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Copies of letters from Swedish immigrants to Michigan to family and friends in Sweden.

This is a collection of copied letters from the holdings of the Emigrantinstitutet in Växjö, Sweden. The letters are from Swedish immigrants in Michigan and Indiana to their friends and families in Sweden. The letters are from various Michigan communities, including Benton Harbor, Calumet, Chippewa Lake, Custer, Elk Rapids, Escanaba, Grand Rapids, Hancock, Iron Mountain, Ironwood, Kalkaska, L'Anse, Ludington, Manistee, Marquette, Menominee, Michigamme, Montague, Muskegon, Rapid River, Tustin, and Vulcan. One of the letters is from Johan G. R. Baner of Ironwood, Michigan. In addition, there is daybook maintained by an immigrant recounting travels in America in 1890.

Collection of research materials on Michigan topics, mostly photocopies, notes, drafts of articles, and correspondence.

The collection consists mostly of photocopies of newspaper articles, magazine articles, information from websites, the Congressional Record, and chapters from reference and other books, on topics of interest to Barnett. Also included are his correspondence and email to various institutions and people asking for information and material, his notes, and typed articles he wrote on various topics. Topics documented in depth include: Ash, Center Line, John Farmer, Upper Peninsula railroads, Magnet Truck, Michigan railroads, the Mackinac Bridge, music and singers who sang songs about Michigan and or cars, the longstanding oleo versus margarine debates and laws, Michigan Central Railroad Co. Head Lights (a publication), Michigan jazz, traffic lights, with biographical materials on W.L. Potts, and Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad Co. maps (oversized transparencies). The materials (photocopies)on Headlights or Headlight Flashes includes: an advertising publication of the Company, which describes the comfort of traveling via the Company's trains and provides city histories with biographies of important families and individuals, as well as photographs of those people, expensive homes, businesses, public buildings, and pastoral scenes. Towns described include: Michigan City (Ind.), 1894; and the Mich. cities of: Albion, 1895; Pontiac, 1897; Benton Harbor and Flint, 1896; and Saint Joseph, 1898. Also included are microfilmed newspaper articles (photocopies), in which the Headlights of various cities were advertised, 1895-1896 and 1941, and 1997-2000 typed transcripts of other similar newspaper advertisements, 1895-1898. Additional subjects include: Agricultural Demonstration Trains of Michigan State University, 1906-1937; buying Michigan, 1795-1796; counties, name changes/considered creation of new counties; the history of county names; dandelions [as an emergency source of post-World War II rubber]; highway lighthouses [precursors to traffic lights]; lynchings; prisoners building Michigan roads during the 1920s; reflectors (roadside); roadside parks [Michigan had the first]; stagecoaches; broadcasting; homestead lands; Hollywood; the Port Huron and Milwaukee Railroad; Sabbath blue laws; Ludington (Mich.); swamp lands; centroids; Iron Range and Huron Bay Rialroad; ferries; population centers; Oldsmar, Florida; David Ward, Deward (Mich.); the Detroit and Charlevoix Railroad Company; Cigar Industry in Detroit, including strikes, unions, and women employees; Cigar Store Indians; crops of Flax and Gingseng and flax industries in Michigan prisons; Michigan Indians mentioned in county histories; Michigan Road Construction Train; Michigan World War I fruit and olive pit gathering campaign to create gas masks; Ragweed and hay fever and the Northern Hay Fever Resort Association, Topinabee, and the Western Hay Fever Association of the U.S., headquartered in Petoskey; General Philip H. Sheridan 's warhorse Rienzi; St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company and its subsidiary units, the Canal Mineral Land Company and the Michigan Pine Land Association; and Windmills in Detroit. Also included is a draft of a book by Graydon M. Meints on lumber baron David Ward that Barnett reviewed. The major topics found in 2021 Addition, Boxes 63-75, include: American Tract Society, Bloomers, Colporteur, Graphite Mining in Michigan, Medical Quacks, Michigan Iron and Land Company, Samuel Geil Maps of Michigan, and Whipping (Military corporal punishment). The 2022 Addition, Boxes 76-79, includes the major topics of Vigilance Committees against German Americans during World War I and Ski Trains. Other topics include: Buffalo Bill Train Accident, Carbon Works in Detroit, Detroit’s Streetlight Towers, Grand Duke Alexis A Romanov Visits Detroit, ‘Hello Girls’ [U.S. Army Signal Corps, World War I], Lindbergh in Michigan, Michigan World War II Veterans Bonus, Wetzel (Antrim County, MI, village), Bomb Mackinaw (which were 1925 practice maneuver plans to prevent enemies from crossing into the straits by dropping bombs from airplanes), and Crawfish. The collection is ongoing.

Processing Note: Abbreviations used by Barnett on folder labels were used and copied by Clarke processors exactly. Acidic materials were copied in 2014.

The Southgate family papers contain correspondence, documents, journals, writings, and drawings related to the Southgate family of Massachusetts and the Bigelow family of Michigan City, Indiana.

The Southgate family papers contain a total of 157 items: 107 letters, 30 documents and financial records, 16 writings and compositions, 2 printed items, a journal, and a journal fragment. The materials span 1755 to 1875 and represent several generations of the Southgate family of Massachusetts, Vermont, and Indiana.

The Correspondence series contains the incoming and outgoing correspondence of various members of the Southgate family. The earliest letters in the collection are primarily incoming to Steward Southgate and concern such topics as family news, local marriages, finances, and travel around Massachusetts. After Steward's death in 1765, the focus of the collection shifts to the next generation, particularly siblings John Southgate, Robert Southgate, and Sarah (Southgate) Dickinson. Letters frequently pertain to health issues, including the inoculation of Sarah's children (May 21, 1768), a wrist injury that Sarah received while knitting (March 27, 1775), and the deaths from scarlet fever of five children of Steward Southgate, Jr. (September 9, 1795). A few letters refer briefly to politics and the hardships of life in rural New England.

After the turn of the century, correspondence between the siblings becomes much scarcer, and focus shifts to the next generation of cousins and siblings, including Asenath Dickinson, Eliza Southgate, and Harriet Southgate. Letters between the young women tend to be very sentimental and affectionate, and reflect frequently on the themes of female friendship and religion. On April 5, 1816, Asenath Dickinson wrote to Eliza from Hadley, Massachusetts, "you have undoubtedly heard of the awakening in this place that God is shewing mercy to siners [sic] of all ages," and went on to describe daily meetings of believers. She noted that on Friday, "the young Converts speak and Pray." Letters postdating the 1821 birth of Eliza's son, George F. Bigelow, frequently refer to his poor health during childhood. Near the end of the series, letters describe Eliza's activities and social visits in Michigan City, Indiana, where she resided from about 1835 until her death in 1839, as well as George's college experiences in at Harvard University. A few scattered late letters are incoming to George Bigelow and shed light on his medical practice and real estate interests in Valparaiso, Indiana.

The Journals series contains a journal and a journal fragment, dated June 1826 and April 20, 1850, respectively. Though the earlier journal is unsigned, its author appears to be Eliza Southgate Bigelow; it contains a description of a party, musings on philosophical and religious subjects, and references to sermons that Eliza heard. George Bigelow wrote the journal fragment concerning an unspecified event, which he referred to as "tak[ing] a tower."

The Documents and Financial Records series includes receipts and accounts, land indentures, land descriptions, and a drawing of a 100-acre plot. Taken together, the materials span 1756-1836. The documents relate primarily to transactions involving members of the Southgate family in Massachusetts and provide details of their material and financial circumstances.

The Writings series contains many compositions by George F. Bigelow, including school essays on the topics of cheerfulness; the growth of Michigan City, Indiana; contentment; suffering; debt and credit; and the traits of good and bad scholars. Also present are a play by Bigelow entitled "The Minister at Home," several unattributed poems, and an essay on Steward Southgate, Sr., by a descendant.

The Drawings series contains 11 pen and ink and pencil drawings of decorative patterns, many of which depict leaves and flowers.

The Printed Items series contains a newspaper clipping concerning probate courts in Connecticut and a stamp related to the American Merchants Union Express company.