Summary Information
John Goadby Gregory Papers 1846-1946
- Gregory, John Goadby, 1856-1947
Milwaukee Mss 94; PH 6648
1.6 c.f. (4 archives boxes) and 1 photograph (1 folder)
UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)
Papers of John Goadby Gregory, a Milwaukee journalist, editor, Republican politician, and local historian. The majority of the papers consist of incoming correspondence, mainly to Gregory, with a few drafts of replies. Letters in the 1850s to Gregory's father, a Milwaukee pioneer and promoter, discuss prospects of the fur trade, Wisconsin land speculations, and proposals to encourage planned immigration to the area from England and Scotland. Letters addressed to William E. Cramer, founder and publisher of the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, and letters in 1898 to journalist Alexander Thomson discuss political topics. The collection also includes some correspondence of Mrs. Cramer with Mrs. Lydia Ely, Gaetano Trentanove, and other artists and sculptors. English
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Biography/History
John Goadby Gregory, journalist and historian, was born in Milwaukee July 11, 1856, and spent his entire life there, dying on April 12, 1947. His father, John Gregory, of Irish birth, had come to the United States as secretary of the Irish National Emigration Society and in 1849 settled in Milwaukee. There he published in 1853 a small volume, Industrial Resources of Wisconsin, which was widely circulated and undoubtedly an influence in directing settlement to the Wisconsin region.
Young Gregory attended the Milwaukee city public schools but obtained most of his education through carefully directed instruction at home and the use of the large collection of books in his parents' library. In 1871, at the age of fifteen, he started work in a printing office and throughout the remainder of his long life was connected with printing, publishing, and writing. He worked as a printer, 1871-1878, was editor and leading editorial writer for Milwaukee newspapers beginning in 1880, editor-in-chief of the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, 1905-1918, and in later years was author and editor of a number of historical articles and books.
The Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, with which Gregory was associated for about forty years, was one of the city's leading newspapers. In 1848 William E. Cramer had founded the newspaper and, although he lost both hearing and sight in his last years, he continued as editor until his death in 1905. For about the last twenty years of his life he spent weeks at a time at nearby Pewaukee. From there he wrote frequently to Gregory, outlining newspaper policy, sending editorials which Gregory checked or completed before publishing, and commenting generally on newspaper affairs and public events. After Cramer's death the newspaper was continued until 1918 by his widow, Mrs. Harriet L. Cramer, a well-known Milwaukee philanthropist and art patron, with Gregory as editor, a position he had virtually filled since 1889.
The Gregory correspondence reflected the multifarious happenings in a period of rapid expansion in the history of the United States. As a newspaperman, Gregory was in close contact with developments. But he was far more than a passive recipient of information. A man of varied interests, a native Milwaukeean, a congenial companion, a popular speaker, a “joiner,” a poet, journalist and historian, a politician with more than local influence, a Unitarian who served for years as trustee of Marquette University, Gregory took an active part in the life of his city and state, a participation that is faithfully mirrored in his correspondence.
In 1918 the Evening Wisconsin was sold to the Hearst interests and Gregory's long connection with newspaper work ended. For a year he was professor of journalism at Marquette University. In 1919 he was appointed secretary of the War History Commission in Madison, working with the State Historical Society in collecting and editing records of World War I for publication. In 1925 the position was discontinued and Gregory undertook the preparation of a biography of former governor Emanuel Philipp. Next he turned his hand to writing and editing a series of local and regional histories for commercial publication: History of Milwaukee (four volumes, 1931); Southeastern Wisconsin (four volumes, 1932); Southwestern Wisconsin (four volumes, 1932); and West Central Wisconsin (four volumes, 1933).
Scope and Content Note
The collection consists largely of incoming letters but there are occasional drafts of replies. Besides Gregory's own correspondence there are small groups of papers of three other persons: some early letters addressed to the elder Gregory in the 1850s; scattered political letters written to William E. Cramer; and, mainly around the year 1898, a number of letters to Alexander M. Thomson, a fellow journalist who was preparing a political history of Wisconsin but died before the volume was completed. All these letters have been filed in one chronological sequence. (See the partial index in the appendix to this finding aid.) However, because of their fragile condition and the fact that many of them are not dated, one group of letters written to Gregory have been placed in separate folders--those written by William Cramer and Harriet Cramer, together with a few pieces of Cramer family correspondence.
The incoming correspondence contains a quantity of letters from prominent Milwaukeeans: social notes, requests for publication of items, appreciations of newspaper notices. It is impossible to list all of these writers; their letters were, for the most part, of only passing importance. Correspondence with fellow club members is more numerous. Gregory was a member of the Milwaukee Typographical Union, the Milwaukee Press Club, the Old Settlers Club, the City Club, the Phantom Club, the Sunset Club, the Parkman Club, the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Science, the Wisconsin Archeological Society, and the State Historical Society, and held offices in many of these organizations. His papers contain invitations, programs, brochures, and correspondence on social affairs, dedications, reunions, club meetings, conventions, and promotional work connected with these and various other social, professional, and cultural organizations.
Among the fellow club members who corresponded with Gregory were sons or close relatives of several men who had been prominent in the history of Wisconsin: S.M. Booth of Chicago, Paul D. Carpenter of a Milwaukee law firm, George H. Paul writing from various places, and George R. Peck of Chicago. There are several letters from two Americans in foreign service: Francis B. Keene of Geneva, Switzerland, and Rome, and Walter E. Gardner of Rotterdam, Netherlands. Neal Brown of Wausau, a member of the Phantom Club, expressed his views on newspaper items in two or three letters and Eugene W. Chafin, national candidate for President on the Prohibition ticket, wrote two or three brief notes.
Mrs. Cramer's patronage of the arts was no doubt instrumental in turning the attention of the Evening Sentinel to the encouragement of the study and production of art in Milwaukee. A number of artists and sculptors who produced paintings, water colors, and statuary around the turn of the century are represented in the Gregory correspondence. Mrs. Lydia Ely, remembered chiefly for her water colors, consulted with Gregory on publicity and patronage. Gaetano Trentanove, the Italian sculptor who made the statue of Father Marquette for Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C., and of other figures of historic Americans, corresponded with Gregory over a period of fifteen years, writing from his studio in Florence, Italy, and from various American cities.
From his early youth Gregory was interested in writing. In 1892 he published a slender volume of verse, A Beauty of Thebes, and throughout his life he continued to compose verses for special occasions. As newspaper editor and writer, Gregory was besieged by aspiring writers of poetry and prose seeking advice and assistance in perfecting and publishing their productions. The collection contains a few of such offerings and their accompanying letters as well as some from more competent writers, such as Bernard I. Durward. In 1895 Gregory helped found the Parkman Club, an organization devoted to research and writing on the history of the Old Northwest. His correspondence contains letters from a number of fellow members regarding their studies and publications. Among them are about a dozen from the Chicago collector and bibliophile, John Thomas Lee. An equal number, written at long intervals between 1893 and 1923, are from the popular Milwaukee novelist, General Charles King.
Throughout the entire collection there are letters from newspapermen, some of whom remained journalists and publishers all of their lives, others who branched out into allied fields. Among these writers are Zona Gale of Portage, Amos P. Wilder of Madison, John G. Pyle and Harlan P. Hall of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Frank Flower who produced promotional literature from Superior and a number of other cities. There are also letters from Peter van Vechten and his son of the same name, mainly on historical subjects, and William F. Hooker, the popular “Bill Hooker” of twentieth-century Milwaukee. Between the years 1941 and 1946, Chase S. Osborn and his adopted daughter and secretary, Stellanova, wrote some forty brief letters to Mrs. Gregory whom Osborn had known when they were both newspaper writers in Milwaukee fifty years earlier.
Although Gregory never held political office, he was deeply interested in political activities and attended a number of national party conventions. In his youth he was a Democrat (His first wife, Caroline Strong Paul who died in 1891, was a sister of George H. Paul, a leading Wisconsin Democrat.), but the newspaper Gregory edited was a stronghold of Stalwart Republican principles and in the 1890s he became a Republican. For ten years, beginning in 1894, he was a member of the Republican County Committee, representing the First Ward of the city. His papers for those years in particular, but running through most of the collection, deal with party politics: local campaigns and patronage, contributions, speeches, selection of delegates, issues, and personalities.
There are letters from a number of political leaders of state and national prominence, many of them addressed to Gregory himself, but also a number written to William E. Cramer and to Alexander M. Thomson whose Political History of Wisconsin was published posthumously in 1898.
Among the letters from political leaders are occasional ones from members of the House of Representatives: Victor Berger, John J. Esch, John Jenkins, John Fox Potter, S.S. Barney, and Joseph W. Babcock, and more numerous ones from Theodore Otjen and William H. Stafford of Milwaukee. At least five Wisconsin governors appear in the collection: C.C. Washburn, William R. Taylor, William D. Hoard, Francis E. McGovern, and George W. Peck, and the Democratic New York governor, Horatio Seymour of Utica. There is a letter to Cramer from each of the following United States Senators: Matthew H. Carpenter, Timothy O. Howe, and John Sherman, and about a dozen to Gregory between the years 1894 and 1906 from John C. Spooner.
There are several letters discussing anti-La Follette measures written by various Stalwart leaders; those from William D. Connor of Marshfield in the election years 1906 and 1908 and fairly numerous. In the early years of World War I, L.T. Crabtree of Crandon and Reinhardt Rahr of Manitowoc wrote presenting their views of the state political situation and the war.
His papers contain but slight material on his work after leaving the newspaper business. The rough draft of his unpublished Philipp biography is in the collection. There is also occasional correspondence with local writers in various sections of southern Wisconsin dealing with their preparation of material for the historical volumes he was compiling or editing, and some correspondence with the publishers, S.J. Clarke Company of Chicago.
Four bound volumes which are included in the Gregory papers are described in the contents list below.
The photograph is of members of the Milwaukee County Historical Society taken on August 30, 1940.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Purchased, A12884, A12885, December 9 and 31, 1954.
Contents List
Milwaukee Mss 94
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Correspondence
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Box
1-2
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Chronological correspondence, 1846, 1853-1946, undated
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Box
3
Folder
1-2
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With William E. and Harriet Cramer, 1892-1906
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Box
3
Folder
3
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Miscellaneous Materials including Biographical Notes, Speeches, and Articles, undated
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Box
3-4
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Notes and materials used in preparation of the biography of Emanuel Philipp
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Box
4
Volume
1
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Ladies' Association for the Relief of Soldiers' Families, constitution and minutes, 1863-1864
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|
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Wisconsin Soldiers' Home
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Box
4
Volume
2
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By-laws and minutes, 1865-1867
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Box
4
Volume
3
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Brief history of the Home; and two speeches memorializing Mrs. John Plankinton and Mrs. Henrietta Caroline Rogers Cleaver : The author of these speeches is unknown.
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Box
4
Volume
4
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Notebook
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PH 6648
Folder
1
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Photograph of Milwaukee County Historical Society members, August 1940
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Additional Descriptive Information
Abbot, Edwin H. |
1889, January 1 |
Barney, Samuel S. |
1899, April 3 |
|
1902, March 18 |
Berger, Victor L. |
1926, May 27 |
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1928, May 1 |
Booth, S.M. |
1897, March 15 |
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1897, March 17 |
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1904, August 16 |
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1905, January 30 |
Borwn, Neal |
1913, November 19 |
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1915, May 28 |
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1916, February 14 |
Brown, Olympia |
1910, October 28 |
Carpenter, Matthew H. |
1872, June 11 |
Chafin, Eugene W. |
1911, May 24 |
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1915, February 20 |
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1915, May 15 |
Connor, W.D. |
1906, May 24 |
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1906, May 25 |
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1906, September 10 |
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1908, March 26 |
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1908, August 11 |
Crabtree, L.T. |
1914, June 15 |
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1916, September 27 |
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1919, January 5 |
Durward, Bernard I. |
1890, October 14 |
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1890, December 16 |
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1892, June 19 |
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1892, July 22 |
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1892, November 11 |
Ely, Lydia |
1889, June 10 |
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1890, February 5 |
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1892, February 1 |
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1895, July 17 |
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1895, September 3 |
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1910, July 16 |
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1914, January 20 |
Esch, John G. |
1895, February 27 |
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1896, June 3 |
Flower, Frank A. |
1893, July 31 |
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1893, August 7 |
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1893, October 4 |
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1895, January 26 |
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1895, May 15 |
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1895, May 23 |
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1895, August 31 |
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1895, September 13 |
Gale, Zona |
1895, June 28 |
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1916, June 30 |
Gardner, Walter E. |
1890, February 23 |
|
1890, October 11 |
Hall, Harlan Page |
1897 |
Hoard, William Dempster |
1897, December 29 |
|
1898, April 1 |
Hooker, William F. |
1917, February 5 |
|
1924, February 8 |
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1924, April 2 |
|
1924, April 10 |
Howe, Timothy O. |
1872, December 23 |
Hunter, A.G. |
1880, February 10 |
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to March 24 |
Keene, Francis B. |
1906, January 20 |
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1906, April 20 |
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1930, February 6 |
King, Charles |
1893, May 19 |
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1894, August 21 |
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1903, September 7 |
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1908, June 3 |
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1911, January 11 |
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1914, July 29 |
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1916, April 3 |
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1916, December 15 |
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1917, February 25 |
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1919, October 14 |
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1920, September 9 |
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1923, November 21 |
|
no date |
Lapham, Julia A. |
1897, February 18 |
Lee, John Thomas |
1910, February 23 |
|
1923, May 31 |
|
1923, June 9 |
|
1923, June 13 |
|
1925, August 27 |
|
1927, August 15 |
|
1927, December 10 |
|
1928, March 14 |
|
1929, May 28 |
|
1929, June 5 |
|
1929, July 22 |
|
1929, July 27 |
|
1932, March 22 |
Lusk, Grace |
1918, March 14 |
Lyon, William P. |
1898, May 11 |
Otjen, Theobold |
1896, February 8 |
|
1896, February 17 |
|
1896, April 27 |
|
1897, May 20 |
|
1898, February 1 |
|
1898, April 8 |
|
1898, November 26 |
|
1900, March 8 |
|
1902, March 12 |
|
1903, February 16 |
|
1903, April 4 |
|
1904, March 18 |
|
1906, February 2 |
Park, R.H. |
1885, May 13 |
Paul, George H. |
1885, February 5 |
|
1901, May 24 |
Payne, H.C. |
1902, January 17 |
Peck, George W. |
1893, September 13 |
|
1904, March 23 |
Potter, John Fox |
1898? |
Rahr, Reinhardt |
1914, November 9 |
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1914, November 20 |
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1914, December 2 |
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1914, December 12 |
Seymour, Horatio |
1874, December 30 |
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1883, October 29 |
Sherman, John |
1888, April 23 |
Spooner, John C. |
1894, November 8 |
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1894, December 4 |
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1895, March 2 |
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1896, May 23 |
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1896, June 9 |
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1897, May 29 |
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1897, June 14 |
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1899, February 25 |
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1899, February 27 |
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1903, March 19 |
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1906, June 14 |
Stafford, William H. |
1902, September 13 |
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1907, September 26 |
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1910, July 28 |
Taylor, William R. |
1897, June 10 |
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1897, June 25 |
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1897, October 30 |
Trentanove, Gaetano |
1893, September 24 |
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1893, October 19 |
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1893, December 11 |
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1894, January 26 |
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to June 26 |
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1895, January 28 |
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to July 18 |
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1899, March 27 |
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1907, January 8 |
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1908, April 4 |
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to September 7 |
Van Vechten, Peter |
1898, February 20 |
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1899, March 30 |
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1907, January 31 |
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1907, November 16 |
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1908, February 15 |
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1910, March 4 |
Von Bergen, Hattie |
1893, November 23 |
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1894, March 29 |
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1903, October 21 |
Washburn, C.C. |
1874, September 18 |
Wilder, Amos P. |
1895, January 24 |
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1895, February 21 |
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1895, September 11 |
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1896, July 17 |
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