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Niles, Mich. businessman and officer in the Sixth and Nineteenth Michigan Infantry regiments during the Civil War. Includes correspondence, diaries, and photographs related to Griffin's personal life and military service in addition to genealogical information and miscellaneous materials.

The Eli A. Griffin papers are organized into a single Personal Papers series, which includes family genealogical information, correspondence, personal diaries, photographs, military records, and other materials. The collection documents Griffin's various travels (including trips to the California gold fields in 1849 and 1853 and other trips to Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, and Utah), service in the Union army during the Civil War, and information about his family.

Otsego, Michigan, family. Letters to Mrs. Sabra Hager discussing personal and family affairs, including mention of neighbors leaving for the Pikes Peak gold rush; also ninety letters from her husband, Phineas A. Hager, of Co. B, Nineteenth Michigan Infantry, twenty-five from her son, William H. White, Sixth Michigan Infantry, and three from Henry Stark of Sixth Michigan Infantry, concerning their service in the Civil War.

Letters to Mrs. Sabra Hager discussing personal and family affairs, including mention of neighbors leaving for the Pikes Peak gold rush. 90 letters from her husband, Phineas A. Hager in which he tells of camp life and duties in the army of the Cumberland, the weather, food, sickness, and news of the Otsego men in his regiment. He comments on the death of his stepson, William White, on bushwhackers, slavery and the Southern people, and on the officers in his regiment. He describes the fighting before Atlanta in which action he was killed. Much of each letter is given over to home and business affairs. Also includes 25 letters from William H. White in which he describes camps Fort Wayne and McKim and camp life and duties; ship transportation to other camps such as Ship Island and Baton Rouge; and a Thanksgiving dinner. He tells about food and exchanging food with the natives, picket duty, sickness, and the use of contrabands in camp. He comments on officers and on slavery.