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

The Marcus Ahlenfeld papers contain correspondence, documents, notes, and other material related to Ahlenfeld's medical education in Germany and to his medical practice in the United States.

The earliest letters in the Correspondence series date to Ahlenfeld's time in Germany, though the series spans most of his time in the United States. Material in this series is written primarily in German, but also includes items in Hebrew and in English. The correspondence series contains incoming correspondence relating to Ahlenfeld's 1832 journey to America and contains many letters of recommendation from various acquaintances, as well as a letter certifying his graduation from the University of Maryland (April 6, 1835). Later items in the series include several personal letters and a certificate of Ahlenfeld's citizenship (June 13, 1845). Items in the series postdating Ahlenfeld's death are addressed to his wife Esther.

The Documents and Receipts series consists of documents related to Ahlenfeld's education in Germany, as well as several receipts related to his life before emigrating to the United States.

The Manuscript prescriptions series contains 8 undated items.

The Medical notes series includes items in English, German, and Hebrew (much of the German and Hebrew writing is written with Yiddish script). The English language notes consist of 34 pages discussing "...Salubrity, Longevity, Mortality and prevalence of diseases in the principal Countries and cities of the civilized world" (undated).

The Notes, fragments, and miscellaneous series includes material written in both German and Hebrew (again, the German and Hebrew texts are written largely with Yiddish script).

• Rules for official medical examinations in Berlin (December 1825)
• French pamphlet regarding cholera (1831)
• Two reprinted letters of recommendation for Marcus Ahlenfeld ([1835])
• Rules for "die Königliche Bibliothek" in Berlin (undated)
• Pages from a German instructional book, possibly in history (undated)
• Pages from a German medical text (undated)

The German medical textbooks series has 5 items: two books on human anatomy, a medical dictionary, a chemistry encyclopedia, and a Latin dictionary and grammar.

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 Masters-Taylor-Wilbur papers are the personal and business letters of an extended family in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. Of special interest are a group of letters between former slave Matthew Matthews and Mary F. Spence (the owner of his six children), and between Francis Markoe, Jr., and Jeremiah Wilbur, who helped Matthews purchase his children's freedom.

The Masters-Taylor-Wilbur papers (618 items) consist of 570 letters, 9 legal documents, and 39 financial records (1796-1850). The vast majority of the letters are family correspondence written by Thomas Masters and two of his daughters, Martha [Mrs. Henry W. Taylor] and Sarah [Mrs. Jeremiah Wilbur], between 1824 and 1850. The collection also includes letters written by his wife Isabella, his daughter Anna, his sons Samuel and Francis, and his sons-in-law, Jeremiah Wilbur and Henry W. Taylor. Many of the letters are between family members living in New York City, where Thomas Masters ran his mercantile business and Canandaigua, New York; Marshall, Michigan; Philadelphia; and Mt. Morris, New York. Several are joint letters with notes from two or more family members. The letters are rich in details of family life: illnesses, disease, and cures are much discussed, as are family weddings, and travel. Though dominated by family news, the family occasionally discussed politics, religion, temperance, and other religious-inspired social reform issues.

• July 19, 1832: G.H. Green to Martha C. Masters claiming a link between the consumption of alcohol and the occurrence of cholera
• October 15, 1833: Jeremiah Wilbur describing an anti-slavery speech
• December 19, 1835: Henry Masters to Martha Taylor recounting in detail a fire that swept through parts of New York City and destroyed Taylor's firm of Masters & Markoe at 51 South St.
• March 20-April 3, 1838: A long communal letter to Martha Taylor and Samuel Masters from family in New York City, in the form of a newspaper entitled "The Burning and Shining Light and Free Discussionest"
• August 1840: passing reference to hearing Daniel Webster speak
• Three letters from Lydia H. Sigourney to Martha Caldwell Taylor (July 26, 1841; February 18, 1846; February 13, 1849)
• February 15, 1842: Martha Taylor to Sarah Wilbur describing the temperance movement in Marshall, Michigan
• June 2, 1842: Sarah Wilbur to Martha Taylor discussing a wedding feast and spousal abuse
• December 11, 1842: Thomas Masters to Martha Taylor, providing a detailed account of the first New York Philharmonic Concert, which opened with a well-received piece by Beethoven
• March 3, 1844: Thomas Masters to Martha Taylor giving a second hand account of the explosion on board the U.S.S. Princeton, which killed the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Navy

The earliest letters in the collection pertain to the Wilbur family from 1811 to 1818 (32 letters). These consist of letters from Backus Wilbur in Princeton and Newark, New Jersey, to his brother Marcus Wilbur in New York City, describing Backus’ schooling, religious training, and life at school. Included in one letter is an account of a food fight that escalated to a near riot (February 6, 1812).

Of special interest are 12 letters and two enclosures documenting the attempt of Francis Markoe, Jr., and Jeremiah Wilbur to help former slave Matthew Matthews of Washington, D.C., purchase his six children (January-September 1835). Markoe and Wilbur outlined strategies regarding the best use of the available money to maximize the purchase of the highest number of children in the shortest possible time. Also included are two letters to Matthews, one from Mrs. Mary F. Spence, informing him that she may be forced to sell his children at public auction, and the other from Luke Johnson of Dumfries, Virginia, a black slave who loaned him money toward the purchase of one of the children. Enclosed with the letters are copies of bills of sale for two of the children.

In addition to the family papers are 135 business letters, 35 receipts, four invoices, and nine legal documents that relate to the mercantile affairs of Thomas Masters, Francis Markoe, and their firms of Markoe & Masters, and Masters & Markoe in New York City and Philadelphia (1796-1847). These business papers give some insight into the New York and European financial markets and the economic climate of the time.

The McLean papers contain materials related to Major Nathaniel McLean's investigation of Captain Francis W. Hurtt in 1863, and his widow's subsequent court case.

The McLean papers span the years 1863-1913 and contain material relating to the military service of Nathaniel McLean; his investigation of Captain Francis W. Hurtt; McLean’s relocation to Vancouver, Washington Territory; and Sarah McLean’s court case, decided by the Supreme Court in 1912.

The military orders document McLean's resignation in June 1864. The "Report of an Investigation…" contains details of McLean's findings against Hurtt, including accusations of speculation in the sale of rations to troops and of using his political influence to have an officer removed so that Hurtt could take his position. The "Report" also contains transcribed correspondence from Hurtt to various recipients, which McLean used to support his accusations. The printed pamphlets relate to Sarah McLean's court case and provide biographical information on Nathaniel McLean. Finally, the published volume pertains to the 1864 court martial in which Hurtt was convicted.

This collection contains 40 letters and 1 document related to Michael Day, an English immigrant who lived in Lake County, Illinois, in the mid-1800s. Day wrote to his brother Francis in Gloucestershire, England, discussing his financial situation and his efforts to make his 40-acre farm profitable.

This collection contains 40 letters and 1 document related to Michael Day, an English immigrant who lived in Lake County, Illinois, in the mid-1800s. Day wrote to his brother Francis in England, discussing life on the Illinois prairie and detailing his attempts to make his 40-acre farm profitable. He also shared his intention to purchase additional land, for which he required his brother's financial assistance. Several letters concern his unsuccessful attempts to purchase 77 adjacent acres of land in 1847, as well as other financial hardships he faced in establishing the farm.

Day provided insight on local farming practices and occasionally mentioned the impact of Midwestern grain harvests on his efforts. He shared information about crops and livestock he intended to raise, which included corn and sheep, and commented on the differences between prairie and brush (June 8, 1855). Despite a lengthy period of fiscal difficulty, Day became financially solvent and grew accustomed to life in the United States. In his last letter, dated July 16, 1877, Day reported that his sons William and Francis both worked for wages in the summer. Several letters include sketched maps of Day's holdings and bordering properties.

The collection also contains a contract between John Walker and William Day of Gloucester County, England, regarding tenancy on a rented farm near Rodmarton (November 30, 1803).

The Michigan collection contains appoximately 300 miscellaneous items relating to the history of present-day Michigan between 1759 and 1947.

The Michigan collection contains approximately 300 miscellaneous items relating to present-day Michigan during the 18th through the 20th centuries. Spanning 1759 to 1947, it comprises letters and documents pertaining to Native American activities, French settlement, trade, politics, town growth, agriculture, and land surveying.

• August 8, 1763, account of the Siege of Detroit by James MacDonald.
• Speech to the Ottawas attributed to Pontiac [1763].
• Robert Rogers' request for the removal of "Mr. Roberts the Commissioner of Indian affairs" (September 4, 1767).
• May 12, 1781 deed granting Michilimackinac to the British, signed by four Chippewa chiefs with their totem marks.
• A letter from John Jacob Astor, dated August 18, 1819, which refers to the fur trade and "Mackinaw skins."
• Discussion of the advantages of Niles, Michigan, by a recent settler (Sept. 1, 1836).
• August 26, 1840, letter concerning the political and economic climate of Michigan.
• Discussion of farming near Kalamazoo, Michigan (January 28, 1847).
• Three letters from Robert McQuaid, a soldier in the 27th Michigan Infantry during the Civil War (May 21, 1863; July 12, 1863; June 28, 1864).
• A letter dated August 7, 1916, with a description of summer vacation on Isle Royale.
• A letter on the prospects of the Democratic Party in Michigan (May 13, 1935).

This collection is made up of legal documents and court records pertaining to the murder trial of Milton Lester and Sarah Parker in Washington County, Texas, in late 1847. Lester and Parker were accused of killing George Parker, Sarah's husband.

his collection is made up of legal documents and court records pertaining to the murder trial of Milton Lester and Sarah Parker in Washington County, Texas, in late 1847. Lester and Parker were accused of killing George Parker, Sarah's husband. The items are dated August 1847-December 1847. The first item is a formal indictment against Milton Lester and Sarah Ann Parker, accusing Parker of hiring Lester to shoot her husband, with notes about the case dated as late as April 1848. Other items include orders for the county sheriff to arrest Lester and Parker and summons for witnesses, some of which are signed by John B. Dupuy, a justice of the peace. One brief document and a 44-page group of records contain witness testimonies. One item relates the results of an inquisition on the cause of George Parker's death, deemed to be a single bullet to the chest. The final items pertain to the defendants' requests for their trial to take place in Austin County, as they did not believe that a jury of men from Washington County would be impartial.

This collection contains incoming letters, legal and financial documents, photographs, genealogical notes, writing fragments, and printed items related to Moody Kent, a lawyer who practiced in Deerfield and Concord, New Hampshire, in the early 19th century. Kent corresponded with his siblings, personal friends, and professional acquaintances about financial matters and with fellow Harvard graduates about their personal histories.

This collection contains 395 incoming letters, 39 legal and financial documents, 2 photographs, and 5 printed items related to Moody Kent, a lawyer who practiced in Deerfield and Concord, New Hampshire, in the early 19th century. Kent corresponded with his siblings, personal friends, and professional acquaintances about financial matters and with fellow Harvard graduates about their personal histories. Genealogical notes, poems, and writing fragments complete the collection.

The Correspondence series (395 items) is comprised primarily of incoming letters to Moody Kent from family, friends, and professional acquaintances, written between 1798 and 1860. Early items include letters that Kent received at Harvard from his father and siblings, who wrote about their lives in Newbury, Massachusetts. After his graduation in 1801, he often received letters from correspondents about their legal and financial matters; frequent writers included members of Kent's family and Ezekiel Webster, Daniel Webster's brother. After his retirement in 1832, Kent's correspondents wrote most often about personal matters. One person, A. A. Parker, commented about domestic political issues in the late 1850s. Some letters written during the 1860s directly concern the Civil War. Several of Kent's Harvard classmates shared information about their lives and family histories.

The Documents series (39 items) contains original and copied depositions, indentures, wills, and financial agreements, dated between 1771 and 1860. They primarily concern land ownership and inheritance issues. Few pertain directly to the affairs of Moody Kent, though many relate to his correspondents. Copies of the wills of Joseph Kent and Moody Kent are also included.

Two cabinet card Photographs depict an unidentified child and adult in and near a gazebo.

Poetry, Writings, and Fragments (5 items) include two patriotic poems by Hannah F. Lee (dated February 1862), 8 bars of manuscript sheet music, and other manuscript fragments and writings.

The Genealogy series (11 items) consists of genealogical notes related to various members of the Kent family.

The Printed Material series (5 items) is made up of an 1861 copy of New Hampshire legislative act regarding funding for New Hampshire soldiers' clothing and equipment; an advertisement for the Elmwood Literary Institute, Boscawen, New Hampshire; a circular advertisement for books on health sciences; an abbreviated version of Moody Kent's will; and a program for a 1912 Congregational church service.

The Nathaniel Freeman papers contain letters and documents relating to the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety of Sandwich, Massachusetts, during the Revolutionary War. The committee, of which Freeman was the chairman, investigated alleged Tory activities around Cape Cod. The cases of Seth Perry and John Jennings are particularly well documented.

The Nathaniel Freeman papers (138 items) contain letters, depositions, and documents relating to the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety, of Sandwich, Massachusetts, during the Revolutionary War. The committee, of which Freeman was the chairman, investigated and prosecuted alleged Tory activities in the Cape Cod area. They heard the pleas of accused Loyalists and their friends and family, and administered the oath of allegiance to them. The committee also supervised the equipping and disciplining of the militia and maintained official communication with Boston and other nearby towns. Of particular interest are letters and petitions concerning suspected Loyalists who were imprisoned and banished to Rhode Island. The collection provides a picture of how small town governments in the rebelling colonies dealt with those loyal to the British Crown.

The Correspondence series (47 items) is comprised of official letters addressed to Nathaniel Freeman and the Committee of Correspondence. These letters, spanning 1773-1804, largely concern efforts to banish Loyalists from the area, and include responses of the accused parties. Of note are six letters pertaining to an alleged Loyalist sailor named Seth Perry. These consist of a personal letter to Freeman from jail asking for lenience; a letter informing Freeman of Perry's escape to Newport; a letter from Perry to Freeman requesting permission to reunite with his family and manage some recently inherited property in Sandwich; and a 1785 letter from Freeman to the governor of Massachusetts disputing Perry's claim to property because of his wartime disloyalty.

• March 8, 1774: Long patriotic letter from James Warren that uses the "house divided" quotation from scripture
• November 9, 1774: Letter from John Winthrop, President of the Commercial Club of Boston, congratulating Freeman for his patriotism and heroism during an unspecified Tory attack

The Deposition series (65 items) documents depositions generated by the committee to investigate allegations of Loyalist activity near Barnstable, Massachusetts. Included are depositions taken in March and April 1778 relating to the case of Edward Davis, a "one-legged man" who met with many of the town's Tory sympathizers. The investigation exposed a number of Loyalists; their communications with fellow sympathizers from surrounding towns; their dealings with the British at Newport, Rhode Island; and their attempts to pass counterfeit money. Also notable are 10 depositions relating to Loyalist John Jennings and 8 items concerning Loyalist Seth Perry, including his claim against the state in 1785 for confiscated property. Much of the collection consists of deposition copies, forwarded by Freeman to the governor of Massachusetts.

The Documents series (26 items) covers official materials from the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety, of Sandwich, Massachusetts, including notes from meetings and petitions from the citizens of Sandwich. The series holds 5 items with commentary on the Boston Tea Party and the Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts), including an official protest of the acts (September 30, October 5, and November 1, 1774), oaths from merchants not to sell tea until Parliament repeals the Boston Port Bill (1774), and and resolutions demanding the impeachment of Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson and Chief Justice Peter Oliver over the letter controversy (March 14, 1774). The series also includes a certificate indicated that Rev. A. Williams took an oath of allegiance to Massachusetts Bay (April 13, 1778).

Of particular interest are 5 petitions, including the petitions from accused Loyalists who were imprisoned and banished: Seth Perry, Melaiah Bourn, Isaac Knowles, Abel Ellis, Price Tupper, and John Jennings (March 20 and April 27, 1778); the petitions from their wives requesting permission to join their husbands (with their children and possessions) in Rhode Island (June 17 and December 14, 1778); and the petition of Loyalist Seth Perry concerning rights to inherited land in Sandwich.

The Nathaniel Stacy papers include correspondence, documents, sermons, and other materials which relate to the personal and professional life of Mr. Stacy, a Universalist preacher.

The Nathaniel Stacy papers include eight boxes of material relating to every aspect of the personal and professional life of a Universalist preacher operating in the hot bed of the Second Great Awakening, the Burnt-Over District of New York. Boxes 1 through 4 contain correspondence arranged chronologically, 1803-1867, followed by undated correspondence arranged alphabetically by author. Box 5 contains Stacy's preaching log, listing date, place and text taken for sermons given between 1803 and 1864, sometimes with additional notes concerning funerals or other special occasions. Box 6 contains 30 numbered lectures given by Stacy in Ann Arbor in 1837 and 1838. Only the first of these is specifically dated. They are filed in numerical order with text taken noted on the folder. Boxes 7 and 8 contain material arranged topically, filed alphabetically by folder title. The Box-Folder listing provides detail. Included in these boxes are Stacy's diaries, with an unbroken run from 1835 through 1868 and scattered earlier and undated fragments, and 18 folders of sermons arranged by text. The bulk of the collection centers around Stacy and the members of his immediate family, and includes some materials generated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by his grandchildren or great-grandchildren, the Smiths of Corry, Pa. The unidentified photographs are probably of these family members.

The Stacy collection is a rich resource for historians of the Universalist Church. Stacy was part of what might be called a second generation of American Universalist preachers, taught by Hosea Ballou and influenced by other members of the General Convention of Universalists of the New England States and Others. He was among the first to preach the doctrine of universal salvation in New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and in each state he founded a number of local societies and regional associations. Stacy's papers vividly document the hardships involved in the life of an itinerant preacher of an unpopular doctrine. The financial difficulties inherent in such a career are reflected in his appeals to various Societies for whom he preached to honor their subscriptions or allow him to leave, and in letters from other struggling preachers bemoaning their meager earnings or looking for a better place; they are implicit in all his financial juggling and in schemes for supplementing his income, ranging from the disastrous reprinting of Marie Hubers's The State of Souls Separated From Their Bodies (1:46) to an ill-fated speculation in cheese (3:91). The individual societies for whom Stacy preached are variously documented in 8:35-39. For example, materials concerning the Society in Hamilton are unfortunately sparse, consisting of one letter of appeal from Stacy and a draft report to the Western Association of Universalists. The Society in Columbus is better documented, with a constitution and list of members dated 1834 and a record of church proceedings from 1834 to 1847 as well as a number of Stacy's accounts and subscription lists. The run of undated sermons (8:18-35) is useful for study of Universalist doctrine, as are the dated occasional sermons which may be found in the card catalog under Stacy's name. Running throughout the correspondence is a considerable debate on the subject of universal salvation versus endless misery, and these debates are echoed and extended in Stacy's diaries and Memoirs.

Stacy's ministry in New York occurred during one of the most volatile periods in the state's history. The collection documents the intense interest in religion in general and the willingness to question established doctrine which characterized the Burnt-Over District during this period. Letters such as one dated January 1, 1819 (1:37) offer moving descriptions of the spiritual hunger and emotional turmoil which stirred many, although a counterbalance is offered in such letters as the one dated January 20, 1828 (2:9) which offers a rationalistic discussion of the illogical nature of such biblical imagery as that of armies of angels in heaven. A number of Stacy's correspondents describe protracted religious meetings and local revivals (indexed under Revivals; and Enthusiasm). Universalist ministers generally disapproved of the techniques of the evangelical churches, and Stacy avidly collected stories of people driven to madness, infanticide, and suicide by Calvinism (1:59; 3:78,92). Yet it is also clear, as one fellow minister pointed out to Stacy, that the Universalist Church benefited both by the interest in religion stirred up by the revivals and by the renewed commitment of the enlightened who found such meeting objectionable (3:11) A letter from a niece turned Mormon requests Stacy to "give me the Names of your Anchestors as far back as you can gain eny knowledge and also give me the Names of your Children that are dead that I may have them to be handed down from generation to generation after me" (4:38). In another interesting series of letters, Stacy acts as advocate for an elderly neighbor, a former Shaker who had been expelled from their community, and who was seeking their support (see subject index under Shakers).

In Michigan and Ann Arbor, Stacy experienced the region's transition from territory to state and the hard times following the Panic of 1837. His correspondence from this period, and in particular his diaries, which he began to keep regularly upon his removal to Michigan, offer a window onto life in a frontier town. Although his daily entries are seldom lengthy, the cumulative effect of the diaries is to provide a rich picture of Stacy's social and economic setting and, as a side benefit, of his very appealing personality.

Those interested in Freemasonry and the Antimasonic excitement which played such an important role in determining Stacy's actions will find materials of interest in the collection. Two examples of Antimasonic rhetoric are found in letters dating from 1829, written by a kinswoman who exhorted Stacy to divest himself of the "vile robes" of the "base ferternity," while listing the ghastly crimes committed by Masons (2:15,17). Clippings concerning his Masonic affiliation and two speeches delivered in lodges are included in 8:14. Also of interest are two series of legal materials: one concerning the estate of David Curtis, founder of Columbus, Pa., for which Stacy acted as executor (7:1), and one concerning the legal separation of Stacy's niece, Rhoda Porter Thompson from her second husband (8:41). Each set of documents includes an inventory of the principal's household goods. Stacy's register of marriages (8:13) and his log of sermons, which often gives some detail about those at whose funerals he preached (5), include useful material for genealogists. The subject index includes topics covered in less detail in the papers, such as Stacy's chaplaincy during the second campaign at Sackett's Harbor in the War of 1812, and his involvement in various Temperance groups.