Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The W. W. Brower collection consists of correspondence, financial records, advertisements, catalogs, photographs, and scrapbook dealing with his work; and material concerning the Independent Order of Good Templars and the American Protective Association. The photographs are of tombstones and hearses. The catalogs are from casket manufacturers and other firms providing supplies to his undertaking business.

Dansville, Michigan, general store. Ledgers, daybooks, cash books, and other business records.

The record group includes business day books, ledgers, cashbooks, stock purchases and inventories, and collection books. Some of the records were maintained by E. Rice. It is not clear if these were accounts for a separate firm or whether these were earlier records for a predecessor general store.

Ann Arbor, Michigan businessman, dealer in coal, farm machinery, bicycles, and automobiles; correspondence, letterbooks, and various record books of Ann Arbor business/enterprises owned and established by Michael Staebler and his family including Staebler and Elmer, Michael Staebler and Son, and Staebler and Sons.

This is a collection of the business papers of Michael Staebler, Ann Arbor businessman, dealer in coal, farm machinery, bicycles and automobiles. The records date from the early 1870s to the late 1920s. Included are some materials of Staebler's son, Edward W., who in addition to assisting in the family business was also active in bicycling craze of the 1890s.

Founder of the S.S. Kresge Company. Collection contains business and personal papers relating to Kresge's financial dealings and into his involvement with various churches and educational institutions. Materials include photographs.

Original business and personal papers relating to Kresge's financial dealings and into his involvement with various churches and educational institutions. Materials include photographs.

Clinton County, Michigan, general store. Business financial records, family correspondence and history, diaries, photograph album of the Sickels-Bates family, and miscellanea.

The record group consists of financial records detailing the operation of the L. G. Bates General Store and its predecessor firm, J. F. Hasty and Co. As the dates of some of the records precede the opening of the Hasty store, it is possible that some of the accounts and ledgers are of a Sickel family member. In addition, the collection includes family correspondence, diaries and notebooks probably of Bates, family history and genealogy, photographs, and printed material.

Founder of the S.S. Kresge Company. Business and personal files relating to his financial dealings and to his involvement with various churches and educational institutions; also photographs.

The Sebastian S. Kresge Papers are divided into two series: Business Records, and Personal Records. The papers were microfilmed in 1994 and are available for inter-library loan. The collection was filmed in its entirety except for a few folders of financial data, such as stock and business receipts.

Chicory processors of Port Huron, Michigan. Warehouse inventories, acreage and seed reports, manufacturing records, journals, ledgers, and miscellaneous papers.

The record groups includes business correspondence, warehouse inventories, acreage and seed reports, financial journal and ledgers, and miscellaneous other records.

Business records of J.C. Satterthwaite, primarily of his flour and lumber mill, but also documenting his activities as railroad freight agent and his other business interests in Tecumseh, Michigan.

The business records in this collection chronicle the commercial and financial transactions of J.C. Satterthwaite and family in the period of 1844-1874 (with the bulk falling in the 1850s and 1860s). Though there are some records prior to the period when Satterthwaite had control of the "Raisin Mills," the great majority of records document the various commercial activities of the Satterthwaite family. Concerned with the routine of daily business life in Raisin and Tecumseh, Michigan, the daily transactions offer a microcosm of small town commerce in nineteenth-century Michigan.

The collection has been arranged by the different kinds of enterprises in which the Satterthwaites were involved: the grain and flour mills, a warehouse (or possibly warehouses), and a retail store. For each of these, Satterthwaite maintained day books, ledgers, and journals. The day books document the daily register/receipts of the grain mill, retail establishment, and warehouse. These volumes encompass the years 1844-1865, with an emphasis on the activity at the grain mill.

The ledgers contain the running documentation of individual customer accounts with an emphasis on accounts established at the warehouse. In addition to ledgers for the grain mill and warehouse, the collection contains two which list railroad freight accounts. These last, seemingly unrelated to any of the other businesses, are presumably evidence of J.C. Satterthwaite's additional career as a railroad freight agent.

The cash books record the cash flow of the various establishments, with, as in the day books, an emphasis on the grain mill transactions. Somewhat unrelated to the rest of the collection is a cash book related to the selling of plaster. Its connection with the other Satterthwaite business records is unclear.

The day books, in particular, offer insight into the bulk quantities of staples purchased by individuals at that time, while that of the retail store reflects other, smaller necessities purchased regularly by the townspeople of Raisin and Tecumseh. The collection concludes with a miscellaneous series consisting of the personal financial documents of J.C. Satterthwaite, coupled with two folders of loan documents and receipts, which together suggest an active borrowing and loaning of funds outside of the confines of the Bank of Tecumseh.

Several volumes in the collection have illegible pages due to their later use as scrapbooks. These scrapbook pages contain contemporaneous newspaper clippings consisting of poetry, caricatures, and inspirational stories.

Ludington, Michigan lumber company; business records, including day books, inventories, time books, and ledgers.

The record group consists of financial records from the various camps and mills which Charles Mears owned in Mason, Muskegon, and Oceana counties. The earliest record is an account book, 1837-1843, showing expenditures from his first lumbering venture near White Lake, Michigan.

Collector of Cross Village, Michigan materials. Collection consists of business records for a general store, land patents made to members of the Native American community, a letter and photograph of Catholic priest N. Louis Sifferath, a panorama of the village waterfront, and a plat map of Cross Village Township.

The Mary Shurtleff collection consists of documents and images relating to Cross Village and its inhabitants. The collection is arranged in 3 series: Business records, Other collected documents, and Visual materials.