The papers consist very largely of personal letters from former school mates at Amherst College and from relatives, including his uncle Ebenezer, his mother, and his son Charles I. Brigham. There are numerous letters from his brother-in-law, Henry G. Bliss, in regard to real estate affairs and the large farm at Blue Mounds, Wisconsin owned jointly with Bliss, and letters from the operators of the farm. Many early letters are written to an Ellen Derring of Portland, Maine by friends and family in either Boston or Eastport, Maine.
There are also a few minor legal papers, a few household bills, and a few papers dated in the 1830s relating to a disciplinary matter involving David Brigham and the Calvinistic Congregational Church of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. There is also occasional information in the collection relating to early Madison residents. The collection is arranged in a single chronological order.
Beginning about 1859, there are scattered letters on political subjects. Several letters of John F. Otter concern the election of 1860 and secession, and there are occasional very informative letters from Horace Rublee in Wisconsin and in Berne, Switzerland in regard to Wisconsin and national party matters and politics, and also relating to the affairs of the Milwaukee Sentinel. Scattered letters of Senator Timothy O. Howe relate to the patronage aspects of the struggle between President Johnson and Congress and other political matters. There are also several letters of Elisha W. Keyes.
In the early 1870s there are seven or eight letters to Brigham in his capacity as member of the University of Wisconsin board of regents relating to the presidency of Dr. John H. Twombly, including a letter by Twombly (1873). An occasional later letter relates to university affairs.
A group of letters, 1854-1885, addressed to Jerome Ripley Brigham, consists for the most part of letters he received in the winters of 1854 and 1855 while secretary for the Milwaukee Young Men's Association lecture committee. The originals show the signatures of many prominent authors and orators of those years. Typewritten copies have been made of these sixty-five letters and placed in their proper chronological order in the Brigham papers. The originals were returned to the owner, Charles I. Brigham.
A box of household bills and receipts and personal receipts of miscellaneous nature was not preserved, with the consent of Mrs. Charles Brigham, March 15, 1940.
Several additional letters, 1855-1856, were received from Mrs. Charles Brigham in 1948 which deal with a lecture series in which Mr. Brigham was interested. Speakers included Henry Ward Beecher, William Makepeace Thackeray, David Starr Jordan, Sam Houston, C.C. Felton, and other men of prominence during that period. Prices paid to these men are of interest.
