The Stearns papers consist of three boxes of manuscript material and thirty-three rolls of microfilm. Virtually all of this concerns Stearns' complex business dealings. There is no personal correspondence and but a single manuscript folder describing Stearns' political career. The microfilmed material are volumes primarily detailing the history of the Stearns Salt and Lumber Company. The records fall into two distinct groups, those created before 1900 and those done after the turn of the century.
Before 1900 the company's records are very straightforward. They consist of cashbooks, journals and ledgers. The only complication is that there were two sets of ledgers. The ledgers from Ludington apparently are the main records of the firm, those maintained at Bennett, Michigan, were of Stearns' box manufacturing, saw, planing and shingle mills. The records were microfilmed chronologically.
After the turn of the century the firm's record keeping became far more bulky and opaque. For microfilming, these records were divided into six groups: general ledgers and journals, sales ledgers, lumbering operations, payrolls, mill and manufacturing reports, and miscellaneous records (some of firms other than Stearns Salt and Lumber).
The general ledgers and journals are arranged chronologically. There are three types of ledgers (transfer ledger number 1, transfer ledger number 2 and transfer ledger number 3) and two types of journals (a general journal and a journal 2B). Apparently each ledger type and journal 2b had some specific purpose, but all explanatory material has been lost, and the entries are very cryptic. These records were filmed in their entirety.
Because of their bulk, the company's sales records were sampled. Every third account was filmed. A sufficiently large sample remains to allow a researcher to statistically reconstruct the firm's trading patterns.
Stearns kept a separate set of books detailing work in the field. These are grouped together as "Lumbering Operations" records. They include ledgers, journals, cashbooks, and sales records. The volumes are arranged chronologically. Most were sampled. Every third ledger account was filmed. Every other month of the journals was filmed. Because of their complex arrangement sampling of the sales records would have been very difficult, and thus they were filmed in their entirety.
Payrolls were also sampled. Every third month was filmed. Camp payrolls apparently refer to field operations, Ludington payrolls to workers at Stearns' home operations. The "Record of Employees" is a very brief volume giving a great deal of information about Stearns' Ludington office workers and middle level administrators. Marital status, children, club affiliations, property ownership, and financial status are among the items included.
Mill and Manufacturing records are production reports of Stearns' Ludington operations. They were filmed in their entirety. The miscellaneous volumes include a wide variety of documents, all filmed in their entirety. Included are inventory control books, records of land transactions, a sand register, records of the Stearns Warehouse Company, the Epworth League Railway and the M. Reichardt & Son Piano Manufacturing Company.
Justus S. Stearns was born April 10, 1845 in Pomfret, Chautauqua County, New York, where his father farmed and operated a lumbering business. In 1861 the family moved to Eire, Pennsylvania where Justus joined his father in running a retail lumber outlet. Ten years later the family moved to Toledo, Ohio, where father and son once again jointly operated a lumbering concern.
In 1876 Justus moved to Ludington, Michigan, where he was employed in a business venture founded by his sister-in-law's husband, E.B. Ward. While continuing his association with Ward, Stearns started his first independent business, the operation of a small saw mill, in 1880. His independent career was so successful that in 1885 he purchased the salt and lumber interests formerly owned by Ward.
The various firms operated by Stearns proved extraordinarily productive. In 1898 they cut 150,000,000 feet of timber. By 1900 Stearns ran the largest lumbering operation in Michigan. In addition to lumber, Stearns' Michigan investments included real estate speculation, railroads, banking, automobile manufacturing, and electric power generation.
Stearns may have decided to go outside Michigan to invest his wealth as the result of a federal court decision against the flagship Stearns Salt and Lumber Company. The firm was fined $10,000.00 for receiving illegal refunds on freight bills from the Pere Marquette Railroad. For whatever reason, Stearns began to invest large sums of money in the South. He held interests in ventures in Tennessee, Georgia and Florida, but his major investments were in Kentucky. Stearns, Kentucky, a company town he founded, headquartered his lumbering and mining operations in the state.
In addition to his business activities, Stearns played a role in Michigan politics. In 1898 he was elected Michigan's Secretary of State. In 1900 he bid unsuccessfully for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Stearns never again sought elected office, but he remained interested in Republican Party affairs and was a delegate to the 1928 Republican National Convention.
