Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Farmer near present-day Cranbrook, Michigan. Description of daily life.

Brief descriptions of everyday life. Transcribed by Miriam E. Kushner.

Letters from relatives in New York, New Jersey and Iowa discussing in part plans to migrate westward; letter, 1852, recounting missionary life in India; Civil War letters from Townsend M. Luce (Co. F., Third Michigan Infantry), Rufus Cheney (Co. D, 2nd Michigan Cavalry), Charles O. Reed (probably Co. A, 4th Michigan Cavalry), Philip Segur (Co. A, 7th Michigan Cavalry), and one tentatively identified as Albert H. Freeman (Battery B, 1st Michigan Light Artillery); and miscellanea.

Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Michigan, area family; correspondence, diaries, and other family materials.

The Campbell family collection includes correspondence and other family materials. Items of interest include Civil War correspondence of Gabriel Campbell and John S. Farnill; correspondence, diaries, and teaching materials of William Campbell; personal correspondence of Mary and Sarah (Sadie) Campbell concerning farming, local Republican politics, and school affairs; and printed materials concerning the Free Silver question and the election of 1896. The papers of Robert C. Campbell include diaries and University of Michigan student notebooks. Of interest are the notes he took from the lectures of John Dewey in philosophy, Henry Carter Adams in political economy, Burke A. Hinsdale in pedagogy, Joseph B. Steere in zoology, and A.A. Stanley in music, among other professors. The collection also includes high school notebooks of Carrie Read and E. Mabel Read.

Materials collected by J. M. Bagley, which include the family papers of Coldwater (Mich.) politician Corydon P. Benton. Benton's papers contain about 15 letters (Sept. 28, 1861-Dec. 3, 1862) from his son Edwin Benton, a soldier with the 44th Illinois Infantry who was killed in action at Stones River, Tenn., as well as a letter (Jan. 8, 1863) from B. F. Kneppen relating to Edwin Benton's death. Benton's papers also include correspondence (1871-1880) of another son, Frank Benton, who was a student at Michigan Agricultural College and a missionary to Cyprus. The collection also includes the correspondence from 1849-1862 of Daniel Wilson of Ovid Township in Branch County, Michigan. These materials contain letters from Wilson's nephews John Willson (Apr. 11, 1862) written from Belmont, Ky., and O. Wilson (Mar. 30, 1863) of the 4th Rhode Island Artillery, Battery C, written from Falmouth, Va. Another portion includes five letters (Dec. 17, 1861-Mar. 9, 1862) of William Babcock, written from Kentucky and Tennessee.