Summary Information
James A. Briggs and Robert Mitchell Papers
1853-1907
- Briggs, James A., 1836-1922
- Mitchell, Robert, 1826-1899
Mss 398
0.6 c.f. (2 archives boxes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Family papers of two Marquette County, Wisconsin, brothers-in-law, James A. Briggs and Robert Mitchell. The papers consist primarily of correspondence between various family members revealing their loyalty to the Episcopal Church and the Republican Party, and other aspects of the lives of a well-to-do family in the 1870s and 1880s. Some of Robert Mitchell's correspondence is of a political nature, relating to the growing opposition in the Wisconsin legislature and nationally to radical Republicans and the Ulysses S. Grant administration, and to the 1875 defeat of radical Republican U.S. Senator Matthew Carpenter in which Mitchell played a part. Also includes an account book for Briggs' flour and carding mills at Briggsville, 1853-1860, and a biographical sketch of Robert Mitchell.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00398 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
James A. Briggs and Robert Mitchell, brothers-in-law, were prominent in the social and political life of Marquette County, Wisconsin, during the second half of the nineteenth century. However, the focal personality around whom these family papers are formed was Emma R. Briggs (1843-?), James A. Briggs' younger sister about whom little is known. Receiving the most correspondence, Emma reflects the strength of the Briggs family bond most clearly, as she was never married but devoted her time to her relatives. Names also appearing frequently are those of Emma's sisters, Abby (Mrs. Robert Mitchell) and Lydia (Mrs. Darwin Atwood); and Mrs. James P. Rogers (Frances, or “Fanny”), a sister of Robert Mitchell. The children of the James Briggs/Robert Mitchell generation were Fannie J. Mitchell, the daughter of Robert Mitchell's brother Edward; Mary Stoyell, the daughter of his sister Jane; and Robey, Lilla, and Willie, the children of the Darwin Atwoods. Alma Atwood Ormsby, a close friend and practically adopted member of the Briggs family, was either a sister or cousin of Darwin Atwood.
JAMES A. BRIGGS, son of Alexander Ellis and Robey Briggs, was born March 7, 1836 in Whiting, Vermont. He had two elder sisters, Lydia E. (Mrs. Darwin Atwood) and Abby O. (Mrs. Robert Mitchell), and one younger sister, Emma R. In 1850, the Alexander Briggs family moved to Marquette County, Wisconsin, where the elder Briggs formed the artificial Lake Mason and on its banks founded the village of Briggsville. James received his early education at Shoreham Academy in Vermont. He completed his schooling in Portage, Wisconsin, and then assisted his father at his grist mill business, control of which young Briggs assumed on Alexander Briggs' death in the 1860s. After running the grist mill (later known as Eagle Mill) for eighteen years James sold it due to failing health, and retired to his farm, “Elm Court.” In 1877 Briggs ran as a Republican for the State Assembly seat from Marquette County that his brother-in-law Robert Mitchell had held in 1875, but Briggs was defeated by a two-to-one margin.
On November 12, 1861, Briggs married Ellen F. Gay. They had six children: Nellie, who died in infancy; Johnnie, who died in childhood; Robey, who died in early womanhood; James Ellis; Abby E. (later Mrs. D.T. Tease); and William 0. After the death of his first wife, Briggs married Margaret A. Curtis-Sherman on April 21, 1880. Margaret Briggs died on October 24, 1890. Briggs' last marriage, on September 13, 1894, was to Isabel Bowe, who survived him upon his death on December 6, 1922, in Briggsville.
ROBERT MITCHELL, JR., son of Robert Mitchell, Sr. and Mary (Freeman) Mitchell, was born June 22, 1826 in Moravia, New York. In 1845 he completed his literary education at Geneva College in Geneva, New York, and in 1850 received an M.D. degree from the University of Buffalo. In 1851 he traveled overland to California with ox teams; once there he mined on the Yuba and Feather Rivers, and returned to the East in 1854. In 1857 Dr. Mitchell settled in Portage to practice medicine, and remained there until August, 1861, when he was appointed assistant surgeon of the Tenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. In 1863 he was appointed surgeon of the Twenty-seventh Regiment. With both regiments he followed the course of the war through the Cumberland Gap and down the Mississippi. After the war he returned to Portage, where on April 25, 1867, he married Abby O. Briggs. A daughter of Alexander Ellis Briggs, Abby Briggs was born in Vermont in 1829, and had moved to Portage in 1853. The Mitchells' only child, Robert Ellis Mitchell, was born in Portage on March 24, 1869. In that year the Mitchells moved to a farm in Marquette County, where Dr. Mitchell farmed as well as practiced medicine. In November 1874 he was elected as a Republican to the State Assembly from Marquette County, but was defeated for re-election the following November. An attempt in 1878 to regain his seat also ended in defeat. In December 1893 Dr. and Mrs. Mitchell returned to Portage for retirement, and there Dr. Mitchell died on June 21, 1899.
Scope and Content Note
This collection, centering around the correspondence of three sisters and a brother, presents interesting insights into the lives of a well-to-do family in Wisconsin in the 1870s and the 1880s. Specifically, the Briggs-Mitchell correspondence presents a nineteenth century Wisconsin family devoted to the Episcopal Church and the Republican Party. In many letters the frequent reference to illness, death, and the separation of family and friends reflects a somber perception of life. Yet also mentioned are recoveries of health, reunions, and the consolation of Christianity.
All of this collection, with the exception of an account book and one folder of biographical material, is arranged chronologically as Correspondence. Most of the correspondence relates to the siblings and nieces and nephews of James Briggs and Robert Mitchell. The early correspondence, from 1857 to 1869, concerns the three youthful Briggs sisters, Emma, Abby, and Lydia. Only one letter, dated August 11, 1862, mentions the Civil War being fought during the middle years of this period. Letters dated from 1870 to 1890 reflect the interests and attitudes in middle age of the sisters, their husbands, and their brother. Letters of political interest during this period can be found from January to March 1875, written by and to Dr. Mitchell during his term in the Assembly. Evident in them is the reaction against radical Republican and Ulysses S. Grant administration policies which was expressed most evidently in the defeat of the radical U.S. Senator Matthew Carpenter for re-election by the State Assembly. Dr. Mitchell played a role in Carpenter's defeat, and wrote his wife of it. With the death of Lydia Briggs Atwood in 1891 the correspondence series virtually comes to a close.
Filed under the heading Account Book is a ledger kept by James Briggs during his operation of Briggs' flouring and carding mills at Briggsville. The Biographical Sketch of Dr. Mitchell is copied from the Memorial and Biographical Record for Columbia, Sauk, and Adams Counties, Wisconsin, 1901.
Administrative/Restriction Information
The Briggs-Mitchell papers were given to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin by the Chicago Historical Society on February 25, 1977 as part of the Vincent Roberts Papers (Mss 397). A covering letter from the Chicago Historical Society stated that in March 1975 that Society had purchased a large collection of Bowen family papers at the public auction sale of the estate of the late Mary Ann Dicke. Mrs. Dicke had been a Chicago collector and dealer in historical materials for many years. At the time of purchase, the Vincent Roberts papers, including the Briggs-Mitchell material, were mingled with the Bowen papers. On processing the Roberts Collection, the Briggs-Mitchell papers were discovered to be an integral unit unrelated to the Roberts papers. Therefore, they have been processed as a separate collection. James A. Briggs' account book, 1853-1860, of his flouring and carding mills in the Village of Briggsville, Marquette County had been previously acquired by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and was transferred from SC 649.
Presented by Mrs. Ellen McNoun, Augusta, Wisconsin, March 10, 1970 and by the Chicago Historical Society via Archie Motley, Chicago, Illinois, February 25, 1977. Accession Number: M70-67; M77-89
Processed by Ralph A. Pugh and Joanne Hohler, May 12, 1977.
Contents List
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Correspondence
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Box
1
Folder
1
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1857-1862, 1866-1869
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Box
1
Folder
2-7
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1870-1889
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Box
1
Folder
8
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1890-1907
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Box
2
Folder
1
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Undated
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Box
2
Folder
2
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Fragments of letters, invoices, and receipts
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Box
2
Folder
3
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Account Book (Briggs flouring and carding mills), 1853-1860
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Box
2
Folder
4
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Biographical Sketch of Dr. Mitchell
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