The Mullett family collection contains many useful descriptions of the state, and is a good source of information for some of the state's economic and topographic conditions during the 19th century. The papers, 1825-1936, are broken down into four series.
The first member of the Mullett family to settle in Michigan was John Mullett who came to Detroit from Buffalo, New York in 1814. Here he achieved prominence as a surveyor, "helping to layout the city of Detroit and assisting in many of the government's original surveys of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana." He also did much of the survey work for the plank road between Detroit and Grand Rapids. In 1849, he moved with his family to a farm near Williamston in Ingham County.
John Mullett and his wife had a large family, many of whom are represented in the Mullett family collection. There was Catherine Mullett, who later married B.F. Hall, an Aurora, Illinois banker. The son of B.F. and Catherine Hall was Robert Henry Hall (1837-1914), an 1860 graduate of West Point, who served as an infantry officer in f the Civil War, and then went on as an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy from 1871 to 1878. Hall continued on in the service to the rank of Brigadier General in the Regular Army by the time of his retirement in 1901. One of his last tours of duty was as general officer of volunteers in the Philippines during the Spanish American War.
Another child of John Mullett was Martha Mullett, who later married John Harris Forster. Forster was a mining engineer and agent for two different Upper Peninsula firms. He was responsible for building triangulation stations in the Upper Peninsula. Later he represented Sheldon and Columbian Copper in New York (1863, 1867-1869), Chicago (1867), and Salt Lake City (1869). He spent the last years of his life on a farm in Ingham County.
Other children of John Mullett included Charles F., Marshall C., Henry, and John Harvey Mullett, who, like his father, was a surveyor.
