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Missionary family to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; correspondence, sermons of Abel Bingham, diaries of Hannah Bingham reflecting her daily activities and religious convictions.

The collection documents the lives of a missionary family to the Ojibwa Indians of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The papers have been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Abel Bingham ministerial papers; Miscellaneous; and Bound Account Books and Diaries. The collection is of value for the family correspondence, for the sermons of Abel Bingham, and for the diaries of Hannah Bingham reflecting her daily activities and religious convictions (1817-1868). There are also papers concerning Fountain Street Baptist Church in Grand Rapids in the 1850s.

Circuit court judge and Michigan Supreme Court justice; his wife, Ann Lapham Graves, was a Battle Creek educator and civic leader; their son, Henry B. Graves, was a Detroit lawyer. Family correspondence concerning life in Battle Creek, Michigan, student life of H. B. Graves at the University of Michigan, 1879-1882, Kansas land speculation, 1883-1885, the Spanish-American War and legal affairs; personal journals and circuit court and Supreme Court record books of B. F. Graves; and photographs.

The Benjamin F. Graves papers consist of family correspondence concerning life in Battle Creek, Michigan, student life of H. B. Graves at the University of Michigan, 1879-1882, Kansas land speculation, 1883-1885, the Spanish-American War and legal affairs; personal journals and circuit court and Michigan Supreme Court record books of B. F. Graves; and correspondence of Henry B. Graves and Ann Lapham Graves. The collection has been arranged by name of individual family member: Benjamin F. Graves; Lapham family; Henry B. Graves; and Miscellaneous.

The correspondence of Benjamin F. Graves includes letters from Henry B. Brown, December 26, 1890; Julius C. Burrows, March 17, 1869; James V. Campbell, 1858-1883; Isaac P. Christiancy, June 1868, November and December 1862, February 1873, August 1877; Thomas M. Cooley (throughout); Donald M. Dickinson, undated and December 1883; Alpheus Felch, December 1894; and John W. Longyear, April 1864 and March 1865.

David Wheeler Palmer was a Bridgewater, Michigan school teacher and farmer. His papers consist of diaries, 1846-1864, 1876-1882, and 1887-1892, concerning daily activities and farm life. There are also papers of other family members, including Emmett Newton Palmer, a Brooklyn, Michigan physician, Fred E. Palmer, a surgeon who served in the Spanish-American War, and Louisa Palmer, who was a teacher in Hawaii.

The David Wheeler Palmer collection consists mainly of his diaries and other papers. These diaries, dating from 1846 to 1892 with some gaps, comment in detail on his life, his family, the weather, financial transactions, and local politics. Other portions of the collection include materials of other family members: Palmer's wife Fidelia Randall Palmer; her brother Roswell Randall, Jr.; Emmett Palmer, the son of David and Fidelia; Fred Palmer, the son of Emmett; and Joseph Palmer, the father of David. Of interest are the photographs accumulated by Dr. Fred Palmer while he was serving in the Philippines. These include images of Hawaii on route to the Philippines and of the Santa Mesa facility in the Philippines. Another family member represented in the collection is Louisa Palmer who taught in Hawaii. She was an inveterate traveler who wrote extensive letters describing places visited for her students and family.

Letters from relatives in New York, New Jersey and Iowa discussing in part plans to migrate westward; letter, 1852, recounting missionary life in India; Civil War letters from Townsend M. Luce (Co. F., Third Michigan Infantry), Rufus Cheney (Co. D, 2nd Michigan Cavalry), Charles O. Reed (probably Co. A, 4th Michigan Cavalry), Philip Segur (Co. A, 7th Michigan Cavalry), and one tentatively identified as Albert H. Freeman (Battery B, 1st Michigan Light Artillery); and miscellanea.

Papers of Franklin L. Parker and the Parker family of New York (State) and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Family correspondence, business papers, diaries, 1850-1893, and other materials concerning land transactions.

The Franklin L. Parker collection relates mainly to land investments and other financial dealings, and family matters. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Letterpress books; Land records; and Personal and miscellaneous.

Williamston, Ingham County, Michigan, family. Financial records, clippings, and correspondence relating to Mullett Farm and John Mullett, surveyor; extract, 1864, from Meridian Township Register Book; letterpress book, journal, and correspondence, 1852-1893, of John H. Forster, surveyor, agent for Pewabic Mining Company, Hancock, Mich., and later owner of Springbrook Farm, Ingham County, Michigan; diary, 1840-1841, of Catherine Hall; and map, 1859, of Mullett Farm; and photographs.

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.

Papers collected by Robert U. Redpath and Richard U. Light of the Upjohn family of upstate New York and western Michigan, founders of the Upjohn Company. Daybooks, daily journals, sermon notes, and journal of trip to America and on the Erie Canal in 1830 of William Upjohn.

This collection, accumulated by Robert U. Redpath and Richard U. Light, consists largely of papers of William Upjohn, born in England, who migration to New York in 1830. Much of the material dates from before the passage to America, and includes sermons, daybooks and journals, and material relating to his work as surveyor and timber appraiser. The materials after 1830 concern his passage to his eventual home in upper New York State and to his business endeavors. Of interest is a folder of the minutes of the Greenbush Debating Society in 1833. In addition, there is a series consisting of papers (mainly photocopied) of other family members, including correspondence, Civil War materials, and miscellanea. A final series is comprised of various medical volumes owned by Upjohn family members.

Transcripts for diaries of William Upjohn written from 1820 to 1826 were added to the collection in 2019.