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The collection includes the Owsley family papers, both personal and business, of Ada, her siblings and their families, her parents, grandparents, and other relatives.

The collection includes the family papers of all of Ada’s relatives who are named above and her papers, 1856-1945. She also collected children’s art and display materials, 1950-1960 and undated (Boxes 3-7). Most of the materials document Ionia, Michigan, business records, including accounts of Angelo E. Tower when he was postmaster of Ionia, 1886-1890; Tower and Thompson Lumber Company, ledger and legal papers, 1868-1882; Webber Block (housing) papers, 1929-1936; Webber and Wilson (George W. Webber and H. J. Wilson’s mercantile business) ledger, 1866-1867; and Webber Road Construction Company, 1921-1937. There are also some legal records regarding the Topinabee Hotel, 1931, which was on Mullet Lake, near Cheboygan, Michigan. Unidentified land records are filed at the end of Box 2, and children’s art is housed in flat boxes 3-7.

Business correspondence, political advertising, and letters of Albert J. Dann.

The collection consists mainly of Dann’s business correspondence concerning advertisements for his newspaper, printing jobs, bills, receipts for his equipment, and supplies purchased. There is one official ballot for a Lake Odessa election in 1918 and political advertising, 1918-1919. Of special note are 32 letters from various Michigan soldiers of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, during World War I, describing the countryside and conditions after the armistice. These letters were published in the Lake Odessa Wave.

This collection, from 1956 to 2008 with undated materials, includes materials collected by Bush in her activities with Republican political events. It includes coverage of local, state, and national Republican activities.

This collection, from 1956 to 2008 with undated materials, includes materials collected by Bush in her activities with Republican political events. It includes coverage of local, state, and national Republican activities. Included in the collection are photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, including personal thank you notes for her participation and donations to the Republican Party and candidates, tickets, and significantly, political pins, most of which are 1968 Kleenex Company reproductions of pre-1960s pins. Non-reproduction pins cover 1960s forward. There is also one sleeve in one folder of Democratic Party pins including notable presidents. Two miscellaneous items include a pendant of President Nixon’s face on a rusty chain, and a President G. W. Bush key chain. There is also an oversized award for Bush from Governor William G. Milliken appointing her as a member of the Bay County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, 1975. There is one folder about Swallow, which includes Letter, Photograph, and Newspaper Clippings (copies), 1969, undated. The first folder in Box 1 includes material crated by or about Arlene Bush, including Awards, Poem, Newsletter, Letter, and [her] Resume, 1964, 1976, undated. The collection is organized The collection is organized by size, then alphabetically.. Overall, except for the rusty chain, the collection is in good condition.

Processing Note: During processing, approximately 1 cubic foot of materials was removed from the collection and returned to the donor as per her request. Returned materials include: newspaper clippings (which were copied), duplicates, national publications, nationally produced and distributed photographs, bumper stickers, and pins. Two Michigan Republican tee shirts were also transferred to the CMU Museum of Cultural and Natural History.

The Collection contains various personal materials of George, Henry, and Ruby Carpenter, as well as materials of Elictus McCormack, Berry McKelvey, Otto Russ, and Effie, Simpson.

The collection consists of various real estate records, including deeds, mortgages, land contracts, and biographical materials of the Carpenters. There are letters sent between Ruby Musgrove, her mother, and her brother, Billy, of Arthur, Nevada, where they farmed, 1915-1918. There are also miscellaneous real estate records of unrelated people who conducted business with the Carpenters.

The papers include correspondence about Hart's printing business, biographical materials, and newspaper clippings and photographs about people in Lake Odessa, Michigan.

The papers mostly consist mostly of correspondence about Hart’s printing business and examples of his printing work. Also included (1 folder each) are: Biographical Materials (copies), Photographs, undated, and Newspaper Clippings (copies) about Lake Odessa People, 1930s-1950s.

Records include fair newspaper articles, contracts, correspondence, requests for privileges, floor plans, and miscellaneous.

The collection includes newspaper articles (copies), contracts and correspondence concerning the renting of booths and the parade, requests for privileges (form requesting booth space if any remained), floor plans for booth layouts, rules for the election of the Fair Queen and her court, and miscellaneous, 1949-1956, undated.

The collection contains biographical materials, correspondence, field notes, legal documents, receipts of the Sylvester Sibley family, along with a Speech of Hon. H.H. Sibley on the Territories and Our Indian Relations.

Jeffers papers consist mostly of diaries belonging to him, his parents, wife, and other relatives, describing their daily lives in Binghamton (New York), Lone Tree (Nebraska), and Palo, Michigan, as well as Ira’s participation in the Civil War and his work as a barber and furniture dealer.

Collection includes organizational correspondence, membership cards, publications, forms, and photographic materials documenting the Ku Klux Klan of Mecosta County, Michigan.

In 1926, Lewis D. Capen of Millbrook, Mecosta County, Michigan, became the Exalted Cyclops of the Mecosta Klan No. 28. He served in the leadership position, an equivalent to chapter president, until 1929 when he became Great Kaliff or Grand Titan, a leadership position over Province # 4, which included the Klans of Ionia and Mecosta counties, and the towns of Petoskey, East Jordan, Hart, Manistee, Portland, and Muskegon, Michigan. Besides his Klan activities, Capen, born in Milbrook, Michigan, in 1892, he was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Level Lodge 219 of Milbrook. Note: a large collection of these records is also available at the Clarke. Capen was also a veteran of World War I and postmaster of Milbrook. On October 14, 1935 he married Hilda Hill, a teacher.

Capen’s accumulated organizational correspondence, membership cards, publications, forms, and photographic materials constitute the bulk of this collection. The Klans of Mecosta, Osceola, and Shiawassee, as well as those in Province # 4, mostly in lists, and the Women of the Ku Klux Klan mostly in forms and publications, are documented in this collection.

The membership cards for the Mecosta Klan are photocopies. They are organized alphabetically by surname. Each card usually includes the member’s name, age, home county, city or township, and address. A few remarks and financial notes maybe included.

Used in conjunction with other Klan collections and newspapers at the Clarke, this collection provides an insider’s view of life in the Michigan Klan during the 1920s-1930s.

This collection of family papers includes photographic materials, papers, family trees, and newspaper or magazine clippings of the Copeman and Reimer families and their friends and family from the Mount Pleasant, Michigan area.

This collection of family papers includes photographic materials, papers, family trees, and newspaper or magazine clippings of the Copeman and Reimer families and their friends and family from the Mount Pleasant, Michigan area. The collection is organized by series, alphabetically, and chronologically. Overall, the collection is in very good condition with some acidification, one glass plate negative with a broken corner, and tintypes which are a bit warped with minor edge damage. The major series of this collection are Copeman, Reimer, and Simonds. Nina Copeman is the main person in connection in the Copeman papers due to her historical family research. Much of the series consists of photographic materials including multiple formats of photographs from ambrotypes and tintypes through color photography. Papers consist of family correspondence, including about family history, materials related to their relative Linda Ronstadt, and the Henry Baldwin Copeman family farm in Crawford, Michigan. The Reimer series also consists of family photographs and materials, with photographs of reunions and family headstones in Palo and Mount Pleasant cemeteries. The Simonds series consists of photographs of family and their grocery store located in Mount Pleasant. The rest of the collection consist of family photographs and materials from the related Brownell, Ettinger, and Preston Families, as well as materials related to Palo Schools, Central State Teachers College, later Central Michigan University, history, and postcards with substantive notes between family members and photographic postcards of family members. The Oversized folder contains photographs of the Henry Baldwin Copeman Farm and Copeman and Reimer family trees.

Researchers should note that materials related to the family’s homestead in Idaho, Kenneth and Taimie Preston’s college photographs, Kenneth Preston’s work with the Civilian Conservation Corp, and Henry B. Copeman’s remaining diaries (including all Ku Klux Klan entries) were donated to the University of Idaho by the donor. The remaining material related to the family’s lives in Idaho were donated to Coeur d’Alene Museum and the Kellogg Museum by the donor.

Processing Note: .75 cubic feet of photographic materials, miscellaneous, and duplicates were withdrawn during processing. Acidic news clippings and materials were photocopied and the copies retained within the collection. Interfiled into other collections in the Clarke were seventeen postcards, two Michigan vertical file items, and a CMU commencement program. In August 2023, a 1852 wedding bedspread from Centreville, Pennsylvania, two Michigan friendship pillows, and miscellaneous family jewelry were transferred to the Ionia County Historical Society, and an Almont, Michigan, miniature tourist creamer or pitcher was transferred to the Almont Michigan Historical Society. Other miscellaneous items without a definite family provenance were withdrawn during processing.