Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Lawyer, Member of Michigan Supreme Court, 1842-1846, Democratic Governor of Michigan, 1846-1847, and holder of numerous other public offices; papers include correspondence and other papers documenting his career in public service.

The Alpheus Felch papers details the active life of this nineteenth century Michigan public servant. Not only are public issues discussed in the correspondence files but the researcher will also gain an understanding of some of the personal problems associated with public service. The collection also includes several files of other family members.

Pioneer Michigan geologist, assistant to state geologist Douglass Houghton on the Michigan Geological Survey, 1837-1842, completed portions of U.S. Land Survey of the Upper Peninsula begun by Douglass Houghton, 1845-1846. Later active in family's land business and lumber trade. Papers consist of notebooks containing field notes, sketches and maps; private journals covering Michigan geological expeditions and other trips, including the peninsula coast survey, Lake Superior and Upper Peninsula surveys and surveys of Wayne, Monroe and other counties; also weather memoranda, 1835-1864; miscellaneous accounts; and other papers largely relating to geology.

The collection consists primarily of Hubbard's pocket-size field notebooks. The notebooks are arranged, for the most part, chronologically for the period 1837 to 1893. Several notebooks that do not fit the chronological sequence are placed at the end of the series of notebooks. The notebooks for the years 1837 to 1840 have been bound, probably by Hubbard, into larger volumes. For convenience the later notebooks have been grouped into "volumes" by the library. Each "volume" is in a separate case. The notebooks contain personal journals, geological notes, and meteorological registers, along with sketches of landforms, scenery, and people, geological sections, and maps.

A few loose papers are found at the end of the collection.

The most extensive notebooks are those written between 1837 and 1840, when Hubbard was working for the Michigan Geological Survey, and in 1845 and 1846, when he was conducting the combined land and geological survey of the Upper Peninsula. In addition to the main sequence of notebooks for those years (volumes 1-8 and 10-12), that period is represented by separate meteorological registers (volumes 18 and 22), separate geological field notes for the 1840 expedition to the Lake Superior region (volume 21), and three reports on Hubbard's 1846 surveys (volumes 23-24 and loose papers).

This finding aid contains two appendixes. The first, compiled by the initial cataloger of the collection in 1958, specifies where many of the topics indexed in the card catalog for this collection can be found in the series of notebooks. The second contains an inventory of the maps found in the collection.

Several portions of the collection have been published.

The notebooks for May 23-August 8, 1840 (volumes 7-9 and parts of 21) have been published as Lake Superior Journal: Bela Hubbard's Account of the 1840 Houghton Expedition}, edited by Bernard C. Peters. Marquette, Mich.: Northern Michigan University Press, 1983. [MHC call number EA/91/H875/L192]

The "Catalogue of the Geological Specimens, Hubbard & Ives Survey, 1846" (volume 23), the "Report on the Geology &c. of District Surveyed by Messrs. Higgins & Hubbard, 1846, Lake Superior, with Catalogue of Minerals, Sections, etc." (volume 24), and the "Report upon the Geology & Topography of the District on L. Superior Subdivided in 1846 by Hubbard & Ives" (loose material) have been published in Report on the Geological and Mineralogical Survey of the Mineral Lands of the United States in the State of Michigan .., by Charles T. Jackson. Washington, D.C.: Printed for the House of Representatives, 1849. (31st Congress, 1st Session, House Executive Document 5, Part 3) [MHC call number EA/153/U58/M583]

The reports of Hubbard's surveys for the Michigan Geological Survey, based on his notes have been published in Geological Reports of Douglass Houghton: First State Geologist of Michigan, 1837-1845. Lansing, Mich.: Michigan Historical Commission, 1928. [MHC call number EA/153/MG345/G345]

Hubbard's autobiography has been published as Memorials of a Half-Century. New York: Putnam's, 1887. [MHC call number EA/60/H875/M533]

Other Bela Hubbard papers are found at the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library.

Journalist, historical researcher from Kalamazoo, Michigan; Correspondence, research articles and notes, and photographs.

The Weissert collection includes correspondence, 1893-1947, including letters from Joseph Bailly, Clarence M. Burton, Gurdon S. Hubbard, Chase S. Osborn, Albert E. Sleeper, and George Van Pelt. There are also speeches, and writings mostly on Michigan history topics, including Indian history and the history of Kalamazoo and Barry County. The series of research notes illustrates the variety of Weissert's interests: historical personalities, forts, Michigan cities, and early state history. The photographs and snapshots pertain to Weissert's interest in Michigan history, especially homes, churches, mills, hotels, businesses, and other sites primarily in western Michigan, but also including Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac Island. There are also photographs of Michigan pioneers, particularly from the Hastings, Michigan area.

Governor of Michigan, writer, businessman; papers include correspondence, business records, speeches, writings, visual materials, diaries.

The Osborn collection consists of correspondence, diaries, business papers, scrapbooks, photographs, and other materials accumulated during his life. Materials prior to 1889 are scarce possibly because of a fire which destroyed Osborn's home; thereafter and up to the time of his death in 1949, the Osborn papers are voluminous, documenting each of this man's varied activities. Although his career as elected public official was limited to one term as governor, the collection reflects the importance of his life in areas beyond politics alone. His voice was heard, in letters and speeches and monographs, speaking out on the issues of the day - prohibition, conservation, the New Deal, and of course his life-long interest in the development of Michigan's Upper Peninsula economy and natural resources.

Papers of Benjamin Douglass and his sons, Samuel T. Douglass, Detroit attorney and jurist, and Silas H. Douglas, professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan, and member of Douglass Houghton's Northern Michigan survey. Correspondence, scrapbooks, letter books, and miscellanea concerning family affairs, business and university activities; also contains records of the Douglass and Walker and Campbell Law Firm; and papers of individual members of Silas Douglas’ family, including his wife Helen Welles Douglas, their children Samuel T. Douglas, Marie Louise Douglas, and Catherine Hulbert Douglas, and other Douglas and Welles family members; and photographs.

The Douglass Family collection spans the period 1812-1911 and comprises eight linear feet of manuscripts, one linear ft. of photographs, three outsize volumes, and 1 folder of oversize materials. The collection include the papers of Benjamin Douglass and his two sons, Samuel T. (1814-98) a lawyer and Detroit judge, and Silas H. (1816-90), a professor at The University of Michigan. Although Silas came to use the family name of Douglas rather than Douglass, the paper indicate that there was little consistency.

The collection consists of personal and professional correspondence, letterpress books, business and legal papers, scrapbooks, photographs, and family materials. The collection, except for series of photographs and maps, is arranged by family member name.

Emerson Frank Greenman was a prominent Michigan archaeologist who served as Curator of the Great Lakes Division of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan from 1945 to 1965. The Greenman papers include correspondence, administrative materials related to the Camp Killarney field school in Ontario, Canada, site files for archaeological sites in Canada, research and topical files, scrapbooks and photographs.

The Emerson Frank Greenman Papers are comprised of six series: Correspondence, Camp Killarney, Research and Miscellaneous Files, Photographs, Scrapbooks, and Canadian Site Files.

Upper Peninsula (Michigan) trapper and woodsman as well as an Ann Arbor, Michigan, resident. Consists of a diary with brief comments on daily life and reminiscences as well as detailed passages about lumbering and wildlife in the region of Dickinson County and Iron County (Michigan).

The Floyd V. Ames papers consists of a diary with brief comments on daily life and reminiscences. Contains detailed passages about lumbering and wildlife in the region of Dickinson County and Iron County (Michigan).

Surveyor of lands in northern Michigan and in the Upper Peninsula; Macomb County land speculator; journal of his surveying expedition along the shores of Lake Superior, letters received, historical essays, family materials.

The George Cannon collection consists of letters, a journal, historical essays written for the Macomb County Historical Society, and various land records, including some surveying notes. Most of the letters were received by Cannon or other members of his family. There is in these letters much documentation relating to the Upper Peninsula and to the history of the settlement of Macomb County. Of especial interest are those letters and documents relating to the border dispute between Wisconsin and Michigan (particularly in the period of the first decade of the 20th Century) arising out of a surveying error in the 1830s. Many of the letters are from Upper Peninsula businessman and University of Michigan Regent Peter White.

Other items of interest are essays and lectures of the students who attended the Stony Creek Lyceum Rochester School where Cannon taught in the 1840s, a few Civil War letters from his brother Levi Cannon who served with Co. B of the 22nd Michigan Infantry, and essays Cannon wrote on his surveying mentor William A. Burt and on the early settlement of Macomb County.

Sub-Indian agent at La Pointe, Wisconsin, later surveyor of Indian lands in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and interpreter among the Chippewa Indians. Letters relating to his work among the Indians, also including descriptions of Michigan's copper deposits and of Johnston's efforts to exploit the area's natural resources.

The George Johnston letterbook provides a chronology of the events in his life. Included are copies of letters from Chippewa Indian chiefs appealing to the President of the United States to honor its past treaties with the Indians. There are also many letters describing the copper deposits of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, including letters to copper mining companies (i.e. the Native Copper Association and the Bruce Mining Company) urging them to exploit the natural resources of the Upper Peninsula. Letters to Henry Schoolcraft, Johnston's brother-in-law, indicate something of his interest in Michigan's copper resources. Of interest are the series of letters written to Secretary of War, Lewis Cass, Henry R. Schoolcraft, and H.C. Gilbert defending his claim to receive land under the treaty of 1855. Johnston addressed letters to the following individuals: Lewis Cass, Zachariah Chandler, Peter Dougherty, Bishop Samuel McCoskry, Robert McClelland, Henry R. Schoolcraft, Charles Stuart, and C.C. Trowbridge.

Detroit attorney and businessman; active in the Michigan Democratic Party and a strong supporter of and personal correspondent with William Jennings Bryan. Collection includes correspondence, clippings, and financial records related to Moore, his family, and his estate; the law firm of Moore & Moore; and associated business interests..

The George William Moore papers provide a complex view of life in Michigan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Correspondence from the family home in Van Buren Township documents rural concerns and daily activities, while deeds and correspondence from the Upper Peninsula detail the explosive growth of land and mining interests in the farthest reaches of the state. Moore's personal materials cast light on the upper strata of Detroit's society at the height of the Gilded Age and his business records encompass a range of legal activities and reveal the frenetic pace of business and speculation in the years preceding the Great Depression. Political materials and personal writings further reflect some of the most contentious issues of his day, from Free Silver to the public ownership of utilities. This collection will be of value to those interested in the history of law, Democratic politics, mining, and industry as well as the social lives of Michiganians in rural and urban settings. The George William Moore papers are divided into three series: Personal, Moore & Moore, and Associated Businesses.