresponded with other national and international woolgrowers, including the National Wool Growers Association, headquartered in Springfield, Illinois, which lobbied the House of Representatives against a congressional act that would lift overseas wool tariffs. He had multiple dealings with selling sheep and wool in Australia and South Africa.

Other Markham letters relate to William's siblings Wayne and Mary. Wayne Markham described his agricultural activities and his life in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Mary wrote of her experiences at the Music Institute of New London, Connecticut, and frequently requested money to cover her school expenses.

The Charles Puffer letters cover his business interactions with the Shelburne Falls Bank, and the Puffer-Markham partnership, which purchased plantations in Beaufort and Hilton Head, South Carolina (summer of 1865). In 15 letters to his wife Emma Puffer (1870-1876), Charles, while living in Columbia, South Carolina, described managing plantations for his family, working as an activist for the state’s Republican party (particularly in the 4th congressional district), and his relationship with Governor Daniel Henry Chamberlain. He reported on a disorderly state convention in 1870, and of receiving $16,000 from Governor Chamberlain to distribute to county convention attendees with the promise that Charles would become county treasurer (September 4, 1874). By 1876, Charles had declared that he had left politics.

• January 2, 1870
• January 13, 1870
• March 11, 1870
• June 2, 1870
• July 27, 1870
• August 1, 1870
• January 1, 1871
• February 10, 1871
• August 22, 1874
• September 4, 1874
• October 7, 1874
• December 1874
• January 14, 1876
• April 12, 1876
• [1870s]

Between 1887 and 1890, the collection focuses on the lives of sisters Linda and Isabel ("Belle") Puffer, daughters of Charles and Emma Puffer. These comprise 12 items sent from and 39 items addressed to the sisters, while they were attending Wellesley College.

The collection contains 22 letters from five Civil War soldiers: Horace Boughton (9th and 143rd New York Infantry), Morris R. Darrohn (108th New York Infantry), Isaac R. Gibbard (143rd New York Infantry), Charles W. Daily (50th New York Engineers), and Samuel P. Wakelee (54th New York National Guard). Horace Boughton, who wrote eleven of these letters, described his regiment's activities and instructed his friend William Guy Markham on how to allocate his paychecks to his family and business interests. Below is a list of Civil War soldiers' letters.

• October 27, 1861: Horace Boughton at Fort Corcoran
• December 1, 1861: Horace Boughton at Fort Cass
• May 4, 1862: Horace Boughton at a camp near Fort Davis, Virginia
• July 27, 1862: Horace Boughton at Westover, Virginia, concerning recruitment problems and arguing that seasoned troops are much more valuable than new recruits
• July 27, 1862: Horace Boughton at Westover, Virginia
• August 6, 1862: Horace Boughton at Westover, Virginia
• October 28, 1862: Morris R. Darrohn on picket duty near Harper's Ferry; at Bolivar Heights he had a view of the house where John Brown took Louis Washington prisoner; he mentioned meeting the enemy at the battle of Antietam; that day he milked a stray cow so they could have cream in their coffee
• November 14, 1862: Horace Boughton now with the 143rd New York Infantry stationed at Upton Hill, Virginia, and president of a court martial
• February 25, 1863: Horace Boughton at New York 143rd Infantry headquarters, to Susan Emma Markham, discussing his ideas on womanhood and "the yoke of matrimony"
• March 27, 1863: Morris R. Darrohn at Falmouth, Virginia, concerning drills, dreaming of home, and being trapped along the Rappahannock River at the Battle of Fredericksburg
• March 29, 1863: Horace Boughton requesting photographs of the Markham family for his album
• June 5, 1863: Morris R. Darrohn near Falmouth, Virginia
• June 13, 1763: Isaac R. Gibbard near Williamsburg, Virginia, concerning leaving Yorktown with a division led by General Gordon; notes that "miasmas and diseases at West Point came very near whipping our regiment out…the Rebels said they would not attack us but let the diseases do it."
• July 30, 1863: Isaac R. Gibbard sick at the Seminary Hospital at Georgetown, mentioned starting a band of musicians
• August 16, 1863: Horace Houghton at New York 143rd Infantry headquarters, advising William not to join the war if possible
• January 3, 1864: Morris R. Darrohn near Stevensburg, Virginia, cautioning against joining the Masons or the military
• January 31, 1864: Horace Boughton at Bridgeport, Alabama
• April 16, 1864: Charles W. Daily at Rappahannock Station, Virginia, expecting a march on Richmond that may be "the greatest battle of the war within 10 days"
• [1864]: Samuel P. Wakelee to Puffer while guarding "Johnnys at Elmira" prison; he paid a prisoner tobacco to mould a Delta Kappa Epsilon ring in silver; he described the prison and wrote: "We have 10,600 Rebs in the Pen [,] Dirty, Lousy, Godforesakin crew[.] The majority of them are stalwart & robust…"
• January 19, 1865: Horace Boughton on board the ship St. Patrick and discussed traveling by railroad
• February 7, 1865: Horace Boughton at Bridgeport, Alabama
• February 26, [1860s]: Cousin William reported on visiting various corps and hearing members of Congress, "the negro minstrels have a dance" and meeting General Fitzgerald

• July 1, 1842: School essays by Margaret G. Greenman
• September 19, 1853: Homer Broughton to Guy Markham concerning picking out a tombstone for their grandmother
• June 7, 1855: Horace Boughton's description of a trip from Rush, New York, to St. Paul, Minnesota, with details on the town
• October 14 and 25, 1855: Wayne Markham in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to his brother, discussing moving into a new house, noting the price of meat in Michigan, and reflecting on the moral and industrious character of the citizens of the town
• December 4, 1860: Mary Markham to her father describing visiting family in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Ionia, Michigan
• November 6, 1763: Certificate for William Markham joining the Lima, New York, chapter of Freemasons
• August 18, 1864: A letter from Mt. Morris, New York, concerning a lawsuit over a $50 cow killed at an Avon railroad crossing
• September 5, 1864: Henry Puffer to Charles Puffer concerning purchasing land in Hilton Head, South Carolina
• January 15, 1865: This letter from Henry M. Puffer and Company contains a drawing of a house on Gardner Plantation
• February 11, 1865: News sent to Charles Puffer concerning land purchased for plantation farming in Beaufort, South Carolina
• March 1, 1865: William Markham concerning returning soldiers purchasing land that is interest free for three years, and other news from South Carolina
• June 19, 1765: Robert C. Clark to William Markham regarding visiting Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, and noting the failure of the Genesee Valley Oil Well
• January 6, 1866: George Fisher of Rochester, New York, concerning the state of the local Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter
• September 13, 1866: Letter from the Cook and Martin Music Dealer in Rochester, New York, concerning the sale of a piano, on letterhead featuring a picture of a piano
• August 26, 1868: From a St. Louis member of Delta Kappa Epsilon providing for a member who can write in shorthand
• April 15, 1869: Brooklyn photographer E. Bookhout gives prices for his services
• [1860s]: M.F. Randolph to William Guy Markham detailing the price of cotton before the Civil War
• January 5, 1870: Homer Broughton in Topeka, Kansas, to his family in New York concerning his productive new farm on an "old Indian field" and the many new settlers in the area purchasing land at "government prices"
• January 13, 1871: A pencil sketch of people standing at podiums
• June 1891: Papers related to shipping ewes and rams to Cape Town, South Africa
• 1892: Print of an Atwood Ram named Wooly Bill, 1549, bred by C.W. Mason in Vergennes, Vermont
• December 28, 1893: Instructions for judging sheep at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago sent to W.I. Buchanan of the Department of Agriculture
• July 2, 1902: Francis E. Warren of the National Wool Growers Association to William G. Markham concerning a treaty with Argentina that would harm the American wool industry

The Correspondence series contains 172 undated items. Of note is a letter with a hand-sketched map of plots of farm land near St. Joseph, Michigan, and a series of school essays written by Margaret G. Greenman (Mrs. Sumner Clark) on "Broken Friendships," "Penmanship," "Envy and Deceit," and "Buds of Flowers" among others.

The Documents series (114 items) contains legal and business documents relating to the family's land holdings and entrepreneurial endeavors. Included are the land deeds and mortgages of William Markham, Guy Markham, Phoebe Markham, and William Markham (primarily in Genesee County, New York), records for debts, land purchases, whiskey purchases, estate documents, and business agreements between the Sea Island Cotton Company and the United States Cotton Company.

The Accounts and Financial Records series (199 items) consists of material related to the personal and business activities of the Markham and Puffer families, including materials documenting management of the cotton companies during Reconstruction. Personal records amount to accounts and bills for tuition, day labor, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, furniture purchase and repair, insurance, and groceries. The business accounts document the Sea Island Cotton Company, the Hilton Head Cotton Company, and the accounts of C.C. Puffer (1865-1767). Present are accounts for plantation supplies, office expenses, salaries, cotton sold on speculation, sales of stocks, lists of share owners, and various receipts. Of note are the records for salary advances made to South Carolina freedmen in 1866.

• April-October 1840: Accounts of C.S. Boughton
• September-December 1856: Accounts of William Guy Markham
• 1865-1867: Two accounts of William Guy Markham's accounts with D.W. Powers Bank of Rochester

The Printed Items series (21 items) is comprised of blank Sea Island Company stock certificates, and government records related to the regulation of United States wool and fabric production. These records include the following bills from the 57th Congress: H.R. 6565, H.R. 14643, H.R. 14488, and documents concerning "Shoddy vs. Wool" and the National Wool Growers Association (1901-1902). These items were of interest to William Guy Markham, a wool producer and sheep expert.

The Miscellaneous series (6 items) contains photographs, stamps, and other miscellaneous material. One photograph is of Mrs. Hinkley Williams, Mrs. L. Boltwood, and Mrs. E. Boltwood ("Three Generations") sent to Guy Markham in 1892. The second photograph is of 84-year-old Hinkley Williams of Gorham, Massachusetts (1892). Also of interest is a list of Guy Markham's presidential picks from 1824-1888.