Numerous documents relating to the Crapo Family compose the collection, but particularly of Henry H. Crapo and Mary Ann Crapo. Documents include family correspondence, valentines sent by John Orrell to Mary Ann, a handwritten manuscript from 1843 by Mary Ann on why learning is preferable to financial wealth, a 1904 typed manuscript celebrating the life of Henry Crapo, and Civil War-era military passes issued to John Orrell in 1862. Other documents of interest include correspondence from the Cemetery Board of New Bedford, Massachusetts and teaching certificates issued to Mary Ann Crapo from New Bedford in 1852, 1853, and 1856.

Chevrolet Motor Company published the booklet as part of a national sales convention held in Detroit in 1929. Chevrolet meant for the booklet to serve as a tour of sorts of its Flint factory.

The collection contains correspondence, receipts, and a diary from various members of the Perry family. The correspondence details members keeping one another up to date with events in their lives. The date range stretches from the late 1820s to the early-1880s. Deeds come from when the Perry family resided in Rhode Island and reflect inheritances. The receipts show what family members bought and for how much. Many record purchases made at businesses in Genesee County. The diary was kept by Clarissa Potter Perry. It describes farm life, if sparingly, but from a woman’s perspective as well as her time at training school to become a teacher and recipes and ingredients. Perry occasionally kept track of ingredients bought and the prices involved.

Souvenir edition of Headlight. Issue focuses on Lapeer, Michigan.

The collection is comprised of a single ledger and a folder containing a business card and invitation to the 1905 Golden Jubilee celebration in Flint. The ledger records purchases for various products made between 1868 and 1904. The card was used to represent Emmet Simpson’s Barber Shop. A photo is on the front. No caption is present to identify the person in it. The card is unusual in that it is shaped like an arrowhead.

The manuscript is a handwritten account of early Flint history from 1819 with the arrival of Jacob Smith to cultural, infrastructure, and political developments in the mid-1850s. It was either dictated or written by Mrs. C.M. Clarke, one of the early settlers in Flint. Events were often described in brief sentences, sometimes no more than one to three in length. Events experienced by Clarke were described in much greater length.

She detailed how Smith acquired property for his trade post and relations with local Native Americans. Coverage then shifted to 1833 when Clarke began describing other early homes, such as a log tavern kept by John Todd and Lyman Stowe, who resided in Smith’s old cabin. She recorded the construction of the first bridge over the Flint River, which occurred in 1834. Travelers had previously been ferried by canoes operated by Native Americans.

Other firsts were described, such as the first meeting of Flint Township officers in 1836, when Beach and Wesson established the first store in Flint, the creation of the first mill dam in 1836, and the construction of the first saw mill by Rufus Stevens on Thread Creek. Clarke gave extensive coverage to the development of schooling. Early schooling began in the 1830s with a private school for boys. Parents paid the teacher, Daniel Sullivan, 10 cents weekly. Boys had to follow an old Native American path to Second Street to reach the school. A girls’ school later opened in 1841 with Sarah Bush teaching at the Presbyterian Meeting House. Public schooling later improved, which included free graded schooling, and private education declined.

Events from the 1850s include the incorporation of Flint, the establishment of the Michigan School of the Deaf, various newspapers, and the founding of the Ladies Library Association, which Clarke described as energetic.

Clarke wrote in great detail about her family’s journey to Michigan in 1839. Her father, mother, and six children including herself left Syracuse, New York, traveling by wagon, the Erie Canal, the steamer Constitution across Lake Erie, and wagon again from Detroit to Flint. She described the road between Grand Blanc and Flint as the worst part of the journey.