The collection contains several handwritten letters from individuals of the Calkins, Train, and Youngkin families or in an association with them. None of the letters show a relation to Genesee County or the city of Flint. Furthermore, none of the letters suggest relations among any of the families. The length of chronology for the letters is 1831 to 1910. All were handwritten, but some are photocopy and photostat reproductions of the originals. Registration records make no mention of the status of the originals during time of donation. The reproductions will be retained as part of the collection to ensure no context is lost of the lives of the correspondents.

The Calkins letters were written by Uriah Carson to a sister identified only as S. Calkins. He wrote in 1862 from Nashville, Tennessee that her husband had died of diarrhea. The other letter describes the inability of the husband to receive pay for nearly a year due to the actions of Confederate raids. The paymaster refused to travel there to distribute pay.

The Train letters are from 1865. They were written by one individual, Fred A. Patz, who wrote two letters to Lucy Train. He professed his love for her as a secret admirer in the first and later revealed himself in the second, continuing to profess his love, though apologizing for his deception.

The Youngkin letters stretch from 1831 to 1910. Authors remark about various family members, how they are, where they are living. There are no mentions of the ongoing Civil War in the letter from 1862. The letter from 1910 discusses the involvement of one woman of the family in the Detroit Women’s Club.

This collection consists of various papers and documents on Flint Michigan during the 1950’s. The first two boxes hold information on the Flint Centennial held in 1955. They include contracts as well as letters from various committee members of the time. Also included are schedules for the event, including a visit from Richard Nixon, a script for the performance written by George Montgomery, and information about the various committees for the Flint Centennial celebration.

Also included in this collection are programs for the National Science fair, Flint Junior Colleges Pre-convention as well as program dedications to the Cady B. Durham Natatorium, the Robert T. Longway Planetarium, and the F.A. Bower Theater. Programs for an opening night theater production at the F.A. Bower Theater is also included.

The National Science Fair is included in this collection with various newspaper clippings, letters from various individuals involved as well as programs for the event. A celebration of the 38 millionth car made in Flint Michigan by General Motors is featured in this collection. Black and white photos of various stages of the Chevy Impala Sport Coupe are included with program booklets and letters of invitation to various people to attend the celebration.

Information on Flint's Golden Committee include a GM calendar of events as well as financial information, information of the pioneer picnic. There are also pioneer picnic photos. Newspaper cutouts on cardstock are included as solicitation lists for various Flint businesses for the Golden Committee. Costume and prop requirements, float information and correspondence are also included. As well as information for the Highway US-23 from Fenton to Clio.

Included in this collection are street decoration proposals and sketches for the Flint Golden Milestone Celebration. General Motors booklets with information on the Golden Milestone, as well as various General Motors facts and information.

Telegrams for the Flint Centennial as well as the Flint Golden Milestone celebration are typed and still legible. The Golden Milestone pageant parade with lists of those participating. Photos from the celebration show the parade as well as the celebration itself.

Records of the collection primarily reflect the business activities of members of the Atwood family, and of them mostly J.B. Atwood and Island Mill Lumber. These predominantly come in the form of correspondence written to Atwood and the mill and reflect transactions, negotiations, and other matters. Little correspondence comes from Atwood. Correspondence that is personal shows relations between family members and that they were often lending money between one another. The correspondence and other records stretch from 1867 to 1911, but the bulk of it is from between 1869 to 1876, which may have been a very active time for J.B. Atwood and Island Mill Lumber.

An unrelated document is a small booklet printed by General Motors in 1911 about its operations.

Unrelated to the other contents is a yellow legal pad with previous processing notes written on its pages. These notes offer details on specific letters. It has been retained because of its potential value to researchers and staff alike.

The collection consists of records reflecting the lives of Elmer Halsey, Edgar Haymond, and the W.A. Paterson Co. The records can be broadly split into three areas, each concerning the lives of Halsey, Haymond, and the business operations of the Paterson Co.

Records reflecting the lives and Halsey and Haymond concern both their personal lives and professional accomplishments. Both men were partners and dealers in carriages and carriage parts. They served as agents for the W.A. Paterson Co. (Flint, MI), H.A. Moyer Carriage Co. (Syracuse, NY), and Columbus Buggy Co. (Columbus, OH). Their operations were based in a shop located at the corner of Third and Harrison Streets in 1909. Correspondence and bills of lading largely compose the business records.

For Halsey, the records reflecting his life predominantly concern correspondence and receipts for work done on his house in 1910. These including hiring of contractors for construction and water and plumbing and lumber companies supplying building materials. Additional records include a 1911 membership for the Loyal Guard and tax rolls for property owned by a Retus or Ritus Halsey from Grand Blanc Township in 1911. Records concerning Haymond are less in volume, but show that he was a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

The W.A. Paterson Co. was established in 1869 by William A. Paterson. It may be better known for the motor buggies from the early 20th century, but was steeped in carriage construction, producing 30,000 yearly by 1900. The records in this collection reflect carriages produced by the company and cover the period between 1910 and 1912. Many receipts and official documents compose these records. Correspondence from a Mrs. Allen shows how she paid $5 per month for a carriage. Other documents mention requests for buggies and “driverless wagons.”

A handful of other records without apparent connection to Halsey, Haymond, and the W.A. Paterson Co. show political ads for Republican candidates for political office and a ration book from the Office of Price Administration.

Photographs accessioned with the documents were removed at some point and filed into subject folders in the photographic cabinets. They retain their object identification numbers.

Theatre programs and pamphlets compose a significant portion of the collection. A majority are from theatres found in Europe and the northeastern United States. A handful are from theatres in and around Detroit. Other records include recipes found on cards and in books. None of these appear related to Flint and Genesee County.

The records detailing history in Flint and Genesee County predominantly cover St. Paul’s Church and the Golden Jubilee of Flint (held in 1879). Other records detail the early history of Flint and correspondence from the 1840s and 1850s.

The breadth of records in this collection is expansive, covering many aspects of the life of Frank D. Baker and family members. Represented are correspondence, newsletters, newspaper clippings and pages, class yearbooks, meeting minutes, expense ledgers, and poems. Some of these were collected and produced by Baker, others by family members. Records reveal Baker had a varied career and life. The expense ledgers detail purchases made by customers of good in his store, notably pharmaceuticals. The ledgers represent purchases made in the early 1880s. All writing in them is in cursive. Baker served a single-year term as Mayor of Flint in 1889 and was subsequently elected twice as Sheriff of Genesee County. An opponent, William A. Garner, in 1893 accused Baker in a letter of illegally occupying the office, despite Baker have won a majority in the election. Baker is reported to have resigned the office to avoid a confrontation. He returned to his business but later joined the board of the Flint Building Corporation in the 1920s, which oversaw capital development in Flint. He also served as a delegate to the 1924 Democratic National Convention in New York City. He also served as postmaster of Flint between 1914 and 1922. He died in 1927.

Records relating to other family members largely represent those of a daughter, Mattie. Her school records compose most of what is present. These include yearbooks and composition books. She also undertook a long holiday in Europe in the early 1930s as evidenced from brochures and tickets.

The remaining records include minutes of the Genesee County Board of Supervisors from 1892 to 1893, handwritten poems by an unnamed author, and World War II-era ration cards. Another descending served as postmaster for the city in Flint in the late 1940s.

The collection, like others donated from the Genesee County Historical Society, covers a wide range of topics. It appears that staff and volunteers of GCHS combined many unrelated records into a single accession. Of the more significant are business ledgers used by George W. Hill throughout the 1840s to 1870s, several diaries and maps, including a map of the Crapo farm, election pamphlets from the 1860s to 1930s, correspondence of the Wesson family, personal records of Harry C. Hill, and court records from dozens of cases and suits. Records exist from the Ladies’ Library Associations from Flint and Atlas Township, though more from the latter. Publications include several issued by Durant Motors.

The records represent aspects from the personal and professional lives of Michael A. Gorman, managing editor of the Flint Journal from 1928 to 1958. Documents include personal and professional correspondence, though more of the former than the latter. The correspondence is sometimes arranged chronologically and other times not. Other records include a multitude of holiday cards received by or sent by Gorman. Two diaries are present, though one has only a handful of dates for 1938. The other is entirely undated. Numerous theatre programs are included.

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.

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.