Business and personal correspondence (1840-1882) of Norman J. Emmons comprises the major part of this collection. Several letters, 1843-1847, relate to Indian claims at Mackinac and include single letters from Robert Stuart, Samuel Abbott, and George Johnston, men well known in Indian and fur trade circles. There are also eleven letters, 1862-1864, from the New York investor Russell Sage respecting Wisconsin legal and business matters in which he had an interest. Notable non-business correspondence includes two letters, March 21, 1863 and March 22, 1863, from Confederate soldiers to their families. These were sent on April 17, 1863 to Emmons by Rufus King, prominent Wisconsin editor and politician, and a brigadier general with the famed “Iron Brigade.” There is also one letter, July 31, 1864, from an unidentified Union soldier giving a favorable account of a regiment of black troops stationed near Memphis; and several letters from Emmons' law partner, C.A. Hamilton, an officer in the 7th Wisconsin Cavalry, on military and business matters. In 1872, there are two letters from Jed Emmons concerning his successful defense of Harrison Reed, reconstruction Governor of Florida from 1868-1874, who three times during his stormy tenure of office was tried and acquitted during impeachment proceedings. Reed was a former Wisconsin editor and politician. Other noteworthy correspondents include William Woodbridge, governor of Michigan, Wisconsin governors A. W. Randall and Edward Salomon, Senator Timothy O. Howe, and Representative James S. Brown, but the contents are of a mundane nature.
The Robert Eliot correspondence, 1867-1875, pertains primarily to personal matters, e.g. family births, deaths, and social events. Two unrelated but noteworthy letters are filed in the miscellaneous folder: One is a letter, dated June 18, 1852, from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Theodore Parker concerning the inscription at the bridge at Concord commemorating the battle of April 19, 1775; and the other a letter of appointment from Commander Matthew C. Perry, dated at Hong Kong, August 29, 1854, to Garret V. Denniston, elevating him to the rank of lieutenant.
The Eliot account book, 1855-1858, contains information relating to Eliot's business as a commission merchant and may contain some potentially useful economic information.
