Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

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Collection

William Augustus Lewis papers, 1840-1917

2 linear feet

Officer with the 23rd Michigan Volunteer Regiment during the Civil War, later Saginaw County, then Evart, Michigan, local government official. Biographical material, correspondence, Civil War files, and diaries relating to local and wartime activities, family matters, and professional activities.

The William Augustus Lewis papers include biographical material, correspondence, Civil War files, and diaries relating to local and wartime activities, family matters, and professional activities. the papers are organized into the following series. Biographical, Correspondence, Civil War, Miscellaneous, and Diaries.

Collection

William B. Mershon Papers, 1848-1943

46.5 linear feet — 1 oversize folder — 14 microfilms

Online
Saginaw, Michigan, lumberman and businessman, and Michigan State Tax Commissioner, 1912 and wildlife conservationist and sportsman. Papers include extensive correspondence files, business records and photographs.

The William Mershon collection consists of correspondence dealing with Mershon's various activities as a lumberman, Saginaw businessman, and member of the State Tax Commission in 1912. Subjects included in the papers are Michigan wildlife conservation, the Michigan Sportsmen Association, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, the Michigan State Tax Commission, Michigan politics, the Democratic party, personal business investments, lumbering and mining interest, and personal affairs.

The collection also includes diaries, a book of notes on hunting and fishing trips, and various business records such as cash books, time books, ledgers, and journals. These primarily concern his investments and lumbering business. Many of the business records are available on microfilm. The collection also includes photographs.

Collection

William Boston papers, 1862-1865

39 items — 3 volumes (in 1 box)

Online

Original and typescript of diaries (1862-1865) written while Boston was serving in Company H, 20th Michigan Infantry. The entries are chiefly descriptions of army life and battles in the campaign of Fredericksburg, first and second Kentucky campaigns, Vicksburg, the Wilderness, and Petersburg. National Park Service maps with a synopsis of the campaigns have been added to the typescript copy. The April 22, 1863 entry speaks of Frank Thompson (Sarah E. E. Seelye) as their brigade postmaster. The collection also contains thirty-seven letters (Jan. 1863-Apr. 1865) written to his aunts while Boston was serving in the 20th Michigan Infantry. He was sick and in hospital camps before Petersburg; once there, he gives accounts of activities there (Sept. 1864-Apr. 1865): picket duty, building fortifications, battles. He comments on food, the coming election, an African American regiment, General Burnside, the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, boxes from home, prisoners, the draft, and the reaction to the death of Lincoln. He describes two Thanksgiving dinners, and especially the fall of Petersburg. The collection also include's Boston's discharge certificate from the Union Army.

Collection

William Christian Weber Papers, 1858-1940

28 linear feet (in 30 boxes) — 15 oversize volumes — 15 oversize folders

Detroit, Michigan businessman and civic leader. Business correspondence relating to Weber's activities as a dealer in timber lands, his role as a member of the Art Commission in the development of Detroit, Michigan's Cultural Center, his involvement in the construction of the Detroit-Windsor bridge and tunnel and his activities during World War I; and correspondence and class notes of his sons, Harry B. and Erwin W. Weber, while attending University of Michigan; also photographs, including family portraits, aerial views of Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, photographs of the construction of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and Ambassador Bridge, and glass negatives of family vacations in Upper Michigan, Ontario, and Quebec; and maps of land and timber holdings

The William C. Weber papers cover 28 linear feet (30 boxes), outsize folders, and 15 outsize volumes. Besides information on timber and mineral lands in Michigan, the important aspects of the Weber papers include information on the development of the Cultural Center of Detroit and Weber's very controversial role in it, items on the Detroit-Windsor bridge and tunnel and the development of the Border Cities, and the papers of his two sons, especially the letters they wrote as students at the University of Michigan and their class notes and examinations.

There is one foot of materials related to the Cultural Center (Box 19 and outsize folders) and another of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and Ambassador Bridge (Box 20 and outsize folders).

Architectural site plans and property maps of the Detroit Cultural Center are also found in the outsize unbound material.

The collection includes maps relating to Weber's his land holdings in northern Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, including maps of land survey, of timber estimates, and tax and title status for Michigan lands, maps of Windsor subdivisions, maps of coal mining region around Caryville, Tennessee and property maps of the Detroit Cultural Center.

Collection

William Harold Payne papers, 1853-1933

2 linear feet

Professor of pedagogy at the University of Michigan; chancellor of University of Nashville and president of Peabody Normal College. Correspondence and other papers concerning his activities in education and family matters.

The collection has been arranged into two series: Correspondence and Other papers. The correspondence dates from 1853 to 1933 and includes many letters addressed to his second wife Elizabeth Clark prior to their marriage. The Other Papers series concerns his activities as an educator and college president. Materials in this series include addresses, lectures, autobiographical and biographical volumes, personal account books, visual material, and other miscellaneous notebooks.

Collection

William H. Withington papers [microform], 1853-1909

2 microfilms

Civil War officer, banker, Republican State Representative and Senator from Jackson, Michigan. Correspondence, special orders, notes, business papers, and miscellaneous items, primarily relating to his Civil War service as Colonel of the Seventeenth Michigan Infantry, and to a possible appointment to the U.S. Senate in 1894; also notes on the management of the Withington & Cooley Manufacturing Company, 1895-1903, diary of a European trip, 1897, and photographs.

The papers of William H. Withington consist of correspondence, special orders, notes, and miscellaneous items relating to his Civil War service as Colonel of the Seventeenth Michigan Infantry; business records of the Withington & Cooley Manufacturing Company, correspondence and other material concerning his political career as Republican state legislator and state senator.

This collection is divided into four series: Civil War Activities, Personal Papers, Withington & Cooley Manufacturing Company Records, all of which are arranged chronologically, and Newspaper Clippings.

Collection

William Livingstone and family papers, 1850-1995 (majority within 1865-1925)

2 reels (in 4 boxes) — 1 oversize volume — 1 oversize folder

Livingstone was a Detroit, Michigan businessman, banker, and newspaper publisher. He was an advocate of improving shipping on the Great Lakes, helping to found the Lake Carriers' Association. Livingstone successfully lobbied Congress for funds to construct a channel in the lower Detroit River (the Livingstone Channel). The collection consists of manuscript and visual materials, some of which were collected by later family members. Included are diaries and account books, 1871-1882 (scattered) and 1925; correspondence and newspaper clippings; subject files pertaining to the Dime Savings Bank and the Lake Carriers' Association; and a speech book containing draft of speech written for James G. Blaine, presidential candidate in 1884. Visual materials include photographs and drawings.

The papers of William Livingstone consist of manuscript and visual materials, some of which were collected by later family members. The papers include diaries and account books, 1871-1882 (scattered) and 1925; correspondence and newspaper clippings; subject files pertaining to the Dime Savings Bank and the Lake Carriers' Association; and a speech book containing draft of speech written for James G. Blaine, presidential candidate in 1884. Many of the letters in the collection were personal communications sent to Marion Scherer from family and friends while she was away at school. Visual materials include family photographs and drawings. The collection is organized into three series, William Livingston Jr. Topical Files, Correspondence, and Visual Materials.

Collection

William Montague Ferry family papers [microfilm], 1823-1904

2 microfilms (0.8 linear feet and 1 oversize folder)

Online
William Montague Ferry served as missionary to Indians at Michilimackinac, Michigan for the United Foreign Missionary Society, 1822-1834 and as clergyman in Grand Haven, Michigan. William Montague Ferry, Jr. served in the 14th Michigan Infantry in the Civil War, as University of Michigan Regent and later moved to Park City, Utah where he was active in Democratic Party politics. Thomas W. Ferry served as congressman, 1865 to 1871, and as U.S. Senator from 1871 to 1883. Papers include correspondence describing missionary work of William M. Ferry, Sr., civil war letters of William M. Ferry, Jr., some political correspondence of Thomas W. Ferry, and letters of Amanda White Ferry, wife of William Sr.

The Ferry family collection consists of letters and typescripts of letters from William Montague Ferry and his wife Amanda White Ferry describing their trip from Ashfield, Massachusetts, to Mackinac Island and their missionary work among the Indians; letters, 1862-1901, of Colonel William M. Ferry, University of Michigan regent, particularly to his wife and other relatives while serving in the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry during the Civil War; speeches and letters from contemporary politicians to Thomas White Ferry, lumberman and U.S. Senator; and two scrapbooks of newspaper clippings on the Ferry family. Correspondents in the collection include: Susan B. Anthony, Henry P. Baldwin, Zachariah Chandler, Schuyler Colfax, William M. Evarts, Hamilton Fish, Rutherford B. Haye, Whitelaw Reid, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Collection

Williams family papers, 1838-1953

2 linear feet

A. L. Williams family of Owosso, Michigan. Personal and business correspondence of A. L. Williams, Owosso, Michigan pioneer, railroad entrepreneur, and spiritualist; and personal letters of other members of the family, including May Williams Dewey, wife of E. O. Dewey (Thomas E. Dewey family); and miscellaneous newspaper clippings, business ledgers, and personal and business diaries concerning business affairs and daily activities; "spirit messages" received from departed family and others; also photographs.

The Williams Family [Owosso] collection consists of 2 linear feet of material. It includes the personal and business papers of four generations of Williamses from 1838 to 1953. However, the bulk of the material relates to the family of Alfred Leonzo Williams between 1860 and 1890.

Collection

William Sprague Studley papers, 1846-1910

0.6 linear feet (in 2 boxes)

The collection is arranged into three small series: Correspondence, Studley Family, and Other Papers. Included in the collection is a scattering of correspondence, diaries, 1860 and 1873, of trip in Florida and Europe, a scrapbook, and newspaper clippings concerning the activities of the Studley family, 1855-1910.