Search

Grand Rapids, Michigan family, involved in furniture making and other businesses, also active in local state and Republican Party politics and businessmen's associations. Papers include family papers and correspondence, business records, scrapbooks and visual materials.

The Sligh family collection consists of the personal and business papers of the four generations of Slighs mentioned in the biographical introduction: James W. Sligh, Charles R. Sligh, Charles R. Sligh, Jr., and Robert L. Sligh. Although there is some overlap, the files have been arranged into seven series, one for each of these three Slighs, one for the Sligh Furniture Company and related family businesses, and one each for Newspaper clippings and Scrapbooks, and Visual Materials.

Ludington, Michigan, business firm established by Justus S. Stearns. Topical files relating to business interests, including papers concerning their conviction on charges of receiving illegal refunds from the Pere Marquette Railroad, and relating to the sale of their property in L'Anse to the Ford Motor Company; and also microfilm of records of business operations at Ludington and one of their subsidiary firms at Bennett in Lake County, Michigan.

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.

Thomas Stockton (1921-2012) was the manager of Ford Powertrain and Driveline Research at Ford Motor Company. This collection features many of his work papers and diagrams mainly relating to turbine and rotary engine research during his time at Ford, more general Ford documents (ex. Service manuals, project plans, in-company communications, etc.), his various patents and invention disclosures, as well as documents and photographs relating to his time as an officer of the Early Engines Club and a member of the North American Model Engineering Society.

Thomas Stockton (1921-2012) was the manager of Ford Powertrain and Driveline Research at Ford Motor Company for 37 years. The papers within this collection focus primarily on different aspects of Stockton's work career with Ford Motor Company but also contain information on Stockton's involvement within different engineering organizations. The collection is divided into six series: the Early Engine Club series, the North American Model Engineering Society series, the Ford Motor Company series, the Research series, the Patents and Invention Disclosures series, and the Retirement and Consultation series. The collection also contains an Outsize box with materials from different series, marked as such within this finding aid.

Detroit, Michigan businessman and civic leader. Business correspondence relating to Weber's activities as a dealer in timber lands, his role as a member of the Art Commission in the development of Detroit, Michigan's Cultural Center, his involvement in the construction of the Detroit-Windsor bridge and tunnel and his activities during World War I; and correspondence and class notes of his sons, Harry B. and Erwin W. Weber, while attending University of Michigan; also photographs, including family portraits, aerial views of Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, photographs of the construction of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and Ambassador Bridge, and glass negatives of family vacations in Upper Michigan, Ontario, and Quebec; and maps of land and timber holdings

The William C. Weber papers cover 28 linear feet (30 boxes), outsize folders, and 15 outsize volumes. Besides information on timber and mineral lands in Michigan, the important aspects of the Weber papers include information on the development of the Cultural Center of Detroit and Weber's very controversial role in it, items on the Detroit-Windsor bridge and tunnel and the development of the Border Cities, and the papers of his two sons, especially the letters they wrote as students at the University of Michigan and their class notes and examinations.

There is one foot of materials related to the Cultural Center (Box 19 and outsize folders) and another of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and Ambassador Bridge (Box 20 and outsize folders).

Architectural site plans and property maps of the Detroit Cultural Center are also found in the outsize unbound material.

The collection includes maps relating to Weber's his land holdings in northern Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, including maps of land survey, of timber estimates, and tax and title status for Michigan lands, maps of Windsor subdivisions, maps of coal mining region around Caryville, Tennessee and property maps of the Detroit Cultural Center.

Dearborn, Michigan newspaper publisher; candidate for mayor of Dearborn in 1957. Papers relating to the Dearborn Independent newspaper; collected materials detailing the career of Dearborn mayor Orville Hubbard; campaign files documenting Mills' unsuccessful bid to unseat Hubbard in 1957; and photographs.

The Mills collection, approximately 1.3 linear feet of correspondence, clippings, photographs, and related materials, covers the period of 1920 to 1988. The great bulk of the collection dates from the years of the late 1940s to 1957.

Although Mills was a newspaper publisher for a long period, the Mills collection relates only in part to this phase of his life. The great majority of materials concern his unsuccessful campaign against Orville Hubbard in 1957. Of interest are the series of articles that Mills wrote, titled "How Dearborn got a dictator mayor."

A series of photographs that Mills collected are of especial importance. Many of these do relate to the activities and operation of the Dearborn Independent, to the cities of Dearborn and Fordson, and to Mills' extensive ties with the Ford Motor Company and the Ford family.

Lawyer with the Bendix Corporation and the Ford Motor Company, and member of numerous legal and public service organizations. Speeches, articles and public statements; material relating to his activities with the American Bar Association, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and other legal groups; some files concern his interest in such topics as business ethics, campus government and student dissent in the 1960s, electoral college reform, and legal education; there is also material detailing his involvement in public service organizations concerned largely with civil rights and education; also contracts, agreements, and other documentation relating to reorganization of Wesco Corporation (later National Theatres Corporation), 1933-1936; and reorganization of Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures, July-August 1935.

The William T. Gossett collection chronicle his professional career as a lawyer and businessman as well as those many public service activities in which he was active. The collection was received in two accessions, 1981 and 1997. The 1981 accession, the largest of the two, consisted of the following series: Vita; Speeches, Articles, and Statements; Professional Activities; Topical Files; Public Service Files; Hospitals and Organizations; Colleges Universities, and Schools; and Personal Correspondence. The smaller 1997 accession included these series: Biographical and Personal Materials; Speeches, Articles, and Statements; Photographs; and Twentieth Century-Fox. There was some slight overlap in the content of the two accessions, particularly in Gossett's speeches and articles. No attempt was made, however, to intersperse this similar material.