Collections : [Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library]

The collection documents the history of Saint Charles, Michigan, the Bad and Shiawassee rivers, canals, steamboats, sawmills, public waterways and routes, coal mines, river restoration, and the Greve family.

This is an excellent local history collection of Saint Charles, Michigan, 1800-2011, collected, researched and created by a local historian and researcher, Dale Greve, from 1980 through 2011. The collection documents the history of Saint Charles, Michigan, the Bad and Shiawassee rivers, canals, steamboats, sawmills, public waterways and routes, coal mines, river restoration, and the Greve family in research notes, scrapbooks, maps, reminiscences, photographs, newspaper clippings, reel-to-reel tapes, videos, archaeological surveys and studies, articles, and mitigation plans and project reports.

The collection is organized first by size with oversized materials placed at the end of the finding aid. Letter-size materials are in Boxes 1-23 and legal-sized materials are in boxes 24-27 and 29.Boxes 1-18 are each cubic foot boxes, 19-28 are .5 cubic foot and Box 29 is .25 cubic foot.

After size, the collection is organized by topic and format, and then alphabetically. Boxes 1-18 consist of materials previously in binders, documenting Saint Charles, the Bad and Shiawassee rivers route, canals, steamboats, and sawmills. Boxes 19-22 document the river route from Saginaw to Saint Charles, canals, coal mines, the Bad and Shiawassee rivers, the Greve family, houseboats, motor boating, fishing, the Saginaw Valley waterways, and river and steamboats charts, graphs, and history documented in a variety of formats. Box 23 consists mostly of river studies. Box 24 consists mostly of Greve’s original notes on his research. Boxes 25-26 include most of the Saint Charles history photographs, although some are found also in Box 19. Boxes 26-27 consist mostly of reminiscences on reel-to-reel tapes and videos.

The oversized Saint Charles materials include a volume on the Coal Mine Era in Saint Charles. The first two oversized folders include folder 1) mostly oversized photographs and other oversized related materials; and folder 2) mostly oversized maps and related materials.

2021 Addition: In 2021, boxes 28-29 and four oversized folders were added to the collection. These materials are arranged alphabetically. Box 28 contains St. Charles materials gathered by Dale Greve, including: interviews, maps, certificates, research notes, articles, a report, and a CD, Up River from Saginaw to St. Charles, a forgotten history, 2019. The majority of the collection is a gathered history report of St. Charles, 1822-2020. Additionally, there is a detailed report of the history of coal mines in St. Charles with location, details, and images of almost all the coal mines there. There are two typed transcriptions of 1982 oral history interviews of Aldo Hulien (1905-1986), probably conducted by Dale, and of Jeannette Mason (1890-1986), conducted by Aldo’s wife, Lillian Hulien (1907-1995), who adds her memories. (Their vital statistic dates from Social Security Death Index.)The interviewees tell their story and experience of what it was like living in St. Charles. There are no permission/release forms for these interviews in the collection. There are also maps and research notes composed by Greve of the Bad and Shiawassee Rivers.

Box 29 has legal-sized materials that include Abstracts, a letter, a list, and a story. The letter was written by Dale Greve and sent to Bob Przybyzski. The letter outlines all of Greve’s research on St. Charles mines, and his offer to help Przybyzski if he ever needed it (see Letter to Bob Przybyzski, 2017). The list is items compiled by Greve that were lost from the past and present in St. Charles (See Items Lost to the Village of St. Charles, Past and Present, 016). The story is nine pages long and is about the life of a St. Charles coal miner in 1929 (see St. Charles Coal miner’s life, 1929).

The four oversized folders, #3-6, include St. Charles architecture blueprints, maps, abstracts, a certificate, a graph, and a panorama. Folder 3) is a Certificate of First-Aid Training by the Bureau of mines for Charles Krause. Folder 4) has two blueprints, one of an engineer’s office from a mine and the other being the complete 1946 St. Charles sewer system. Folder 5) has a panoramic picture of Shiawassee Lake, a chronological timeline of St. Charles coal mines, and abstracts. Folder 6) has a map of the Bad and Shiawassee rivers routes and park plan for St. Charles.

This artificial collection which Rupp purchased from various sources, documents Michigan history and tourism, including Indigenous people of Michigan; Ernest Hemingway, his family, and movies based on his books; and the Louise Obermiller papers (partial) which documents disputes over ownership of lands of the Odawa and Ojibwa bands in Little Traverse Bay area.

This artificial collection, which Rupp purchased from various sources, documents Michigan history and tourism, including Indigenous people of Michigan; Ernest Hemingway, his family, and movies based on his books; and the Louise Obermiller papers (partial) which documents disputes over ownership of lands of the Odawa and Ojibwa bands in Little Traverse Bay area. Each of these series is further described below. The collection consists of paper-based and audio-visual formats, mostly correspondence, legal documents, and property records, photographs, photograph albums, moving image films, and a partial printing block of a hymn in Odawa. The text is predominantly in English, except for the printing block and one partial note page in German. Series are organized by size, format, alphabetically and chronologically, except for the Obermiller series. The original order of the Obermiller series was destroyed by the time the material arrived in the Clarke, so Archivist Marian Matyn followed the original order as illustrated by the University of Notre Dame Archives finding aid. Boxes 1-5 are .5 letter-size, Box 6 is .5 legal-size and Box 7 is a cubic foot box containing three archival film cannisters. The collection is in good physical condition. For more detail see the series description.

The first series in the collection is Michigan history and tourism (in Box 1, Box 3, 1 folder in Box 6, and one moving image film reel). This series includes printed tourism brochures and photographic glass slides (in Box 1), photographs, photograph albums, postcards, a printing block for a hymn in Odawa, undated, a stereoscopic view of “Ojibwe children, and letters (in Box 3).

Series 1:

The glass slides are all undated. They are mostly mass-produced, tinted, some with text. Most of the mass-produced slides are part of multiple series created by Keystone View Company or Underwood and Underwood of the Song of Hiawatha as reenacted by Indigenous people. The most unique slides in the collection are two by the Detroit Photographic Co. of Indigenous men fishing in the rapids of Sault Ste Marie. The first slide is the black and white photographic slide, while the second is a tinted version of the first. There are also some homemade slides of another sequence of the Song of Hiawatha and of the Hiawatha Pagenat at Portage Lake. A slide of Pocahontas saving John Smith is a black and white photograph of a drawing. There is also a photographic slide of a bronze tablet (marker) documenting Marquette’s Funeral.

The creators of the two undated photograph albums are unidentified, as are most of the images. One of the photograph albums, with images from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, has several images documenting the photographer as a white woman. Most of the photographs appear to be of her family at their home and farm. The second photograph album contains portraits of unidentified African American people, mostly from the first half of the twentieth century, with a few which may be very late nineteenth century. One 1952 baby portrait is identified by full name as Nanita Ruth Brown (1952-2006), who lived her entire life in California.

The printing block is of a partial hymn with text in Odawa, undated, which was wrapped in tattered Messenger, v. X no. 5, July 1905 from the Holy Childhood Church and School, Harbor Springs, which was used as packing material. The printing block was retained as an example by the Clarke. It was one of a large number of similar printing blocks in Odawa and English of hymns and prayers, which were transferred to the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indian’s Department of Repatriation, Archives and Records.

Completing this series is an example of Petoskey History, one folder of Correspondence from Bertha Rundell in Petoskey to her husband, John A. Rundell in Detroit, 1913, 1917. Box 6 (legal-size folders) includes 1 folder of undated photographs of an Indigenous woman and man in a canoe on a river, photographed by Gruett Chandler. These photographs are printed on the back of a partial, damaged sign.

There is also one moving image film, in its own cannister, “When Michigan Was Young,” 1964. Film ID No. 78141-2. ID Number: Film No. 78141-2. Format: 16mm, Black and White, Optical Soundtrack, Polyester bas. Date: 1964. Size: 1,000 ft. Information off Original Can(s): “D1048 When Michigan Was Young,” “Instructional Communications Center Northern Michigan University Marquette, Michigan.” Information off Original Leader(s): “When Michigan Was Young D1048” “Film Library Northern Michigan University.” Overview of Scenes: [Note: This film is composed of still artistic representations of settlers and Indigenous people of Michigan and the Midwest from the ice age through the 18th century. ] Animation of Michigan’s lakes forming. Still artistic representation of mammoths. Indigenous people fishing and farming. Indigenous people building canoes. “When Michigan Was Young Copyright 1964 Consumers Power Company” opening title. “Collection Detroit Public Library”, “C.W. Jefferys from the Imperial Oil Collection”, “William L. Clement Library University of Michigan”, “Michigan Historical Collections”, “Transportation Library University of Michigan”, “Michigan Historical Commission”, “Pontiac Motor Division General Motors Corporation”, “Public Archives of Canada”, “The Ohio Historical Society”, “State Historical Society of Wisconsin”, “The Indiana Historical Society”, “The Royal Ontario Museum”, “The National Lumberman’s Bank of Muskegon”, “The American Museum of Natural History”, “Chicago Natural History Museum” and “The Kenneth Jewell Chorale” in the introductory credits. Map of Michigan. Still artistic representation of settlers interacting with Indigenous people. Large ships on water. Settlers speaking with indigenous people. Indigenous people cooking over a fire. Settlers building houses and walls. Indigenous people fighting one another with bows. Map of rivers from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Huron. Animation of a line from Lake Huron to Like Michigan then to Wisconsin. A Settler leading a group of Indigenous people. Settlers shooting Indigenous people with guns. Settlers assembling canoes. Settlers walking in the rain. Map of rivers within Michigan. Settlers hunting animals with Indigenous people. Settlers and Indigenous people at a meeting in a log cabin. Burning buildings. Settlers kicking indigenous people out of a building. Map of Michigan with the label “Quebec.” Settlers and Indigenous people fighting. A settler cutting of an Indigenous person’s hair in a fight. Indigenous people capturing women and children. Map of Indiana and Illinois with American flags. Map of Michigan with British flag. American and British soldiers at a standoff. Map of Michigan and Wisconsin with the label “Northwest Territory.” Settlers and Indigenous people signing a document. Map of Michigan with an American flag. Settlers cutting down trees and building log cabins. “By Portafilms” end credit. [Note: The film was released by perennial Education.] Physical Information: .055 shrinkage. Miscellaneous Information: None.

Series 2:

The second series is Ernest Hemingway-related materials (in Boxes 2 and 7). This series, mainly in Box 2, consists mostly of secondary source movie material connected to his books; clippings; postcards and programs of Ernest Hemingway festivals. The exceptions to this are his mother’s sketch of her cabin, undated; his grandfather Anson T. Hemingway’s 1923 diary; family photographs, 1897, 1904, 1912, 1924, undated; and a Photographic Postcard of Marcelline and Ernest in Walloon Lake at Windemere, with a note from Dr. C. Hemingway to his sister, Miss Sarah Stitsman, 1911.

Anson T. Hemingway’s 1923 diary, January 1-December 31 (Scattered), is notable because it is the year that his wife, Adelaide Edmonds, died on January 5. The diary has scattered entries with many empty pages. The majority of his very brief daily listing of Oak Park, Illinois, church and social events and activities, news of family and friends, including visits, weddings, funerals, and letters received, his and his “Wife”’s health, her death and funeral. He often includes the weather and interesting news bits he likely read in the newspaper, such as election information and manufacturing statistics on Ford cars (which he noted on January 29). Anson refers to Grace, his daughter, as Daughter or Grace, and he refers to his daughter-in-law as Grace Hall Hemingway (GHH) or Dr. CEH and wife. Anson’s son, Clarence, who is mentioned often in the diary, is referred to as Dr. Ed, Dr. Clarence, or Dr. CEH. Ernest Hemingway is mentioned twice in the diary, as Anson heard that Ernest and Hadley were in Italy (April 7), and later, in Toronto (September 21). For a detailed inventory of when Ernest, his parents or siblings are mentioned in the diary, see the listing Archivist Marian Matyn prepared and added to the Diary’s folder.

The rest of the series includes a Screenplay adaption of “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by R. V. O’Neil, undated; Islands in the Stream” Paramount Press Book, 1976; and “To Have and Have Not” Script, 2nd Rev. Final 1944, 20th century photocopy, undated. There is a professionally recorded Caedmon Tape, Ernest Hemingway Reading, Reel-to-Reel Tape, [1965].

Box 6 (legal-size folders) includes 1 folder of Hemingway, Ernest, “Islands in the Stream,” Color Movie Lobby Cards, #1, #5, each measures 11x114 inches, 1962.

There are two moving image Hemingway film reels, each in its own film cannister: “My Old Man,” 1970 and “Hemingway - Heroes -”, “DuPont Hemingway Act I Reel I,” 1961.

Film ID No. 78141-1. Format: 16mm, Color, Optical Soundtrack, Polyester base. Date: 1970 Size: 450 ft. “My Old Man” Information off Original Can(s): none Information off Original Leader(s): “Metro-Cleveland Educational Resource Center 4300 Brook Park Road Cleveland, Ohio 44134”, “FC-5375 My Old Man”, “E 47760 My Old Man”, “DEL/GEN/ILL/EBF – ‘My Old Man’ – Commentary”, “GFL 126741” Overview of Scenes: “Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation” title screen. Introductory credits. People carrying luggage in a crowded area. Still photographs of Paris streets and buildings. Horse racing. Still photographs of a child and then adolescent. More horse racing. Joe, a teenaged boy, and Butler, his father, sit at a cafe outdoors and talk. Joe makes eye contact with a teenaged girl. She smiles at him then leaves. Joe sitting next to a tree while Butler jumps rope. More horse racing. A horse jockey sitting at a cafe outside. Joe and Butler stare at him. Joe and Butler walk and talk. Joe and Butler walk and talk on another day. Man leading a horse at stables. Butler sitting outside with two other men speaking to him. Joe hands him a newspaper and the other two men leave. Joe walks and talks with a different man. End credits. Physical Information: No shrinkage. (The film is on a polyester base.) Miscellaneous Information: More information on the film’s cast and crew can be found here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16758152/?ref_=fn_ttl_ttl_6 The version of the film in the Clarke seems to be an abbreviated version or a promotional short of the full film. The full film can be found here: https://www.britannica.com/video/tale-narrator-Hemingway-impulses-childhood-illusions-My-1970/-138917 (These resources were accessed on March 18, 2025.)

Film ID No. 78141-3. Format: 16mm, Black and White, Optical Soundtrack, Polyester base. Date: 1961 Size: 1,800 ft. Information off Original Can(s): None. Information off Original Leader(s): “Hemingway – Heroes -”, “DuPont Hemingway Act I Reel I” journalist from 1934 to 1970.] Still images of Hemingway as a young child into a young adult. Men duck hunting. Child Hemingway loading a shotgun. Still images of Hemingway as a young adult. Newspaper articles written by Hemingway. Hemingway in a high school yearbook. Poster of Uncle Sam recruiting for the army. Newspaper articles about the war. World War I nurses. The Red Cross. Destroyed buildings. Explosions and gunfire. Trenches. Warfare. Veteran in a wheelchair. Still images of Hemingway writing. Back to Huntly at the desk. Still images of Hemingway. Moving images of men fly fishing in a river. Ducks flying in clearing. Hemingway standing next to a young woman. Streets and storefronts in France. Hemingway opens a bottle of alcohol. Streets with people walking on them. A skyline with the Eiffel tower. “La Rotonde” sign. More storefronts. Man with an eyepatch with glasses overtop of it. Men in military uniforms walking on street. Soldiers salute. Closeup of Benito Mussolini in uniform. Soldiers on motorcycles with body shields. Army marching. Senior woman smelling a flower. A player piano playing. Men and women dancing. Back to Huntly at the desk. Still images of Hemingway. Man hanging a “Pamplona Running of the Bulls” poster. Band marching on the streets. A parade. A fireworks show. The running of the bulls. Bulls ramming into people. People in a colosseum. Band playing in colosseum seats. A matador fighting a bull. Still images of a matador stabbing the bull. A waterfall. A windmill. “Viva España” sign. Soldiers crawling on the ground. Dead soldiers on battlefield. Soldiers marching on the street. Soldiers loading machine guns. Soldiers on bridge. Back to Huntly at the desk. Hemingway with animal trophies. An African savannah. Elephants, gazelles, giraffes and zebras. A mountain. Still images of Hemingway. A building in the savannah burning. Tanks moving through woods. Hemingway fishing from a boat. Hemingway interviewed in his house in Florida near a pool. Hemingway shows off his hunting trophies. “Julian Claman,” “Chet Huntly,” “Andrew Duggan,” and “NBC News” end credits. Physical Information: .035 shrinkage. Miscellaneous Information: More information on the film’s cast and crew can be found here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0566742/ (This resource was accessed on March 18, 2025.)

Series 3:

The third series is part of the Obermiller papers. This series, in Boxes 4-5 and all but two folders in Box 6, documents the combined efforts of Louise Obermiller, Michigan Indigenous people, and their white allies to substantiate and defend claims to land ownership on behalf of Odawa and Ojibwa bands in Little Traverse Bay as stipulated in treaties signed with the United States government in 1836 and 1855. There is clear documentation in the collection of broken promises by whites to Indigenous landowners, illegal abstracts of title created to sell communally owned Indigenous land. Properties in and near Bay View and Harbor Springs are discussed in the collection. While a majority of the correspondents are from Michigan’s Northern through central Lower Peninsula, others are from the Upper Peninsula, and out-of-state, mostly in Ohio, where Louise was based. Materials include property records; major correspondence are between Louise Obermiller, Effie Obermiller, Odawa and Ojibwa chiefs and tribal members, government officials, lawyers, judges, and community members throughout northern and central Michigan; and legal records including court records, lists of treaty signatories and claimants, affidavits, testimonies, and depositions. Also included are a few empty envelopes and a Druggist’s Bond of Henry W. Rodenbaugh, of Reidsville, Van Buren County, Michigan, 1902; with a photocopy, 2022.

Processing Notes:

This collection is part of a much larger collection that Daniel Rupp offered to the Clarke Historical Library in 2024. Many of the materials in the original collection were either duplicates of materials the Clarke already had in its collections or were outside of the Clarke’s collecting parameters. These materials were returned to Rupp in 2025. Of the materials retained at the Clarke Historical Library, publications were separately cataloged. By then, the original order of the unpublished materials was lost. Archivist Marian Matyn used the original order of the Obermiller collection, as demonstrated by Notre Dame Archives finding aid, as a guide to reconstruct the original order of the Oberrmiller materials. Order by size, format, title and date was imposed upon the rest of the collection. Acidic materials were photocopied to preserve the originals. Both photocopies and originals were maintained in the collection. No materials were withdrawn during processing. Films, originally on metal and plastic reels, were spliced, viewed via projection, described, and archivally housed in vented cannisters with cores by archives film student Max Maksymowski according to national film standards.

Organizational records include a constitution, correspondence, membership materials, meeting minutes, publications, financial records, scrapbooks, charter, convention material, historical research, and miscellaneous.

The collection includes a constitution, undated; correspondence, 1922-1963, undated; membership cards and papers, undated; meeting minutes, 1912-1939; publications, various; photographs, undated; receipts, 1924-1956; records (minutes and financial reports), 1930-1932; reports, 1940-1945; resident membership books, 1933-1944; treasurer’s books, 1912-1933; scrapbooks, 1912-1956; a charter, 1912. Various other materials document state and national conventions; historical research on Michigan ancestry; and programs of the DAR, Isabella Chapter. A 100th year tea program, 2012, is included, as well as a framed edition of the Jan. 14, 1800 Ulster County Gazette.

Processing Notes: General Michigan material was merged into other collections where it would be most apt to be used. Most publications were merged with the appropriate serials and cataloged.

The papers include family, personal and business correspondence, church records, and materials documenting the Greenback Party and the history of Clinton County, Michigan.

The collection includes: family, personal, and business correspondence includes letters from his brothers, Amos and William, about their inheritance, farm products, the sale of grain, a new steam grist mill and railroads in Ohio, outrageous prices for dry goods during the Civil War, school life in Ohio, elections (1877), land prices, drought (1886), church life, Standard Oil Company drilling, etc., 1848-1892. Also included are miscellaneous church records of the Greenbush Christian Church, 1858-1908. Political correspondence and newspaper clippings documenting the National Greenback Party, 1882-1887, and undated are also included. Lastly, Blank’s diaries describe expenses, the weather, personal activities, churches in Greenbush and Eureca, Clinton County, Michigan, the death of his wife, Lydia, his childhood in Ohio (recounted in 1879), Greenback activities (1880-1881), death of his child (August 1882), suicide of his friend Britton (September 18, 1885), and Prohibitionists’ activities (1887-1888).

The collection documents his media and academia career, with photographs Schock collected.

The collection consists of papers documenting Schock’s career in media and academia, such as stories he wrote, his tenure materials, biographical materials, correspondence, and photographs he collected.