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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.

The Asa Waldo Wildes daybook contains an account of his 1857 trip from Detroit to Michigan's Upper Peninsula via Lake Huron and Lake Superior, as well as poetry, financial accounts, and a draft of an 1857 survey report.

The Asa Waldo Wildes daybook contains an account of his 1857 trip from Detroit to Michigan's Upper Peninsula via Lake Huron and Lake Superior, as well as poetry, financial accounts, and a draft of an 1857 survey report.

The daybook opens with a note regarding the death of Wildes's young son Francis on September 17, 1849, accompanied by a pair of short poems; other poetry, dated 1857 and 1858, appears on the next 11 pages. The next segment consists of a 28-page draft of a survey made for the Marquette & Ontonagon Railroad.

A 38-page account concerns Wildes's journey to the Upper Peninsula on the steamer Illinois, beginning May 18, 1857. Wildes wrote about the 1812 Siege of Detroit, seen through the eyes of a War of 1812 veteran (pp. 11-12), but focused primarily on the sights and people encountered along Michigan's eastern and northern coasts. He described both American and Canadian cities along the lakeshore, and on one occasion detailed his interactions with local Indian traders, whom he met near Saginaw Bay. Despite its springtime start, the Illinois frequently encountered ice while on Lake Superior and became trapped on several occasions before reaching Fort Wilkins and Portage Charter Township. Once on land, Wildes focused on natural resources, paying special attention to the local copper and iron industries along Lake Superior's southern coast and around L'Anse, Michigan, where he concluded his narrative. The volume concludes with poetry and financial accounts related to the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, dated as late as 1864.

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.

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.

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.

Early settlers of Marquette [originally Worcester], Michigan, and founders of the Marquette Iron Company. Correspondence of Amos R. Harlow, Ellen J. Harlow (familiarly known as Ella), and Fred O. Clark; also diaries of Ella Harlow concerning daily activities and family affairs; plan of a scow; and photographs.

The Harlow family papers consists of correspondence, mainly among family members, but also relating to business affairs, to life in Marquette, and to family affairs. There are also a few diaries of Harlow's daughter Ella and photographic portraits.

Eight letters of recommendation for Fisher from fellow officers relating to his Civil War service; correspondents include Melvin Brewer (Sept. 18, 1863), John W. Geary (June 31, 1863), W. D. Mann (Aug. 27, 1863), Angelo Paldi (Oct. 7, 1863), C. H. Town (Oct. 17, 1863), and C. I. Walker (Aug. 13, 1861); also one letter (April 21, 1863) from George C. Gordon of Company I, 24th Michigan Infantry. Collection also includes a typescript of excerpts from Fisher's diary describing a Michigan boat trip from Detroit to Ontonagon via Sault Ste. Marie in 1850, and student days at the University of Michigan in 1860; also diary of an overland trip to California in search of gold and the return trip by sea, with comments on mining; three University of Michigan student notebooks on courses by James V. Campbell, Thomas M. Cooley, and Charles I. Walker; and notes on the James Fisher family by Max Fisher.

John Harris Forster was a geologist, engineer, surveyor, farmer, and chronicler of life in the Americas in the mid-19th century. As he traveled about North and South America, surveying boundaries, inspecting copper mines, mining gold with the California Forty-Niners, or raising hogs, Forster wrote of his experiences in his journals and used them and his acute memory to describe his travels to family, friends, and an interested public. His journals, correspondence, and speeches are a rich source of social history and geographical and architectural information on life in the areas in which he traveled, including the Great Lakes (Michigan and Wisconsin), Far West, and Central and South America. Forster's papers are of considerable interest for their detailed descriptions of the culture and lifestyle of the native populations he encountered, the terrain and climate of the areas in which he camped and surveyed, and the hardships of life in unsettled or recently settled areas.

The John Harris Forster papers are arranged in seven series. Correspondence primarily contains letters written by Forster to various family members, and is arranged chronologically by year. The Thomas Forster series contains materials of John's father, chiefly correspondence and documents pertaining to family and financial matters. Journals and Manuscripts is arranged by year, with titles provided on the contents list. Scrapbook Materials consist of clippings from various newspapers (most of which are unidentified). Forster evidently was a journalist correspondent for these papers, and his columns seem to be excerpts from his journals, with slight modification. His Speeches and Addresses to various Michigan organizations also are based to a large extent on his journals, but there are exceptions, such as the very interesting one detailing life as a Swine-herd in California. Miscellaneous consists mostly of biographical materials and financial documents. Photographs includes portraits and view of the family farm near Williamston, Michigan. For related materials on Forster, including biographical clippings, correspondence to his wife, family documents, and other Forster writings, the researcher should consult the Mullett Family Papers.