Title: Charles C. Sholes Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1843-1867

Creator:

• Sholes, Charles C. (Charles Clark), 1816-1867

Call Number: Milwaukee Mss BS

Quantity: 0.2 c.f. (1 archives box)

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries’ Archives Department / Milwaukee Area Research Center; 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-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of Sholes, a pioneer Wisconsin newspaperman, politician, and businessman. Most of the collection consists of his letters to his wife Sarah. Some of the letters dating 1853-1855 discuss meetings with Horace Greeley and Phineas T. Barnum, impressions of William Lloyd Garrison as a speaker, and descriptions of New York museums, a spiritualist seance, and a reception given by Charles Durkee to celebrate his election to the U.S. Senate. A letter dated February 9, 1854, describes a performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. There are some references to Sholes' work in New York overseeing the printing and sale of railroad bonds, to his purchase of telegraph lines in Wisconsin, to his activities as speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, and to his brother Christopher, later famed as inventor of the typewriter.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mil000bs

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The Charles C. Sholes Papers include:

Nine letters (1843-1845) to his fiancee, Sarah McKinney, written by Sholes from Milwaukee and Kenosha (Southport), Wisconsin. These are heavily personal in content and contain only brief vague allusions to his newspaper work in Kenosha and Waukesha.

Twenty-nine letters (1853-1855) written by Sholes to his wife Sarah. These include series written during his trips east in 1853 and 1854, and a group written in 1855 while he was in Madison as speaker of the Assembly. Included are discussions of a temperance convention in New York; mention of meetings with Horace Greeley and Phineas T. Barnum; impressions of William Lloyd Garrison as a speaker; descriptions of New York museums, of a spiritualist seance, and of a sumptuous entertainment given by Charles Durkee following his election to the United States Senate in 1855. There are a few brief references to Sholes' work in New York overseeing the printing and sale of railroad bonds in 1854, to his activities as speaker of the Assembly, and to his purchase of telegraph lines serving Madison, Milwaukee, Janesville, and Beloit in 1855. There are also a few allusions to his brother.

Five letters (1864-1865) written by Sholes from Norfolk, Virginia, Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. while in the service of the federal government. In content the letters are mainly concerned with family matters.

Ten miscellaneous letters (1858-1867). Included are undated fragments written by Sholes and four pieces addressed to him. One (March 10, 1867), a letter of condolence on the death of one of Sholes' daughters, was written by Charles Durkee, then governor of Utah Territory, and has modest autograph value.

Also included are a mortgage bond for the Kenosha and Rockford Railroad Co., 1857; two appointments, 1864, 1865, signed by Governor James T. Lewis and Secretary of State Lucius Fairchild; a copy of Sholes' will, a funeral discourse and assorted estate papers; and three carte de visite photographs of Charles Sholes, Mrs. Sholes, and the Wisconsin State Senate of 1867 of which Sholes was a member.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Maxwell Sholes, March 4, 1966.

Processing Information

Processed by Josephine L. Harper, December 29, 1966.

Box   1 Folder   1	Board of Regents, Honorarium Certificate, 1858
Box   1 Folder   2	Certificates, State Reform School, 1864-1865
Box   1 Folder   3	Commemorative Discourse, 1867
	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   4	1843-1845
Box   1 Folder   5	1853-1854
Box   1 Folder   6	1855
Box   1 Folder   7	1858
Box   1 Folder   8	1861
Box   1 Folder   9	1864-1867
Box   1 Folder   10	Undated
Box   1 Folder   15	“Fiftieth Birthday of the Typewriter,” News Article from The New York Post, 1923
Box   1 Folder   11	Funeral Announcement, 1867
Box   1 Folder   12	Kenosha High School Report for Winter Term, 1865
Box   1 Folder   13	Mortgage Deed, 1857
Box   1 Folder   14	Photographs, 1867, undated
Box   1 Folder   16	Wills, 1875, 1882