The Weston collection primarily documents the career of Isaac M. Weston. Included are smaller series of papers of his brother and father. The collection includes correspondence, topical files, business and legal papers, and photographs. Of note are materials concerning Michigan's exhibit at the World Fair in 1893 and papers concerning lumbering and land interests in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Isaac Mellen Weston was born April 20, 1845 in North Anson, Maine. The chronology of his life from those years in Maine until he established permanent residency in Michigan in 1867 gives the impression of a youth both restless and enterprising. He moved with his family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1857. In 1862, he participated in the Little Crow Indian Campaign serving as a lieutenant with a Minnesota regiment. From 1863 to 1865, he attended the University of Michigan. From there, he was for a time a traveling correspondent for the Chicago Times. Later in 1865, he worked as military storekeeper at Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory. And, in 1866, he was managing editor of the Daily Union Vedette in Salt Lake City, Utah, an anti-Mormon, anti-Brigham Young newspaper.
About this time, Weston's life took on greater permanence. In 1867, he became an associate with his father William Weston in the manufacture of lumber in Wisconsin and in Whitehall, a lumbering city, located in Muskegon County, Michigan. In 1877, he became cashier and manager of the First National Bank of Whitehall where his father was then president. Following the retirement of his father in 1879, Weston became the president of the bank. He later moved to Grand Rapids in 1881 where he worked as cashier of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank which he reorganized as the Fourth National Bank.
Around this time too, Weston involved himself in local and state politics. In 1880, he was nominated for the office of state treasurer. He was treasurer of the Grand Rapids Board of Education from 1881 to 1883. He also served as a member of the Grand Rapids Board of Police and Fire Commissioners. And in 1888, he was elected mayor of the city on the Democratic ticket. Weston was an influential member of the state's Democratic structure. He was a member of the state executive committee for six years, party treasurer for four years, and party chairman also for four years. In 1888, Weston was elected as the first delegate-at-large from Michigan to attend the Democratic National Convention to be held in St. Louis, Missouri. The nominee of this convention, Grover Cleveland, later appointed Weston to be a government commissioner with responsibility to examine, for acceptance, the portion of the Southern Pacific Railroad between San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.
In 1893, Weston was president of the Board of World's Fair Managers for Michigan. In this capacity, Weston had the responsibility for approving and overseeing all of the exhibits from Michigan to be displayed at the Columbian Exposition.
Up until the time of his death, Weston led a full and varied life. He was president of a political organization known as the Association of the Northwest. In 1890, he helped to purchase and manage the Grand Rapids Democrat, one of the city's newspapers. He was a member of the Peninsular Club, member and president of O-Wash-Ta-Nong Boat Club, and member resident of the Detroit Club. Weston never married. He died December 10, 1898 in New York City and is buried in North Anson, Maine.
