Title: Stock and Mereness Archival Calendars
Inclusive Dates: 1670-1908

Creators:

• Mereness, Newton Dennison
• Stock, Leo Francis, b. 1878

Call Number: Mss 445; Mss 446; Mss 447; Mss 448; Mss 449; Mss 450

Quantity: 6.8 c.f. (50 card file boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Calendars prepared by Newton D. Mereness or L. F. Stock, circa 1912-circa 1937, summarizing letters and other items held by U.S. government offices and concerning the Mississippi Valley and the Midwest. Included are records of the Interior (1820-1880), Post Office (1789-1893, 1908), State (1670-1865), and War (1789-1873) Departments, the United States Senate (1786?-1888?); and several manuscript collections at the Library of Congress including the papers of Arthur St. Clair, John McLean, Duncan McArthur, and Hamtramck's “Standing Orders at Detroit, 1802.”

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00445

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These materials are part of the result of a project to survey and copy documents in the files of the federal government relevant to the Wisconsin region. Calendar cards summarizing such documents were prepared in Washington, D.C. from about 1912 to 1933.

The survey was begun by Dr. Leo F. Stock, working in Indian Office materials. Dr. Stock's card entries were very brief and made in pencil. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin secured typewritten copies of the records he calendared. In later years his calendar entries were typed on cards [see Mss 450].

About 1915, Dr. Newton D. Mereness took up the work that had been begun by Dr. Stock and soon six other historical agencies in the Middle West joined in the project. Dr. Mereness' method was to examine a set of records, study each item in it to see if it contained information on any of the seven agencies, and if it did, to calendar the item and note which of the seven would be interested in the item. To simplify matters, each of the seven agencies was assigned a letter of the alphabet. Wisconsin's letter was “c”. These letters will be found on the lower right-hand corner of each Mereness card.

Periodically, usually four times a year, the set of cards that touched upon its interests was sent to each agency, and from these cards the agencies could order photostatic copies of the records if they so desired. When he had finished surveying a group of records, Dr. Mereness would make a summary card of the contents and approximate number of cards he had made for the set. These summary cards, usually typewritten on orange cards, are filed at the beginning of each set of cards.

Dr. Mereness continued work in the Indian Office records, at that time filed in various places in Washington. The Wisconsin Historical Society ordered copies of all records relating to its region at that time. These were made by photostat. Next Dr. Mereness worked on the House Files, and the Wisconsin Historical Society ordered copies of these records.

Dr. Mereness continued his work in the State Department, Senate Files, and elsewhere. The last calendar cards were made in a resurvey of the Indian Office Files to catch some items not included in the first survey and others that had turned up after the survey started.

This, in brief, describes the rather complicated matter of typewritten copies, photostatic copies, and no copies of records. Dr. Mereness' quarterly reports, on typewritten sheets, are filed in the Manuscript Section. They explain in great detail the progress of the survey. Probably most, if not all, of the records he examined and calendared are now filed in the National Archives.

The contents of this collection are the calendar cards for much of the work done in the above project. The cards generally are filed by the office whose files were examined and each set has been assigned a different call number. The descriptions below were prepared at the time of calendaring and describe the files as they existed then.

Mss 445: Post Office Files, 1789-1893, 1908 (11 card boxes). These cards are arranged in a single chronological order. They include summaries of seven groups of records:

(1) Letter Books of the First Assistant Postmaster General, Vol. A-C, 1794-1799: Contains copies of letters by the First Assistant Postmaster General. Several letters related to an experiment with boats carrying mail on the Ohio River.

(2) Post Office Department Telegraphic Despatches, 1852-1873: Two volumes containing copies of telegrams sent from the Post Office Department to postmasters and others.

(3) Post Office Department: Contract Office, Letters Received, 1850-1862: The Contract Office was administered by the Second Assistant Postmaster General. It was charged with the making and enforcement of contracts for carrying the mail. The communications received by it embrace bids for contracts, complaints relative to the service, applications for more mails per week, applications for changes in routes, replies by postmasters to requests for information relative to conditions, etc. The papers for each state are filed by routes in numerical sequence and tied in bundles.

(4) Letters of the Postmaster General to the President and Members of Congress, 1842-1845: [no details provided]

(5) Letters to Congress, 1823-1832: Copies of letters written by subordinate officers of the P.M.G. to members of Congress

(6) Letters of the Postmaster General, 1789-1893: Copies of the letters of the P.M.G. which contain instructions for the extension and improvement of the mail service and discloose numerous complaints of irregularities and losses. They decrease in importance subsequent to 1830 when the second assistant postmaster general had been charged with the immediate direction to the operation of post routes.

(7) Letter Books of the Chief Clerk, 1829-1831: Copies of letters of the chief clerk.

Mss 446: War Department, 1789-1870 (19 card boxes). These cards are filed in the 38 groups in which the documents were found; each is summarized in the contents list below.

Mss 447: Interior Department, Indian Division Files, 1838-1873, and Division of Lands and Railroads Files, 1820-1880 (5 card boxes).

The cards for the Indian Division Files are arranged in a single chronological order. They include summaries of eight groups of records: Letter-book Copies of the Outgoing Letters of the Secretary of the Interior Relative to Indian Affairs, 1849-1865 (318 cards); Letters Received; Miscellaneous Letters Received; Letters Received from the War Department; Letters Received from the Treasury Department; Letters Received from the Attorney General; Letters Received from the State Department; and Letters Received from the General Land Office. A total of 387 cards were prepared.

The cards for the Division of Lands and Railroads Files are filed in nine sections, all but one corresponding to the groups in which the documents were found. One of the nine sections is a single chronological arrangement of cards for five separate small groups of documents. Further details are included in the contents list below.

Mss 448: State Department Files, 1670-1865 (5 card boxes). These cards are filed in the 19 groups in which the documents were found; each is summarized in the contents list below.

Mss 449: U.S. Senate Files, 1789-1888 (8 card boxes). These cards are filed in the 2 large groups in which the documents were found:

(1) Senate Files, 1789-1888: These files consist of messages of the President with accompanying papers, reports of cabinet officers with accompanying papers, petitions and memorials (in alphabetical order) from citizens and organizations in the several states and territories, reports of Senate committees, and Senate and House bills. The papers are filed separately for each congress, in some instances for each session, for Congresses 1-50. The cards reflect this arrangement by congress and in addition are numbered and are arranged in numerical order. (This order is not chronological within each congress.)

(2) Senate File Cases, 1789-1886: Bulky papers of each congress, consisting chiefly of papers from the President, reports with accompanying documents from cabinet officers, presidential election returns, and reports of special committees or commissions. They are wrapped in bundles and stored in cased in cases closed with chain doors. Each bundle bears a descriptive label.

Mss 450: L. F. Stock Calendars, 1772-1838 (2 card boxes). These cards were prepared about 1910 by L. F. Stock and were typed about 1931 by Helen Mauer. They describe records of the Indian Office and the Post Office and several manuscript collections at the Library of Congress: the Arthur St. Clair Papers, John McLean Papers, Duncan McArthur Papers, and Hamtramck's “Standing Oders at Detroit, 1802.”

The cards are arranged in a single chronological order. A note at the bottom of a card saying “typed copy” indicates that the Historical Society has a typed copy of the manuscript, located in a separate collection, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs Copied Documents (U.S. Mss BN). If there is no “typed copy” note, the Society has no copy. Stock's original notes were destroyed.

Many other calendar cards produced by Dr. Stock and Dr. Mereness, as well as typed or photostat copies of many of the documents described, have been cataloged in three separate collections: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs Copied Documents (U.S. Mss BN); U.S. General Land Office Copied Documents and Calendars (U.S. Mss BO); and U.S. House of Representatives Copied Records (U.S. Mss BP).

Mss 445	Series: Post Office Files, 1789-1893, 1908
Box   1	1789-1820
Box   2	1821-1824
Box   3	1825-1827
Box   4	1828-1831
Box   5	1832-1843
Box   6	1844-1853
Box   7	1854-1855
Box   8	1856-1857
Box   9	1858
Box   10	1859-1860 July
Box   11	1860 August-1893, 1908
Mss 446	Series: War Department Files, 1789-1870	⇧
Box   1	Adjutant General's Office: Letter Books of the Secretary of War, 1800-1867 Physical Description: About 600 cards  Arrangement of the Materials: Chronological Scope and Content Note: Instructions for operation on the frontier.
Box   1	Adjutant General's Office: Letters of the Secretary of War to the President, 1802-1862 Physical Description: About 75 cards  Scope and Content Note: Valuable in the study of the military and Indian policies of the United States.
Box   2	Adjutant General's Office: Letters of the Secretary of War to Congress, 1803-1870 Physical Description: About 200 cards  Scope and Content Note: Valuable in the study of the military and Indian policies of the United States.
Box   2	Adjutant General's Office: Confidential and Unofficial Correspondence, 1814-1841 Physical Description: 10 cards
	Adjutant General's Office: Letters Received by the Secretary of War, 1789-1867 Scope and Content Note: Valuable for study of conditions on the frontier.
Box   2	1789-1812
Box   3	1812-1821
Box   4	1822-1867
Box   9	Adjutant General's Letter Books, 1800-1865 Physical Description: About 300 cards  Scope and Content Note: Instructions to army officers.
Box   10	Adjutant General's Office: Miscellaneous Collection, 1799-1852 Physical Description: About 150 cards  Scope and Content Note: Among those that pertain directly to Wisconsin are about 50 letters from Fort Howard, 1849-1852, written by Francis Lee, B.L.E. Bonneville, and others.
Box   5	Adjutant General's Office, Mails and Files Division: Letters Received, 1805-1865 Physical Description: About 850 cards
Box   5	Adjutant General's Office, Mails and Files Division: Miscellaneous Papers Physical Description: 5 cards  Scope and Content Note: Re: a conspiracy to invade Canada in 1838-1840.
Box   10	Adjutant General's Office: Contracts, 1799-1806 Physical Description: 12 cards  Scope and Content Note: Contracts of the War Department for furnishing rations, etc. for U.S. soldiers.
Box   10	Office of the Adjutant General: Orders, General, Special, 1797-1863 Physical Description: About 325 cards
Box   6	Black Hawk War, Miscellaneous Papers, 1832 April-September Physical Description: About 175 cards  Scope and Content Note: Consists largely of correspondence among army officers regarding the war.
	Letter Books of the Department of the Northwest, 1862-1865 Physical Description: About 875 cards  Scope and Content Note: From September 1 to November 29, 1862, headquarters was at St. Paul; at Madison to February 9, 1863; and at Milwaukee to 1865. A great part of the correspondence relates to the Sioux Outbreak but also is much on the “Indian Scares” in Wisconsin, draft “riots,” and methods of meeting the problems in Wisconsin, Ozaukee, Indian troubles, movement of troops, disciplinary details, etc.
Box   6	1862-1864
Box   7	1865-1873
Box   7	Department of the Northwest: Letters Received, 1862-1865 Physical Description: About 475 cards  Arrangement of the Materials: Chronological Scope and Content Note: Most of the letters deal with the Sioux Outbreak and its effects on the people in the Northwest. Several letters from the Lake Superior region regard the necessity of defense against the Chippewa.
	Department of the Northwest: Orders, 1833-1837, 1862-1865 Physical Description: About 700 cards  Scope and Content Note: General and special orders regarding placing of troops or individuals and courts-martial. Those for Fort crawford related entirely to courts-martial. Others are from Washington, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Camp Reno, Wisconsin.
Box   7	1862
Box   8	1863-1865
Box   8	Eastern Department: Letter Books, 1820-1841m 1849-1857 Physical Description: About 135 cards
Box   9	Eastern Department: Orders, 1821-1856 Physical Description: About 125 cards
Box   8	Eastern Department: Letters Received, 1822-1856 Physical Description: About 230 cards
Box   9	Western Department: Letter Books, 1822-1840, 1846-1848 Physical Description: About 250 cards
Box   9	Western Department: Orders, 1822-1840 Physical Description: About 50 cards
Box   9	Northern Department: Letter Books, 1818-1820, 1864-1866 Physical Description: 26 cards
Box   9	Northern Department: Letters Received, 1863-1865 Physical Description: 76 cards
Box   9	Department of the Ohio: Letters Received, 1861-1862 Physical Description: About 35 cards
	Bureau of Topographical Engineers, 1837-1865 Physical Description: About 1700 cards
Box   10	1837-1850
Box   11	1851-1856
Box   12	1857-1865
Box   14	Chief of Engineers: Letters Received, 1816-1857 Physical Description: About 375 cards
	Office of the Chief of Engineers: Miscellaneous Letters Sent, 1821-1865 Physical Description: About 350 cards
Box   14	1821-1833
Box   15	1834-1865
Box   15	Office of the Chief of Engineers: Communications to Secretary of War and Members of Congress, 1836-1862 Physical Description: 47 cards
Box   15	Office of the Chief of Engineers: Letters of Chief Engineer to Officers of Engineers, 1815-1840 Physical Description: About 50 cards
	Office of the Chief of Engineers: Letter Books of the Chief of the Bureau of Topographical Engineers, 1829-1866 Physical Description: About 1500 cards
Box   12	1829-1844
Box   13	1845-1866
Box   14	Office of the Chief of Engineers: Letters of the Chief of Topographical Engineers to the Secretary of War, 1843-1870 Physical Description: About 340 cards
Box   10	Letter Books of Commander-in-Chief of the Army, 1828-1865 Physical Description: About 160 cards
Box   10	Letters Received by Commander-in-Chief of the Army, 1823-1865 Physical Description: About 200 cards
	Quartermaster General's Office: Letter Books, 1818-1865 Physical Description: About 1700 cards
Box   15	1818-1837
Box   16	1838-1865
	Quartermaster General's Office: Letters Received, 1818-1866 Physical Description: About 1700 cards
Box   16	1818-1822
Box   17	1823-1859
Box   18	1860-1866
	Quartermaster General's Office: Letters Received, Historical File, 1818-1867 Physical Description: About 1100 cards
Box   18	1818-1831
Box   19	1832-1867
Box   19	Quartermaster General's Office: Maps and Plans, 1829-1866 Physical Description: 22 cards
Box   19	Quartermaster General's Office: Letter Books, Reports and Estimates, 1833-1848 Physical Description: About 70 cards
Box   19	Quartermaster General's Office: Letters and Reports of the Q.M. General to the Secretary of War, Heads of Departments, and Committees of Congress, 1848-1863 Physical Description: About 85 cards
Mss 447	Series: Interior Department Files, 1838-1873	⇧
Box   1	Indian Division Files, 1838-1873
	Division of Lands and Railroads Files, 1820-1880
Box   2	Miscellaneous Letters Received re Railroads, 1820-1880 Physical Description: 163 cards  Scope and Content Note: These letters are segregated by railroad. Those for each railroad are tied in one or more bundles. The bundles, filed in 58 boxes, are in numberical order from 1 to 348. These letters have been removed to the General Land Office.
Box   2	Letters Received from the General Land Office, Treasury Department, Executive, State Department, and Navy Department, 1849-1878 Physical Description: 39 cards  Scope and Content Note: The cards for these groups have been combined and arranged chronologically. No summary card. They do not seem to belong to the large groups of Letters Received from the GLO in Box 2-4 below. They are marked “LR from GLO, Box X,” “L.R. from N.D. Box N,” etc.
Box   2	Miscellaneous Letters Received, 1847-1880 Physical Description: 160 cards  Scope and Content Note: Letters from residents of the United States to the department inquiring principally about land laws. Removed to GLO.
Box   2	Letters of the Secretary of the Interior relative to Land Grant Railroads, 1866-1871 Physical Description: 45 cards  Scope and Content Note: Letter-book copies. They have been removed to the General Land Office.
Box   2	Letters of the Secretary of the Interior relative to the Pacific Railroad, 1865-1872 Physical Description: 14 cards  Scope and Content Note: Letter-book copies. No summary card.
Box   2	Opinions of the Attorney General, 1851-1873 Physical Description: 30 cards  Scope and Content Note: Removed to the General Land Office.
Box   2	Letters relative to Wagon Roads, 1868-1870 Physical Description: 7 cards  Scope and Content Note: Letter-book copies. Removed to GLO.
	Letters Received from the General Land Office, 1824-1880 Physical Description: About 620 cards  Scope and Content Note: In two parts. Part 1 concerns Wisconsin and Part 2 concerns the other Midwestern states. These have been removed to the General Land Office.
Box   2	Part 1, 1824-1856
Box   3	Part 1, 1857-1880
Box   3	Part 2, 1857-1859
Box   4	Part 2, 1860-1868
	Letters of the Secretary of the Interior relative to Lands and Railroads, 1849-1880 Physical Description: About 950 cards  Scope and Content Note: Letter-book copies.
Box   4	1849-1859
Box   5	1860-1880
Mss 448	Series: State Department Files, 1670-1865	⇧
Box   1	American Letters, 1785-1792 Physical Description: 33 cards  Scope and Content Note: Copies of these letters are preserved in chronological order in four bound volumes. They relate to territorial affairs and the navigation of the Mississippi River.
Box   1	Domestic Letters, 1793-1865 Physical Description: About 700 cards  Scope and Content Note: The Domestic Letters embrace all communications that were sent out over the signature of the secretary of state that are not included in the diplomatic and consular correspondence. Copies of these letters are preserved in chronological order in quarto volumes.
	Miscellaneous Letters, circa 1670-1865 Physical Description: About 1800 cards  Scope and Content Note: With the exception of a collection of letters received from territories these Miscellaneous Letters embrace all communications addressed to the secretary of state that are not included in diplomatic and consular correspondence. They are preserved in bound volumes (400), from 1789 to 1865 inclusive, in the chronological order of the cover letters. Enclosures are often voluminous and embrace such material as journals of legislative proceedings of Territorial Assemblies.
Box   1	1670-1817
Box   2	1818-1846
Box   3	1847-1865
Box   3	Miscellaneous Papers, circa 1826-1842 Physical Description: About 15 cards  Scope and Content Note: These were a few loose papers which properly belonged to the bound volumes of Miscellaneous Letters, and they have been incorporated with those letters since the calendar was made.
Box   3	Territorial Papers, circa 1779-1816 Physical Description: About 275 cards  Scope and Content Note: Letters and other papers received by the secretary of state from some of the territories were segregated by territories and preserved in bound volumes. Those in each volume were in approximately the chronological order of the cover latters but some of the enclosures were misplaced. Subsequent to the calendaring of these papers the volumes were rebound with other territorial paper included and in more perfect chronological arrangement.
Box   3	Territorial Papers, Unbound, circa 1770-1835 Physical Description: About 350 cards  Scope and Content Note: Letters and papers received by the secretary of state from several of the territories were segregated by territories. Some of these papers were bound in volumes and some were tied in bundles. Subsequent to the calendaring of them, those that had been preserved in volumes were rebound with the unbound ones, in chronological order.
Box   4	British Legation Notes, circa 1791-1865 Physical Description: About 350 cards  Scope and Content Note: These are notes of the British Minister in Washington to the secretary of state. The original notes are preserved in bound volumes in chronological order.
Box   4	French Legation Notes, circa 1801-1804 Physical Description: 11 cards  Scope and Content Note: Notes of the French Minister in Washington to the secretary of state.
Box   4	Spanish Legation Notes, 1796-1804 Physical Description: 31 cards  Scope and Content Note: Notes of the Spanish Minister in Washington to the secretary of state.
Box   4	American Diplomatic Notes, circa 1815-1865 Physical Description: About 65 cards  Scope and Content Note: Notes from the secretary of state to ministers representing foreign countries in washington. Only notes to the British minister were calendared.
Box   4	Claiborne Correspondence, circa 1770-1809 Physical Description: 246 cards  Scope and Content Note: This correspondence constitutes a portion of the territorial papers in the state department. It consists of letters received by the secretary of state from William C. C. Claiborne, governor of Orleans Territory.
Box   5	Consular Letters, 1858-1865 Physical Description: 38 cards  Scope and Content Note: These letters are autograph despatches from United States consuls at Canadian ports. Theya re preserved in bound volumes in chronological order for each port.
Box   5	Journals of the Continental Congress, circa 1787-1788 Scope and Content Note: These papers are copies of extracts from the Journals of the Continental Congress. Those relating to domestic affairs have been removed to the Library of Congress. The calendar covers chiefly extracts relating to the Northwest Territory.
Box   5	Instructions, 1791-1865 Physical Description: About 125 cards  Scope and Content Note: Instructions issued by the secretary of state to diplomatic representatives of the United States in foreign counties.
Box   5	Letters from Governors of States, 1793-1796 Physical Description: 4 cards  Scope and Content Note: A miscellaneous collection of letters from the governors of several states.
	Consular Despatches, circa 1855-1865 Physical Description: About 25 cards  Scope and Content Note: Instructions from the secretary of state to the various United States consuls in foreign countries. Only instructions to consuls in Canada were calendared. [These cards were not found when the cards were moved from drawers to boxes.]
Box   5	Despatches, 1794-1858 Physical Description: About 250 cards  Scope and Content Note: Despatches from the United States minister to the Court of St. James in London, arranged chronologically.
Box   5	Despatches from France, 1791-1804 Physical Description: About 50 cards  Scope and Content Note: Despatches from the United States minister to France, arranged chronologically.
Box   5	Despatches from Spain, 1793-1805 Physical Description: About 75 cards  Scope and Content Note: Despatches from the United States minister to Spain, arranged chronologically.
Mss 449	Series: U.S. Senate Files, 1789-1888	⇧
	Senate Files, 1789-1888
Box   1	1st Congress-24th Congress (Cards #1-3220)
Box   2	24th Congress-28th Congress (Cards #3221-6900)
Box   3	28th Congress-33rd Congress (Cards #6901-10,600)
Box   4	33rd Congress-38th Congress (Cards #10,601-14,500)
Box   5	38th Congress-44th Congress (Cards #14,501-19,600)
Box   6	44th Congress-50th Congress (Cards #19,601-24,847)
	Senate File Cases, 1789-1886
Box   6	3rd Congress-21st Congress (Cards #1-680)
Box   7	22nd Congress-33rd Congress (Cards #681-3900)
Box   8	34th Congress-49th Congress (Cards #3901-8354)
Mss 450	Series: L. F. Stock Calendars, 1772-1838	⇧
Box   1	1772-1828
Box   2	1829-1838; undated