Title: Joseph, Joseph H., and William P. Gundry Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1849-1899

Creators:

• Gundry, William P., 1853-1946
• Gundry, Joseph
• Gundry, Joseph H.

Call Number: Platteville Mss AM

Quantity: 2.0 c.f. (5 archives boxes and 2 volumes)

Repository:

Housed at the Southwest Wisconsin Room and Area Research Center, Ullsvik Hall, University of Wisconsin-Platteville; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

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

UW-Platteville Southwest Wisconsin Room / Platteville Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of Joseph Gundry, who settled in Mineral Point, Wis., about 1845, and of his sons, Joseph H. and William P. Included are diaries kept by the elder Gundry from 1869 to 1898; some bills and accounts of William P. Gundry from 1869 to 1898; some bills and accounts of William P. Gundry with London, New York, and Chicago merchants for clothes and household furnishings; about 125 letters from William T. Vincent, 1870-1876, concerning a silver mine near Central City, Utah Territory; papers, 1870-1879, dealing with the management of the Mineral Point Zinc Company and the La Salle Zinc Company in Illinois, including accounts and correspondence; letters received from agents of the Gundry family in Nebraska and in Oklahoma Territory reporting on land investments; and miscellaneous correspondence dealing with minor business activities of the Gundry family.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-pltv00am

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Bills and accounts in the collection are from London haberdashers, New York and Chicago household furnishing concerns, and Mineral Point grocers and dry goods merchants. They illustrate how an American gentleman dressed and equipped and ran his estate about 1875. A wide variety of letterhead stationery is included in this material.

William T. Vincent left Mineral Point about 1870 to operate a silver mine near Central City, Utah Territory and his letters give a vivid picture of mining speculation there. The papers which deal with Joseph Gundry's operations in the Mineral Point Zinc Company and the La Salle Zinc Company in Illinois from early in the 1870s to the close of the decade contain little information on the actual mining operations. However the Mineral Point ledger, 1874-1879, and excerpts from La Salle Zinc account books as well as annual statements and inventories give details on the financial side of the investment.

Among the business correspondence are the numerous letters from Joseph H. and William P. Gundry's land agents in Lincoln, Arcadia, and Plainview, Nebraska and Norman, Oklahoma Territory, where they invested extensively in real estate in the late 1880s. Other small groups of papers concern land investments in southwestern Wisconsin and various minor enterprises in which the Gundrys were involved. There is little in the collection that directly concerns Mineral Point except a few accounts dealing with the finances of the Methodist Episcopal Church there in the 1870s.

The small diaries kept by Joseph Gundry from 1869 to 1898 contain brief and scattered entries, dealing largely with local deaths, activities of members of the Gundry family, and occasional business activities. The daily cash accounts at the end of each diary are fairly complete. Miscellaneous bank and account books complete the collection.

Typewritten transcriptions of the diaries and of selected entries in the account books have been added to the collection and are in Box 5.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the Gundry heirs, July 1936.

	Correspondence and business papers, 1849-1899
Box   1 Folder   1	Tax receipts, 1849-1859
	General papers
Box   1 Folder   2	1861-1868
Box   1 Folder   3	, 1868-1879 (mainly re zinc companies)
Box   1 Folder   4	1880-1884
Box   1 Folder   5	1885-1889
Box   2 Folder   1	1890-1894
Box   2 Folder   1	1895-1899 and undated
Box   2 Folder   3-4	Utah silver mine correspondence, 1870-1876
Box   3	Diaries, 1869-1898
Box   5	Transcriptions of diaries and selected account books, 1867-1898 Note: Produced at the Platteville Area Research Center.
	Financial records
Box   4	Account books, 1866-1998 Scope and Content Note: Ten small account books. Several are labelled “William T. Henry, Banker, Mineral Point, Wis., in Account with Joseph Gundry.” One is for “The La Salle Zinc Co., Mineral Point, Wis.,” 1878-1879. One is in account with Thomas Kinsman, Gundry's partner in the zinc business. Two are for Gundry, Gray & Co.
Box   4 Folder   1	La Salle Zinc Co. Rolling Mill Spelter accounts, 1876 August-December
Box   4 Folder   2	“Shipments of Metal from the La Salle Zinc Co.'s Rolling Mill,” 1877 January-1879 January
Box   4 Folder   3	“Journal D, La Salle Zinc Co.,” 1878 December-1879 March
Volume   1	Ledger of the Mineral Point Zinc Co., 1874-1879
Volume   2	Index to ledger, 1849-1899