The second series covers the period 1866-1927 and centers around the career of Charles R. Sligh, though the early folders do have papers relating to his brothers, James M. Sligh and Robert Burns Sligh, and their mother Eliza Wilson Sligh, and Charles R. Sligh's first wife, Mary Stowell Sligh and her family. The bulk of this series, however, relates to the business and political activities of Charles R. Sligh. There are three subseries here, consisting of correspondence, business and political materials, and bound records, principally political scrapbooks, business and land records, personal account books and diaries, and a volume written by Sligh containing a combination family history and autobiography. Among the topics covered in this series are the Grand River improvement scheme (1889-1905); the furniture industry (especially 1887-1890, 1911, and 1926); the Grand Rapids mayoralty election of 1906; the state constitutional convention in 1907; the election of 1912; World War I, including the preparedness movement, the Plattsburg Training Camp, the National Security League, and airplane production; Sligh's election to and activities in the Michigan State Senate, 1922-1924; the gubernatorial primary election of 1924; and miscellaneous business investments in California and Arizona, especially in the California Land and Water Co., the Lakeview Oil Co., the Interstate Oil Co. of California, and a variety of Arizona irrigation and land companies (1920-1927).
Correspondents represented in this series include Russell A. Alger Thomas W. Ferry Francis B. Stockbridge James McMillan George Richardson William Jennings Bryan John T. Rich Byron M. Cutcheon Cyrus G. Luce Aaron T. Bliss Hazen S. Pingree William E. Curtis James M. Turner William Alden Smith Julius C. Burrows Samuel W. Hopkins Charles W. Watkins Ebenezer Holden Justin R. Whiting Allen B. Morse Erwin C. Watkins Alexander C. Sly Charles A. Towne George F. Richardson Fred A. Baker Lee Mantle D.A. Reynolds Woodbridge Ferris Fred Warner Martin J. Cavanaugh Chase S. Osborn Frank Knox Richard L. Drake William P. Belden Henry Morgenthau, Sr. Arthur H. Vandenberg Mark Foote Frederick Wheeler Marion L. Burton Wilbur M. Brucker and John G. Emery.
