Title: David Clark Everest Autograph and Manuscript Collections
Inclusive Dates: 1696-1953

Creator:

• Everest, D. C. (David Clark), 1883-1955

Call Number: Mss 365

Quantity: 1.0 c.f. (1 archives box and 1 flat box)

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:

Autographs and manuscripts collected by D. C. Everest, a Wausau, Wisconsin, paper mill executive, civic leader, and philanthropist, who became a manuscript and autograph collector as a young man and continued to participate in various purchases and sales throughout his lifetime. The collection consists of autographs, or examples of the writing, of over eighty noteworthy American, British, and Wisconsin political and cultural figures, including the autographs of most of the presidents of the United States through Dwight D. Eisenhower; and four small manuscript collections. The manuscripts consist of an account book, 1853-1860, for the Pine Grove Mills, apparently a flour mill and general store, in the Town of Pine Grove, Van Buren County, Michigan; Commonwealth of Massachusetts military records, 1789-1830, which include officer appointment, election, and dismissal records, voting affidavits, complaints, and petitions; records, 1696-1863 (primarily legal documents), of the Morse and Wheelock families of Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts; and miscellaneous manuscripts, 1695-1919, consisting of legal and financial documents, letters, and appointment and other announcements from England as well as most eastern states.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00365

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David Clark Everest, Wausau paper mill executive, civic leader and philanthropist, was born in Pine Grove, Van Buren County, Michigan, to John Henry and Gertrude Clark Everest on October 13, 1883. [See the finding aid on this site for the David Clark Everest Papers (Mss 279) for a biographical sketch of Everest.]

Everest began a lifelong interest in collecting autographs and historical manuscripts in 1900 when, on assignment as an office boy for the Bryant Paper Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan, he purchased a few bales of waste paper. These bales turned out to be of historical importance, containing documents and letters bearing messages and signatures of notable American historical figures. Although Everest sold most of these in order to support his family, he began to subscribe to catalogues and periodicals on historical collecting, and to participate in various purchases and sales. He continued these practices throughout his life.

The David Clark Everest Autograph and Manuscript Collections, 1696-1953, is divided into two sections: autographs of noteworthy American, British, and Wisconsin political and cultural personages; and a group of four small collections from Everest's collection of manuscripts. The AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION includes the signatures, or examples of the writing, of over eighty well-known people including the autographs of most of the presidents of the United States through Dwight David Eisenhower. The form of the autographs varies: some are original signed letters; others, officially signed documents, envelopes addressed by the individual, signatures alone, copies of a signature with or without an accompanying photograph, and a folder of facsimiles of multiple signatures. The autographs are arranged alphabetically, and an index to them, which notes the date of the autograph, is provided in the appendix below. There is also a folder of unidentified autographs dating from 1855 to 1953.

The MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS are four distinct small collections: an account book of the Pine Grove Mills; some Massachusetts military documents; records pertaining to the Morse and Wheelock families; and a group of miscellaneous manuscripts. (These are only a small part of the original total of Everest's manuscript collections.) The Pine Grove Mills Account Book is a detailed daily listing of the expenses of the mills from November 1853 through November 1860. (The town of Pine Grove, Van Buren County, Michigan, in which the mills are located, is also the birthplace of D. C. Everest.) The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Military Records, 1789-1830, include officer appointments, election-of-officers reports, voting affidavits, complaints, petitions, and official dismissal certificates.

The Records of the Morse and Wheelock Families, 1696-1863, consist of estate records and wills, land deeds, debt notices and payment records, election announcements, and sundry contracts or exchanges in which a Morse or Wheelock participated. Both families were residents of the town of Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, and the documents concern Medfield and Dover in Norfolk County, and the nearby county of Worcester. A chronological item listing, indicating the type of document and its date, has been prepared and is filed with the records of the Morse and Wheelock families (box 1, folder 10). The first item in the collection is a brief handwritten note naming the first Morse (Samuel) to settle in Medfield; and mentioning the capture by the French, and subsequent events in the life, of one of Samuel's descendants, during the reign of George II.

The Miscellaneous Manuscripts, 1695-1919, include affidavits, certificates, contracts and deeds of purchase, checks, receipts, and letters and announcements of appointments from England as well as most of the eastern states. Everest apparently collected these manuscripts as separate items, influenced by their early date or singular character. These have not been studied or analyzed in detail.

See also other separately cataloged manuscripts created or collected by D. C. Everest and presented by him or his estate to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin:

• David Clark Everest Papers, 1891-1957 (Mss 279)
• John Quincy Adams. Letter of Appointment for Additional Judge in the Michigan Territory, March 8, 1824 (SC 352)
• Nathaniel Cushing Papers, 1763-1884 (Massachusetts Mss A)
• Robert Ferguson Papers, 1756-1850 (Maryland Mss B)
• Abraham Lincoln. Photostats of commissions from Abraham Lincoln to James Duane Doty, appointing him Territorial Governor of Utah, June 2, 1863 and February 2, 1864 (File 1863 June 2 Oversize)

Acquisition Information

Presented by the D. C. Everest Estate via D. D. Schiety of the Wisconsin Valley Trust Company, Wausau, Wisconsin, November 21, 1958. Accession Number: M-172

Processing Information

Processed by Carolyn Dellenbach and Joanne Hohler, November 12, 1975.

	Series: Autograph Collection
Box   1 Folder   1-5	Alexander - Zimmerman
Box   1 Folder   6	Unidentified signatures, 1855 May 8 - 1953 February 5; undated
Box   1 Folder   7	Facsimile autographs
Box   2 Folder   1-10	Oversize documents
	Series: Manuscript Collections	⇧
Box   1 Folder   8	Pine Grove Mills account book, 1853 November 25 - 1860 November 30
	Commonwealth of Massachusetts military records
Box   1 Folder   9	1789 January 12 - 1830 May 26; undated
Box   2 Folder   11	Oversize documents
	Records of the Morse and Wheelock families
Box   1 Folder   10	1704 June 20 - 1798 June 11
Box   1 Folder   11	1803 June 27 - 1863; undated
Box   2 Folder   12-14	Oversize documents
	Miscellaneous manuscripts
Box   1 Folder   12	1696 December 2 - 1798 November 6
Box   1 Folder   13	1800 August 29 - 1919; undated
Box   2 Folder   15-17	Oversize documents

Adams, John Quincy	1826 December 12 (oversize)
Alexander, Izaac[?] Duke	1930 April 18
Allen, Henry J.	1920 August 14
Bagby, R. B.	undated (no signature)
Barbour, John	1826 July 7
	1826 July 10
Beauregard, G. T.	1887 August 12 (no signature)
	1887
	undated (copy with picture)
Becker, Bob	undated
Blair, Montgomery	1887 January 24
	undated (with picture)
Burr, Aaron	1802 (copy with picture)
Burton, Theodore W.	undated
Caine, Hall	1893[?] August
	undated
Campbell, Robert H.	1838 June 10 (no signature)
	undated (oversize)
Chittenden, Thomas	1777 August 1 (copy)
Churchill, Winston	1936 February 15 (typed)
Clay, Lucius	1949 November 1
Cleveland, Frances	undated
Cleveland, Grover	1895 April 1 (no signature)
	undated
	undated (copy with picture)
Coolidge, Calvin	undated
Daniels, Josephus	1918 May 8
Davis, Jefferson	undated
	undated
	undated (copy with picture)
	undated (copy with picture)
	undated (no signature)
Dewey, Thomas	1946 February 4
Doty, James Duane	1841 February 10 (copy)
	1857 January 18
	1857 January 18 (copy)
Drew[?], Sarah	1884 December
Eisenhower, Dwight	1953 January 14
Fairchild, Lucius	1870 March 3
Ferguson, Homer	1950 August 8
Fiske, John	1889 November 5
	1889 December 31
Ford, Clara	1949 circa December 9
	1949 circa December 9 (no signature)
	1949 December 16
	1949 December 16 (no signature)
Garfield, James A.	undated (copy with picture)
George III	undated (copy with picture)
Greeley, Horace	1860 February 18
Hamilton, C.	1805 March 8
Hamlin, Hannibal	1881 April 28
	undated (copy with picture)
Hampton, Wade	1889 August 29 (no signature)
Harding, Florence	undated
Harding, Warren G.	undated
Harrison, Benjamin	1894 December 14
Hayes, Rutherford	undated
Heber, Reginald	1821 March 7
Heil, Julius P.	1942 July 21
Hines, Edward	1930 September 16
Hoover, Herbert	1928 October 27
	1938 May 18 (typed)
	1940 January 31
	1949 August 10
Hoyt, Mary L.	undated
Jackson, Andrew	1835 October 9
	undated (copy with picture)
Jefferson, Thomas	1800 April 22 (copy)
Johnson, Andrew	undated
Kellogg, Frank	1928 March 8
Kohler, Walter J.	1930 July 1
La Follette, Phil	1934 November 28
	1938, April 26
La Follette, Robert	1929 September 19
Lear, Tobias	1799 December 14
	1801 January 9
Lenroot, Irvine	1928 December 19
Livingston, Edward	1829 March 5
	undated (copy with picture)
Luce, Clare Booth	1953 February 27
McKinley, William	1894 letter
Madison, James	1810 October 23 (oversize)
	1812 April 6 (including James Monroe; oversize)
	undated
Mellon, Andrew	1930 July 23
Monroe, James	1818 November 26 (including John Quincy Adams; oversize)
Parker, George	1933 March 15
Peary, Robert E.	1907 March 17
Pierce, Franklin	1855 April 9 (oversize)
	1856 May 26 (oversize)
	undated
Pryor, Roger C.	undated
Rosecrans, William S.	undated
	undated (copy with picture)
Roosevelt, Franklin	1933 April 4
Roosevelt, Theodore	1911 October 13
Sargent, Fred W.	1931 January 8
Schofield, Edward	1922 December 19
Seward, William	undated
	undated (copy with picture)
Sherman, Jos[?]	1908 July 11
Sherman, William T.	1888
	undated (copy with picture)
Smith, Charles	1899 May 9
Spooner, John	1901 August 31?
Taft, William	1918 May 19
Truman, Harry S.	1955 January 31
Van Buren, Martin	1837 June 15 (oversize)
	undated (copy)
Vandenberg, Arthur	1950 August 7
Webster, Daniel	1849 March 13 (with a copy of a July 4, 1800 oration by Webster)
Wiley, Alexander	1950 August 7
Wilson, Woodrow	1897 March 22
	1907 June 1[?] (oversize)
	undated
Wright, H. G.	1882 July 1
	1882 July 1 (no signature)
Zimmerman, Fred	1928 May 6