Browse By Collection Title | Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

In Oct. 1884, E. Crampton, working for M. P. Ayers and Co., surveyed the Vermilion Slough (probably the Little Vermilion River in Sidney, South Homer, and Ayers Townships in Champaign County). His notebook includes data on elevations and cuts in the slough, for the purpose of designing changes in it. ...

After serving in the 24th Wis. Vol. Inf. during the Civil War, Arthur MacArthur (1845-1912), father of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, was commissioned in the regular U. S. Army. MacArthur was a brigade and division commander in the Philippines, where he eventually served as military governor in 1901-2, before retiring with ...

A. J. MacDonald collected these materials for a projected book, "The Communities of the United States," which was announced in 1851 but never completed because of MacDonald's death from cholera in 1854. These research items include articles and statements of people concerned with communitarianism in the United States, histories of ...

In these two diaries, British Army officer Donald MacDonald (1791-1872) describes his trips to New Harmony, differences within that community, and efforts to resolve those differences. The microfilm was made from a photocopy of the originals in the Indiana State Library. The photocopy is printed in [i]Indiana Historical Society Publications[/i], 14:2 ...

William Maclure was a geologist, a patron of science and education, and the founder of the New Harmony Working Men's Institute. This collection contains correspondence between Maclure and Marie D. Fretageot in which they discuss the social experiment at New Harmony, Ind., and the development of its scientific and educational ...

This collection contains four letters written by members of the Macy-Davis family of Illinois and Indiana, all addressed to John M. Davis after he was drafted into the Union Army. Each regard a different aspect of the Civil War and its local impact on the family and their community. Materials ...

In this letter of Mar. 4, 1796, James Madison, then a member of Congress, wrote to Arnold Henry Dohrman, a New York merchant of Dutch origin. Madison, a representative of Dohrman's firm, reports on a protested debt between Dohrman and Philip Mazzei, an Italian architect who assisted Virginia and the ...

This manuscript map of Mahomet Township shows the outlines of most of the township's sections and some of the subdivided parts of those sections. It also shows the Sangamon River and includes dots for a number of properties. Finally, it notes the owners of many parcels. These notations, however, are ...

This collection consists of microfilm prints of articles written by Charles Maltby about his recollections of Abraham Lincoln. Charles Maltby (1811-1900) was a friend and colleague of Abraham Lincoln, with whom he clerked at Denton Offut's store in New Salem, Illinois, in the early 1830s. After Lincoln was elected president, he ...

This collection contains the personal papers of Fr. Martin Mangan and includes correspondence, notes, newspaper clippings, outlines of talks given by Fr. Mangan, booklets and flyers, photographs, videotapes, and awards documenting Fr. Mangan's personal life, education, ministry, and social activism in Decatur. The Very Reverend Martin B. Mangan (1929-2001), a native ...

Published from 1901 to 1940, [i]Woman's World[/i] was a popular Chicago mail-order journal with a national circulation of nearly two million. In 1914, the magazine's owner, George H. Currier, hired Walter W. Manning as Advertising Manager. Manning purchased [i]Woman's World[/i] three years later and served as editor and publisher until ...

This collection consists of papers that document the history of the Margolins, a Jewish family who migrated to Danville, Illinois, in the 1930s. Materials include copies of biographies, diary entries, photos and legal documents, and correspondence. Abraham "Abe" Margolin was born in Ivye (then part of the Russian Empire, now Belarus) ...

This collection contains two items, a campaign leaflet from the Marion H. Drake Campaign Committee and the accompanying envelope. Drake ran in the 1914 election for alderman of Chicago’s First Ward. Marion H. Drake was the Progressive Party candidate in the April 1914 election for alderman (an official elected by residents ...

Cutting Marsh (1800-73) recorded his experiences during an expedition to the Rock Island and Des Moines areas between June and October, 1834. This "Diary of a Trip to Visit the Sauk and Fox Indians," the original of which is in the Wisconsin Historical Society, relates Cutting's experiences within the villages. ...

This collection includes several sources for Sullivan and Moultrie County history. The earliest source is a volume of records covering the period from 1834 to 1861, which R. Eden Martin transcribed and printed in [i]The Whitley Point Record Book: The Justice of the Peace Docket Book, Estray List and County Store ...

Thusenelda Martin (1896-1986) was a graduate of the University of Illinois, a country school teacher, and, for 27 years, a science teacher at Urbana High School. An active member of the Champaign County Humane Society and the American Legion Auxiliary of Urbana, she was an advocate for animal welfare and ...

Judson P. Mason was a prominent dairy farmer and stock feeder in Dundee Township, Kane County.  A leading agriculturist, Mason operated a creamery four miles northwest of Elgin, Ill., and was active in numerous organizations in Illinois, including the State Dairymen's Association, the Milk Shippers' Union, the Alfalfa Growers' Association, ...

Walter A. Mason of Oakland, Ill., was active in Illinois politics and served as the Coles County Senatorial Campaign Committeeman for the 40th Senatorial District between 1898 and 1900. This collection focuses on the state senatorial campaign of 1900, mainly the reelection of Stanton C. Pemberton, and includes correspondence, newspaper ...

In this letter to Sen. Thomas Henry Carter on Apr. 24, 1911, William Mason (1850-1921), who served in Congress, not only comments on the disputed election of William Lorimer to the U.S. Senate, but also indicates his own interest in being the Republican nominee in 1912. The letter is a copy ...

This collection contains two letters written by Thomas Mather (1795-1853), an early Illinois settler and member of both branches of the Illinois legislature. The letters, written in Kaskaskia and Vandalia, Illinois, date from 1820 and 1826 and discuss business, land, and taxes in Illinois. Thomas Mather, a descendant of Increase Mather, ...

This collection consists of the photocopied correspondence of Canute R. Matson, sheriff in Cook County following the Chicago Haymarket Affair in 1886. Canute R. Matson was born on a farm in Norway in 1843. His family moved to the United States six years later. Matson enlisted in the Union Army in ...

This collection contains the records and correspondence of Dr. Edwin May, a surgeon for the Union Army in the United States Civil War. Edwin May (1828-1893) was born on a farm in Massachusetts. In the 1850s, he became a school principal in St. Louis, studying medicine at the same time. Dr. ...

These letters and account records, of which the Library has transcripts of the originals in the McAllister Manuscripts of the Library Company of Philadelphia, relate to the business affairs of George Croghan, Barnard and Michael Gratz, L. A. Levy, and Joseph Simon.  The letters discuss bills and payments, the sale ...

This collection includes transcripts and copies of records and correspondence documenting the activities of Joseph Henry McChesney prior to and during his time as U.S. Consul at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England (1862-1869). Joseph Henry McChesney (1828-1895) was trained professionally as a geologist, serving as a member of the Illinois Geological Survey. He was ...

This collection contains a printed letter from John A. McClernand (1812-1900) of the Brigade Head Quarters in Camp Cairo, Illinois, to Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), dated November 12, 1861. An unknown author added a handwritten note at the bottom of the last page. John A. McClernand was a Democratic politician from ...

Dannel Angus McCollum, a native of Champaign, Illinois, is a local historian, environmental advocate, and community leader. McCollum graduated from the University of Illinois in 1958, served seven years in the United States Army Corps of Engineers and nearly a decade in the State of Illinois Natural History Survey. In 1968, ...

This 1862 financial report of the London and Northwestern Railroad, written by James Edward McConnell to the Locomotive Expenditure Committee, gives a detailed account of expenditures for increasing locomotive tonnage and shed cover. McConnell (1815-1883) was the Locomotive Superintendent of the London and Northwestern Railroad's Southern Division from 1847 until ...

This collection contains transcripts of letters, telegrams, and speeches documenting Cyrus H. McCormick's involvement in the Democratic Party. The collection includes references to his speech to the 1876 Democratic National Convention; support for his possible candidacy for Illinois Governor or U.S. Senator; and his donation of $10,000 to the Democratic ...

This collection contains eight deeds, a lease document, and a circuit court issued bill, dating from 1826 to 1847, mostly related to Robert H. McDow. The McDow family emigrated from Scotland to America in the late 1700s, first settling in Pennsylvania and later South Carolina. Robert Hartness McDow was born in ...

This collection primarily consists of documentation of Patience Jane McGinnis and James M. McGinnis's 1858 journey west from Illinois along the Oregon Trail. It also contains genealogies of the Nesmith and Waggoner families. Patience Jane "Jennie" Nesmith McGinnis (1835-1890) was born in Ohio and came to Illinois in 1847 with her ...

This collection consists of personal letters sent from Edward McGlynn to his family and friends from the years 1861 to 1865. Edward McGlynn of Aurora, Illinois, enlisted in Company K of the 42[sup]nd[/sup] Illinois Volunteer Infantry in August 4, 1861. He took part in the march to Warsaw, Missouri, but by ...

This eight-page transcript is of the report of the visiting committee appointed by the Illinois Annual Conference to attend the examination of the students at McKendree College, a Methodist institution. The report describes favorably the state of learning at the school, the subjects taught, and the attendance at chapel, but ...

This collection consists of the papers of William B. McKinley, a businessman, philanthropist, and politician from Illinois. Materials include personal correspondence, speeches, business records, newspaper clippings, and political pamphlets related to his career and personal life. William Brown McKinley (1856-1926) was the son of a Presbyterian minister in Champaign, Illinois. He ...

This collection contains a contract written and signed by Michael McLain on April 4, 1868. Michael McLain agrees to sell several plots of land in Douglas County, Illinois to the Andrews family for two thousand dollars. This document was donated to the University of Illinois Library by Frank Garland in 1940. ...

This collection contains two volumes of records of the McLean County Cooperation Society, also known as the Christian Missionary Society of McLean County, the Missionary Cooperation, the McLean County Missionary Cooperation Society, and the Missionary Society of McLean County. The first volume contains the constitution of the organization and ...

This volume served as both a record book for School District No. 4 and as "David Bierbower's Day Book." Bierbower of Saybrook, Ill., was clerk of the Board of Directors of Martin Township School. The volume includes records of the elections of directors of the school district, plans ...

This school plat book contains maps of the McLean county school districts by township from 1859 to1871. It includes 152 pages of entries and an index by township. All but one of the thirty-nine townships have at least two entries. These entries occasionally indicate district changes.

This collection contains meeting minutes for the McLean, Ill., Board of Trustees, 1890-1906, ordinances pertaining to the construction of cement sidewalks, two treasurer's reports, and an oath recited by Lafayette Archer upon becoming a trustee.

This collection contains correspondence and personal records of the McNitt family of Montgomery County, Illinois. The correspondence, which makes up the bulk of the collection, is largely directed to Sophronia, Hellen, and Priscilla ("Jennie") McNitt, the three daughters of the family. The McNitts were a farming family who lived in rural ...

This collection contains a legal notice requesting any justice of the peace of the State of Illinois to question an individual named McCrilli concerning a case pending in Brandenburg, Kentucky, dated January 18, 1843. The request was placed by William Fairleigh of the Meade County and Circuit Courts. William Fairleigh (1797-1865) ...

This collection consists of records and personal papers from the Meharry family. The Meharry family owned several farms in Champaign County, Illinois and Tippecanoe County, Indiana during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The collection includes correspondence, business records, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other materials. Records and personal papers document the lives ...

This collection consists of Pierre Menard's personal and business records, letter book, and microfilm containing personal and business correspondence of Menard, his family, and others. Pierre Menard was born near Montreal, Canada. He moved to Kaskaskia in 1790, where he established himself as a prominent merchant and public figure. He took ...

The collection of Robert Merideth's publications includes [i]Transformations: A Dictionary of Contemporary Changes[/i] (1979) as well as a number of his articles, essays, and poems. Merideth (1935-) received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, and served as head of American Studies at Miami University (Ohio) and the University of California ...

Benjamin Green, one of the first settlers of Morgan County, Illinois, asked his youngest daughter, Elizabeth Green Merras, to write this letter of Dec. 9, 1861, to relatives in England. The letter primarily concerns the inclusion of a woodcut of the Green home on a projected Scott County map, but ...

This collection contains a letter from Elizabeth Ambrose Merrill to Anna Burnham of Fort Towson, Oklahoma. Written from October 23 to November 8, 1837, Merrill described the events leading up to the murder of Elijah Lovejoy by an anti-abolition mob in Alton, Illinois. Elizabeth Ambrose Merrill (1810-1868) was born in New ...

The Sybil Mervis Collection on Central Illinois Jewish Communities contains materials accumulated by Sybil Mervis, a longtime Jewish resident of Danville, Illinois. This collection is comprised of Mervis's writings, research materials, and donation documents. These materials encompass the Jewish communities of Danville and Bloomington, as well as others across central ...

This collection includes both an album of the photographs used in Frederick Hill Meserve and Carl Sandburg's [i]The Photographs of Abraham Lincoln [/i](1944) and a selection of prints of Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and others given by Meserve to Harry E. Pratt. Frederick Hill Meserve (1865-1962) began collecting photographs from ...

John Messinger migrated to Illinois in 1802 where he worked as a surveyor, cartographer, and educator, and also became involved in politics. This collection mainly contains transcripts of Messinger's correspondence, made from originals in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, but it also includes a surveying notebook, land deeds, agreements for ...

In 1852, several residents of Moro, Ill., established the Methodist Society Cemetery Association. The association, concerned with the cemetery's upkeep, survived until the 1970s, when the State of Illinois officially declared the cemetery a Religious Cemetery, exempting it from further care under the Cemetery Care Act. This collection includes photocopies of ...

This "Report of Peoria Indians" by Truman Michelson (8 pages, 1916) was based upon three weeks of field work authorized by the Illinois Centennial Commission. The paper discusses the inroads of other cultures on the Peoria Indians' linguistics, folklore, mythology, social organization, dances, population, and historical relations. The collection also ...

This distillery and general accounts volume was kept by Daniel Millar of Franklin County, Pa. Millar used the book for records of a number of businesses, including his distillery and general store, as well as his real estate and farming interests. The volume also includes home remedies for common ailments, ...

This collection contains a letter from Louisa Miller to her sister-in-law Susan G. Wort. The letter was written in September of 1863 and describes Louisa Miller’s opinions on the abolitionist movement and Ohio senator Clement Vallandigham, as well as conveying information about Miller’s neighbors and crops. Louisa Miller was from New ...

Horace Miller moved from Mount Morris, N.Y., to Kishwaukee, Winnebago County, Ill., in 1839. This collection contains 14 letters to Horace from his brother, Ezra, from Brooklyn, N.Y., and two notebooks used by Horace's daughter, Nancy (1823-1909), to record poetry and family biographical sketches. The collection also contains a lengthy ...

Abel Mills (1829-1919) was active in the formation, in 1841, of Clear Creek Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), in Putnam County, Illinois. He was widely known among Friends for his visiting and for his ministry. He often held the office of Clerk of Illinois Yearly Meeting, ...

In 1862, Enos Farnsworth laid out a town on land he owned in Piatt County, Illinois. A union church first served the village. In 1879, nine residents joined together to organize the Milmine Christian Church. Although the congregation remained small, the church survived until it was disbanded in 1988. This collection ...

Milmine, Dillow, and Hawver were rural school districts in southwestern Piatt County, Illinois. They comprised respectively Piatt County School Districts 77, 72, and 74, until they were consolidated into the Bement School District in 1948. This collection contains records of the three school districts' one or two room primary schools, ...

Duncan Chambers Milner (1841-1928) was a leading Presbyterian minister and reformer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1862, he left school to join the 98th Ohio Vol. Inf., rising eventually to the rank of First Lieutenant. He fought at Perryville (Oct. 8, 1862) and Chickamauga (Sept. 19-20, ...

This order book of the Second Brigade, Missouri Volunteers, for the period from Aug. 1861 to Mar. 1862, contains orders for recruitment, drill maneuvers and movements, and the formation of the Brigade and its regiments, which included the 25th, 36th, and 44th Ill. Vol. Inf., 3rd, 12th, and 17th Mo. ...

This order book of the Second Brigade, Missouri Volunteers, for the period from Aug. 1861 to Mar. 1862, contains orders for recruitment, drill maneuvers and movements, and the formation of the Brigade and its regiments, which included the 25th, 36th, and 44th Ill. Vol. Inf., 3rd, 12th, and 17th Mo. ...

On Jan. 2, 1840, William Mitchell of Peoria, Ill., wrote this letter to William Jessop & Sons in New York, drawing $170. on his account in favor of Isaac Underhill. In 1946, the Library acquired the item by auction from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

In 1927, the Montevideo Building Corporation built one of Champaign-Urbana's earliest cooperative apartment buildings at the northeast corner of Nevada Street and Coler Avenue in Urbana (now 706 S. Coler Ave.). The Montevideo's architect was George E. Ramey. The original owners were W. S. Bagley, C. E. Gates, Paul Landis, ...

This collection contains reports from several railroads operating in and through Montgomery County, Illinois, as well as four other documents related to the operation of railroads in the county during the late 19th century. Railroads include Cairo, Vincennes & Chicago Railway Company; Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company; Indianapolis & ...

Harlan E. "Ed" Moore (1885-1979), raised in Mt. Sterling, Ill., was a leader in the building materials business and a philanthropist in Champaign, Ill. From 1918 to 1933, Moore was a sales representative for the Champaign branch of the Johns-Manville Lumber Co. In 1933 he formed Harlan E. Moore and Co., ...

This collection contains a photostat of James Moore's commission as Captain of Militia at Bellefontaine, near Waterloo, Ill., issued by the Commonwealth of Virginia, dated June 10, 1782, continued in 1787, and endorsed by Lieut. Francois Saucier. Accompanying this document are letters of Mary E. Clark, Frank L. Davis, and ...

This collection contains genealogical lists and handwritten notes concerning the ancestry of the Moore family and families related by marriage, including the Wilderman, Hunt, and Patterson families.  Alice Lenore Hunt Daly (1879-1942) was a descendant of William Hunt II, an “eminent quaker minister of Guilford, North Carolina.” She married Thomas ...

This collection contains a fifteen-page poll book from the election of Aug. 2, 1824, in Morgan County, Ill. The voters are listed by precinct, and there are sworn statements concerning the number of votes each candidate received.

George Morgan was a junior member of the Baynton, Wharton, and Morgan company who came to Illinois in 1766 to direct the firm's venture in western trade. This collection documents Morgan's personal and business activities, as well as the lives of his descendents. A significant portion of the correspondence in ...

Thomas J. Morgan (1847-1912), a lawyer, socialist, and labor leader, was born in Birmingham, England, and came to Chicago where he became president of the Machinists' Union in 1874. Thereafter, he was active in numerous labor organizations as an official, speaker, and writer as well as a frequent labor and ...

Emma Morris of DuQuoin, Ill., wrote these letters to her husband in 1900. In the first three, she reports on family matters; in the fourth, written during a visit to Mt. Vernon, Ill., she asks for news from home.

Johnson Morris held an account with A. J. Laurence, a dealer in "Staple and Fancy Dry Goods, Carpets, Boots, Shoes, etc." in Paxton, Ill. This statement lists purchases made by Morris from Jan. to June 1892. Mrs. Theodore Gladhill of Champaign, Ill., donated the statement to the Library in 1972.

This collection contains two letters written by Ella H. Morrison, wife of Congressman William Ralls Morrison. Ella Morrison writes to a family member in Waterloo, Illinois from Willard's Hotel in Washington, D. C. In her letters dated January 3 and March 10, 1891, she discusses local activities, music, reading about ...

This collection contains a record book from the Morton Smith Company located in Rock Island County, Illinois. The company sold and repaired farm equipment. The business record book contains lists of customers' account balances from 1834 to 1835. The records kept each patron's name, date, payment due, and serviced provided. Examples ...

Richard Morton's study of "The Benevolent Boss: Roger C. Sullivan and the Rise of the Chicago Democratic Organization, 1861-1920," sets forth in detail the remarkable political career of Roger C. Sullivan. Sullivan was the principal founder and the first boss of the Chicago Democratic organization, or "machine," which he and ...

This collection contains two letters, dated 1842 and 1845, written by John Moses, a clerk and later an itinerant bookseller in Illinois, to his friend George Battles. The letters touched on politics, the friendship between the two men, and various aspects of the book business. John Moses clerked for a Mr. ...

This collection consists of material collected by Bertha Bradley Moss about the Progressive Miners of America, Illinois coal mining, and miners. Materials include newspapers and clippings, biographical materials on Alexander “General” Bradley and Mary G. Harris “Mother” Jones, ephemera, and correspondence. Bertha Bradley Moss was born in Staunton, Illinois, in 1884. ...

This collection contains five photographs of the faculty and grounds of the Mount Carroll Seminary in Mount Carroll, Illinois. The Mount Carroll Seminary (1853-1896), located in Mount Carroll, Illinois, was founded as a private, non-denominational, coeducational seminary. It is regarded as a pioneering institution for its time, in part because it ...

The Mount Pleasant Baptist Church was established in Franklin County, Ill., near Brownings' Hill (sometimes called Springs Settlement). This small volume, of which the Library has a 70-page transcript, contains records for the church from 1829 to 1865. The first entries in the volume were apparently copied from other records ...

This collection includes the original copy of the legislative act of Feb. 16, 1865, incorporating the "Mount Zion (Illinois) Male and Female Seminary" on Feb. 16, 1865.  It names Alexander W. Bell, Samuel K. Smith, Robert T. Marlow, John Scott, and John C. Smith as trustees, and specifies that the ...

Louise Mowder of White Hall, Ill., used this "Album of Love" from 1857 to 1903 to record poems and personal sentiments written by her friends and family.  Among those who contributed to the album were Peter Cartwright, a Methodist preacher, and Louisa's granddaughter, Ameda Ruth King, a member of the ...

Henry Richard Mozley, of Dudleyville, Tallapoosa County, Ala., was a private in Co. K, 47th Ala.  He served in Virginia and Maryland from 1862 until his death in Apr. 1863. The collection contains photocopies of Mozley's letters to his wife Jane and their five children.  The correspondence mainly focuses on family ...

This collection includes correspondence, records, and miscellaneous printed works collected by Thomas Munroe. Thomas Munroe studied medicine at the University of Maryland and practiced in Jacksonville and Rushville, Illinois for several years. In his letters to family members, Thomas Munroe describes life as a surgeon during the Civil War. The first ...

The Richard Murphy Papers consist of notes, papers, and pamphlets collected by Professor Richard Murphy while at the Illinois Constitutional Convention from 1969 to 1970. Murphy held the position of Parliamentarian at the Constitutional Convention. Richard Murphy (1903-1985) was a professor of speech at the University of Illinois. He was born ...