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Scope and Contents This collection contains letters, diaries, and legal documents from the Hollister family who lived in Burr Oak, Michigan and Hamilton, Illinois during the mid-1800s and early 1900s.Several letters are to and from Albert N. Hollister (1842-1915) and his mother Mary (Hollister) Shaw née Newcomb (1821-1905) and his younger sister (Mary) Lillian Hollister (1848-1866). The bulk of these letters were written during a long illness that claimed Lillian’s life in 1866 and the period...

Scope and Contents The first diary runs from 1854 to 1858. It appears Philip along with being a farmer worked in the lumber industry as he notes a day to day schedule of what he did, how long he did it and how much he was paid. That part of the diary goes from 1854 to 1856. In 1857 and 1858, Farnsworth covers his daily activities.The second and third diaries cover the period September, 1870 to December 2, 1870 and December 2, 1870 to August, 1871. He notes in the second diary that it was purchased...