Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Marshall, Calhoun County, attorney, Republican state senator, 1878-1882; contain correspondence, legal files, diaries and financial records concerning business and family affairs and the history of Marshall; also family papers, including Civil War letters of brother, Philo D. Patterson, student letters from the University of Michigan of son, Frank D. Patterson, 1892-1894, and records of business partner William H. Brown.

The John C. Patterson collection is divided into the following series: Correspondence; Letterpress books; Legal files; Diaries; Miscellaneous business records; John C. Patterson personal; and Other family members and miscellaneous. Much of the correspondence is addressed either to Patterson or to William H. Brown and pertains to their law practice. Other correspondence relates to family matters, politics, and Hillsdale College. Included in the correspondence are nine letters of Philo D. Patterson written while he was serving in Company H, Ninth Michigan Infantry, February-September 1865. Two of the letters reflect on the assassination of President Lincoln. There are also letters from Frank Dean Patterson, 1892-1894, when he was a student at the University of Michigan.

Lawyer at Coldwater, Michigan, Civil War officer, U.S. Marshal of Eastern District of Michigan and Minister to Belgium. Civil War letters describing his service as Colonel of the Ninth Michigan Infantry and other units.

The John G. Parkhurst microfilm collection is comprised of two series: Civil War papers from the Parkhurst collection at the Bentley Historical Library, and Civil War papers from the Parkhurst collection at Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collection. Originals of these papers are available for examination at their respective institutions.

Lawyer at Coldwater, Michigan, Civil War officer, U.S. Marshal of Eastern District of Michigan and Minister to Belgium. Correspondence from family, friends and associates regarding personal and business affairs, military matters, and Democratic politics; miscellaneous other materials and photographs.

The John G. Parkhurst collection consists of correspondence from family, friends and associates regarding personal and business affairs, military matters, and Democratic politics; miscellaneous other materials and photograph. the collections has been divided into the following series: Correspondence; John G. Parkhurst Civil War service; John G. Parkhurst diplomatic and other activities; and Other family materials, business records, and miscellaneous.

Michigan Democratic congressman, 1847-1851, Republican governor, 1855-1858, and U.S. Senator, 1859-1861; correspondence and genealogical papers of the Bingham and Warden families of Livingston County, including letters from Kinsley, his wife Mary Warden, his son James (First Lieutenant, Sixteenth Michigan Infantry, who died in 1862), and Robert Warden, Jr.; correspondence concerning family affairs, political and legislative matters, Bingham's inauguration in Lansing, Michigan, in 1857, and the Civil War; letters to Warden from friends in Scotland and Camillus, New York including one from Henry S. Sinn about slavery and the Civil War; and diary, 1862-1863, kept by Mrs. Bingham.

The Bingham papers are comprised of two series, Correspondence and Other Materials, reproduced on four rolls of microfilm. The Correspondence series includes personal letters (originals and typescripts) between members of the Bingham and Warden families. There is extensive correspondence (1848-1861) between Bingham and his wife, Mary Warden Bingham, during his absences while serving in government offices in Lansing, Michigan and Washington, D.C. There is also a substantial correspondence from James W. Bingham, writing to his parents during his boarding school years at the Normal School in Ypsilanti, Michigan and one year while studying at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Later letters between James and his mother were written while James was serving with Co. H, 1st Michigan Infantry at Alexandria, Va., and then in Chicago and Peoria, Ill., as a recruiting officer in Co. B, 2nd Battalion, 16th U.S. Infantry (with which he was later on active duty in Kentucky). The letters concern the attitude of the citizens of Alexandria towards the Michigan troops, the assassination of Colonel Ellsworth, the Zouaves, social and camp life, marches and skirmishes, political news of the day and the towns in which he was encamped. Bingham died of disease at Bardstown, Ky., Nov. 9, 1862. The collection also includes three letters from Kinsley S. Bingham concerning the Battle of Bull Run. Also of interest are letters in 1850 referring to John, a nephew who participated in the California Gold Rush, where he died. The Other Materials series includes political speeches written by Kinsley S. Bingham, as well as newspaper clippings related to his death and memorial, and to the deaths of both of his sons. There is also genealogical notes made by family members for both the Bingham and Warden families, newspaper clippings about later family members, letters between extended family members, and miscellaneous and ephemeral materials.

Collected materials include Civil War diary (1863) of William Harts, soldier with Co. B, 1st Michigan Infantry; also papers of Leon Bell, member of 339th Infantry (Polar Bears) sent to northern Russia after World War I.

Professor of history at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan; correspondence, family materials, scrapbooks, and photographs.

The Chase collection consists of correspondence, family materials, scrapbooks, and photographs. The correspondence dates from 1894 to 1955. One folder of letters is between Chase and James Cochran in which they discuss southern and northern attitudes toward Blacks. The family materials include letters of his mother Delia to Clara and Mary Noyes, and thirteen letters of the Chase-Beach family. There are also genealogical papers and a manuscript of "Personal Recollections of the Civil War" by Delia Chase. The scrapbook series includes letters, clippings, programs and photographs. One volume concerns Wilbert B. Hinsdale, Northern Michigan University, the Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing, and the Chase family. Correspondents include: James B. Angell, Harriet Bates, Alberta Chase, Cornelia Chase, George W. Chase, Edna Ferber, Archibald MacLeish, Thomas Mann, Ambrose M. Shotwell, Shirley W. Smith, Isabel Van Tyne, and Alexander Woolcott.

Papers, of the Josiah Littlefield family of Monroe County and Farwell, Clare County, Michigan. Correspondence, typescript of autobiography, and excerpted typescript of University of Michigan student diary, 1867-1871, of Josiah Littlefield, surveyor, lumberman, and conservationist; also letters of other members of the Littlefield and Hall families; and photographs.

The Littlefield family collection documents several generations in the life of a family which migrated from Grafton, New York about 1830, and came to Michigan, settling first near Ash in Monroe County and later in Farwell in Clare County. The collection (311 items) spans the period of 1834 to 1935, and consists almost entirely of letters among family members, though there is a small group of printed items dealing with University of Michigan activities and life in Farwell, Michigan. Included with the papers are the correspondence, autobiography, and excerpted diary of Josiah Littlefield. There is also correspondence of Littlefield's wife, Ellen Hart Littlefield, his mother, Mary Hall Littlefield, his daughter, Ellen Littlefield Elder, and his uncle, Edmund Hall.

The correspondence comprising the collection includes several recurring subjects: schooling, medical treatment, social customs, religious matters (selecting ministers, sermons, and church activities), agriculture (types of crops grown and prices received), food prices in Michigan, fashions of domestic furnishings (see Josiah Littlefield folder: September 13, 1874, September 24, 1874, October 4, 1874 and January 1, 1874 from Ellen Hart Littlefield; Mary Hall Littlefield folder: October 14, 1874 from Josiah Littlefield; Ellen Hart Littlefield folder: March 3, 1875 from Lucy Hart and October 5, 1873, letter from Josiah Littlefield; see Ellen Hart Littlefield folder: April 25, 1875 from Jessie Hart Williams).

Interesting though brief descriptions of Oberlin College in the 1830's occur in letters from Edmund Hall (see Martha Smith Hall folder: February 15, 1840 from Edmund Hall; and Mary Hall Littlefield folder: May 21, 1836 and October 11, 1836 from Edmund Hall). Mr. Hall apparently became involved in abolition activities in Michigan in the mid 1840's. A listing of seven speeches scheduled for September or October, 1844 is in the first Edmund Hall folder.

In the area of women's history, parts of the collection cover several topics of interest in addition to those referred to as recurring subjects. Martha Smith Hall, Josiah Littlefield's maternal grandmother left her husband E.F. Hall in New York state about 1830 and migrated to Michigan with her children. She managed to establish a new home and raise and educate her family without any economic help from her husband. (see Martha Hitchcock folder: February 2, 1854 from E.F. Hall, October 12, 1855 from Carolina A. Kinsley; see Edmund Hall folder: August 13, 1855 and August 21, 1855 from Carolina A. Kinsley, October 20, 1855 from Martha Hitchcock, and October 2, 1855 to Mrs. Kinsley from Edmund Hall).

Reference to a case of post-natal depression so severe that it culminated in temporary insanity and the killing of a child occurs in the Josiah Littlefield folder (January 15, 1875 from Ellen Hart Littlefield). Descriptions of another serious post-natal depression are contained in the Josiah Littlefield folder (January 15, 1875 from Ellen hart Littlefield and May 21, 1877 from Margaret Hart).

Professor of mathematics at University of Michigan. Correspondence, printed materials and miscellanea relating to his research in mathematics and the history of science, his interest in collecting historical manuscripts, maps, and rare books, and his personal affairs; also photograph.

The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence, Collected letters of historical personages; Mathematics and cartographical interests; Collecting historical documents (with materials collected by LCK); and miscellaneous.

Papers collected by Margaret Leutheuser of Ann Arbor, Michigan, relating to ancestor families, notably the Leach, Waterman, and Armstrong families. Civil War materials of Morgan L. Leach, member of the 1st and 9th Michigan Cavalry; farm account books of Edgar and William Armstrong of Mundy Township, Genesee County, Michigan; correspondence of other family members; and scrapbooks containing newspaper accounts of settlement of Leach family in Genesee County, and account of trip of Morgan Leach to Traverse Bay, Michigan, in the 1860s.

Margaret Leutheuser collected a variety of materials pertaining to her ancestors, notably among the Leach, Waterman and Armstrong families. The collection dates from the 1850s to the 1930s, and includes family correspondence, newspaper articles written by Morgan (M.L.) Leach, and farm account books. The materials are arranged in one Family Papers series by the originator/author of the item.

The McCreery and Fenton families were prominent Genesee county, Michigan residents some of whose members distinguished themselves in local and state government, as soldiers during the Civil War, and in the United States diplomatic service. Papers include diaries, correspondence and other material relating to the Civil War, local and state politics and aspects of diplomatic service in Central and South America.

The McCreery-Fenton family collection documents the individual careers of family members who served their community and their nation in a variety of roles. Through correspondence, diaries and other materials, the researcher will find information pertaining to the Civil War, to the history of Flint and Fenton in Genesee County, Michigan, and to facets of America's diplomatic relations with some of the countries of Central and South America. Arranged by name of the three principal family members represented in the collection - William M. Fenton, William B. McCreery, and Fenton R. McCreery, the papers also include series of general family materials, business records, and photographs.