Collections

Collection includes various sizes and types of photographic materials of people, buildings, and logging and lumbering in Beaverton, Michigan.

The collection consists of various size and types of photographic materials of people, logging and lumbering, the Ross Bros.’ store and mill, school children, dams, water scenes, and buildings of Beaverton, Michigan. Tintypes, postcards, Kodak prints, and cabinet card style photographs are included in the collection. The collection is in very good condition. Some of the people and buildings are identified. Mrs. Velma Ross Damoth collected the materials that comprise this collection.

A number of loose scraps of paper with identification information have become detached from the photographs and were found in the bottom of box during processing. These have been copied and put in the front of the first folder of Box 1. Many of the photographs in the collection were reproduced in the book Beaverton: a century in the making (2003), copies of which are available both in the Park and the Clarke.

This is an incomplete, unofficial set of Vernon (Isabella County, Mich. : Township) Township records. Also included are three oversized scrapbooks and a copy of the graves in a cemetery.

The collection includes a miscellaneous group of incomplete township records. Most of the records are some type of election records, including absentee voter applications and lists, appointments, board of election inspectors miscellaneous, bonds, caucus meeting minutes, election returns, instruction ballot, oaths of office and acceptances, resignations and tally sheets, some of which are in book form. Other township records include Board of School Inspectors petitions, a dog tax list, meeting minutes, one set each) for the highway commissioners and township board, miscellaneous correspondence and receipts, and sheep damage bills.

Also included with the donation are three oversized volumes, all scrapbooks of mostly newspaper articles. Volume I, 1915-1969, mostly undated, includes mid-Michigan births, deaths, marriages, and events from local newspapers. Volume II, 1961-1966, documents mostly news of Shepherd high school, including sports, homecoming, and students. Other articles document soldiers, babies, some Winn, Michigan, news, two images with text of Representative Al Cederberg, and articles by Ruth Lau and Ida Clark. Volume III, 1914-1918, and 1941-1945, mostly document Isabella County, Michigan news articles of World War II soldiers, women who served, their letters, obituaries, and related article. There are two pages of WWI material, including an image with text of members of the Mount Pleasant Indian School who enlisted with a list of WWI dead soldiers from Isabella County on the back.

An oversized copy of the graves of Woodland Cemetery (Rosebush, Michigan), undated, on greased paper completes the collection. The location of the cemetery was identified by the donor. The copy includes names from gravestones but not the dates. The copy was repaired at one point with scotch tape, which was removed by the archivist, so now the copy is in two pieces. The copy has sustained some stain damage from water and perhaps mildew, although there is no odor.

Processing Note: Three live birth certificates were sent to the Michigan Department of Health. According to the township record schedule most of these records should have already been destroyed. However, they are now kept as examples. Acidic materials or those with mold were copied and the originals were withdrawn from the collection, totaling approximately .25 cubic feet.

Collection includes various sizes and types of photographic materials of the William H. White family,William H. White and Company, a lumbering and shipping business, and the city and people of Boyne City, Michigan.

The collection biographical materials, accounts, correspondence, deeds and legal papers, tax receipts, wills, and photographic materials.

The collection includes family papers for several generations of Knaggs. Among them are a petition by George Knaggs for reimbursement of property damaged in the War of 1812; a silhouette of Whitmore Knaggs; tax receipts for land in Detroit, Mich., Lucas and Henry Counties, Ohio and Eldora, Kansas; an 1866 Toledo, Ohio census; and essay on epidemics in Toledo, undated (ca. late 18th century?); and a telegram from the mayor of Chicago, R. B. Mason about the distress caused by the Great Fire of 1871.

Papers include biographical materials, correspondence, military correspondence, and miscellaneous.

The collection includes Biographical Materials, Certificates re: his Postmaster position; Correspondence, 1899-1935, mostly about postal service and politics; State Liquor Control Commission correspondence and related materials, 1933-1934; Military Correspondence, 1915-1916, about his conflicts with work versus military duties; and Miscellaneous, including his typed diaries of a 1914 trip on the (yacht) Virginia.

Papers include copies and transcriptions of correspondence, articles, and biographical materials. Note: A users copy is available for researchers to use.

The collection consists of photocopies and transcriptions of correspondence to and from Watson, copies of articles he wrote and published, copies of Strangite Mormon articles he reprinted, and copies of his biographical information.

Some correspondence is with family and friends, including his daughter, Grace, and his grandchildren. Other correspondence is with two of Strang’s widows, Betsy (Elizabeth) and Elvira and three of Strang’s sons, Charles J., Gabriel, and Clement J. Strang. There is also correspondence with major Strangite Mormons, such as Lorenzo Dow (L. D.) Hickey, publisher Edward Couch, and Joseph Smith III, leader of the Reorganized Church. The correspondence mainly discusses Strangite beliefs, activities, and history.

For further information see related collections such as Lorenzo D. Hickey Papers, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Strangite) Collection and Miscellaneous collection, or numerous books on Mormons and Strangites at the Clarke Historical Library.

Note: A users copy is available for researchers to use.

The collection documents the history of the club mostly through meeting minutes, photographs, and scrapbooks.

The collection documents the history of the Zonta Club of Mt. Pleasant, through meeting minutes, photographs, scrapbooks, and after 1992, scrapbook materials. The three oversized scrapbooks are acidic and brittle and should be handled with care. Later additions added mostly meeting minutes. The collection is organized alphabetically and chronologically. The collection is ongoing. The Zontian is separately cataloged.

Notecards on research topics for Lydens' book, the Story of Grand Rapids, Michigan (1966).

Notecards on research topics for his book, the Story fo Grand Rapids, Michigan (1966), a copy of which is available in the CMU libraries.